Extreme Couponing!

Real conversation that took place five minutes ago:

Me: "Will you take a picture of me cutting coupons for my blog?"
Little Brother: "Are you serious?"

Okay, so I didn't get my picture... dang! But something so incredible happened that it totally warranted an entire new blog entry. As a little background info, I've always liked to save a pretty penny. Ironically, now that I am out of college and am fortunate enough to have a full-time job, I actually need to be MORE creative than I ever was with the ways of budgeting. Love my teaching job, hate the bitsy paychecks, blah blah blah... you can imagine the dilemma.

Thankfully, I was raised by parents who taught my siblings and I the importance of responsible spending, and as a result I am always able to get by. Living on peanut butter, eggs, and Diet Coke has never killed anyone. (SIDE NOTE!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!! SARAH PALIN SIGHTING ON HANNITY!!!!!!!!!!! LOVES IT!) Anyway, just recently, my adorable friend Jessica introduced me to a new fun saving game: COUPONING. I never really got into it in years past, but maybe that's because no one taught me the tricks of the trade. We spent an hour at Target and I watched and learned... and became completely fascinated. On that particular shopping trip, I saved 5 buckaroos on things I would have normally bought anyway, and thanks to a coupon, even got a freebie on men's deodorant for Jamo. I found that couponing is FUN and totally worth the time spent on it, because you're saving MONEY! Hard-earned cash! Moolah! Greenbacks! Bread!

Back to today. Or rather, last night. Just when I thought TLC couldn't get any better (that new Sister Wives show blew goats though), we discovered a new show called "Extreme Couponing." It followed a few extreme couponers on their weekly treks to the grocery store, and how much money they saved by using coupons. Words cannot explain! Just watch the re-runs, or On Demand it, or something! (YouTube didn't have the episode, but I included the link for a snippet of one of the extreme couponers giving a tour of his garage and all of the swag he's accumulated. Check out the tampons! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjMlzN9M-8s) Also, you should all watch the fab clip from the show below... You'll see why I am amazed... and why I started cutting coupons at 11:00 p.m. last night.

Hello blogging world! Here I am!

I decided to give this a blogging thing a try because I think it will make my life more delish in a couple of ways. First, I have two out-of-state friends who are both talented, beautiful writers... following their blogs and reading about their adventures has proved to be a sweet and interesting way to stay connected to them. I don't know, I guess they were my inspiration!

Second, 2011 is going to be a big year for me, because I have to spend the majority (read: ten months) of it away from my love, James. Because he is currently deployed in A-stan and our communication is limited, I don't have the listening ear like I have when he is around. Sure, I have my friends and family and they're wonderful, but there's something about getting all my daily ramblings out to James that one really can't replace. And while (duh) blogging isn't the same as engaging in conversation, I figured it might be a therapeutic way for me to get some of those daily musings- whether they be happy or sad- out of my head. (Oh, and because I've been reading some other military blogs and I found out you can add fun deployment countdown things to your blog and hey, I figure any little bit helps!)

Plus, I've stumbled upon lots of other really fab blogs through the years- cooking and baking ones, blogs on teaching, politics, photography- things that interest me and things that I would like to reflect on from time to time. So I'm going to try to make it a big mash-up (GLEE reference!!!!!) of all those things. I may not have the sharp wit or eloquent way with words as my seasoned blogging friends, but I'll try to keep it from becoming a snoozefest, I promise!