This post is sponsored by Groupon Coupons, all opinions are my own.
I don’t know how long you’ve been reading this blog, but if you’ve been here from the start, you know that I started as a frugal blogger. Faithfully Free was Faithfully Frugal and Free, and my posts were all about saving you money. I spent hours clipping coupons and saving my family money. It was awesome, and we saved A LOT of money.
A few years later you may have followed me as my husband, and I divorced and later remarried. The blog evolved. One thing I never talked about what happened to me financially when my husband and I got divorced.
My I got married when I was eighteen, and I started dating my husband at sixteen. While I always had a job, John was always the breadwinner and always supported me. During our marriage with John’s help, I made the budget and paid all of the bills.
When we got divorced, I was left to do everything on my own. After years of making budgets and paying bills, I figured I would be fine, but the single life was a whole new world for me. For the first time, I was in full control of the finances. I didn’t have anyone to consult when I made purchases. If I wanted to spend more than I made I didn’t have anyone to tell me that was a bad idea. Sure, I knew better but I was going through a lot, and I made a lot of unwise choices.
Over a two year period, I got myself into a good bit of debt which was so uncharacteristic of me. I splurged on things I would usually never buy. Things like clothes, shoes, jewelry. I look back and can’t believe I wasted so much money. Unfortunately, those bad spending habits were hard to break even after my husband, and I got remarried.
Last year I decided to hand all of my money over to my husband. Every time I get paid I send the money to my husband. He then uses the money to pay our bills and pay my debt (which is almost paid off). As hard as it is to give up control, I know that this is what’s best for me. I need help, and he has helped me tremendously!
I have also tried to be more conscious about going out of my way to save money. Long gone are the days of extreme couponing for this family. Since we eat a pretty strict diet, there aren’t many foods we can save on with coupons like we used to, but we can save on other things.
With Groupon Coupons, I can save on things that we would already purchase and even special buys like birthday gifts.
Some of the places I use Groupon Coupons are:
Famous Footwear (with four kids we go through lots of shoes)
Aeropostale
ToysRUs
Origin
Shutterfly
Bass Pro Shops
Hotels.com
I still browse some of my favorite savings blogs for things like make-up deals and deals on detergents and things as well. Overall I’m trying to get back to my frugal ways and get my debt paid off. I hate that I got myself into such a mess and I can’t wait to be debt free again. I’m thankful to my husband for helping me get out of this mess, and I pray that I will never be that foolish again.
“The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave. ” – Proverbs 22:7