Every day is a busy day for Amy. She's a one-woman army taking care of her three children, 2 boys and a daughter. But, she keeps it "under control - I think I've mastered it a little bit - you know."

One of the things Amy is always trying to do - is save money. She has a budget and she needs to keep her family within that budget - so she can stay at home with her kids. She says, "one of the biggest areas of concern was, where can I save money on our ordinary daily expenses so I can stay at home and we can be a one-income family. My biggest concern has always been that we keep up with our monthly expenses."

In addition, Amy thinks about her and her husband’s retirement years. As Amy explains, "seems like after we paid our normal monthly expenses as well as those unplanned expenses which seem to happen every month, there just isn’t enough for savings." Also, there will be college expenses in the very near future for their children, and, if truth be known, Amy would love to be able to move into a home with a little more square footage.

One income family, or two, we all would like to be able to save money.

Of course Amy tries to save by always being on the lookout for coupons. But we all know that coupon clipping can be very time consuming, and requires continuous management skills and planning. And, clipping coupons alone, is not a very good plan for retirement, college expenses, a larger home, etc. And as Amy explains, "a lot of our frequent purchases like toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry detergents and things like that we generally just purchase and seldom do we have the correct coupon when we need it." And, let’s not forget, there are seldom "real savings" coupons available for larger purchased items.

Now, Amy was quoted earlier as saying she had "mastered [saving money] a bit." In addition to clipping coupons, Amy’s family takes advantage of a money savings program where she gets paid a commission for just about every product she purchases from the same retailers she has always purchased from. Amy explains, "I have always been a Walmart girl. I shop at Walmart for all our cleaning products, our bathroom products, you know just about all our frequently used household products. But now when I buy these products from Walmart, Walmart sends me a commission check. If I go to Walmart 5 times during the month, I will get paid 5 commissions. And it’s not just Walmart, when I shop at Kmart, Sears, Target, or Home Depot for example, I get a commission check. I even get paid when I shop at Dollar General Store. In fact there are over 300 participating retailers that will send me a commission just for buying their products." And, as Amy explains, "I still get my commission even when I use one of my clipped coupons."

So in addition to Amy saving money with coupons, she is now getting paid just for purchasing the same products she always purchased from the same retailers she has always purchased from.

But what about larger item purchases like furniture or automobiles. Well says Amy, "we just had to replace our old living room set. We went to our local furniture store and found the exact set we wanted. We then used our money savings program to buy that exact living room set at factory direct prices. We saved over 60% off retail. And we can now do the same for automobiles, jewelry, and other larger item purchases. We still apply discipline in our purchases, we have to, but it’s nice knowing that when we do have to make a purchase, whether it’s big or small, we’re not paying retail anymore."