Extreme Couponing

[SVT]

One of the women from the show goes dumpster diving and the other walks around the city asking for coupons from neighbors lol

[NastyWoman]

O, looks like I missed a cool zoo -uhm show. Can't wait for the rerun

[dancinmama]

Dec 30, 2010 18:19:16 GMT -5 quotequeen said:

Dec 30, 2010 18:11:31 GMT -5 dancinmama said:

He purchased many of the coupons from a clipping site. The average price probably would be about $.10/coupon.

They really should count that when saying how much the person spent for the carts of groceries.

Ya, but if they did that it wouldn't seem so EXTREME!!

In addition, I heard an interview that explained how the second gal got her total so low. She used some CATs to pay down her total. CATs are promotional coupons received for buying certain products which give you dollars off your next grocery purchase.

And remember, when they say the RETAIL VALUE of the shop was $638, that total is BEFORE the store savings card is entered which can reduce your total substantially.

[thyme4change]

I'll take $638 of groceries for fifty bucks. Still a pretty good deal.

But!!! The lady I watched didn't look like she should be giving out health tips. When I go to the store, 35% of my cart is fresh vegetables and fruit. I get staples like rice and pasta (boy did she buy pasta!) but I don't buy a hundred packages of ramen-like products. They have a lot of sodium, etc. I'm guessing a lot of what these people get are proccessed food that aren't the best for you.

I've never seen a coupon for a carrot, or a head of lettuce, or a pound of brussel sprouts.

[Deleted]

I've never seen a coupon for a carrot, or a head of lettuce, or a pound of brussel sprouts.

I have, but it is in conjunction with buying something else. For example, a salad dressing coupon might give you a $1 off produce when you buy their product. Similarly, there is something called a wine tag that typically gives you $ off unrelated products like meat or produce without requiring you to buy their products.

As you can imagine, wine tags are highly coveted and difficult to find. But they are out there, and couponers trade for them quite regularly.

[dancinmama]

Dec 31, 2010 8:33:06 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I'll take $638 of groceries for fifty bucks. Still a pretty good deal.

But!!! The lady I watched didn't look like she should be giving out health tips. When I go to the store, 35% of my cart is fresh vegetables and fruit. I get staples like rice and pasta (boy did she buy pasta!) but I don't buy a hundred packages of ramen-like products. They have a lot of sodium, etc. I'm guessing a lot of what these people get are proccessed food that aren't the best for you.

I've never seen a coupon for a carrot, or a head of lettuce, or a pound of brussel sprouts.

There are coupons for fresh produce and organic foods. They are not as common as those for processed foods, but they ARE out there. Joanie donates a lot of products to her local food pantry and encourages others who read her blog to do the same. Pasta and pasta sauce are just the thing that they are always looking for.

You can save a boatload of money using coupons to buy many of the non-perishable items that you use every day - think of everything from tin foil to toothbrushes. Many of these items are free after sale and coupon and/or store promotion.

[8 Bit WWBG]

The author of the Tightwad Gazette says she shops once per month, and she and her husband spend about 6 hours in the stores. They even have walkie-talkies to communicate with one another. Its a pain in the tail to do, but overall it saves time and money.

[ummboutthat]

I guess if I had a family large enough to benefit from 'coupon hording' I would have the space for all the items? but as two single people living together, coupons are not much help and we don't have the space to store their offers.

[emptypockets]

We are a couple of etirees and we coupon, but we use coupons for what we will actually use in our daily living. The extra coupons for vitamins, soap, tissue, beans, whatever are great; always a need for them. Ramen is cheap, but don't use the soup packet as it has something like 1100 mgs of sodium. I boil down our chicken bones after cooking to make soup broth, and cook the ramen noodles in it, throw in some scrambled eggs, chopped green onion, abit of chopped greens, some chicken/pork/beef/shrimp, and if we don't it it as soup, I scoop it out with a holey spatula and throw it into a skillet to stir fry with abit of soy sauce and garlic powder. absolutely delicious and cheap.

[dividend]

You know that ramen isn't healthy even when you don't use the packet, right? The noodles themselves are deep fried and full of trans fat and msg. (The deep frying step is why they cook so quickly.) I know they're super cheap, but if you can afford to mix them with eggs, fresh greens, or other meat, you can afford to use something less terrible. Like rice, or a small amount of real pasta.

[8 Bit WWBG]

OK dividend, this rant is for you

dancinmama and all the "grocery challenge" folks are extremely talented at finding and using coupons. New people coming in though need to understand the magnitude of "extreme couponing" and what it will and won't do, and why some of the totals are what they are.

As was said, coupons for "healthy" food are MUCH harder to come by. Every Sunday, DF and I clip the few coupons we can use from the paper and recycle the remaining ones (probably about 90%). Every week there are loads of coupons for pillsbury triple bleached goo, gortons frozen fish sticks, wanchai ferry MSG chunks, and hormel processed "meat".

