When I went on a “speaking tour” starting in March, I expected my appearances as a frugal living blogger would be limited to Monroe County, Mich.

Reason: even though I do have regional and national readers, Monroe on a Budget is a blog with a VERY local focus.

A few weeks ago, I got a request to speak at Rossford Public Library in Rossford, Ohio, which is a suburb of Toledo. Monroe is a half-hour away from Rossford. The economy isn’t any better in northwest Ohio than it is in southeast Michigan, so the library staff thought my tips would be just as helpful for their residents.

But since I am not familiar with the details of living in Toledo, I suggested we get a Toledo-area blogger, Candy Huner from Deal With It, Simply involved as a joint presenter. (I didn’t know yet that Marilyn from Marilyn’s Money is also blogging from another Toledo suburb. Marilyn was very gracious in offering to sponsor door prizes for our event. Here’s a photo of Candy (blue shirt) and me (black shirt) with the prize winners).

Candy and I used the “Grocery Shopping on a Budget” presentation I wrote for my local audience as a starting point, replaced the Monroe references with Toledo references, and added talking points on frugal living in general.

The library staff also pulled a collection of books on frugal living as a display and there were a variety of handouts available on frugal family fun, coupon lingo and such.

I think we had about 20 people. I forgot to do a head count.

The only glitch we had all night was that the library’s video projector wouldn’t work. So we gave our presentation without a slide show and a bit more ad lib. That worked except for the point when one of us would have said, “and here’s a picture of …” Oh, well.

The Rossford librarians had planned to post our slide show on their web site anyway, so you will find it there soon (or go to the bottom of this post for the script). The library staff has noticed a lot of questions from the public about financial issues and that’s why they’re booking speakers on that theme this spring.

Here’s Candy’s recap of the program.

Here’s the FoxToledo report. I hope my voice doesn’t sound too stratchy, I’ve been fighting allergies all week. Fox is giving a big plug for Angel Food Ministries in its report, as that was one of our suggestions and most of the people in the meeting room were not familiar with that service.

There was also a WTOL TV 11 camera at the program, picking up video for a report that’s in the works about Candy. She and her husband are part of the TV 11 / Toledo Blade “Families Coping” project that is focusing on how metro Toledo residents are getting through through this recession. (Update: here’s the WTOL report. It’s part of a series of vignettes on the Huner family, so that’s why their story focuses on Candy. If you watched the video on TV Friday evening, however, you saw my web site on the screen …)

If you’re interested, here’s the “prepared” script:

Frugal Living: How to make your money stretch.
Featuring Candy Huner and Paula Wethington

Good evening and welcome to Rossford Library! We, Candy and Paula, are two moms who have learned how to make our household money stretch. And we’re sharing our ideas with Ohio and Michigan families on the Internet and through the local media.

Paula: Monroe on a Budget started in early 2007. It is now one of the most popular web logs sponsored by The Monroe Evening News in Monroe, Mich. Although I don’t have a regular column in the newspaper, the budget blog articles that have appeared in our print publications have been well received. I write about how to save money on groceries, medical bills, holiday parties, family fun and everyday expenses.

Candy: My frugal living blog is part of my site called Deal With It, Simply. I’ve been writing about how my family is getting by. WTOL TV 11 and the Toledo Blade have been featuring my family in their “Families Coping” series.

Paula: Our grandmothers learned how to be thrifty during the Great Depression and World War II. Monroe and Toledo families need to learn those concepts to make it through today’s recession as best as possible. Monroe County’s unemployment rate was 13.9 percent in March. Lucas County’s unemployment rate in March was 11.8 percent. Wood County’s unemployment rate in March was 11 percent. You cannot expect the long-standing safety nets and the new bailout plans to keep up with this jump in demand. Whether or not you are eligible for any government and charity programs and services, you have to do what you can to make your money last as much as possible.

Candy: Both of our families had to cut back on expenses. There is no quick fix for that situation. You will be looking at every expense in your family budget. Is there a less expensive way to do something? Can you do without it? Can you get more use of something you have already bought? If you are just getting started on frugal living, your grocery bill is a great place to start. You’ll be surprised how fast you can be saving money.

Paula: The federal government does a Cost of Food study based on what Americans eat, adjusted for nutritional recommendations. The USDA’s web site has calculations for family size, age of family members and what food choices they made. The figures are updated throughout the year to reflect cost of food. Last fall, the USDA charts estimated the cost of food at $527.20 a month for a family of two adults and two young children who ate from a thrifty food plan. But there are many families whose food costs are much more expensive – more than $1,000 a month for those who ate from what is called the liberal food plan.

Candy: But you can do better than that! Both of use are using a variety of shopping tactics to get our grocery bills down. To give you a snapshot, this photo is from one of Paula’s shopping trips at Monroe’s Meijer in September when she found a lot of sales and coupon bargains. She bought $58.86 worth of groceries that day for $24.76.

