I am going to be a mom in
January! Yikes! I am so nervous and excited and confused all
wrapped up into one! Incase you couldn't guess, I am a first-time
mom! When my boyfriend and I found out that we were pregnant, it came as a BIG
shock! We were not planning on having a child immediately, and knew we
weren't in the best financial position to take on this immense of a
responsibility! Nevertheless, we are having a baby!
I immediately started getting into
"crunch" mode - when I found out I was pregnant we had less than 8
months to start saving and planning for this baby! So I broke down a
budget and a savings plan... And then it hit me. Couponing. I had
been a couponer before, and then fell off the coupon train with 1,000 excuses
and an "I don't need this anymore" attitude. I basically got
lazy. See, I had originally started couponing out of financial
necessity. Once I was making plenty of money again bartending, I didn't
really see the need to keep taking the time to coupon. What a foolish
mistake! I could have all of that money that I could have saved in a
savings account or put towards paying off student loans... But instead I was
lazy, and admittedly so.
I digress!! The point is, when I
found out that this baby was coming, I realized what I should have been doing
all along - couponing. At first, my boyfriend thought that I was absolutely crazy -
clipping coupons late into the night, and using both of our laptops to print
off stacks of internet and store coupons.
Then he saw me come home from CVS with a pack of diapers, 7 tubes of
Desitin, & 2 bottles each of baby wash and baby lotion (along with 2
bottles of mouthwash and two tubes of tootpaste) all while waving a CVS ECBs coupon
worth $12.
“Look babe! I got all of this for only $16, and I got $12 in ECBs, so it’s like I paid $4 for all of this stuff!” I quickly found my enthusiasm was NOT matched! “No. It’s like you paid $16 for stuff we won’t need for almost a year.” Okay. So admittedly the first trip didn’t go so well, and I ended up taking all of the items back to CVS (with my original receipt OF COURSE) and sulking the whole way home. But I didn’t give up! A week later I left Target with all of this for only 47¢, plus a $5 gift card.
“Look babe! I got all of this for only $16, and I got $12 in ECBs, so it’s like I paid $4 for all of this stuff!” I quickly found my enthusiasm was NOT matched! “No. It’s like you paid $16 for stuff we won’t need for almost a year.” Okay. So admittedly the first trip didn’t go so well, and I ended up taking all of the items back to CVS (with my original receipt OF COURSE) and sulking the whole way home. But I didn’t give up! A week later I left Target with all of this for only 47¢, plus a $5 gift card.
“Look babe!” (how most of my childish
braggy couponing moments with my boyfriend go) “I got all of this stuff for
about 50¢ AND they gave me a gift card – so it’s like they paid me $4.50 to
bring this all home!” Now I saw a little
light go off. He was on board! And I was excited!
Pretty soon I started getting back
into the swing of couponing (see some of my hauls?), and I realized that even
though it was GREAT that I was saving us money, we really weren’t changing much
else. The extra money in our pockets was
awesome, but we needed a more concrete plan.
So this is what we decided to do:
1.
Save based on Savings – 30% of my
total savings would get deposited directly into our new “Baby Savings”
account that we had started. For example, if I saved a grand
total of $100 on a shopping trip, $30 would be deposited into the Baby
Savings. An easy way to put extra money away
without even thinking about it – and it’s money that we WOULD have been
spending anyway if we were paying full retail for our things!
2.
Start a
Stockpile – Now, for those of you who know me or are starting to read
more often, you know that I am not the person who has a supermarket style
stockpile in my home. For goodness sake
my pantry is a little hole in our kitchen wall that is less than two
feet wide (Yeah. It’s REALLY small…) and
I don’t have a garage or even a closed off porch to store my goodies. Space is at a minimum
for me, so I am extra realistic about what I bring home and if we will use it
before we are bursting at the seams.
With that being said, we decided that we would start a realistic stockpile of baby supplies,
toiletries/household goods (think cleaners, trash bags & paper towels), and
some dry goods that would last us for 4 months.
Why 4 months? Because once I give birth, I am not returning to work immediately. I also know that I will not be paid for my maternity leave, so we are going to have to survive those 4 months (rough estimate of my time off and then the time until I start getting a paycheck again) on only one income. So in that time our little bit of savings and the income from DH will be our only money to pay our cost of living - rent, utilities, and necessities. Our goal of having that 4 month stock pile of items is going to keep our food cost very minimal (we will try to save enough to only have to buy meat & produce), and our other expenses cost (toiletries, paper goods & household supplies) nearly non-existent. That means we alleviate a LOT of the stress on our financials, and that gives us more time to love and bond with our new little baby.
Why 4 months? Because once I give birth, I am not returning to work immediately. I also know that I will not be paid for my maternity leave, so we are going to have to survive those 4 months (rough estimate of my time off and then the time until I start getting a paycheck again) on only one income. So in that time our little bit of savings and the income from DH will be our only money to pay our cost of living - rent, utilities, and necessities. Our goal of having that 4 month stock pile of items is going to keep our food cost very minimal (we will try to save enough to only have to buy meat & produce), and our other expenses cost (toiletries, paper goods & household supplies) nearly non-existent. That means we alleviate a LOT of the stress on our financials, and that gives us more time to love and bond with our new little baby.
So these are our two current goals to help us prepare for the not-so-distant future. We are hoping that we can get a good addition to the savings we are making, as well as build that realistic stock pile. I know several people who have messaged me saying that they coupon to save for family vacations, or to save up for birthdays and Christmas presents.
pretty soon it will feel like money is growing on trees!
The bottom line is, couponing is an amazing way to save LOTS of money - but be sure to keep track of it in your budget so that you are able to see just how much you are saving. Make a goal that works for you and your family! Have you been wanting to take the kids to Disney, but just didn't know how you'd save the money to do it? Does your little girl want to start dance class - you know, the one that costs $200/month? Or do you and your husband want to get out of debt? All of these things can be done by setting challenging, but realistic goals and couponing!
What are your goals that you hope couponing can help you achieve, or what things have you achieved already with the aid of couponing in your home? I wanna know!
The bottom line is, couponing is an amazing way to save LOTS of money - but be sure to keep track of it in your budget so that you are able to see just how much you are saving. Make a goal that works for you and your family! Have you been wanting to take the kids to Disney, but just didn't know how you'd save the money to do it? Does your little girl want to start dance class - you know, the one that costs $200/month? Or do you and your husband want to get out of debt? All of these things can be done by setting challenging, but realistic goals and couponing!
What are your goals that you hope couponing can help you achieve, or what things have you achieved already with the aid of couponing in your home? I wanna know!