I started doing coupons around 1997.  We were just like most Americans, living paycheck to paycheck.  We weren't even making it to the next paycheck some weeks.  We were getting farther in debt as the days went by.  I wanted to try and cut our expenses, but didn't know where to start.

One day I was delivering mail to a resident and a magazine caught my eye.  It was a nationally published magazine called "Refunding Makes Cents" (which has been renamed "RefundCents").

I asked the resident if I could have the back page with the subscription info.  She was kind enough to let me have it, and since then I have learned a great deal about couponing/refunding.  I have been featured in our local paper ("The Elkhart Truth"), the Indianapolis Star, and had my picture in the RefundCents mag 2 times so far.  I would end up getting stockpiles of stuff for free or greatly discounted.  We were bursting at the seams with "stuff".  I didn't know what to do with it.  Every year the letter carrier's union (NALC) has a food drive.  I decided to put 2 and 2 together and donate a lot of the stockpile to the drive, since I was and still am a letter carrier.  That got me to thinking, why can't I do this all year long.  That created another dilemma; how much should I give?  Well, for those of you who don't me, I am a devout practicing Christian.  So therefore I referred to God's self-help handbook on how to live your life, called the Bible.  In there it says to tithe, which means a tenth.  I wasn't able to tithe financially, so I started tithing with my "coupon conquests".  I started having a blast.  Giving to the local food pantries, single mothers, and neighbors was giving me such a blessing and a "natural high" that I thought that everyone should know how to do this.  I started by teaching a couple of coworkers.  They loved it.  Myself and one of the people that I taught at work went to Krogers one night and bought $242 worth of groceries for $15.57.  $12.79 of that was taxes.  I also received $6 off my next shopping order after the receipt printed out.  The receipt ended up being about 11ft long.

A couple of weeks later I was driving into work and listening to B100.  During the Cody and Deb show they were having people call in with thier "frugalness" stories.  After some of the funny calls, I decided to call in and tell them about the $242 order.  There reaction kind of caught me off guard.  Needless to say, Cody and Deb were impressed and invited me into the station.  I went into the station on Oct 11th.  It turns out that "Jim the coupon guy" was a hit.  They asked me if I could come in about once a month.  I gladly accepted. 

I was in the process of organizing a little coupon class in coordination with a friend that lives on my mail route.  She and I both are huge Dave Ramsey fans.  She was a Financial Peace University (F.P.U.) coordinator for her church (Nappanee Missionary Church, Nappanee, Indiana).  The FPU classes are once a week for 13 weeks.  Darlene asked if I could come in and teach a coupon class on the "14th" week.  With the awesome response from the B100 appearance, Darlene suggested that we open up the class to the public and all of the organizing personnel at the church were gracious enough and let me do it.

About 40-45 people showed up.  I had a wonderful time.  This is my way of trying to repay God for giving me the this gift.  I give Him all the glory.