Paula: You want to collect all the grocery and drugstore coupons you can for any products your family might use. Here are some of the products you can find coupons for: peanut butter, sugar substitutes, canned soup, breakfast cereal, rice, coffee, baking mixes, makeup, diapers, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, allergy medicines and food storage tubs. I keep my coupons in a box. Candy keeps hers in a binder. It doesn’t matter which system you follow, what matters is that you have the coupons ready to give the cashier.

Candy: Paula did some research and found that depending on what reports you read, anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of coupons are delivered with the Sunday newspapers. There are coupons almost every week. You will usually find two or three coupon packets a week in the area newspapers. There are usually no coupons scheduled on holiday weekends. Sometimes you find as many as five coupon packets.

Paula: Now, speaking as a newspaper employee, If you want grocery coupons, home delivery is the best way to get all the coupons and advertising inserts intended for your zip code or delivery district. The next best option is to buy a newspaper inside a store. I avoid buying newspapers at a vending machine if I am in search of coupons.

Candy: But there are other places where you can get grocery coupons. Both of us get leftover coupons from people we know. You can do that too. Many of the popular women’s and health magazines have coupon inserts. Check your grocery receipts because many stores print coupons called Catalinas at the cash register. There are web sites where you can get printable coupons, and some products have coupons you can peel right off the label. Kroger also has started participating in eCoupon services. And if you sign up for surveys or sample giveaways, those promotions also often include coupons.

Paula: One of the complaints about coupon shopping is that it takes too much time to clip and sort coupons. It does take time to do that task. But even grade school children can help cut the coupons. Then Mom or Dad can do the coupon-sorting while watching TV, waiting for the children at dance school or sports practice, or during lunch break. If you wait too long to sort through your coupons, they might expire before you can use them. Most grocery coupons today have a shelf life of only a few weeks. Besides, there may be a sale on that product during the week that the coupon is released. You don’t want to miss that opportunity.

Paula: You’ll get the most mileage out of your coupons when you can match them to sales. The Grocery Game and Coupon Mom are two popular web sites that will help you do that. However, if you live in an area where multiple newspapers are easily available, like I do, the national coupon sites aren’t all that helpful. If you save the grocery and drugstore fliers that arrive in your newspapers and in the mail, it should only take about 15 minutes or so a week to look through the fliers and match up your coupons.

Candy: I did some checking around with the local stores on their coupon policies. Some stores double coupons, some don’t. You may find that the better deal is at one store or another, depending on what the price is that week for that product.

Paula: Once you have mastered coupons, start participating in drugstore rebates. You’ll find the rebate lists at the stores’ web sites and in fliers at the front of the stores. I took on one program a month until I learned how to use them. You will find the best sales often have a short lifespan. Sometimes a rebate is good only for a day or two, or a popular product may run out. But this is a really great way to earn money toward future shopping trips.

Candy: You can save a lot of money by using coupons. Stephanie Nelson, the host of couponmom.com, says that shoppers who coupon and watch their sales can take an average 50 percent off their grocery bill a month compared to regular retail prices. I racked up more than $175 in savings during a two-week period recently. Paula added up $39.40 off her grocery bills in September with coupons and rebates, but she frequently does better.

Paula: There is another option to buy food cheap – and it works really well either with coupon shopping or in lieu of coupon shopping. Angel Food Ministries and Great Food For All are discount food purchase programs that are open to the public. There are no applications to fill out and no income requirements. The way this works is you have to order and pay for selections in advance. You also have to buy either the main selection from the grocery assortment of the month or a box of 10 frozen meals before you are allowed to purchase the optional specials. I have purchased several boxes of these groceries and it has made a big difference in what I can serve for dinner on a tight budget. I trade with a family member or donate to a food pantry box any items I don’t want, but we’ve liked almost everything. These programs are available in your communities, so look them up.

Candy: There are several other grocery-saving tricks. It really does help to plan your meals in advance and to use up the leftovers for another purpose. Talk to the store clerks who know when meat will go on sale. Learn how to make foods from scratch so you have an option to convenience foods. And you can consider using the community gardens, Meijer’s grocery by the case program, and the bakery outlet stores.

Paula: You probably have no idea how much you’re spending on cleaning supplies until you start adding it all up. I’ve been able to replace about half my chemicals and paper products by using ecofriendly or homemade products and refillable bottles. Now, we are still using paper napkins instead of cloth napkins because my husband just doesn’t want to do THAT much laundry.

Candy: You can also learn to use less dish soap, laundry soap, shampoo and toothpaste for each use. And when you do have something nice in your home, take care of it so it lasts longer.

Paula: We wanted to give a plug for one of our favorite web sites – Frugal Village. It’s hosted by Sara Noel of Saginaw. I learned about Frugal Village because my newspaper runs her column on Sunday. Both Candy and I are members of the on-line forums. There are lots of helpful people on the forums who are willing to answer your questions, give ideas, or be a shoulder to cry on.

Candy: If you want more information, both Deal with it Simply and Monroe on a Budget are full of inspiration, ideas and money-saving tips. Our hope is that financially struggling families in Ohio and Michigan can learn how to make their money last as long as possible at a time when so many other options are not available. Please bookmark our sites, and feel free to stay in contact with one or both of us!