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My Frugal Life - Buying Ingredients Has Saved Me Money

At the age of 33 I became disabled. I had just gotten married to a man who had been disabled for years, and retired from the army, he came with a teenage son. I had always lived alone and did a lot of eating fast meals, I never cooked. Now suddenly we were living on my husband's disability and food stamps, which trust me does not add up to eating out every meal.

So I started talking to people about recipes and trying out some of my own creations. Then I decided to join a couple of frugal groups on the internet, actually I joined about 6 but whittled it down to a couple that worked for me. It took some time to get into the groove but I started making menus for a month and clipping coupons. I started buying items to put together to make a meal instead of spending so much money buying ready to eat meals.

The first month that I made out my grocery list, everything on it was ingredients, my list was so long because I didn't have anything, and I thought for sure I wouldn't have enough money to buy it all. I not only had enough money, but I got one and half times what I usually bought. I couldn't believe how much cheaper it was to buy ingredients than ready to eat.

I became a coupon addict. I joined coupon swaps. I also print out coupons on my computer. It hasn't been an easy road to follow but we have managed to feed, clothe and pay bills on about $9,000 dollars a year.

Christi from Paducah, KY

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