Exploring Ways To Maximize Our Family's Giving Efforts ~ Couponing For Good ~ Champions For Kids

My family has committed to giving as much as we can to those in need in our community.  With each donation drop off, we find that our satisfaction is diminished by the overwhelming scope of need.  Alone, we are simply a drop in an endless bucket.  Rather than be discouraged, we are further challenging ourselves to find ways to inspire others to join in the Champions For Kids SIMPLE service projects, as well as to maximizing our own contributions.


For March, my family is taking on an new challenge - Couponing For Good.  Although we are not aggressive or even active couponers, we were intrigued and encouraged by the idea of stretching our donation budget through couponing, to give even more.

The Couponing For Good Project is really quite SIMPLE:

Collect coupons (All You is a great source!)

Use them to minimize product costs

Purchase more for less

Give more to your community

What a winning concept!  Of course, our in home coupon stash was essentially non existent.  Fortunately, the Champions For Kids March service project partner, All You magazine has that covered!  We picked up a copy of the March issue and we're thrilled to discover it was packed full of valuable coupons; over $78 worth!   

Beyond the money saving coupons, we discovered all manner of helpful budget stretching and money management articles, perfect for those looking to fine tune their household budgets, as well as for our purposes of Couponing For Good!  Add to that, tempting and tasteful recipes and articles relevant to every woman and you have All You, a magazine well worth the issue price of $2.49, and one that will pay for itself again and again via the coupons within.

To further our options for savings, we made certain to purchase a local Sunday newspaper edition, notorious for being packed full of savings.  As our plans included shopping at Walmart, a quick check online uncovered a new to us resource - printable online coupons from Walmart!

These three easy steps quickly amassed a mountain of coupons and potential for huge savings; nearly $400 dollars worth of coupons.  Admittedly, some of the coupons we are not for products we'll likely purchase for either donation or our own consumption.  However, rather than wasting them, we'll take a note from an expert couponer and leave them at the grocery for another to use.

At first, our small mountain of coupons was a bit intimidating.  Where to start?
Organizing our coupons by category made sense; combining similar items, comparable to what one would find in each aisle at the store, into individual envelopes helped us to gain control.  Another unexpected benefit was that we had a much better feel for our contents of our coupon trove afterward.

We selected specific coupons, many of them from All You magazine, that we felt represented a good selection of products for our donation.  Among the targeted coupons, were some for health products, hygiene products and certainly, food products.

Upon arriving at the store, we carefully combed the aisle, looking for products to match our selected coupons, seeking out those that were already reduced by in store specials, value packages and best values.  Much to our surprise, we found many of our coupon purchases were nearly free after the savings were applied, allowing us to include several higher priced items, like children's vitamins and medicine that would have normally taken a large chunk of our budget.

The end result was wonderful!  We saved an extra 30% on our purchases, on top of the in store specials that were already in place.  Our purchase totaled $47.25; had we not used coupons, we would have spent nearly $75 dollars.  

Although I know our efforts, as compared to those who possess more seasoned couponing skills, may seem minor, this is only the beginning for my family.  Most importantly, beyond the all important donation we'll be contributing, the experience truly inspired us to think outside the box to continue to maximize our giving.

My husband suggested that we donate our returnable bottles to our giving budget, a SIMPLE effort that will add up.  The Teen Diva, inspired by the trove of beauty product coupons in All You, suggested we use the savings from using beauty coupons to contribute as well; an easy addition as we have not used beauty coupon before.  I am intrigued by the concept of matching coupons to various store ads for extra savings.  My son volunteered to help comb the ad flyers for opportunities and All You offers a great app to help saving savvy shoppers stay in the know!  We are even discussing the possibility of inspires others we know to join our Couponing For Good efforts; such an easy way for anyone to contribute and make a SIMPLE difference.
Join us as we Coupon For Good via my pictorial story on Google +!

There are limitless ways to make a difference in your community.  The most important part - starting now.
Champions For Kids makes it so easy to do.

A few minutes, a few dollars, a caring heart.

Join the Champions For Kids effort.

Become One of Millions.

Champions For Kids
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I am proud to be working as one of the millions of Champions for Kids.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias.  The experiences and opinions above are both honest and my own.  Some information and image sourced from Champions for Kids and All You magazine.  #CBias  #AllYouCFK