Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Lunch with the Coupon Queen

Yesterday a fellow Frugal Hacker was passing through town. I was lucky to have her stop by my house for lunch. Gina blogs at Six In The Country, where she writes about everyday life from a frugal perspective.

(She's the notorious blogger who challenged "the cheapest family in America" and received a response from Steve and Annette Economides in the comments.)

I think Gina's hiding her light under a bushel. She is so modest about her amazing grocery skills, you might not even know she's a moderator at two money-saving forums.

Her daughter told me about the family that loved Gina's banana butter so much, they hid it from one another and ate it in the bathroom....with a spoon. How's that for a reduced-for-quick-sale produce rescue?

And the coupons. Oh, the coupons. Gina is a walking, talking Coupon Queen of the first order, with a mental price list of every grocery deal in our region. Not only did she show me her professionally labeled coupon binder, she let me peek at the free bottles of Dawn boxed in her trunk. (She combined Kmart's in-store clearance with 50-cent off coupons.)

Gina has developed a second source of income passing along her grocery deals to friends. She is able to pay for her own family's food and then some.

Less than an hour later I grabbed a few extra coupons from the neighborhood recycling bin. After my lesson with Gina, I'm ready to shop Harris-Teeter in earnest!

10 comments:

Melissa said...

That is awesome Meredith!

Nicola said...

just the kind of post i needed to get me re-inspired on our frugal journey. we are a formally black belt frugal family who has wavered a lot in the past 3 years, but i am now a SAHM, so we need to rediscover how to make every penny count!

Lisa said...

Oh my what fun! I would have loved to have been a fly on your wall. :)

Amy said...

That sounds like a wonderful lunch and I am sure you both inspired each other!

Anonymous said...

Wow! She is just as inspiring as you are :) Thanks for sharing her links!!

Homemaker of the 21st Century

~Babychaser~ said...

Thanks for this spotlight! I'm looking forward to trying that Banana Butter sometime! YUM!

~katie~ said...

Thanks for all the links in this post - will definitely try to check them all out!

Blessings,
Katie

Anonymous said...

That room she has is lovely! I need something like it, even though I don't stockpile nearly as much since I gave up coupons. We don't buy most of what Gina buys, preferring instead unprocessed, minimally packaged foods and precious few of them are purchasable with coupons. Still, I think it's a highly desirable thing to have a few months' supply on hand and I admire her discipline in obtaining and storing her family's stash properly. I wonder if I could prevail upon my husband to make me something akin to those old fashioned combination sideboard/pantries. Hmm. Definitely worth some thought.

The Proverbs Wife said...

Merdith I am sorry you are having commenting problems with blogger, but I am especially glad that you stopped by my blog. I am really enjoying reading "Adventures in Thrift". I stumbled across the book while reading the "Finishing School" articles.

A am so glad that I stopped by today because I've read some of your links to Gina's blog and I really have enjoyed reading her posts.

So sorry you didn't get to join us for the book club this time. I will be hosting another one in mid January early February.

I will post about it as early as possible so that anyone interested can have a chance to participate. Thank you for listing the book on your post. I am really enjoying it.

Sincerely,
Hadias at proverbswife.blogspot.com

K E Fleck said...

Oh, Wow! What a fun day that must have been! And, thank you! for introducing me to that wonderful blog - I think I have a new favorite :-)

Chris and I have already decided that lowering our grocery bill is our 2008 New Year's Resolution. I've only in the past few months begun using coupons again and I feel like I have much to learn. What a great inspiration!

Best Wishes!