Interviews

This month’s interview is with my friend, Erica, who is a great example of how even the busiest of people can make a difference in the lives of others. She’s been telling others about Angels’ Arms for a while now so I’m excited to have the chance to help her spread the word.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
My name is Erica. My husband, Eric and I have been married for 9 years and have two sets of twins, ages 6 and 4. Yes, you read right TWO sets of twins. I work at Concord W.E.E. school with 2 ½ yr. olds twice a week and also work as the Administrative Secretary at Eagle Point Community Church.

What is Angels’ Arms and what prompted you to help them?
Angels’ Arms is an organization that has 5 houses throughout the St. Louis area that specializes in fostering sibling groups. As found on their website www.angelsarms.com “Children entering an Angels’ Arms home are met with acceptance and love and immediately learn about their role in their new family. So many foster children don’t know how a family works or what it means to be a family member. But the house parents quickly involve all foster children in activities such as chores, extra-curricular activities, homework, eating together as a family, peaceful problem solving, sharing, and more.”
I found out about Angels’ Arms about 3 years ago because they have a house not far from me. I have always felt a calling to somehow help children without families. Also now that my children are older I want to teach them that it is very important to help others in need.

I love what Erica said about wanting to get her kids involved. Setting a good example for our children is really important, but if we can actually include them in helping others, then all the better! Thanks Erica for taking time from your hectic schedule to share about Angels’ Arms!

Something that stood out to me about Angels’ Arms is that they have helped almost 200 children over the past ten years – without any government funding. The foster parents themselves receive a stipend from the government, but everything else is provided by caring, committed members of the community. They have only 5 employees and, get this, over 500 volunteers. Love it!

Welcome to the first ever Monthly Interview! I am so excited to introduce you to Karen Morris with Cuttin’ Up! (www.cuttinupcoupons.com). I recently attended one of her coupon seminars and was really impressed with her knowledge of couponing (yes, it’s a word) and with her heart for serving others. She is a wonderful example of how you can give and still take care of your family. I’m only a couple of weeks into couponing, but I’ve already saved so much money by applying Karen’s principles! It’s exciting to see that I can save my family money while increasing what I’m giving to others. That is the true definition of a win-win situation!

Please sit back, relax, and prepare to be inspired. If nothing else, be sure to read Karen’s answer to the fourth question. Karen’s passion and dedication to helping others really shines through her words!

Can you tell us about yourself?

My name is Karen Morris. I’m a “thirty-something” native to Erie, PA, but having lived here in St. Louis for the last 11 years. I am wife of fourteen years to an amazing husband named Steve and homeschooling Mom to four wonderful children Ian (8), Jordan (8), Shannen (4), and Ethan (3). I learned to coupon about a year and a half ago which enabled me to drop my grocery/toiletry/cleaning supply budget from $850/month to $340/month. I started teaching coupon seminars and classes ten months ago. I launched my coupon deals and preparedness website about six months ago. I currently write for my website. I continue to teach seminars and classes in couponing, frugal living, and setting up a church pantry. My book “Cuttin’ Up! Your Grocery Bill” is almost completed. I have about a half a chapter left to go.

How long have you been couponing and what started you on this journey?

About a year and a half ago, I made a regular visit to one of my favorite blogs. On the blog, it told me that if I wanted a series of messages on entrepreneurship that I should go to a coupon website and get the details. This series of messages called “The Entrepreneurial Boot Camp” normally costs $100. My husband and I had really wanted this, but we didn’t have $100 sitting around. When I read that I could get this for free, I jumped at the deal, headed over to the other website and found out how. After having secured my free copy, I went back to the coupon website and started reading some of the posts. I couldn’t believe it. The person on the website was posting deals about getting $.99 Gillette Fusion razors (normally $11), free toothpaste, free body wash, free soup, and so much more! I read everything I could get my hands on and then wanted more. I continued to follow the site and from there tried to figure out grocery deals on my own. It took a lot of trial and error. I made a ton of mistakes, but in the end, I realized that I could cut my grocery/toiletry/cleaning supply budget by almost 2/3rds. Now I do all that on my website each week for everyone for free.

What are some of the best deals you’ve scored?

I’ve scored eight months of laundry detergent (about 10 bottles) for $5. I’ve found and bought 10 months worth of hams for $25. I’ve located ten months worth (ten 12-packs) of toilet paper for $6. I’ve bought 20 boxes of cereal for $2 total or $.10 per box. This past Thursday, I bought $337 worth of groceries for $81 or a savings of 76%. While that doesn’t happen every week, I tend to only shop when I can get deals that good.

One of the things that drew me to your seminar and website was your heart for ministry. Can you tell us more about that?

Before I go into this, let me begin by saying that at one time our family was on food stamps and Medicade because we were living on about $1200/month. It is not an easy place to be physically, mentally, or spiritually. I remember at one time our food stamp allotment was cut substantially due to a very slight raise. I remember sitting down and crying because I didn’t know how we were going to make it. I KNOW what it’s like to be on government assistance. I know what it’s like to feel like you have no choice. We have since come to the conviction that it is not the government’s job to provide for the physical needs of people, but we do understand what takes people there and how HARD it is to have to relinquish government dependency and replace that with dependency on God’s people.
My heart is to change our country through couponing – Both individually and corporately. Now that may sound like an audacious goal, but I believe that it is an attainable one.

