What's this about, anyway?

When you're younger, you always believe that after graduating college, the money will roll in and you'll automatically begin to live the lavish, chic, cushy life you've always wanted.  False!  I recently graduated college and have a job I adore, but my finances have taken an even bigger hit since graduation!  For a few months I lamented the fact that all had not unfolded as my kid dreams had anticipated.  Now, I've decided to take matters into my own hands and see how much an impact I can really have on my own finances and my overall personal wealth.  Follow me along the journey - I'm open to saving money in any way I can and want to share it with people who, like me, felt like they just couldn't have the life they wanted with the income they have now.

The fire under my butt to pursue something like this came from the TLC show Extreme Couponing.  After the first episode, I was absolutely astonished at the men and women standing at the check-out counter with sometimes negative totals!  BUT, I was also incredibly skeptical and thought, that would never work at the grocery stores around me.  Then, I saw an episode with a shopper from Ohio shopping at Kroger - the grocery I frequent.  I thought, if she does it, why not me?  What's the secret.

After hours of Googling every search query I could imagine relating to couponing and saving money, I stumbled across The Grocery Game.  WOW.  I signed up for my 30-day free trial (and no, I am in no way affiliated with the site) and started to really see that with a little extra work each week, the deals were out there.  The Grocery Game combines the week's coupons from SmartSource, Red Plum, and other coupon inserts with the weekly deals at your local stores (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Walgreens, Meijer, etc.).  It cuts all the work out of maximizing the savings - when you layer store sales with manufacturer's coupons, you begin to see how extreme couponers are able to get the deals that they do.

Now that I've been looking at the site for a few weeks, I'm ready to try my hand at scoring huge savings at the grocery.  Look for my results next!