My goal for you is that you will become empowered as you begin to save more and more money each month.  I give an Addicted to Saving 101 class that will teach you the skills necessary to save 75%+ each month on your grocery bills.  Register yourself, your friends, your family, your neighbors, the more the merrier!  I look forward to meeting you!  Below is the class itinerary. 

Class Itinerary Includes:

• Introduction to couponing
• Introduction to coupon organization
• Changing how to view shopping
• Introduction to Publix
• How to save 75%+ each week at Publix
• How to save on “Healthy” Foods
• Introduction to stockpiling
• Using your savings as a ministry
• Introduction to CVS & Walgreens

Time: 7:00 pm (class lasts 90 minutes with a question and answer session at the end)
Date: Monday, April 25, 2010
Location: Riverside Fellowship Church, 6219 River Road, New Port Richey, FL 34652-2516, (727) 943-8675
Cost: $5.00 per person – Payable at the door by either cash or check.  (When you go to register, the price will show as “FREE” so you will not have to pay online.  Instead, you will pay $5.00 per person at the door.)
Register: Please register so we can get an accurate headcount of how many people to expect.  Go HERE to register!

**If you live elsewhere and would like to contact me regarding scheduling Addicted to Saving 101 classes, please email me at addictedtosaving @ hotmail.com.  (All one word)

I can’t tell you how many emails I get from all of you asking me how you should start saving money.  Obviously I have tons of ideas for you.  But here is the thing – before you start really saving money, you have to evaluate where you have been and where you want to go.  I know that examing our past financial situations choices is sometimes a bit discouraging.  Once you honestly examine your situation and assess what led you to that situation (be it job loss, overspending on credit cards, lack of budgeting, etc) your situation can only improve.  I promise!  If you really focus on what brought you to the place you are in right now, and once you start to change your habits and financial choices, you will see improvements!

I’m a big fan of setting goals.  Many of you know that I’m a runner.  I’ve run two full marathons, over 10 half marathons and countless 5 and 10ks.  Knowing this, you probably assume that I’ve been an athlete all my life.  Truth is, I was never an athlete until three years ago.  Three years ago, I realized that I needed to make some serious changes to my life.  The combination of overeating, a slowing metabolism and zero exercise was wrecking havoc on my life.  So, I made some drastic changes.  It started with signing up to do the 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer with my mom.  I trained for that walk during the balmy and humid Florida summer.  Have you ever tried walking 16 miles in the middle of August?  That would take 4 hours – it was horrible!  But I trained because I had a goal set forth in front of me and I wanted to meet it.  After the 3 Day Walk, I realized that if my body was capable of walking 60 miles in 3 days it could probably run a full marathon.  So, I immediately signed up for a full marathon (not ever running) and started training for the full marathon.  What is the common theme here?  Before setting my goal of doing the 3 Day Walk or of running a marathon, I had to assess where I was.  Once I started making positive changes and seeing improvements, I realized the sky was the limit towards what I could accomplish.  Same thing for couponing and saving money.

So, here are my steps to really start saving:

1)  Honestly assess your situation.  Determine what led you to the financial situation you are in?  Start evaluating how you can make changes to your situation (cancel your cable tv, eat out less, start couponing, etc etc)?

2) Set goals.  Why do you want to save money?  Are you looking to put more money in savings, pay off debt, give more money to charities, set a good example for your children, get more groceries for your money, save for a vacation, etc?  Determine what your goals are and write them down. 

For myself and my husband, we had to start saving money out of a necessity – I was unemployed and my husband was self-employed.  The combination led to a lack of secure paychecks.  I would go to Publix and buy 2 bags of groceries and spend $100.  We couldn’t afford to pay for the groceries we needed and I knew that I had to make radical changes in my shopping habits in order to feed us.

3)  Once you set a goal, take baby steps to reach it.  Don’t start trying to coupon and save money at each and every store.  Instead, focus on one store.  Then, once you master that store, add in another store.  With baby steps, you won’t get overwhelmed and you won’t get burnt out.

