Today we’re going to hear from Amber, a reader from Huntsville, Alabama.  I am going to forewarn you all that you may need to grab some of your free Scotties as this one is a tear jerker!!  I chose to post Amber’s story because I think she is a great example of how couponing can be meaningful in so many different ways!!  While couponing may have started as a distraction is has become a means of comfort and stability.

I started couponing in April of this year, because my friend Jennifer coupons so well, and I decided to try to save a few bucks. We have really been struggling for a while, and we shouldn’t be, but the toils of medical bills and cut pay from a terrible event in October of 2009 caused us to be in a financial bind. I am a teacher, and my husband works for the city in landscape management. We are raising our 3-year-old goddaughter, Jaycee, who has been with us since she was 8 months old. A family of 3 isn’t hard to feed, but for some reason, I was spending an unbelievable amount of money on groceries and personal items.
On October 1, 2009, I delivered our first child, Kylie Brielle Keith, at 26 weeks 5 days via emergency c-section. She was 1 pound, 8 ounces, and was 13 inches long. As scary as it was to have such a tiny baby in the NICU, it was thrilling to know I was a mom. When Kylie was 8 days old, she was diagnosed with NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis). At 13 days old, she had emergency surgery to try to fix the problem, and 25 cm of dead and diseased bowel was removed. The next day, I held my daughter for the first time as she passed away in my arms.
The pain from losing my child was unbearable. I found myself in more pain when I had nothing to do, and our medical bills were through the roof because of my medical situation before and after Kylie was born. I was stressed beyond belief. On top of that, I was out of work for nearly 4 months, and my husband had also missed over a month of work. Jaycee had many needs to be met, and we were just sinking under everything. When I started couponing, I really threw myself into it, and it became a healing and coping mechanism for me. I jumped in full force, reading about how to coupon, how to find coupons, and what to do with them. I visited I Heart Publix and other sites DAILY. I scoured my store shelves, and customer service at my local Publix got to know me well. I started carrying my coupons in a few envelopes, moved to an accordion file, and graduated to a binder over thecourse of just 2 months. I started stocking up on things we love, and experienced the rush of discovering cheap and free items. It became a game in many ways, and it actually gave me something to look forward to.
This year has been crazy in so many ways. My husband and I each had our gall-bladders removed, I totaled my car in August, my uncle passed away in December, we had a water leak that displaced us for 2 months (but I did get a new kitchen and bathroom out of it) And that’s just the major stuff! If I didn’t have couponing, I don’t know how I would have made it through all of those stresses. When I felt especially sad, or when I felt the need to break down into a million pieces, I would surround myself with my coupons, and I would work for hours. It still eases my pain a great deal, and it also helps to know that if anything else were to happen, we have the money to take care of the bills and the grocery stock-pile to make it through. I can buy Jaycee Pull-ups for night time, and I can buy us “treats” that we used to avoid because we didn’t have the money. Recently – for the first time ever! – we hired a babysitter and went on a date, because we had the money to do so. From my estimates, we have saved over $1600 since April. I know that when we are blessed with another child, I will be able to save so much money on diapers, formula, baby food, etc. with my new “hobby.” Now it is very rare now that I spend more than I save – I have an average savings at Publix of 65-75% – and my husband doesn’t need body wash until sometime next year! My best deal without being free? I still can’t believe it- 6 boxes of hamburger helper for $.27 TOTAL!
For those who feel that couponing is too time consuming, I want to let you know that I am an AVID couponer, and sometimes spend more time than I probably should, but I can balance coupons with work. I am a full-time teacher, a mom, and a wife. I am also a member of a community action team that makes recommendations for helping parents deal with perinatal loss, have participated in the March for Babies campaign (we raised over $8,000 in 3 months), and am the head of a first-annual event for National Infancy and Pregnancy Loss Awareness Day in our city of Huntsville, AL. I also attend monthly bereavement group meetings and always make myself available to other parents who have gone through the loss of a child. I try to blog frequently, and I always try take time to post my grocery deals on my Facebook for my friends.
Best of all, I have Kylie’s photo in the front of my coupon binder, on the outside, so that EVERYONE can see her beautiful face, and she often brings up conversations so I get to talk about her and introduce her to others. That often leads to a discussion about coupons as well, and it has really impacted others to start considering couponing!
I’m so happy to share my story here. If anyone wants to know more about the other things I’m doing, including getting a foundation started, or if you want to read Kylie’s full story, you can go to healingheartsnorthalabama.org, or you can email me at angelkyliesmommy@gmail.com. I am always happy to talk with anyone and share Kylie’s story, or even just talk about how to balance a lot of stuff with couponing!

Thanks so much for sharing, Amber!
In order to keep this new feature going, you all are going to have to volunteer to tell us all about something YOU do when you are couponing!! Your post can be about almost anything to do with couponing. You can tell us about a particularly good or bad situation you’ve dealt with as a couponer, about how you got into couponing or how couponing has impacted the rest of your life, you can make a list of things every new couponer should know…just about anything, really! If you think it’s interesting and it has to do with couponing, email me with your idea at contactiheartpublix @ gmail.com!