Coupons.com is an excellent resource for "good" coupons. Muir Glen canned tomatoes, ghiradelli chocolate, and once I found 75c off a pineapple.

Remember also that many of the "I feed my family of 12 including 6 teenage boys for $20/week" do one or more of the following:

- They have a FULLY stocked pantry. This can take 3 or 4 months to achieve, and hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. Think of it as your "startup" cost. The money they spend on groceries is often just replenishing perishables like eggs and milk.

- They are VERY flexible in terms of what they eat. They shop based on price, not wants. This mindset takes time to adopt because most people buy asparagus if they want asparagus. Instead, you have to scour the ads and buy only what is on sale.

- They meal plan very meticulously. They shop based on their plan, and they buy things that can be used different ways (ex. fresh turkey tonight can become turkey quesadillas tomorrow, turkey chili the next day, and turkey sandwiches the next)

Also, one or more of these:

- They live in a LCOL area.
- They have a SAH parent who has time to cherry pick deals from 5 stores, and get those exclusive online limited coupons before they disappear.
- They have a garden from which they can grow enough veggies to consume and can.
- They have a huge chest freezer, which is packed full of meat that was bought at its best sale point.

I said all that to pretty much say that if you put a lot of time and effort into learning the tricks, you can do very well for yourself. But if you think that you are going to buy a newspaper, clip a few coupons, and suddenly cut your grocery bill by 50% while still eating the same way you were before, you will be disappointed.

Did I cover all of it div?

[ummboutthat]

yea I use coupon.com as well
but I need to learn how to navigate around there better.
cause I get frustrated searching, can't find anything useful and then go away

[dancinmama]

WeWillBackGowron: I couldn't have said it better myself. The Grocery Challenge started as a networking tool to save money on groceries (anything that you could buy at a grocery store including non-food items) and morphed into a thread about saving money on almost EVERYTHING!!

In the last couple of months I have been able to get my favorite perfume (Jessica McClintock) for "free" (okay, I did have to pay some sales tax) with Register Rewards at Walgreens. I was also able to get really nice, good quality dish towels at Kohl's (normally priced at $6.99) for $.17 ea. (that included the sales tax!!). I also was able to get a CASE of copy paper (for all those coupons that I need to print) for free. I might have missed it if it weren't for the Grocery Challenge thread.

There used to be several gals on the MSN Grocery Challenge thread who were primarily organic shoppers. They liked the Grocery Challenge for the occasional organic deal, but mostly for all the deals on beauty, health, hygiene, and household products. If you can get most of those for free or for pennies on the dollar, it frees up a TON of cash for buying fresh, healthy, and/or organic foods.

[Deleted]

I had my first real couponing trip today using the Grocery Challenge Handbook. I stuck to household staples I needed immediately and coupons I received this weekend and saved around 60% off the cost.

[Deleted]

Heads up to all you coupon doubters:

Just in today's paper, there were several coupons for products I always use.

Flame me, but I buy the small microwave Chef Boyardee ravioli for lunch. 35/3
I also use Electrosol dishwashing detergent because I can usually get it free. Today that was at Walgreen's thanks to a $2.25 coupon and a $1.50 RR.
My husband eats a lot of Instant Breakfast because he is older and doesn't have much of an appetite. $1/1.
You guys have already heard I buy a lot of Kleenexes for my students . . . 50/3.

I just mentioned the ones I used today. Honestly, it all adds up. I bought two papers because of the Instant Breakfast/Electrosol coupons. I will trade coupons from that with friends at Hot Coupon World. Their hubbies won't use the Instant Breakfast ones but will want the $2/Wisk that is part of a $10/$25 deal at CVS.

On the other hand, when I checked the website, people wanted 20 or 30 Electrosol coupons. Those are the EXTREME couponers.

[emptypockets]

Dividend, the msg is in the soup packet. Yes, I know ramen noodles are prefried; however, we eat very little to no chips, so ramen is not a bad thing if not used as a regular food item. Also, you can boil the grease out of the ramen first before putting it in the home made soup stock. I normally buy fresh noodles; ramen is my fall back on busy days. Now that I am retired, am trying to get house straightened out so I can resume making my own fresh noodles like we did about 15 years ago.

[dividend]

Jan 2, 2011 12:14:31 GMT -5 8 Bit WWBG said:

Every week there are loads of coupons for pillsbury triple bleached goo, gortons frozen fish sticks, wanchai ferry MSG chunks, and hormel processed "meat".

Yeah, that about covers it.

I was thinking about this today as I did my grocery shopping. I was at Costco, buying things like 20 lbs of basmati rice for $12, big containers of Kirkland brand dish soap and laundry detergent, and 7 lbs of frozen chicken boobs. Some of those things, I'm pretty sure I could get for free with enough patience and time. But I kind of like taking 1.5 hours every 3 months and buying enough staples that I never run out, at a good enough price. Then I was at Whole Food buying produce (which, in the summer, I get from my farmshare). Like WWBG said, not a lot of coupons for bok choi or garlic.

