About I am THAT lady

I am so happy that you have come to I am THAT Lady!  There are so many frugal blogs out there these days, and I am so excited you have found mine!  Let me introduce myself; my name is Lauren and I am 30 years old.  I have been married to my husband for 9 1/2 years and we have 3 beautiful children together; ages 6,2 and under 1.  First and foremost, I am a Christian woman who is striving to do the best with the money that God has entrusted to me, my husband and I love to help others learn how to be wise with their finances through budgeting, coupons, and money saving tips.

In 2007 Mark and I were very comfortable with money, he is an actuary and has always made a great living for us, and I was driving a Pink Cadillac with Mary Kay Cosmetics.  I had earned my Cadillac within a year of starting Mary Kay and I was making a pretty good living, the only problem was that we were in a LOT of credit card debt and I wanted to be a stay at home mommy to our son (then 18 months old). We felt it best that I quit my job with Mary Kay so I could stay at home, only to realize that financially, we could not afford it.  We were running a deficit every month; it was hard to pay the bills and buy diapers and groceries. We had purchased our home as a 2 income family, and now we only had 1 income.  I remember sitting on our bed one night looking at our bills and crying.  It was such a dark and desperate time for me, I wanted to help out financially but we were just in too much of a hole, I saw no hope….

We decided I had to go to work full time at night as a server at a local Steak House, I went to work everynight and wasn’t able to put my son to bed at night.  I was so sad having to miss out on that every night, I forgot what he ate for dinner and what his favorite bed time story was.  We prayed about it and took a look at our budget again, we figured that if we could cut back our grocery/eating out spending to $200 per month, I could stay at home.  We had never budgeted before, we bought what we wanted and if we couldn’t afford it we would put it on our credit card.  We figured we had been spending on average $1,000 per month on eating out and groceries for our family of 3, so cutting that down to $200 was a SHOCK to me, but I love a challenge!

I had never used a coupon before, but I had heard about them .  I googled how to use coupons that night and was so impressed to find websites that teach you how to do it.  I stayed up late that night trying to figure out how to make it all work.  Two months later, I was able to quit my full time job and stay at home with my son!  A few months into my couponing, I had many friends that wanted to know how to do it.  I taught my 1st coupon seminar in my living room to 6 people, these seminars have grown into news appearances and large 100+ people seminars.  I am truly blessed to be used to help free others from financial strain.

‘I am THAT lady’ came along in June of 2010 after years of teaching coupon seminars I just couldn’t keep up with the demand, so I decided to start ‘I am THAT lady’ so I could reach a broader audience.  The name of the website was born out of the idea of being THAT crazy coupon lady – you know, the one you get stuck behind in the grocery line.  I still am that person and you can see that through my weekly shopping trips.  I also bring some of my teaching into ‘I am THAT lady’ through my Coupons 101 Video Series, this should help you get started off on the right foot!

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Here at ‘I am THAT lady’, you can expect to find more than just coupons and deals.  I aim to teach you how to make couponing actually SAVE you money, and occasionally offer you some fabulous giveaways!  I like to teach tips on how to Decorate your Home for Less , how to keep you from spending too much money on Daily Deal Sites, and also Cook recipes with the FREE & Cheap items that you find with coupons.  I see time and time again that people start using coupons and start spending more and more money, this is where budgeting comes into play.

1. Being located in Central New York,  you can find deals for local stores like Price Chopper, Tops, Wegmans, and Kinney Drugs.  These coupon matchups go up every Saturday so you can prepare your shopping trips the night before the sale starts on Sunday.
2. If you are not local to me I write about National Stores as well; you can find weekly coupon matchups for Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS, Target, Kmart, and Walmart.  The drug store deals are posted on Saturdays. The other store matchups are updated on Mondays.  Every store is updated throughout the week as well as deals pop up.
3. You should start off by watching my Coupons 101 Video Series – this helps you get started, where to find coupons, how to match those coupons up with.
4. You can also check out my FAQ page for frequently asked questions from other readers.

There is a lot of information on this website and in the world of couponing, but just take it one step at a time and in a few months you will be a professional teaching others!  I am just an email away so please let me know if there is anything else I can do to help you!
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