Coupons

Definitions to understand this blog:

Extreme couponing- Extreme couponing is a show focused on shoppers who make extensive and focused use of coupons to save money while accumulating large quantities of goods.
Double coupon- If a coupon is for 99 cents off of an item or less, the grocery store will double this automatically once it is scanned. ie. a coupon for 75c off of a bag of chips can be double for $1.50 off of the bag of chips.

If you haven't been watching the channel TLC, then you may not have heard of the new craze "extreme couponing". Some of the couponers will gather a cart or 2 or 3 FULL of groceries. Each item is usually purchased in larger quantities because the couponer has pre-cut 10x each coupon and waited until the store has the items on sale as well as when they offer "double-couponing" and have extra savings with the store's shopper's card. This takes a lot of planning, organizing, collecting coupons in bulk and math.... lots of math. The contents of their card can be up to $3000 but once the savings are added up their bill comes very close to $0 or spot on OR sometimes they even get paid by the store for their purchases. The items purchased go towards "stock piles" with shelves full of soap, toothpaste, toiletpaper, vitamins etc.

I am not at the point of extreme couponing because it seems a little too complicated for me. Growing up, my mom would usually find some coupons and savings that made it so she would get the $8 razors for -10cents.... the store would pay her 10 cents for each razor she got and each of her daughters got sweet razors. Still, this is a bit complicated for me but I do know how to cut and save coupons. Each Sunday there are coupon fliers in the Sunday paper as well as weekly circulars for local grocery stores. I flip through the coupons and cut out ones that are for items I want, even if I don't need them at the exact moment (cereal, crackers, Perdue chicken, shampoo...). Each week I look at the different grocery store circulars and see if anything I have a coupon for is also on sale. Coupons usually don't expire for 1month-1year so I can wait until things are on sale AND I have a coupon for them. Certain stores have double-coupons every week while others offer double coupons once in a while and will advertise so on their circular.



Steps to save:
1) have a mini file folder ($1 at Target or Dollar Store) so you can separate frozen food, snacks, cleaning products, bath & body products
2) each Sunday, clip coupons for products you like or would like to try. If you do no subscribe to the paper, drop into a coffee shop. People purchase the paper to read with their coffee then often leave it in the magazine basket when they are finished and it may be a free paper for you :) (Or even ask the coffee shop if Monday morning you can have any Sunday papers that are going to be discarded/recycled.)
3) sort coupons in file folder
4) research grocery circulars (Most have them online if a paper is not accessible) and circle anything that is on sale and has a coupon.
5) make a grocery list with items you need to purchase, which store it is on sale and paperclip coupons you will use to save money.


P.S. If you learn how to extreme coupon, let me in on how so I can start a stock pile of my own. Thank you and ENJOY SAVING!