Wow! My first blog entry! I've posted many a time on forums, but this is my first blog. I found this site and it's the first time I was really inspired to write about anything.

You see, my passion is savings. Coupons, rebates, freebies, etc. And I have a knack for it. I've always been frugal (never been in credit card debt, for example) but it wasn't until last year that I really kicked it into overdrive.

I've flirted with coupons on and off for years. But, I'd always have a bad coupon experience (really rude cashier or whatever) and then just let all my coupons expire in their little Ziploc bag.

Well, I've been working at a hospital for the last two years. I work every single weekend (as well as Mon, Tue, Wed to make a full week.) During the weekdays, I use my hour lunchbreak to work out in their Cardiac Rehab area.

But on the weekends, I didn't have anything to do! (It doesn't take that long to eat.) One Sunday, on a whim I bought a Sunday paper out front. It just happened to be really good coupons that week, because I got stoked about coupons again.

I also looked through the drug store sale papers (CVS, Walgreens, and Eckerd.) I noticed that WAG and Eckerd both have rebates. That month, they both had stuff that was free after rebate (FAR from here on.) Some of the items that were free also had coupons in the paper! I wasn't sure if they took the coupon amount out of your rebate, but I figured it was still free.

I still remember my first purchase at Walgreens. Color Breaks (hair color), Softsoap bodywash and a Reach toothbrush. all of the items were FAR, and I had coupons for two of the items. I paid $11 out of my pocket, and in about 5 weeks, I got a gift card for $15!

I was hooked.

Eckerd was also a goldmine for me, because for some reason they were clearancing out a ton of beauty products. They had Crew hair products on this shelf that said 90% off. These bottles also had orange price stickers that stated prices that had to be a half off price. But the cashiers took 90% off of that price!! I wiped out everything they had, as well as a ton of Almay eye products (with $1 coupons to boot.) I made a killing on ebay with these things. It stoked up my Paypal account enough to have spending money for my deals.

Before long, I was getting hot deals all over town. And it totally changed my life!

A year ago, my husband and I struggled to get by. We're not extravagant people. We rarely (about once a month) go out to eat (and yes that is counting "fast food".) We have not been on a real vacation since our honeymoon (2002.) We don't often buy clothes except for the occasional $14.99 item at TJ Maxx. We both work full time. Yet it was hard some months to get by.

(Mind you - I never slipped on paying my credit card. We used the card to buy almost everything, but paid it off in full each month. It gives you a little extra time to pay for your stuff. I've never paid late fees or finance charges, because that's just wasted money.)

A year later, we are living great. We bought a new, wonderful mattress and get better sleep than we have had in years (we were sleeping on a 30+ year old ex-Holiday Inn bed.) My husband finally got the widescreen TV he's always wanted. I have new clothes. We eat out more often. We have better food in the fridge. (Organic is affordable when you use coupons and shop around!) We have $1000+ in our savings account that was down to $54 last year. We're actually planning a trip to Disney World in October!

The secret? Here are the things I do:
Drugstore deals
(CVS Extrabucks and WAG + Eckerd rebates)
Secret shopping
Paid surveys
Credit card offers for free gift cards
Coupons
Sell things that I get for free/cheap on Ebay

Through all of this, I have saved/earned hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Throughout my blog, I want to share with you the deals that I get, in the hopes that you can get them too.

(BOY, this sounds like some kind of scam thingie where they are trying to get you to buy a program! But this is for free folks. No money back guarantees though!)