How it got started...

I realized that we were in way over our heads financially recently. Don't get me wrong I knew it was bad, but sometimes you just need that slap in the face to make it hit you. I got the said slap in the face when we started falling short each week. We make decent money, certainly not loads, but we should be in a better financial place than where we are now.

My parents weren't what I would consider frugal, we ate out regularly, if we wanted something and had some money in our pocket we got it, so frugality was all a new concept to me. It was something I knew I needed to know more about. So I did a simple google search for frugal. My google search turned up a wonderful website http://www.frugalvillage.com I saw they had forums so I browsed for about an hour and realized I was absolutely ignorant to this new lifestyle I hoped to achieve. I signed up right away, I began reading all the different posts. I noticed very quickly that overall the people were there to help each other. There wasn't alot of bashing and flaming each other. I've began posting questions and I'm starting to learn from these wonderful people, who have all "been there and done that". I saw things mentioned like budgeting, stockpiling, coupons, and gardening.

Someone on Frugal Village (FV) had posted a link to a couponing site http://www.hotcouponworld.com so I checked it out. It was overloaded with wonderful information. I quickly realized I had no clue as to what I was doing. I signed up with them as well. I started cliping coupons, and printing them online. I kept reading, and reading just trying to get that lighbulb to go off in my head. There's so much information there and lots of codes, very overwhelming. Some posters/members there have posted pictures of their stockpiles and coupon organizing systems and I was amazed! That's definitely something to work towards. The amount of money these people are saving is amazing to me!

Someone on Hot Coupon World (HCW) posted a link to one of their members blogs. It's http://jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com/. WOW! This woman is brilliant with using her coupons, I have so much I could learn from her. I've subscribed immediately.

My heartfelt thanks go out to these wonderful individuals who have motivated me more than I could ever express. I will continue to utilize the above listed resources in my quest of learning to live in a much more financially sound way. It's going to be a long, hard road, but my husband and I are on the same page. This will pay off in the long run!

Thank you so very much to those who continue to inspire me, this road will be better travelled with those who can relate and are willing to help!