Thanks Coupon Donors!

Yipee!  Thanks to all of you who brought your coupons in.  We were able to purchase $91.10 worth of free items to fill our pantry!  If you're interested in helping me shop, leave a comment.  Or if you are from out of town, you can check out my facebook page to see the awesome deals we will be able to do this next week.  You can donate your goods to your favorite local pantry.  This is a particularly BIG week.  Yay!

The Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt And My Reality Check

I've been wondering what to do with all those great Easter candy and toy deals.  Maybe I'll host an Easter egg hunt in my neighborhood!  I thought.  Visions of little girls in pastel Little House on the Prairie dresses and Easter bonnets skipping in my perfectly manicured back yard came to mind.  I smiled at my dream.  Then, reality kicked in and I realized that my backyard is far from being perfectly manicured, in fact, it's littered with doggy doo-doo and winter litter.  Being a single car family, with 2 full time jobs and loads of other commitments including several birthdays, a play and family members to move in to their new home, it was probably unrealistic to plan something of this magnitude.

Instead, I did decide to give the six small children on my block Easter baskets with all my deals and freebies.  I've been wanting to reach out to the families on my block for a long time, and here couponing gives me the opportunity to be a blessing again.  Thank God for creative ideas, and for a harvest of souls along with them!

The Church A Dazzling Beauty - A Widow's Story - Guest post by Barbara Dalberg

A few months back I was jolted with the shock of losing my precious husband and friend of forty-three years. One minute he was here and the next minute he was gone. One minute I was a wife and the next a widow. At the blink of an eye the future to be shared with him, was now to be faced alone. There are no words to describe how disorientated I was in the days that followed.

I was in a daze. I was walking and talking but was only just hoping to awaken from what must surely be a nightmare. It was just yesterday we laughed and today I was discussing with a funeral director what to do with the remains of the one who was here and now was not, my beloved.

There were decisions to be made and made quickly, one of them being that people were coming from a distance and would need to be fed. This is when Family Harvest Church, my daughter’s church, a church over one hundred miles away from my home sent a representative with an abundance of delicious food for us. They also sent beautiful plant arrangements and cards and even a pastoral representative to attend the Memorial Service itself. They were there to support our daughter at the loss of her Dad...and to be a blessing to me. The Body of Christ in action was not a cheap hag.......but a dazzling beauty to behold.

The Salvation Army, was also very supportive and provided a lovely luncheon for our entire family. They supplied practical needs to me during this time as well as their loving presence. My husband had been a member of the local board and they sent pots of ornamental grasses and potted plants to be planted in his memory. Members of Family Harvest Church actually planted these grasses for me in our home garden.

My husband left me with a new house which he had designed but it was not quite finished when he passed away. He had purchased an outdoor shed to be assembled and it was laying outside on the bare ground at the time of his death. There were holes in the kitchen ceiling that needed to be closed up and plastered. I could hardly bear to look at all the unfinished work that needed to be done without crying and feeling so alone and helpless. That is when my own church family stepped in, Fulton Church. They assembled the shed for me, plastered the holes in the kitchen, sent a plumber to repair a faucet, cut down some dead trees in the yard and did it all in an organized and timely manner and with much joy.

I want to say that I also received small amounts of cash from many who sent cards and how much that was appreciated. My heart was broken, my life changed forever, and I could not bring myself to think about finances. That extra cash helped me get through the first couple of weeks without having to balance a checkbook. God is so good.

The Lord hugged me, encouraged me, supported me, comforted me, and met my needs through His Body on earth....the Church. His faithfulness is worthy of our awe.

Weekly and Daily Deals 4/10/11

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I am going to send anyone wanting a shopping list for the widows and single moms ministry, True Religion  to my facebook page for any deals and listings each week.  This blog, The Proverbial Shopper will be used solely for articles regarding upcoming events, inspirational stories and progress on our $2500 yearly goal for our Widows and Single Moms Pantry.  You may help in two ways...1) If you are a Family Harvest Church member, you can bring your unused coupons to church with you....2) Use your coupons to purchase the deals highlighted on my facebook page to help stock our pantry!

Thanks Hip2Save for all your hard work!

