Cindy on Rachael Ray
In case you missed it, I had the awesome honor to be on the Rachael Ray Show this morning. It was a wonderful experience for me and I feel so blessed that I could reach out to more people that may need to learn how to feed their families for less.
As some of you know, I started Living Rich With Coupons about 6 years ago when we were hit with unemployment, huge debt and kids in college. Having never had a budget in our many years of married life, we were in a state of panic and not prepared at all. I quickly had to figure out ways to cut my expenses so that we could keep a roof over our head and feed the family. Grocery expenses were at the top of that list coming in at over $15,000 a year. Yes you heard that right…over $15,000 a year. When you break that down to weeks, I was feeding my family of 5 for just over $300 a week. Yikes! I needed a fix and I needed it fast. Enter the wonderful world of couponing.
Quickly I learned to stack coupons with sales, store coupons and/or store promotions. I started small, first learning at CVS and slowly branched out to the grocery stores. I was hooked. After 3 months of building a small stockpile of groceries that I was getting for next to nothing, my grocery bill dropped to around $50 a week. It was amazing. I got to a point, where all I needed to buy each week was my produce and some meat. Everything else, my health & beauty aid products, cleaning, cereal, oatmeal, canned goods, even cheese were all sitting in my stockpile (or freezer) allowing me to decide how much I would pay for them. Why..well because I can wait and wait until the price of the product drops low enough for me to buy it again instead of having to run out and buy it when it’s full price. That feeling is quite empowering.
That brings me to today. Today, after 6 years of budgeting, saving on our groceries and FINALLY paying off all our debt (insert a big WOOHOO here!) we are in complete control of our finances. And, it couldn’t have come at a better time because, we have once again, been faced with another unemployment. Yes, it’s true…with no notice, my husband’s division was shut down two weeks ago. The difference this time, is we are not afraid, there is no panic. We have the tools and the knowledge to get us through. Empowering!
This morning on the Rachael Ray Show I gave tips on how to save money at the grocery store and how to use catalinas, stack coupons and take advantage of store promotions, I was able to buy over $167 worth of groceries for free. They were all healthy foods that Chef Ryan Scott was able to make into 21 different delicious and healthy meals. I know the question…how can you shop for free every week. Well, you can’t every week, but when you learn how to shop smart you can cut your grocery bill down by thousands and thousands. Have I shopped for free some weeks? Yep I have and you can too!
You can view the Rachael Ray Show Could You Feed Your Family For Free Segment in case you missed it.
And, head over and check out the 21 Recipes that Chef Ryan Scott made from my groceries. I ate the Huevos Rancheros with Black Bean Tomato Sauce and Country Skillet Potatoes. It was super delish!
New to the site, be sure to visit our Couponing for Beginners section which includes our 4 Easy Steps to Get Started Using Coupons.
This was the BEST Tweet regarding the show 😉
