Living on Less: Extreme Couponing??

Coupon Challenge

In January a new television program was introduced on the TLC channel called “Extreme Couponing.”  I made sure that I taped all of the episodes and I have watched all of them.

After watching “Extreme Couponing” I have come to the conclusion that the majority of these individuals give couponing a bad name and I am concerned that pretty soon stores will limit the amount of coupons you can use and will change their store policies.  When you watch some of those shoppers emptying the shelves of 100 bottles of hot sauce or buying 400 bottles of Gatorade it makes you start to wonder if they care enough to leave some behind for the rest of the shoppers or if they are even planning on using all of this stuff.

Or what about how they have to section off groceries into 5 or 6 transactions so that they will be able to use multiple coupons on the same item.  Sooner or later I think that the grocery stores will start to limit the number of coupons that a shopper can use in one day and it wouldn’t surprise me if stores that offer double coupons cease to do this altogether.

When you watch the episodes you can categorize the Extreme Couponers into two categories:  those that will buy anything, even things they don’t use, if they can find a coupon, get it for free and put it in their stockpile.  They are addicted to the deal.  The other category are people who are living on limited incomes, use coupons to extremely lower their food budgets and they get things that they don’t need for free and they donate those items to a food shelter.

Both categories have one thing in common, they need to get a lot of coupons and organize them in some way.  One episode showed a woman who devoted 60 hours out of the week to finding (dumpster diving) for coupons, clipping, organizing, searching the internet, researching the grocery ads and organizing the trips to the stores.  Now that is extreme.

Is it still possible to save money on groceries and personal items without double coupons and without devoting your entire time to getting coupons and sorting them?  And more important, is it possible to save money on groceries when you live in a small town such as Oskaloosa?  Absolutely.  It all comes down to having a strategy.

I use coupons every week.  In fact, one month ago I went to Wal-mart and spent $22.00 on several items after using coupons for around $69.00 worth of products.  Most of those coupons were BOGO (Buy One Get One Free).  Every week I use coupons on sale items at Hy-Vee and Fareway, combining them with in store coupons.  I save on average $20 per week.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but in a year I can easily save around $900 total by using coupons on items I would buy anyway.

Also coupons have changed over the years.  Now you can easily find coupons for dairy items, bread items, cereal, juice and even meat.  Coupons are not just for processed foods and candy anymore.

Here is how I use coupons.  We subscribe to the Sunday Des Moines Register as we love to read it before we go to church.  One of our vehicles usually needs some gas, so we fill up at a Kum n Go on Sundays in order to get a free newspaper.  Then I ask friends and family members to save me any of the coupons that they don’t use.  I also go to sites on the internet to locate and print coupons.

I clip the coupons and organize them in a notebook, filing them in the same kind of plastic pages that you would use for baseball cards.  Each week when I get the grocery ads I go through the flyers and circle any great deals, especially ones that I know I have a coupon.  That’s right. I don’t use my coupons unless they are teamed up with a store sale and better yet used along with a store coupon that I can match with a manufacturer’s coupon.  I take the notebook to the store with me in case there is an unadvertised sale that I may have a coupon for.

If a coupon for something that I would normally buy is close to expiring and there hasn’t been a sale, I can always use it prior to when it would expire.  The whole key to using coupons is to be patient for a sale.

A few weeks ago Hy-Vee had 150 oz. jugs (100 load size) of Purex laundry detergent on sale for $3.99.  I had three $3.00 coupons.  For a total of $2.97 I purchased enough laundry soap to wash over 300 loads of clothes.

I have consistently and purposely been using coupons for 2 ½ years.  In the year 2010 I saved over $850 by using coupons.  I know, that would be a drop in the bucket compared to the Extreme Couponers, but I think that is pretty good considering I did it without any store doubling one coupon.  Couponing is part of my life and a way for us to live on one income.

Food prices are going up and who knows when they will level off.  For our family saving money on food by couponing along with buying in bulk when there is a great deal and maintaining a food stockpile in my pantry helps to keep our food budget as low as possible.

I would like to challenge you to give couponing a try.  Start out small and as you get used to clipping, sorting and searching for coupons you will get better at it.   If you only use coupons on personal and laundry items, you are bound to save quite a bit of money.