Before having children, I worked full time as an accountant. When I was pregnant with my first son, I had serious complications and was ordered on bed rest and was out of work for my entire pregnancy. Since my husband and I did not anticipate dealing with such a drastically reduced income so soon, we really struggled.
We lived off of credit cards to make ends meet and I would cry myself to sleep at times because of the mounting debt and the fear of getting to a point where we could not pay our bills.
After my second child was born, I knew I needed to get a job to help out with our expenses. So, I started working part time during nights at Best Buy since we did not have anyone to watch the kids during the day and could not afford to pay for day care.
Having a part time job helped, but we were still constantly struggling to pay our bills. On top of the financial stress, taking care of two children during the day while working nights was quickly wearing us down. I felt like there must be other ways to help my family save money, so after a year of juggling my children and a part time job, I decided to give couponing a try.
I went out one Sunday morning and bought the paper, thinking it would be a small investment towards huge savings. Unfortunately, I was very much disappointed–there were only three coupons inside that I could use, totaling less than $2 in savings!
At this point, I really wanted to give up the idea of couponing, but then decided to investigate websites that offer coupons to print. I was much more successful at finding deals online. In fact, during my first shopping trip with online coupons, I paid just $18 for a $63 order. From then on, I was hooked.
After two years of couponing, I’m proud to say I’ve saved thousands of dollars, and we are now completely debt free. I no longer work at Best Buy. Now, my full-time job is helping Long Island families save money and get out of debt. It is safe to say that something wonderful came out of a difficult situation.
Couponing Tips
Never Forget Your Savings Again:
SnipSnap allows you to take a picture of a printed store coupon and redeem it using a smartphone. I was able to snap pictures of coupons for restaurants and retail stores, so I never had to worry about leaving them on the kitchen table again.
Check the Drugstore:
I discovered how to use drug store incentive programs to buy things like peanut butter, shaving cream, and cat food for a quarter of the price I would pay at the grocery store. I also learned that I could earn products for free and, better yet, even make money on my purchases.
Gia Pendergast lives on Long Island with her husband of seven and a half years and their two sons Colin and Dylan (ages 6, 4). After her success with getting out of debt, Gia started a website, LICouponQueen.com, to help other Long Island families do the same. To date, she has helped more than 500 Long Island families get out of debt.
