[jeffrey]

After a long discussion, we decided to pick two coupon stories for the prize this first week. Thank you to all that entered and please feel free to enter again for week two's contest which is currently under way at <a href="http://www.grocerycouponguide.com">Grocery Coupon Guide</a>

<b>Birthday Cake</b> by Wixx

I went to the store to buy a birthday cake. I found the Boston Cream Pie, but it was $6.99, which was slightly more than my wife wanted me to pay. I put it in the cart and as always I went down the meat aisle looking for mark downs. Jackpot, today I found 3 different packages of meat marked down 75% for quick sale. doing the math in my head I had nearly $10 worth of my cost to get over $35 worth of beef. I put them in the cart as well and headed to the beer aisle. The baby sitter, who was with me (I had to pick her up on my way from work) inquired about whether beer went with Boston cream Pie and noted that she has never seen beer at my house. I reinforced that beer was a luxury that I choose not to buy as I have many, many more important things that I like to delegate a space in my budget for ahead of beer, and informed her that i was looking for a coupon, not buying beer. I found a buy 10$ worth of meat and seafood and get $5 back by mail. I read the rules, no beer purchase required, but I did need to buy at least one package of meat and seafood to qualify.

I put the coupon in my pocket and we started to make out way back to the meat section to find a suitable purchase of seafood. She went down the wrong aisle, but as I followed her I spotted a coupon for soda. Buy 4-12 packs of pepsi products and get $10 back by mail. I had already noticed the sign advertising Pepsi on sale 4/$10 and again doing the math in my head (nothing plus nothing...carry the nothing) I determined that free fit the budget much better than $10 for 4 12-packs and added them to the cart as well. Unfortunately , I could not find any Tuna or Salmon marked down 75% like the beef, but I did find some shrimp for shrimp cocktail, which my brother loves, and since the cake was for his birthday party, I replaced one of the beef packs with a $5 package of shrimp. My cake mission was complete and I paid $27!! i told my baby sitter that it was her job to explain to my wife why we spent $27 on a cake. I did get $7 worth of shrimp for $5, soda that normally costs $15 and beef totalling $36.75 in addition to that $6.99 cake, and I will get $15 back by mail. Getting $65.74 worth of groceries for $12 was very cool, and it sounds better than saying I spent $27 at the store when I went to buy a birthday cake.

<b>My Coupon Story</b> by Rita

My coupon story starts with a bad turn of events in my life. I got separated three years ago and we were separated for just about a year. My husband did all of the grocery shopping since I hated going to the stores and I soon found out that he did so much more than that. After the first few months of being separated I realized how hard little things were, like shopping or even ordering food for myself at a restaurant. I began to see just how little I actually did for myself. It was a reality check and I knew that I couldn’t live like that forever.

I remember going to the store and buying like five items for twenty dollars. This was not going to last long since I was now a single mom of two. So what did I do? I bought the news paper and started clipping coupons. Then when the flyers came, I really sat down and did my homework and figured out how to get stuff really, really cheap or even free. It was something that I actually became good at.

One day a few months later, my husband and I had been talking about him coming back home and us resolving our differences. Anyway, he came to the house and found one of my AWESOME store receipts where I paid less than 75% for the total bill. He started to cry and say he couldn’t believe the change. A good deal for me used to be leaving the store with spending $75.00, now I spent $7.00 and have the same amount of groceries.

We are back together now and very happy. We do a lot of shopping together however last year alone we saved over $2,000.00 in groceries and toiletries. It is great to leave the store feeling like I’ve come out a winner. It’s awesome!

WEEK TWO WINNING STORY

<b>What Grocery Coupon Guide Has Taught Me </b> By Lisa

I lost both my parents by the time I was 16 and have shared apartments and living expenses with my older sister my whole life.

I have been on disability for awhile now so my sister carries the bulk of expenses.

Last year we started to feel the financial crunch, credit card debt and car trouble. So my sister applied for financing for a new "used" car and was denied. We had been using one of those credit places to help pay off the credit card debt, which was not really getting us anywhere. My DB and SIL offered to give us loan to pay off the cards to clear it up to get a car loan. It was suppose to make monthly payments cheaper it ended out being more expensive and tightened cash flow.

Then to make matters worst the car died and we ended up buying my SIL old car so now we have 2 loans to pay off.

I needed to help my sister to have more money in her pocket. I owed her that much. I'm basically home-bound and my sister is my whole world, I need to figure something out, so I turned to the Internet.

I was researching coupons after seeing a lady do one of those $600 dollar grocery trips for $2.47. The first thing I found was the Grocery Coupon Guide and that brought me to "FLASH".

I have been able to bring our food bill to under $100 a week, I've learned to trade, clip, email and call for coupons. I've learned to stockpile, which coming from a childhood of bare cupboards is an amazing thing. I can now say that we could go a week without shopping. I now take advantage of rebates and add it back into the savings.

Flash not only taught me these things but she lit a fire in me to to look at spending in a whole new light and it's a wonderful thing. The best part is I get to help the most important person in my life through a financial rough spot