I am a laid off Mechanical Engineer in my mid 30's. My girlfriend asked me if we should take an online video class about how to use coupons and save a lot of money. I did not think it would be worth it, but she saw other people's results and wanted to try it. I went into it feeling that the little amount of money we would save would be offset by a large investment in time. To call me a skeptic would have been an understatement. Once I agreed she kept hounding me to pick a time to watch the videos with her. I would say later so she would ask again later. Finally I agreed on a time to watch the first video, at least as much to get it over with as to see how it worked.
After the first video I was interested enough to watch the rest that week. The biggest revelation was that there is a SYSTEM, you don't just carry them with you and save 50cents here and 75cents there. You save up coupons, bide your time, make a plan, and then hit the store for maximum impact. It is tactical like a war game or playing the stock market. However I was still skeptical about getting the amazing results described in the video, but not about if it was possible for us to get positive results. It is one thing for someone to say "we saved $30,000 last year" but looking at it from my engineering background "how much did you spend to get those savings?" It's not like you have $30,000 in your checking account. "Do you actually spend less then you did before?" that is the question I wanted answered, that is saving to me. I looked at it this way if your car payment is $200/month and you buy a new car because the dealer is running a special that makes the car $5000 off but your car payment is now $300/month you can still say "I saved $5000" but you are spending more money to do it.
So I agreed to help her get started and try it to see what kind of results we would get. Being an engineer I am used to using spreadsheets, it is an easy and effective way for me to see a lot of information and make sense out of it, plus they are fun (yes she thinks I'm nuts too). So I started a simple spreadsheet to track our results, and as time went on I wanted to look more and more in depth at what the results were showing me and comparing different aspects of it, so the spreadsheet grew. It grew in size, amount of information it showed, and easy of use. She has been telling me for awhile that I should share it, and everything we have learned which is what led me to start this.
They say the best supporter is a convert, our results have far surpassed anything I expected. I have gone from someone who thought coupons were a huge waste of time and a way to get you to spend money on things you don't want, to someone who will continue to use them from now, and wish I would have done this long ago.
