Reader Nancy left the following comment below and I wanted to see if you might be able to help answer the question she asked?

“I just had my second baby, so I have a 20 month old and a 4 month old… my husband and I are discussing me taking a year off so I can stay home with them becuase I feel like am missing a big part of them grown up when am at work….Sooooooo I’m trying to get back on my couponing game so that can help me save money… Is anyone else out there a professional with a career but is a stay at home Mom by choice? How is that going financially? Both my husband and I are teachers…”

I have been and done both personally, but in a different order. Fortunately for me, when I have worked my kids were able to come with me to work, or I was working at home. The only time I was away from one of my “babies” was my last one from 8am-2:30pm and I was lucky enough to have my Mom watch her. It was “only” for 9 months, but it really sucked!

When I first got married neither my husband or I had any intention of me working outside the home. Situations change, and things happen that you could never have planned for. We can live more frugally than most people can possibly imagine, and sometimes that is just not good enough. I had to go back to work not so that we could afford a cell phone or cable, or even 2 cars. I had to go to work so we could buy food, and pay for electricity.

Some people choose to have a career, and have kids and there is nothing wrong with that in any way. Occasionally, Dads stay home and raise kids also. Every family is different and what works for them might not work for me, buy I think we all do what we have to.

I feel like Nancy just needs some encouragement to do what she and her husband feel like the right thing is for them. I know that if she decides to stay home, she can do it!! She has little kids and it will be hard, but if she stays organized and motivated, she can save a tremendous amount of money this year!

What do you think??

For as long as I can remember I have always made most of my Christmas presents for others homemade.  More then money, I am giving the recipient the gift of my time. If I have needed to dress the gift up some, I just add a gift card.

This year at the Super Saturday frugal/coupon conference, you will be able to make and take home a frugal craft that will help you get your mind working as to ideas for a frugal holiday!

For example – On my fireplace this month are my 3 glass candle holders that I made. Inside I have a battery operated mini light that flickers like a real light.

All 3 cost me under $1.00.

• Jars – leftover spaghetti jar, olive jar and jelly jar.
• Napkins – $.10 each
• Ribbon – $.50
• Modge Podge – Made my own with Elmers Glue $.10

At the conference next weekend, with teacher and blogger Bobbie Bryd from The Clumsy Crafter, you will learn and MAKE your own frugal holiday craft to take home. Don’t worry, if you are not crafty, it will turn out cute and you will have fun!

We are getting close to selling out, if you want a ticket you can get one below.

We are getting closer and closer to the MyLitter’s readers conference in just about 10 days! There are a few groups that signed up in the past few days and so the tickets are running out!

Our lunch speaker, is a friend and AMAZING woman who I am sure you have heard of, Erin Chase of $5 Dinners. Erin will be speaking about meal planning for the Holidays and actually take our local ad for the week and SHOW YOU WHAT TO BUY! Erin also will have a limited supply of her new cook book available for you to purchase at a seriously discounted price (only $10!). This would make a great Christmas present and she will be autographing them as well.

• Tiffany Ivanovsky – Building your stockpile and having fun couponing
• Paul Ivanovsky – How to have extra Christmas cash and get your family involved in saving money!
• Bobbie Byrd – Frugal holiday crafts on a budget ( you will make a craft)
• Erin Chase – Meal planning with a purpose
• April Ockerman – Making homemade candy and treats ( you get to make some)
• Becky Powel – Freezer cooking and making meals ahead of time ( you will make a meal to take home)
• Lisa Stauber – The Food Stamp challenge, how Lisa feeds her family of 11 on less than the national Food Stamp allotment, and making homemade cleaning products ( you will take home a homemade cleaning product)

I get a LOT of email everyday and I try and answer all of it. Most of the time it is readers having problems at their stores and asking what to do.

This is a reader email question from Sunday:

Hello Tiffany, 

So i know that Walmart has changed their coupon policy. Was told tonight that they no longer price match and use coupons. It has to be one or the other. Manager was very rude and said they would only do it this time. When told that we had the printed policy he said “he hasnt read it yet” but refused to even look at it but yet said because of the changes he couldn’t do it again. So i am confused, If he never read the policy why is he saying that We cant do this? And is he right?

This was my answer because I was a really mad at the manager:

Oh my heck!!!

What an ass! No, nothing has changed in the policy!

Call 1-800-walmart and tell them the name of your store and the problem that you had. Ask them to call your manager and set him straight and call you BACK when they have taken care of the problem.

Tiffany

Ok, so normally I don’t write a reader back that way but I was just tired of managers clearly not knowing what their own coupon policies are.

Walmart has not changed their policy in 18 months. Managers have had 18 months to get a copy and read it. They have had some procedure update for employees but no change in the policy.

Why do managers and cashiers tell you “there has been a policy change?”

BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW THE POLICY. They don’t want to look like they have no idea what they are talking about and so they make up policy changes and they make up “rules” and it usually ends with…. come on, you have heard it before…

“O.K. Just this ONE time”

When it should be, “Sorry I don’t know my own policy. Next time you come in I will have read it and will start following it.”

What can you do?

READ and PRINT the coupon policy for the store you are shopping at and BRING THE POLICY WITH YOU every time you shop there. Need to find the policies, you can go HERE and print them.

If you are still having problems, call corporate. This way you get confirmation that you are correct and you can ask them what you should do. They might tell you it is up to the manager. If that is the case and they are not friendly I would not shop there. If you are correct, then I would ask them to call the manager of that store and have corporate explain their coupon policy to them. ASK FOR A FOLLOW UP CALL! 

Need the corporate phone number? Just Google “—– corporate phone number” and you will find it. I call Walmart often and so it is 1-800-walmart.

If you are armed with information and confidence you will have a better shopping experience.

Just a quick little video showing you how to change your zip code in coupons.com.

I wanted to make sure that I have your attention! Coupons.com made some changes a few weeks ago that are making it hard to quickly get to a coupon. I try my best to always give you a direct link but sometimes it is not possible and you still have to change the zip code.

This is how to change it:

• On the front page, click the link that says “Local Coupons”
• On the left side towards the top there is a spot that has a zip code
• Change the zip code to whatever you want
• CLICK THE LITTLE ORANGE ARROW BUTTON to make the change
• Click the “Coupons” tab under the zip code to go back to the printable coupons

Thats it! Now you can see a whole new set of coupons!