God Gives Seed To The Sower

So, my church, Family Harvest Church had us read a book, 40 Days To Greater Generosity, during lent.  I really thought I'd heard everything there is to hear about giving and began out of pure obedience.  Hey, I'm just being honest here!  Boy was I wrong!  First of all, I never felt as though I was much of a giver because I am constantly looking at what don't have to give rather than what I do have.  I was delighted to find that I give much more than I thought I did, and yet made me hungry to give more.  To say the least, the book got me thinking.  In fact, God had already been dealing with me about many things in the book, because as you know I changed the focus on this blog toward finding ways to give to the widow and single mom.
Not only does the daily devotional remind the reader of scriptural principles in giving, but it combines this with practical ways to look outside the box for ways to be more generous....And not just with money.
Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that thanks to Linda Thompson and generous people at FHC giving their coupons, (and a few of you donated items as well) I was able to donate over $58.00 worth of product to the pantry this week alone!  The more coupons we bring in, the more we can do! This cost me absolutely nothing but time and effort!  At this rate, (and providing we receive more coupons, we could easily increase) together we could give over $2500 in a year!  Not bad for just bringing in the coupon section that you may already just throw away!
I said all of this to say, that I was looking for ways to be generous without having to spend a dime, because that's just where we're at financially.  But God truly does provide seed for the sower.  Ask God, He will give you creative ideas to give from what you do have.  Stop fretting over what you don't have.  God does give seed to the sower!
If you're interested in helping me, just bring your coupons or non perishable items to Family Harvest Church this Sunday.  (It's best if the coupons are still together in their jackets, it's very difficult to use loose already cut coupons because of our current filing system.)

**Plus a special shout out to Colin at Hip2Save.com for doing all the leg work with all those great deals!

Target Deals for Charity 4/6/11

Sobe 20 oz Bottles 10/$10
Use the $0.50/1 Target store coupon found here
Final cost $0.50!

M&M’s 1 oz Filled Egg $0.99
Use the $2/2 coupon found in the April issue of All You mag.
Or use the $1/2 coupon found in the 3/20 RP
Final cost as low as 2 for FREE!


Buy 2 Olay Quench Lotions $4.99 each
Total = $9.98
Use 2 $2/1 coupons found in the 4/3 PG
Pay $5.98
Get back a $5 Target gift card
Final cost ONLY $0.98 for both lotions – just $0.49 each!

Zyrtec 5 ct 24 hr Adult Allergy Relief $4.76
Use the $4/1 Target coupon found here
Plus, stack with the $2/1 coupon found here
Final cost FREE!

Visine Advanced Relief .28 oz (Travel Section) $1.99
Use the $2/1 ANY Visine Product coupon found here
Final cost FREE!

Purex Complete Crystals $2.99 (If this is marked higher at your store – do a price check)
Use the $1/1 Target store coupon found here
Plus, stack with the $2/1 coupon found in the 3/13 RP
Final cost as low as FREE!

My Life As A Single Mom

I was 29 years old when I found myself divorced and raising my then 3-year old son.  My ex-husband was not around and I was on my own for the first time in my life.  Having gone straight from my parent's home to being married, the only work experience I had was working in church offices.  Wonderful and satisfying work, but a little low on the pay scale.  In an effort to help, my church hired me, working around the hours I needed in order to take care of my son.

I tried my best not to depend on others for our daily needs.  I hated it that my parents had to help out with my rent, and even then, I still had to scrounge the car floor for change in order to buy a gallon of milk.  My basic diet was cereal and ramen noodles.  I remember once a friend felt "led" to take me grocery shopping.  She told me to fill my cart with whatever I wanted.  It was so humbling.  I didn't want to take advantage of her kindness, but I also knew that we needed meat and produce very badly. 

Another thing prominent in my memory was the time my gas had been shut off.  I lived in a little trailer at the time, and my heat, water heater and stove were all gas.  It was no problem about the heat, because it was summer.  But I still recall the days that I had to take cold showers, or warm up huge bowls of water in the microwave to add to my son's bath water.  One day, a friend came over around dinner time and saw that I was having difficulty lighting my charcoal grill.  (I didn't have any more matches.)  He said to me, "Why don't you just go inside and light something on fire at the stove?"  Well...my secret was out.  And...of course the problem was quickly and quietly solved.

My parents and my church family were wonderfully used by the Lord during that time and come to think of it any other time in my life.  I felt so ashamed.  Ashamed to be a Christian who was getting a divorce.  Ashamed to be a 29 year old woman not able to take care of herself.  Ashamed that my life seemed to be taking such an unexpected turn.  After all, where was my faith??  Little did I know that other people looking at my life admiring my faith. Maybe not the people who didn't know me well, and gossiped behind my back, but everyone whom I truly respected and loved, they were all rooting for me with words and actions.

So, if you find yourself in this difficult situation, I know how it feels.  But I also know that God is faithful.  He will take care of you in ways you never expected.

For those of you who don't find yourself abandoned by the one you loved, maybe this blog will help you to be a little more compassionate.  Single moms need all the help they can get; financially, spiritually and sometimes they just need a friend to talk to.  I challenge you to find a single mom and her children to "adopt."  Slip them a little something extra at Christmas.  Give them a gas card.  Babysit for free for them.  If you live in the Southern Chicago suburbs, consider giving to our non-perishable single mom pantry.  With finances being as difficult as they are you may want to just donate your coupons.  You have no idea how desperate and alone a single mother can feel, and you have no idea how much even the simplest of gifts can mean...