Welcome to Ilana’s Dollar Oysters!

Welcome to Ilana’s Dollar Oysters. I’m Ilana, also known as “Mama Lana” to my friends (I’ll get to that later). I am so excited to be launching this blog. With my decades of experience finding the best deals and saving money, I will be sharing my best tips with you on a weekly basis so you can get in on the fun! I can’t wait to share with you what I have learned over the years, and learn more about you along the way.

So, how did this all start? At the grocery store! When I was little, I would tag along with my mom on her weekly grocery store trips, armed with a stack of coupons that I clipped from the Sunday paper, organized meticulously by category. It was like an episode of Supermarket Sweep (the original version) – trying to find the right aisle that corresponded to my coupons and feeling the excitement whenever I found a match. At the end of my trip, I would present my mom with the coupons, and watched excitedly as the cashier rang up all the items, and then the coupons. It was here that I saw my hard work come to fruition… how much did we save? Some weeks it was $1 and others it was as much as $15! At the end of the trip, she would hand me the cash I saved her, so I could treat myself to something special! It was, of course, between a copy of Bop or CosmoGIRL! magazines (remind me to show you 14 year old Ilana featured in one of these magazines), usually with JTT on the cover (does anyone know what happened to him?). And pair it with a candy bar (Three Musketeers or Twix for the win!). And I was as happy as a clam. Sure, it didn’t actually save my mom any money since all the savings went to me, but it was a good first lesson in saving money, and my first in becoming financially stable.

And although my money-saving story began many years ago, it absolutely shaped how I look at my finances today, as I still love a good deal. This blog has been a long time coming, and I’m so excited to finally launch it! My goal is to help you, the savvy reader, save money with the tips, tricks, and strategies that I’ve picked up along the way.

And, I want to hear from you as well! Do you have fun tricks to save money? A favorite rewards program? Let me know!

I can’t wait to go on this journey with you! And yes, I really do love dollar oysters.

XO

Ilana