If you’re like me, you love to shop! It doesn’t even matter what I’m shopping for, I just get a kick out of it. I could be buying gifts for a baby shower, something for myself, I could be buying wood at Home Depot (Not often but it’d be fun!) and I would enjoy myself! The only thing I hate about shopping is the bill that comes with it. Especially because I am an impulse buyer most of the time. Basically, I could be at Target and be like ‘ok I just need deodorant’ then find myself with a cart with deodorant (if I remember), clearance holiday candy, leggings, a bathing suit, some pillows and shampoo. Cuz why not! However, I am good at finding great deals and coupons! I’ll share my secrets below 🙂

Grocery Shopping

I am often amazed how much I spend a week at the grocery store especially since I’m only buying for 2 people!! After a few weeks of spending $100 at the grocery store each week, I knew I needed to fix it. I mean we are buying full blown meals for dinner, small things to have as lunches plus snacks so we are getting a lot!

For each week, I started preparing a menu for what we will have for dinner. First, I’ll look through my grocery stores weekly add (mine is Kroger) and look to see what’s on sale. Then I’ll write each day, usually Sunday-Friday, and flip through my saved recipes. I’ll compare what recipes I have to what’s on sale and also look for new ideas to have for dinner. After I complete the weekly menu, I’ll go back onto the Kroger app and look at their available coupons and they usually have a lot! Then I log into one of my favorite apps called Ibotta! Ibotta is an app where you get cash back on things at stores like Walmart, Kroger, Target, Food Lion, etc. They have cash back offers like .50 cents cash back on a single Kind Bar or $1.50 back on a Chobani Yogurt. I clip all the offers I want which saves them to my Ibotta account. Luckily, Kroger has their rewards card set up virtually on Ibotta so I don’t have to scan anything on the Ibotta app after I shop. For other stores, you normally have to scan your receipt and it will find the offers you had saved. Once you reach $20 on your Ibotta account, you can redeem it. It gives you a little bit back each purchase but it will add up soon!

Join Ibotta here and start saving!

Clothing/Accessories

I have learned the hard way that I need to shop around when I see something I like. Too many times I’ve bought something I loved and found it somewhere else at least $10 cheaper. Whether I am shopping online or in store, I always google the item I am looking to buy. It’ll come up under the shopping tab on Google with all of the prices and where it’s available. It’ll even show you listings on Ebay and Poshmark if it’s available. If I recognize some popular stores like Kohl’s for example, I check my Ebates account! On Ebates you get a certain percentage cash back on your purchase from a store they have listed on their app/website. It’s a super helpful tool that can save you some extra cash. Then of course, always search for a coupon, in store or online! You would be surprised how many unused coupons there are out there!

You can join ebates here and get a free $10 just for joining through my link!

Read my post about Poshmark here and get a free $5 credit to use online!

I am originally from New Hampshire. I grew up in southern NH, I lived there for 23 years! As I got older, I often thought about moving and what it would be like to live some where else in the country. I wanted to experience new things but I am such a home body! I am close with my family, I love the holidays and family parties. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to bring myself to move out of state. I commuted in college to save money so I was living at home with my parents for 23 years!

I knew at some point I would be moving out of my parents house, that’s just what you do and I knew that would be different. But to move out for the first time and be thousands of miles away? That seemed impossible for me! The thought of moving far away from home kind of scared me. To move away, out of my comfort zone and not have anyone I knew around was weird…but also interested me.

In April of 2018, my boyfriend Trevor and I decided we would try to move out of state. We both wanted to move south, mostly to get out of snow, but I was not moving somewhere I’ve never been! When I went to Nashville in 2017, I LOVED it! I knew Trevor would love it too so we started to look online at apartments in different areas. In July, we flew down to Nashville for 3 days to look at the few apartments we picked and we had a few job interviews.

The first apartment we went to see we loved and didn’t want to look at any others! It was out first choice anyway because of the price. We needed to be making 3x our monthly rent to apply for the apartment and we didn’t even have jobs yet. I was applying like crazy the few days we were in Nashville to try and schedule a quick interview. I ended up applying, interviewing and doing all of my paperwork in the same day for a new job! A few weeks later, Trevor ended up getting a job down in the Nashville area so we were finally able to apply for the apartment we wanted! We were planning on moving down in September and now we both had jobs starting the beginning of September. But, because we had to wait to find jobs to get the apartment, our move in date was pushed back until the end of September! We had no other choice but to find a hotel to live in for a few weeks.

Over the next few months, we started packing up all of our stuff. We didn’t have much since we both commuted to school and lived at home and that was kind of nice. We didn’t have the old hand-me-down college furniture to bring with us. It was just our clothes, personal items and a few kitchen items that we bought together. Those couple of months were a mix of exhausting, exciting and nerve racking. I was nervous. I didn’t know what life would be like or what I was getting myself into but I was excited and knew if I didn’t take this jump I would regret not taking that chance!

We started packing up my small Rav4 and Trevor’s car. They were both stuffed to the top. My parents were driving my car down and Trevor and I were in his. We left early in the morning on a Thursday and started out 1,200 mile journey from New Hampshire to Nashville, Tennessee! It was a super bittersweet feeling driving away from my childhood home with everything I had in the car but the nerves finally settled down, it was time to take a chance!

We got to Nashville on Friday and were able to explore the city and show my parents around for the weekend! It was hard to say goodbye when the weekend was over but we were ready for this new journey! The couple of weeks in the hotel was rough but when we finally moved into our apartment, it felt so right! We’ve been living in the Nashville area for almost 8 months now and we cannot believe it! We definitely miss our family and friends and sometimes feel like we’re missing out, mostly around the holidays, but we are so happy where we are at and I do not regret the decision to move at all!

If you’re thinking about a big move soon here is some advice for you!

• Make sure the people you are close with support you. It could be difficult to make this move when you feel guilty about it! That’s not how you want to start off a new part of your life.
• Look around in different areas of where you want to be. You may be able to find a nice and less expensive place to live a little further out. We are about 25 minutes outside of Nashville and pay about $500 less a month for rent. Make sure you see the unit you are getting before you sign your lease!
• Apply for jobs and let them know you are moving to the area. Some companies may not contact you if your location says a different state and they don’t know you are serious about moving. Schedule a time to meet them when you go to find a place to live. That way you feel more secure when you get to your new destination.
• Pack, Pack, Pack! Go through everything you own! It’ll be nice once you go through everything and have things you like instead of packing all of your junk. Don’t forget you can list clothing & accessories on Poshmark! You can use my invite code jshangers when you sign up!
• Know that almost everyone who is doing the same thing as you feels the same way! We are nervous, excited, worried, etc! But you will be able to experience a whole new world and learn how to do so much when you are by yourself! And it’ll make your visits back home so much better!!