Hello Everyone!

I've wanted to start this blog for awhile.  If you were invited, it means you are someone that I know appreciates a good bargain, and maybe even gets into the couponing, on some scale.  As for myself, I have been on all ends of the spectrum as far as couponing and bargain shopping.  Okay not all ends...I have always shopped for sales and clearances.  However, I have fallen off the bandwagon a little with using coupons at the grocery store.  I have gotten frustrated with the amount of time I put into it, often to get to the store and find the shelves either cleared or the deal scenario to not be what it was supposed to.  This has evolved into me using less coupons at the grocery store, and though I still shop the sales, our budget could benefit from me doing better. 

This is where this blog comes in.  I am notorious for finding out about a great bargain a day too late.  Recently a friend of mine told me how Meijer had a two day clearance where every item of clearance clothing was 50% off the lowest price.  I wanted to cry, because I had been there that morning, but didn't know to check the clearance clothes.  I've also had some of you pass on helpful tips such as great Groupon deals, or free peanut butter at Meijer, etc.  I would love to use this blog as a way to pass on those helpful tips to each other.  Feel free to do posts asking for opinions on money saving techniques as well.  For instance, we have recently switched to a cash envelope system for our budgeting.  It's still in the tweaking process, but so far we have seen great results.  I would be happy to share more about that, because I was inspired by two friends who do it and one of them has become completely debt free in the process!  Katie B, I would love it if you did a post about your thrift store clothing shopping, with some pictures of some of the awesome outfits you have put together!

I check several blogs whose purposes are to let you know the current bargains, deal scenarios, etc.  The problem is, those sites have become so overflown with giveaways, and freebies, and things that I don't care about, that it's annoying to me to try and weed through the posts to find simple good bargains that are helpful to me.  So, I am not asking you to share every single deal that you have come across.  Rather, please share simple tidbits such as "I was in Target today and noticed their toys just went on 75% clearance," or "Here's a way I scored really cheap toilet paper," etc.    Other good things to pass along would be the really good scenarios you have discovered, even from other sites, that actually worked for you and the item was stocked on the shelf.  I am especially interested if they are uncomplicated, and don't include things like rebates. 

I'll be honest.  I don't plan to put a bunch of time into making this blog fancy or "cute."  It's also fine with me if it goes days without having a new post.  I'm not going to try and think of something to write just for the sake of writing something.  The point will be to help each other save money, in a quick and simple way.  I hope all of you will contribute, so that we can help each other! 

If you haven't received an invitation to be an author and would like to, please leave a comment with your email address!