Introduction

Welcome to Cooking With Coupons, a place where recipes and meal planning meet extreme couponing.

about me and the site:

I am a SAHM (stay at home mom, and loving it) and known by my family and friends as the frugal one. Two years ago, my husband and I realized how much money we were spending, and really had nothing to show for it all. We decided to follow God's prinicples and along with the Crown Financial Money Map coaching techniques have embarked on a journey to become better stewards of God's blessing. So, we had to cut back, and start a budget. This was so hard for me, as for years, while I was still what I considered a savvy shopper, I did not know how I would be able to make it on $100 a week. That weekly budget was put to test, ripped apart, glued back together, stompped on, cried over, and now laughed about.

When we first started a budget, the prospect of being able to feed my family, and pay for our outings, gasoline, and clothing, was daunting. I started by reading blogs and articles on how to save money, budgeting, and how other families are frugal. I have learned a great deal during this journey, and I think one of the biggest things for me, was not to beat your self up about not meeting a budget. The first week I spent $150, and so the next week didn't have enough to buy my favorite shampoo and get milk. Needless to say, the cow won. After that, I saw that if I did not plan out my spending, I was going to be in bad shape. And that is where meal planning started.

I have come a long way from those first few weeks, and now, since I have started coupon this spring it has opened a whole new wave of saving. I cannot stress the importance of meal planning, and how this will save money. Using meal planning and couponing, I have now cut my grocery costs over 75% of my budget!

Enter the idea for the website:

My sister, who is a chef at heart, and takes after our late grandma, is a receipe queen. She loves cooking, and I know if I ever need a new idea for dinner she is the gal to call. I was thinking the other night about how bored I get with the receipe collection I have, and thought about all the free or almost free things I get using coupons. What is there was a way to plan dinner only using the items I get couponing? Oh, just think how much I could save then? Imagine having a meal cost $1 or less for a family of 4?

Yes, I do think it is possible. Maybe not everynight, like the night your husband decides he wants to take you out to dinner, but, then again, there are coupons for that too!

I will start by posting a couple of recipe ideas for my local grocery stores that I shop, as well as the famers markets and produce stands, if possible. This will be completely based on the sales that are for the current week. For example, if the local sale has pasta that is free with couponing this week, then one of the recipes will be a pasta dish. The idea is to spend as little as possible and combine those ingredients into a delicous meal.

The upcoming posts will be a tool to teach others how to do meal planning, saving time,saving money, and weekly receipe postings.