a testament to what I have done

I find myself opening up more and more about my shopping habits. I am very careful about WHO I am open to and WHAT I open about. But lately, I find more and more people who are interested in "my way". It is a blessing that I am able to help people but also a curse because I am always asked "do you know of any deals on ......?" or "can you tell me where is the best place to buy....?". I love that I am able to help but after a while I just want to shout, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!!!!

Today at work I was taking with J, a lovely older lady who is widowed. She is old enough to be my Grandma yet sassy enough that I would love to go out for drinks with her sometime and see her in a non-professional environment. I see J all the time and talk to her in passing but I rarely get the chance to have a full on conversation with her. Today I got that opportunity. We were talking about the project at work, which BTW is going on hold again for a couple weeks, and what we were using the money for. J is starting her Christmas shopping early. I told her that I had as well. She asked what I have gotten so far and I rattled off what I could remember of the list and who it was for. She said holy smokes girl! Are you done already? I started laughing and said yeah pretty much. If I see something I know someone would love at a great price, I will pick it up but for the most part yeah I am done. I also told her it covers birthdays and stuff all year too. She was pretty amazed. She asked how much I spent and I told her and she couldn't believe it. She asked how and I told her and she said geez how do I do that. So I gave her the site I get the coupon codes from and I told her about signing up for email from the store she shops to get discount coupons and codes. I also told her that Mid-January seems to be the BEST time to get clothing discounts. I also gave her some other hints. While we were talking another lady asked some questions about how I find out about deals etc, so I shared. I talked about couponing and watching sales and stockpiling as well and I told her how far in debt we were and how much we currently owe and how we have climbed out in just 18 months. I love to talk about it when I have a receptive audience. J was telling a lady on break about my ideas and that lady asked too. J said I should teach a class. That made me laugh. I told her I don't do anything special. She asked If I would be interested in teaching others to do what I do and I said maybe, IDK, it isn't that hard. She said she wanted to talk to her Pastor and see if I could come teach a class about couponing and financial stuff at her church. WOW! Wouldn't that be something? I hear quite often that what I do is amazing or questions on how I do what I do but I never really thought about teaching others or even though my girl Tori tells me often that it is, I don't think it is amazing. So anyway...That was my day. I have an ego the size of the house right now. LOL...not really.