I’m so excited to welcome Jennifer from ThriftyNWMom.com to the ShopAtHome.com Thrifty Chatter Series! Her blog is super inspirational to so many, and I think you guys are really going to love what she has to say. Let’s get started:

How did you start ThriftyNWMom?

I have always loved finding amazing deals – it’s exciting to me and part of that excitement is being able to share my great finds with others so they can take advantage of the sales, too! In the past, I’d always call or email friends or family about many of the deals I’d find but then I realized it made more sense to put it all in one place. So, I started this blog a year ago in January just as a way for friends & family to keep up with all the great deals I’d find and for me to be able to share about my newfound love of couponing – how to spend less & get more for your money.

What has been the most rewarding part of writing on ThriftyNWMom?

Definitely hearing the stories from my readers about how my blog has impacted their lives and helped them out during these tough economic times. I receive emails on a regular basis from readers, sharing how they have been inspired to start couponing and finding ways to cut their budgets. However, due to the bargains I’ve found, they’ve still been able to enjoy some of the ‘finer’ things in life (going out to eat, buying Christmas gifts, buying brand-name products) that may not have been possible due to financial difficulties.

Do you have a funny or interesting story about something that has happened because of your site?

It always surprises me when I’m out shopping and end up running into someone who is a reader of my blog! We’ll get talking about couponing and finding deals in the Northwest and then I find out that they’re a reader! This just happened to me last week at Target – I found several readers while shopping the toy clearance – so we were sharing stories of which Target’s we needed to check out next & strategies for finding those deals we really wanted!

How have you used ShopAtHome.com to save money, and what is your favorite store to shop from when you use ShopAtHome.com?

I just recently found out about Shop At Home during the Christmas shopping season & I’m so glad I’ve discovered it. Shop At Home is a great resource to help you save money by earning that cash back on your purchases. It also has helped me find some great coupons & additional discounts to use at my favorite stores! Although I have many favorite online stores, I’d say the one I use the most is Target.com – love that Shop At Home offers 5% cash back for shopping at Target! They have some great online deals that you often can’t find in their stores!

What do you think is the best deal you’ve ever found?

A Britax Marathon car seat for around $70 on Amazon. It was a pricing error on Amazon back in the fall of 2008 (before I started blogging) and unfortunately Amazon canceled many of the orders. But, I was one of the fortunate ones who actually received my car seat! Considering these car seats are typically priced at $250 and higher-this was an *amazing* deal!

If you could only give one piece of advice to someone who is just starting to coupon and save their money, what would it be?

Start small so you don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of couponing and saving money! You don’t have to go out there and try to do every deal that’s listed and try to shop at all the stores. Just pick one store to start focusing on – start looking at the sales, gathering your printable coupons or coupon inserts each week and then focus on going in to just get a few good deals at a time. Once you get the hang of it, then you can start adding more and more deals at that store and eventually spread out to include additional stores.

Thanks so much to Jennifer for taking time out of her hectic schedule to share a little bit with all of us! To learn more about Jennifer and how she helps her readers save, head to ThriftyNWMom.com!

Tags: blogger, interview, shopathome, shopping, thrifty chatter, thriftynwmom

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