Individually, we can change the country through couponing by beginning a stockpile of our own. As you coupon, you learn only to buy foods when they are at the lowest price at which they can be bought. When you do this, you don’t buy just one of each item, but many. As you begin to buy many boxes, bags, or packages of individual items, you begin to grow your stockpile. Once you have a stockpile, when someone comes up to you in a parking lot and asks for food, you are able to ask them if they have several minutes to wait. If they do, run home to your stockpile. Throw items into a bag or several bags and then run back to wherever it was that the person asking for assistance found you. Instead of handing over money or spending a lot on foods that weren’t on sale in the store, you just give them a bag or bags filled with items that you got for pennies on the dollar. You didn’t spend much, but they get a lot, and you aren’t giving out money. I know many people asking for money for food NEED food, but I have also seen instances where they really don’t. I’ve offered to run home and bring a person back food. Sometimes a person has refused or said “yes” only to be gone when I got back. While working individually to change the country, besides giving food to people who ask, I also take between 1-2 bags of groceries to the pantry on an average grocery shopping week. Imagine what we could do when we band together! Ten families taking 1-2 bags of groceries to a local pantry makes a HUGE difference!

If you want to change the country corporately, this is how it would work. Step one, you or I teach others how to coupon. They learn how to cut their grocery budgets by 1/3-2/3rds. WHILE they are cutting their grocery budget, I teach them in a very practical way how they can donate to a food pantry or shelter. I suggest how they go about this and how much they can easily give while still abundantly providing for their own families.

Step two is families who are learning to coupon covenant together with like-minded families to set up their own church pantries. So not only are these families cutting their grocery budgets by 1/3-2/3rds, they are stocking a pantry together so that several things can happen. First off, they, as families, are able to take care of one another or other families in their local body of believers. If someone from their local fellowship is laid off from work, the church can then open up their church pantry so that this family can get the food and toiletries that they need. In doing this, this family isn’t going to the government for assistance. They are going to the church. God has ordained the church to take care of its members. God has ordained the government to ‘bear the sword’ against evil doers (Romans 13:3-5). The government isn’t given the authority by scripture to provide for the physical needs of the people within its domains. By providing these families with accountability and resources (both foods and monetary if needed), they should be able to get back on their feet without government intervention. Thus slightly assuaging the drain on the governments funds.

Step three is when a person or a family outside your church comes to your church asking for assistance. Your church is then able to open up the pantry to them providing them with necessities for living. Along with this comes two things (1) the gospel and (2) accountability. Every time the pantry door is opened when food is shared, the gospel should be shared right along with it. Will everyone who comes to your pantry get saved? While the honest answer is ‘probably not’, it is reasonable to believe that some will. When this happens, these families are to be discipled and given accountability. When you explain to them that, as a church, you believe that Christ has ordained His church to take care of those in need and that the government is not a part of God’s plan for providing physical necessities. You ask them that if they continue to come to you for help, that they do not ask the government for the same help. In doing this, you are providing accountability. These families who come to know Christ as also able to be discipled in the local church, learning what it means to be a family and what it means to be a part of the Bride of Christ. As you disciple these families as a church, you begin to change them from the inside out. Each family added to Christ’s church makes the Church stronger and more able to both provide for others as well as spread the gospel to others.

What can people expect from attending your seminar?

When people attend one of my seminars, they can expect to be walked through the whole grocery shopping process. Many money-saving steps of which most people are not aware happen before you even begin to coupon. I take you through those and then explain the entire couponing process and how you can make that process work for you. It is definitely fast and furious, so you’ll need to hold onto your seats! To schedule a seminar for a group, I ask for approximately 10 people and the cost is $10/person. I will occasionally schedule seminars myself if I have enough people contacting me with interest.

I also offer one-on-one coupon tutoring where I sit down with you across the kitchen table for one hour a week for four consecutive weeks. I take you through the information from the seminar (and much more) in a more relaxed pace allowing you to absorb it slowly and to ask more thoughtful questions. I assign homework for you each week in getting you ready for the next week’s discussion. The first week we meet, we will discuss pre-couponing techniques that will aid in lowering your grocery bills. The second week we meet, after we go over the very simple ‘homework’ from the first week, we will discuss basic couponing techniques. The third week we meet, we will discuss how to make couponing work at specific stores i.e. Target, Walgreen’s, CVS, Shop and Save, etc. The last week, we’ll meet and go to a store together so that you can see how the process works from start to finish. The price will include portions of my book and workbook. (Once they are published, you’ll get a book/workbook set (($35 value)) with your tutoring).

Cost for you alone – $99
This will be broken up into three payments – $33 non-refundable deposit upon signing up, $33 when we meet for week one, $33 when we meet for week three.

Bring a friend – $75 each
This will be broken up into three payments each – $25 non-refundable deposit upon signing up, $25 when we meet for week one, $25 when we meet for week three.

Bring two friends – $60 each
This will be broken up into three payments each – $20 non-refundable deposit upon signing up, $20 when we meet for week one, $20 when we meet for week three.

How can we reach you? I can be reached through my website at www.cuttinupcoupons.com, at CuttinUpCoupons@gmail.com, CuttinUpCoupons on Facebook and on Twitter @CuttinUpCoupons. I am happy to talk on the phone to anyone, they can e-mail me, and I’ll e-mail them my phone number.

Thanks so much to Karen for sharing her wealth of coupon wisdom! I think my heart skipped a beat when she talked about the impact that 10 couponing families could have in their church and community! Please check out her website – lots of great information!

I’ll be posting September’s Monthly Challenge within the next couple of days! It’ll be easy – I promise!