As many of you know Tiffany and I are in New York City as part of the Savings.com Save Up Event. I have been asked many time how I got started with all of this. As you know there are not a lot of men that embrace a frugal lifestyle, I think it has to do with the words we use to describe it.  The words “frugal” and “thrifty” are not exactly oozing testosterone. I believe that Real Men Coupon but, I prefer to call it a “Discount Lifestyle”, much easier for a man to say out loud I think.

Tiffany is the one that actually started us down this path. We were like any other young married college students that had a baby. We both donated plasma to get money to pay for things, when you get to that point you start figuring out the cheapest way to do things or you go without. She tried to coupon and shop smart but we ended up not sticking with it because the payoff wasn’t worth the investment of time, ever felt that way? This only got worse as we started making more money and it wasn’t a “necessity” anymore. We took about a 10 year hiatus from the coupon world. We always tried to find the best deals but lets face it the internet was just a fad back then and information was nearly impossible to find, so really you were on your own. I share this because I am sure you have either all been there or could be there right now. Stick with it, read blogs and be patient the payoff is worth it.

Five years ago Tiffany decided that she was going to give couponing another go. She had been a SAHM since our first child was born, it was now 10 years and 5 kids later. Life was getting really expensive and she wanted to make more of a contribution to our financial bottom line. She got really good at it, saved us a ton of money and started taking pictures of her grocery store trips. Jeff Foxworthy would say ” You might be a addicted if ……..” She started a little site to archive her trips and tell stories of our absolutely hilarious kids and life.

Tiff was really smart about how she got me involved, she didn’t say “Hey, you wanna go couponing with me” or  ask ” You wanna go to the grocery store?”. As you know that is a low percentage play and Tiff is much more clever than that. She appealed to what every man thinks he is and usually drives women the most nuts. She appealed to my “I need to fix it” side. She was having a hard time with the math or the people at the store gave her a hard time, little things to get me to go with her. When I saw how much money you could save and really even more than that how much STUFF you could get for only a few bucks I was HOOKED. It now became a game on how much we could save, buying what we needed and saving enough money on those items to start having some breathing room every month.

I got started with Walmart for a few main reasons. The biggest being that chasing all the different store deals is very rewarding, but also very time consuming. I found that that at Walmart their everyday prices were usually lower than the stores sale prices. Each store had a few items that were great deals and those were what we were chasing. The fact that I could Price Match all of the other store sales at one place allowed me to save the money I wanted and the time I needed.

I studied the Walmart Price Match and Coupon Policy until I knew it back and forth, front and back. The key to really saving money is to be confident, be patient and be persistent. I get emails everyday from people that are so nice and give me way to much credit for the things they are doing. I mean I love it and please don’t stop. The truth is that this is just like anything else, you are the ones taking the time to clip the coupons, follow the site and save your family the money. I am merely putting the info out there that hopefully helps you, I am just really happy and overwhelmed that “I Heart The Mart” is still an infant and already a part of so many people’s lives.

I am here in NY with about 40 other bloggers that are sharing their story as part of this Save Up Event. There is a lot of good information out there and even though it may seem like it, I don’t ONLY shop at Walmart. If there is a great Reward deal yo abetter believe I am gonna go snag it. Check out my fellow bloggers stories HERE.

I am also really honored that I have been asked to speak about and share my “Savings Story” today at the conference. This will be available LIVE for you to watch via streaming video if you want to join us. Tiffany and I will both be speaking at 4:00 PM EST. If you CLICK HERE and register to watch us you will be entered to win a FREE IPAD 2 as part of the conference! The live streaming behind at 3:15 EST with Jenny from Southern Savers giving a live coupon class. Join us for some great info, a few laughs and hopefuly one of you winning a FREE IPAD 2!