About Mainely

I am a Navy brat born in Pennsylvania in who has traveled around the country as well as out of the country a bit. I have been married to a wonderful man I met in high school, although we didn’t date back then for almost five years. I have many credits towards a BS in chemistry with a minor in education. I work as a live goods merchandiser at a home improvement chain, which means I wrestle with everything from trees to houseplants and rose bushes. I also dabble in graphic design and webpage design, although most of my work is for myself and online gaming communities. I do have a form grasp of CS3 and HTML/CSS which is self taught. You can see my work at www.angelawatts.com when I get my portfolio back up. We have two dogs my 13yr old rottie/golden mix and a 2yr old lab/rottie mix. We had custody of a 13yr old African Grey parrot but she is currently back with my mother-in-law.

I started couponing in 2007 when we got our puppy. Although we could afford to get a puppy he ate ALOT of food and I decided there must be a way to save on so much food. Luckily for me Purina is a generous company and I have probably saved hundreds of dollars a year since on dog food alone.

Once I realized how easy it was to save on dog food I decided maybe I could save a bit on people food as well. And thus a monster was born. I couldn’t tell you how much I save yearly, although I keep swearing to keep better records, but its easily as much as we make a year. Definitely enough to afford a car payment, two dogs and a cell phone package for two smartphones with unlimited data and texting.

I am lucky enough to live in the great state of Maine, where alcohol purchase is not required for rebates and winetags, which drives my savings to another level than some. I am also able to shop in New Hamsphire which is tax free, for a pretty reasonable usage tax that is paid yearly on my ME state taxes. It makes for easier math in scenarios since there is no tax to guess at.

Between coupons, rebates, word of mouth programs, freebies and the stockpile I built up we live comfortably for two people with a small budget. We could do better, but we can be lazy about budgeting. Living in a rented apartment the size of a shoebox isn’t helping either. But I’ve tasted what couponing can bring me and I’m not going to stop now. I am going to endeavor to teach others and bring them along for the savings.