Meet J’aime from ‘JaimeKirlewCouponing.com’ as featured on TLC’s hit show EXTREME COUPONING.
“I am a stiletto wearing, money-saving, extreme couponer!”
Her husband was forced to take a substantial pay cut from his prestigious position as the Vice President of a local company in the D.C. Metropolitan area in 2009. This pay cut impacted the way she spent money as the wife and mother who shopped without any censorship from her husband. Would the pay cut mean that white bread and peanut butter was going to have to be served for every meal? She pictured the worst scenarios and cried for days.
A friend alerted her to the concept of using coupons. She laid out a sales flyer for Safeway on J’aime’s coffee table and displayed her accompanying coupons that she was intending to use on her shopping trip. She offered J’aime some of her clipped coupons and off to the store they went on J’aime’s very first couponing shopping trip. The experience with couponing and the savings impressed her so much that she purchased ten newspapers at the store!
J’aime did not grow up in a home where coupons were used. She was not interested in clipping coupons nor did she feel the need or desire to save money. She came from a financially stable home until the shock of the pay cut hit when saving money became essential.
J’aime noticed that morning television programs began featuring individuals who had saved hundreds at the stores. She watched with intent and took lots of mental notes. She began researching the internet for the various blogs to follow on couponing and read them from top to bottom. She invited friends over in the summer of 2009 and shared her receipts of savings with them. To accompany those receipts she shared her strategies with them. Eventually, this led to J’aime’s creation of an instructional PowerPoint presentation put to DVD to aid the presentation in her home. After just a few other friends heard from mutual friends about J’aime’s savings she began booking workshops in friend’s homes where she would present her couponing ways. The two-hour presentation jam-packed full of couponing strategies at local stores was a tremendous hit.
Ultimately, her husband’s position at the company was terminated. Although this sunk her family even deeper in the financial turmoil abyss–her savings had begun, her family’s stockpile was increasing and she felt prepared for anything.
J’aime says she shops with coupons, not with money. Coupons have enabled her to shop like never before. She gathers multiple coupon inserts. Neighbors give her their unused, unexpired coupons.
Prior to couponing J’aime spent over $1,000 a month on groceries and now–she is spending less than $200!
Her stockpile is organized by expiration date and packed full of everyday needs. She have donated thousands of pounds of food and I has taught hundreds of of people personally through her savings workshop.
On April 6, 2011 she was featured in the premiere episode of TLC’s Extreme Couponing. She was chosen by the production company to appear in multiple television commercials, print advertisements and other media outlets as the face for the show. Even now you can see J’aime on the home page of TLC’s Extreme Couponing.
J’aime is married with three children; works full-time outside of her home and maintains a daily deals website http://www.jaimekirlewcouponing.com on which she posts the most fabulous deals she can find to share with her fans.
When asked, “Will you ever stop couponing?” She responds, “Only when the stars stop shining.”
