Extreme Couponing Basics For Health-Conscious Peeps Like Us

Here’s the deal. My very first whack at couponing wasn’t as extreme as what you see on TV, but I didn’t do too shabby considering I watched only one episode of Extreme Couponing and picked up enough tips to get everything in my cart pictured above for way cheaper. But please pretend you don’t see those Froot Loops in my cart.

Here’s the breakdown:

$395.19 = full cost price of groceries before savings card and coupons-$106.33  deducted for sale/coupon savingsBonus item: FREE $25 gas card with my purchase

$288.86 = final price paid for two weeks worth of groceries for my family of six, plus free gas!

My cart contained high-priced items that I got for cheap like toddler pull ups (normal price, $30), paper towels, several boxes of Keurig coffee, and EIGHT boxes of cereal that normally run no less than $3.50 per box.

How did I get all for $106.33 in savings? It took some work. I had to do the following:

I watched TLC’s extreme couponing for tips and inspiration.I Googled top couponing blogs and “printable coupon” websites for more tips and savings deals.I studied the grocery store circular meticulously to a pair my coupon stash with weekly sale items.I shopped slooowly. It took me 2.5 hours in the store to be sure I didn’t miss any deals.

So yeah, it took some work. The key is to plan ahead to combine sale items with a coupon. For instance, with most of those cereals I only paid $0.88 per box (YES!), because it was on sale AND I used a coupon on top of that. My coupon stash only represented two week’s worth of coupon-collecting from Sunday papers, so as a novice I had less to work with, but still fared well. As I build my coupon stash, my savings will grow and I’ll get better at this art form.

But there’s a few problems with Extreme Couponing.

I will never end up paying only $40 for a $500 cart load of groceries. Why? Because these professional couponers are famous for buying a bunch of crap foods that us health-conscious peeps generally don’t touch with a 10-foot wide food trap.

I don’t care if it will cost me only pennies with my coupon. I don’t care if it’s FREE. I refuse to buy that piece of crap food. Extreme couponers on the show are buying things like hot dogs, processed and packaged dinners in a box (like Hamburger Helper), soda, chips, etc. I also don’t feel like stocking up on 35 bottles of Mylanta to get a deal. No thank you. You get me?

And here’s an absurb remark from one extreme couponer:

“If we don’t have a coupon for it, we don’t buy it”.

Well, damn! That explains why I didn’t see any of these TV-extreme couponers with produce items in their carts. Fresh fruits and vegetables? Nope! You’d think these people would buy their kids an apple or some grapes, but I guess not all of them are doing that. I suppose it would have to be a coupon for canned peaches instead.

I also refuse to dumpster dive for coupons like some of the pros do. Hell no!

Besides this, there’s the issue of there being a very limited selection of sale items and coupons for the healthiest of foods anyway, so our extreme savings will be handicapped straight out the gate. However, I did find Saving Naturally, a site that focuses on coupon deals for organic and other health-minded foods. But yes, the extremists are in fact scoring bottom dollar deals on non-food times like cleaning supplies and health/beauty products, so us peeps can definitely go crazy with that part of couponing.

Refining the Craft of Extreme Couponing

The couponing blogs do let us know that it takes time and patience to refine the art of the coupon. Study these blogs! Pick up their tips! Go to sites like The Krazy Coupon Lady and Coupon Mom. And I’m sure there’s even more great sites, so as I refine my craft of couponing, I’ll be creating a quick reference resource database in the coming weeks!

The longer you faithfully coupon, the better you will get at organizing your shopping trip, studying sale times and pairing up deals. Can you believe, after I got home from my shopping trip, I ran across more printable coupons for stuff I had paid full price for at checkout? Dang it! I’m working on getting better at this. And I will.

Top couponers may laugh at my first whack at couponing as if it wasn’t good enough, but this shopping trip not only kept over $100 in my pocket, it also showed me the potential I have to keep saving while bringing home MORE groceries than I have in the past through strategic planning.

I love Extreme Couponing already, because it’s a challenge. And I feel like I’m beating the system! haha.

So tell me: Do you have any couponing tips? If not, will you at least give this couponing thing a try? You really should, especially if you have greedy people in your family.

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