I realize that with the challenge you are suppose to have a $20 start of fund, kind of like a grant to start up a business, and you are suppose to use this $20 to create money. I need to do things a little different.

1st My startup $20 in not going to be a free-be, I feel I have to have earned it or at least be entitled to it. Thus my reason for taking ¼ of what I would have gotten as MAD MONEY had I not just left the money in savings to be used for whatever. I feel ¼ of what my DH has gotten so far this year is fair because I am a saver not a spender so this money is going to get very large very quickly. Also about 3 days after my DH gets his money it is spent because he has to buy the latest and greatest. So I feel guilty having money unless I can show it was mine far and square, thus the ¼ MAD MONEY start up.

2nd I use coupons regularly, but like others this is often to allow me to buy a better product. Example store brand Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper is $.99 a box but very limited in flavors. The name brand is $1.25-$1.50 with my coupon I can get it for store brand price but get a bigger variety of flavors. So that is not a savings in my mind that is an improvement. That coupon amount would not go to the challenge.

Mostly free coupons will be used to increase my challenge account. I say most because not all free are going in. Example I buy a lot of Johnsons Buddy’s soaps when I have a $1 off coupon because it makes it free. If I did not have the coupon I would not buy them, I would buy the 3pack of Johnson’s KIDS soaps for $1.50, so if I bought 3 Johnson’s Buddies for FREE technically I could only take $1.50 to put toward my challenge, because of complicated math I probably will not do that.

CVS FREE & Overage:
CVS tends to overprice their items then put it on sell to prices comparable to Wal-Mart’s regular prices, so whenever I get a free item at CVS I will be calculating a VALUE based on what I would have spent at Wal-Mart. Then placing that calculated amount into my Challenge. Overage at CVS is when you use a coupon on an item that is free after they give you the store credit (Extra Care Bucks) to use on your next trip. You have reduced you original out of pocket amount because you have to pay for these free items then use the store credit to buy something else, but when all is done and you used the ECB’s you have made a store credit by the amount of the coupon. I plan on applying all my overage to the $20 challenge because I use overage to buy items that are really on sale. Such as the dawn soap that CVS puts on sale every 3 months or so at $.88. It is regularly $.99 at Wal-Mart, but I hardly ever see it on sale at Wal-Mart. My DH is Brand loyal when it comes to dish soap so it is a waste to buy anything else.

Key points:
• My $20 startup needs to be earned not a freebee
• My savings will be calculated for FREE items for products I would normally have purchased
• I will calculate savings on free CVS products based on product value at Wal-Mart
• I will place Overage (store credit) amounts in my challenge