Saving for All

Don’t call her the “coupon lady.” And it’s probably best to avoid terms like “cheapster” when referring to the successful Middle Tennessee blogger who, among other things, posts the best deals in town on her site, faithfulprovisions.com. But don’t misunderstand — though 36-year-old Kelly Hancock, who also teaches workshops on various cost-cutting techniques, would prefer to escape such monikers, she’s thrilled to be helping moms like her save money. And she’s certain that in trying to learn how her family could live on less, she found her calling.

“There came a point when I realized that this is what I was meant to do,” Hancock says. “I really feel God has a purpose for everybody, and with some of the other things I was trying to do, I felt like I was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. With this, it just fit.”

As she says, it all just sort of happened. In 2005, about two months after the birth of her first child (she now has two children), Hancock resigned from her position as a medical sales rep with a Fortune 500 company to be a stay-at-home mom. While she and her husband Bradford believed that Kelly staying home full-time was the right thing to do, the couple also knew that they’d have to figure out how to live on half of their household income. So, from a friend, Hancock discovered the art of couponing, sale shopping and food stockpiling.

In about one year, through employing such practices, Hancock reduced her family food budget (eating out included!) from $1100 a month to $250 a month. Before long, she was the one doling out advice, and she began teaching a monthly class in a neighborhood friend’s home. People also started asking her to email them deals, and before long, she had a 200-person email list.

As her following continued to grow, her husband suggested that she try to make a living off of what she was doing. So, in September 2008, she launched faithfulprovisions.com. Today, the site attracts about 85,000 page views a month, and she has about 1,350 email subscribers who receive daily blog updates. She makes some money from affiliate programs that pay her to advertise on her site (she only accepts affiliate ads for things she would tell her readers about anyway), and she recently began charging about $15 per person for her classes. (she usually teaches two workshops a week on average; topics include Grocery Shopping 101 and Ultimate Couponing.)

In January, when Hancock’s husband was laid off from his pharmaceutical sales job, the Faithful Provisions website and workshops became the Hancock family’s sole source of income. And since then, he has been handling her booking and sales.

“It’s really become a home-based family business,” Hancock says. “We split up the work. He does the business end of things, and I try to stick to the blogging and the speaking.”
In fact, the family would like to expand Faithful Provisions’ reach, but just how quickly they do so will depend on whether and when Bradford gets another job. (After all, her first priority is being a stay-at-home mom, and if she’s not dividing the business responsibilities with her husband, she might find herself working full-time.) In addition to teaching more classes in other cities (she already held a workshop in Chattanooga), Hancock says they’ve discussed adding a subscription or membership component to the site. Subscribers would likely pay a small fee each year to access extra items, such as video downloads or templates for grocery lists (Hancock says she gets a lot of requests for such items).

In the meantime, though, Hancock can’t help but marvel at how far she’s already come.
“I feel so blessed because I enjoy this a hundred times more than any job I’ve ever done,” she says. “It provides me so many things. I can generate income from home, I can still be with my children, and it’s a way for me to connect with other people without having to leave the house a lot, which is hard to do when you have a couple of kids.”
At the same time, she says, it’s fulfilling to know that she’s helping others. And based on the countless testimonials she’s received, it’s clear that’s exactly what she’s doing. Take Maria from Nolensville, for example.

She writes: “I am so thankful that God put you in my path, because without the knowledge you passed on to me, there is no way I could stay home with my two kids! I’m at $75/week now — cash only! When I started, I was at more than $600/month with no kids! Be encouraged that what you do is important and so helpful.”