Reader Feedback:

What goals do you give yourself for couponing?  Why do you use coupons?  Do you find that giving yourself goals are helpful?

My goal for you is that you will become empowered as you begin to save more and more money each month.  I give an Addicted to Saving 101 class that will teach you the skills necessary to save 75%+ each month on your grocery bills.  Register yourself, your friends, your family, your neighbors, the more the merrier!  I look forward to meeting you!  Below is the class itinerary. 

Class Itinerary Includes:

• Introduction to couponing
• Introduction to coupon organization
• Changing how to view shopping
• Introduction to Publix
• How to save 75%+ each week at Publix
• How to save on “Healthy” Foods
• Introduction to stockpiling
• Using your savings as a ministry
• Introduction to CVS & Walgreens

Time: 7:00 pm (class lasts 90 minutes)
Date: Monday, February 28, 2010
Location: Woodland the Community Church, 9607 State Rd 70 E,  Bradenton, FL 34202
Cost: $5.00 per person – Payable at the door by either cash or check.  Childcare will be provided free of charge.
Register: Please register so we can get an accurate headcount of how many people to expect.  Go HERE to register!

My goal for you is that you will become empowered as you begin to save more and more money each month.  I give an Addicted to Saving 101 class that will teach you the skills necessary to save 75%+ each month on your grocery bills.  Register yourself, your friends, your family, your neighbors, the more the merrier!  I look forward to meeting you!  Below is the class itinerary. 

Class Itinerary Includes:

• Introduction to couponing
• Introduction to coupon organization
• Changing how to view shopping
• Introduction to Publix
• How to save 75%+ each week at Publix
• How to save on “Healthy” Foods
• Introduction to stockpiling
• Using your savings as a ministry
• Introduction to CVS & Walgreens

Time: 7:00 pm (class lasts 90 minutes)
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Location:St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 8320 Old County Road 54, New Port Richey, FL 34653.
Cost: FREE – Please Bring TWO non-perishables items which will be donated to the Warren Backpack Program and St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church’s Food Pantry.
Register: Please register so we can get an accurate headcount of how many people to expect. Go HERE to register!

Hey everyone!  So many of you ask me when my next Addicted to Saving 101 class is and I wanted to let you know that I am in the midst of securing an Addicted to Saving 101 class for the month of November and I will post about it once everything is finalized.  I also wanted to throw this out there…  As you know, I have been charging you for the classes that I hold.  However, for the month of November and December, I will give FREE Addicted to Saving 101 classes using my classes as a ministry to help out all of you – in return I will ask for one non-perishable item to benefit the Addicted to Giving Back – Warren Backpack Program.  If any of you belong to mom’s groups, churches, HOAs, YMCAs, etc etc, for the month of November and December, I will give FREE Addicted to Saving 101 classes.  I will be traveling throughout the Tampa Bay (and beyond) area giving these classes.  If you are interested in me speaking at one of your functions, please email me at addicted to saving at hotmail dot com (all one word) for more info.  

**Side note – you are also emailing me about when my next video blog will occur… It is in the works and I should have it up by early next week 🙂

It seems that every month I receive a ton of emails from all of you asking me how to figure out how I figure out the percentage I save.  (I still have to update my personal saving/spending figures for this month – the figures should be pretty interesting since we had to make a lot of purchases without coupons eek!)

Below is how I figure out the percentage saved each month:

ex. Spent $4.50 at Publix, Saved $10.00

Amount Spent (including tax) + Amount Saved = Total Value of purchase

$4.50 + $10.00 = $14.50 ($14.50 is the total value of the items I purchased)

Amount Spent/Total Value = a decimal (we’ll call the decimal “A”)

$4.50 divided by $14.50 = 0.31

Multiply A x 100 = % Spent of total items purchased

0.31 multiplied by 100 = 31

100 – % Spent = % Saved of total items purchased

100 – 31 = 69% saved

**let me know if any of you have any questions! 🙂