Coupon Nonprofit Saves Community Over $1500!

  What is something that all moms (of young children) have in common? They have at least one more mouth to feed, which means more food that needs to be bought, more money to be spent and less time and effort to coupon!

    In the time before kids, if you decide you want to save money with those coupons, all you have to do is decide to sit down with them, probably during a TV show, and put a bit of effort into looking at what deals are out there. But once you have kids you suddenly realize that a couponing session means little kids taking your inserts from you, asking if they can cut too, arguing with their sibling, possibly destroying or eating the coupons that you actually need! Why don’t you just do it when they go to bed, you might ask? And take away from the precious few hours that you have to yourself as a parent? Crazy.

   And yet, with those two, or three or eight extra people in the house, for many families, it is equally crazy to try to make ends meet without saving money here and there with coupons. Enter Loudoun Coupons for Hope. In addition to teaching people how to coupon, we also do a lot of that work so local families don’t have to spend their precious time finding the deals and the coupons to match. Plus, this month, we had a special day for those moms that we have been benefitting all along.

    Our month started with a Super Doubles Coupons and Coffee morning, and with the careful couponing and deal scouting of LCFH, we were able to save a collective $1521.24 dollars for our group! That’s a lot of families saving a lot of money!

    Also early in the month we partnered with It Takes a Village Baby, and provided personal care bags to people who stopped by the booth, giving them essentials such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, and other such items.

    The biggest event of the month was our Mother’s Day pampering. The first, and possibly biggest, thing about this special pampering day is that we provided free child care. To a family with a low budget, the ability to have a few hours without kids, without having to pay for a babysitter, is a big deal by itself. Then these moms were treated to having their hair done, nails done, and were given flowers, in addition to clothing and accessories that were donated to the event. The women we blessed told us how beautiful they felt, that they felt awesome and one even said she felt “like an angel.”

     At this event, we spoke at length with one mother of eight who shared how much this organization means to her. She said that before LCFH, she was using dollar store shampoo, and that she was stretching one toothbrush to last a year, and the personal care bags are amazing for her family. She shared how great it felt to have a good quality shampoo after using the cheap brands for so long, and said, “You guys really make the difference, it’s a whole new world. The food pantry is awesome, but you guys help with the things you can’t get anywhere else.” We loved hearing that we are making a difference with the people we wanted to help the most.

    Another woman shared her passion about LCFH and how she is always talking about our organization on her Facebook page and tries to get her coworkers to come out on the couponing days because she sees what a difference the coupons make at the checkout stand.

   Also in the month of moms theme, LCFH decided to bless a first time mom with a baby shower, giving the family many of the essentials that she will need for her baby on the way. It is little things like this that we tend to forget about in communities where everyone is hurting financially- the ability to host a shower, and buy gifts for new families is significantly harder than for the middle and upper class families that take huge baby showers for granted. More than just giving the items, we wanted this mom to enjoy the moment of having people come and celebrate her and the new life coming into the world.

    LCFH took part in the nationwide Stamp out Hunger event, and donated 25 items for 25 years, and we also were honored to be covered on local news this month, spreading the word about our organization and our desire to give hope to hurting families with our coupons and small donations.

Coming Up:

June will bring another double coupon weekend, and we will be meeting up to save money yet again at Harris Teeter.

We will be blessing a local fire station with ice cream and cards from kids, to make sure our community helpers know that they are appreciated.

In honor of Father’s Day, we will be having a Father’s day personal bag pick up.

You can help this month by helping us on June 11th at St. Matthew’s as we clip coupons for ice cream and have kids make cards for the Firefighters. If you aren’t local, you can still have kids send cards or find your local firehouse and bring cards to the firefighters in your area!

We are always accepting monetary donations to put towards the items that we buy at discounted prices for our monthly events and for the personal care bags. We can’t help others without your help, and we appreciate everyone who gives!