Ten years ago, Lydia Kedzierski was turning heads with her money-saving techniques.
“I heard her say she was feeding her family on something like $100 a month, and I said to her, ‘You have to tell me how to do that,’ and she did,” said Shellie Middleton, a friend of Mrs. Kedzierski. “And this was before, way before, all of the blogs and lists that are out now. She was serious about couponing.”
And it wasn’t just her friends who were amazed. Her husband Mark Kedzierski was at the top of the list.
“I remember she found a deal on diapers and I went and loaded the van up with something like 2,200 diapers,” he said. “Now I thought this was just too much but she printed up a chart and showed me how many diapers a child goes through in a day, and why this would be a good deal. We only had a few left over.”
He laughed and continued, “She was normally right. I never won an argument with her, I can say that with a fair amount of certainty.”
Mr. Kedzierski said his wife’s presence will be in their East Marietta home for years to come, thanks in part to a number of smart purchases she made.
“It will be a long time before I have to buy things like shampoo or soap,” he said. “She did all of that for me.”
Lydia Ruth Musterer Kedzierski, of East Marietta, died Nov. 19, two weeks after she experienced bleeding in her brain. She was 47. Her body was cremated and a funeral mass has been planned for 11 a.m. Saturday at Holy Family Catholic Church, Marietta. Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Kedzierski was born in Orange, N.J., and came to Atlanta to attend Georgia Tech. She earned a degree in management science and worked as a production engineer at Colgate Palmolive and as a route analyst for Delta Airlines. While she was working for Delta, she joined Holy Family Catholic Church and its singles group. It was there Lydia Musterer and Mark Kedzierski met.
“The rest is history,” Mr. Kedzierski said.
The couple began to raise two daughters, who are now 13- and 11-years old. Mrs. Kedzierski spent a lot of time empowering her daughters, her husband said.
“Because of my wife, my girls know they can do whatever they want to do in life,” he said. “She made sure they knew they had girl power, woman power, you know?”
But she didn’t stop with her own daughters. Mrs. Kedzierski was the co-coach of a First Lego League Robotics team named GENIUS, which stands for Girls Exploring New Ideas Using Science. In the 2011 World Festival the team won a “Make a Difference Judges Award.”
“People would always ask her what it was like to have a winning robotics team,” said Linda Pham, co-coach and friend. “And she’d say the winning didn’t matter, it was watching the girls grow that meant so much more.”
Mrs. Pham said helping girls grow into young women brought Mrs. Kedzierski a lot of joy.
“All of those girls experienced major changes in their lives, thanks to Lydia,” she said.
Mrs. Middleton said the same is true for her, as an adult.
“She changed my life and helped me look at life in a more frugal way,” Mrs. Middleton said. “She got us thinking about coupons beyond the grocery store. She made me rich in coupons and rich in friendship.”
Mrs. Kedzierski is also survived by her two daughters, Aidan Ruth Kedzierski and Hannah Jane Kedzierski both of Marietta; her mother, Lois Jane Musterer of Marietta and brothers, Richard Musterer of Marietta and John Musterer of Burlington Township, N.J.
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