The Scoop about Hotcouponmama
Name: Julie
Age: 33 (three months older than Heidi
)
Home State: Oregon
Occupation: Spent my career in food service management, but taking a break to work on an MBA and Hotcouponworld
Marital Status: Married to Mark, who supports our tech issues on the board.
Kids: 3 boys ages 8,6, & 4
Pets: One dog, 10-year old mixed terrier, one Beta fish
Little Known Factoid: Wrote lyrics for a band in college
Favorite Money Saving Tip: I love rainchecks. In fact, I think the word "Rainchecking" should be added to the dictionary to describe the sport of collecting rainchecks the last night of a sale so you can eat tomorrow at today's prices. Be sure to grab a raincheck for anything and everything you might use, particularly at stores who have long or no expiration date.
Budget: I try to keep it under $150 a month for everything household and grocery we buy.
Stores I shop: Albertsons & Safeway (mainly), and Fred Meyer, Thriftway. Rite Aid and Walgreens if the sales are hot enough and I have enough time.
Coupon Organization Method: I keep all my coupons in envelopes by store aisle categories in a tackle box. (Actually all over the floor of our downstairs bedroom -- edited by Mark)
Best Advice to Newbies: Don't be afraid to ask questions. It's likely been answered before, but our site members are friendly enough that they'll answer it like it was the first time they've ever heard it asked!
Julie's Story:
I first started using coupons in college. My best friend and I would clip a few here and there on things we'd know we'd buy. Living in the dorms, there was one community kitchen, so the things we'd buy had to store well and fit in our little square dorm-size fridges.
When I left college to get married, I continued to play at couponing. I have been married to my DH for 11 years, although we've been together 13 years. When we were first together, the goal was that I could keep any money I saved at the store. It was my jewelry slush fund money. As we've had kids, that's kind of mellowed out a bit and our coupon savings goes towards things like funding retirement accounts and kids sports, hobbies and activities. Three school-aged kids aren't cheap, so couponing keeps me ahead of the financial curve when it comes to kids.
Mark's been pretty accepting of this crazy coupon habit. I tend not to be very organized about paper, so we finally agreed I can move all the paper downstairs and keep it in the spare room. Mark is the silent partner on the site. You'll see him post very rarely, but he's on here every day making sure we run smoothly from a technical perspective. He's a Lt. Colonel in the Army. He's been in for 18 years, but was PT for 2 years, so he officially has just under 4 years to go for retirement. When he retires, I've told him his FT job will be to keep upgrading HCW from a tech perspective - there's lots of features we'd like to add, so he can stay home, coach the kids sports, and write database code for us all day. It's pretty funny cause his "Honey-Do" list isn't just from me, there's 10,000+ women who are waiting for him to crank out new features. But he's a good sport about it.
We have three great, but wild kids. All boys. They are a total handful. The oldest is in 2nd grade, the middle on is in an all-day kindergarten program, and my youngest spends his time between preschool and daycare. They play a sport every season, so we're constantly running with them. Mark coaches a few of their sports, so that adds one more layer to being busy.
I started out in school hoping to be a journalist and a first amendment lawyer. I wound up in food service management, although I still got a communications degree. I am currently working on an MBA, and don't tell Mark, but I think when I finish that next year, I may just consider going back for my law degree. I feel a lot better about school these days as an adult learner - I get better grades than I ever did as an undergrad. I really do like being in school - it's always been a place for me to snag my best ideas. HCW isn't my first business, and it isn't likely to be my last. I'm always at my best when something is new and exciting and I love start-up businesses.
This fall, I decided to take a break from working and focus on building out Hotcouponworld. So you'll see new features in the works that I hope our members will find enjoyable.
Now I've been with Mark 13 years. We actively save about $10K or more a year on average over retail. The extra money has done a lot for us in our world. From vacations to being able to start businesses to paying for college, the money we've saved with being frugal on things like groceries, clothes, and cars has really helped us significantly. We're hoping when Mark retires in a few years, we'll really be able to keep him home FT to do stuff with the kids. Couponing will help keep us on track that way.
As to hobbies and such, outside HCW and coupons and school, I love to read (when I can), and Mark and I are gamblers by nature, so we do enjoy taking some of our savings and playing at the local casinos. But we're also gamers, so we do play lots of card and board games. Mark golfs (I just cry by the time I get to about the 5th hole cause I am terrible golfer) and this year, all the boys will be up on skis - we both ski, and the oldest two kids have, but this will be the first time the whole family will be on skis.
Aside from that, I stay pretty busy with the site and all things deal related. I have some new projects I'm working on, which have me in full-on research mode.
I will say that I am really glad to be a part of such a great community. HCW has meant a lot to me, and I'm thrilled you have found us and make visiting here a part of your day!
Julie (Hotcouponmama) 
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