I think I might have to make the time to learn couponing for drug store items though. DBF came back from Target a few days ago with $35 worth of Woolite, razor blades, and laundry starch. Ouch.

[dancinmama]

Jan 2, 2011 20:22:19 GMT -5 dividend said:

Jan 2, 2011 12:14:31 GMT -5 8 Bit WWBG said:

Every week there are loads of coupons for pillsbury triple bleached goo, gortons frozen fish sticks, wanchai ferry MSG chunks, and hormel processed "meat".

Yeah, that about covers it.

I was thinking about this today as I did my grocery shopping. I was at Costco, buying things like 20 lbs of basmati rice for $12, big containers of Kirkland brand dish soap and laundry detergent, and 7 lbs of frozen chicken boobs. Some of those things, I'm pretty sure I could get for free with enough patience and time. But I kind of like taking 1.5 hours every 3 months and buying enough staples that I never run out, at a good enough price. Then I was at Whole Food buying produce (which, in the summer, I get from my farmshare). Like WWBG said, not a lot of coupons for bok choi or garlic.

I think I might have to make the time to learn couponing for drug store items though. DBF came back from Target a few days ago with $35 worth of Woolite, razor blades, and laundry starch. Ouch.

dividend: I can tell you that we on the GC talk about the drug chain deals more than anything else. I think it is because that is where you can get the majority of free items by combining sales, coupons, and store promotions. There are often ways to turn a $4 drug chain reward into a $10 drug chain reward and then you can take those rewards and use them to buy your dish soap and laundry detergent that you picked up at Costco.

This week CVS has Wisk laundry detergent on sale for $5 and is offering a "reward" when you spend $25. Your transaction would look like this:

$25.00 (5) Wisk Detergent
- 10.00 (5) $2/1 Wisk coupons
15.00 OOP What you pay "Out Of Pocket"

When they give you your receipt there will be a $10 Extra Bucks coupon at the bottom. That $10 can be applied to the purchase of almost anything in the store (with some exclusions). So the total cost to you would be $1/bottle.

In the last couple of months there has been a $1/1 coupon for Gain dishwashing liquid. It is a new product from Proctor & Gamble so they have offered this high value coupons to entice people to try it. Most of the drug chains have had it on sale for $.89/bottle making it absolutely free. I must admit thought that walking into Costco takes a lot less time and effort than what we do.

I have seen $2/1 coupons for Woolite; can't speak much about starch. Razors - OMG. I NEVER pay for razors and we're talking the good ones like Gillette Proglide and Schick Hydro.

Anyway, if you feel so inclined to give the drug store game a try, come on over and give the GC a look-see.

[stantonjane]

We have been couponing for many years, my hubby is a stay at home dad and he is the one going thru the ads and clipping, then if he has a bundle it is 3 hours at the store pulling out coupons and comparing prices of groceries with coupon, versus house brand or another brand. Sometimes it's cheaper to not use coupons. We have wanted and tried to be extreme couponers, and used to save at least 10-20% off our grocery bill with them. It's harder to do even 20% anymore, and we find couponing to be less practical all the time for a few reasons, including:

a. Our favorite store which used to double coupons up to a dollars worth, so you could potentially get $2-$5 off shampoo, razors, etc, now will only double a coupon up to a dollar. That makes a huge difference. It was the last store allowing the full double amount.

b. Agree with the posters that many items are junk food. Fish sticks used to be good when the kids were smaller, now we try to keep the fare healthier.

c. Again, coupons being a form of promotion/advertising of higher priced items, we do find that many of these items are cheaper in another brand or store brand.

d. Most stores in my area have put a limit on how many of a certain coupon you can use, usually 3, so even if I were to dumpster dive, etc, I'd have to make several trips to the store to use them.

e. Again, another poster pointed out that there are not many healthier foods using coupons. Fruits and fresh produce can really make the grocery bill come up. We can stockpile toothpaste and shampoo, but frankly, we don't want to spend the bulk of our weekly grocery budget on more shampoo when we have several bottles in the closet already, and need staples.

Obviously, people can be very good about using coupons to their max value, but considering the time and effort it takes to accomplish this, you need to weigh out what it's actually worth. We use the coupons we know are on groceries we use, hunt for sales, as always, and shop different markets. That's enough time and effort there, and it's what we can do.

[Deleted]

But i don't use Wisk ...

I think a big part of this is not being loyal to any brand...

[dancinmama]

Jan 2, 2011 22:04:11 GMT -5 oped said:

But i don't use Wisk ...

I think a big part of this is not being loyal to any brand...

oped: I think that many of the gals on the GC start out with brand "preferences", but then see an opportunity to get a different brand for free or close to it and decide to try it because saving money is more important to them. Some even end up liking the "new" brand better than what they were using. Besides, if the "new" brand is free and they hate it, they haven't really lost anything.

We all have our favorite brands and stockpile them when we can (AND help each other do so), but for the most part you get over it pretty quickly.

[8 Bit WWBG]

...:::"but mostly for all the deals on beauty, health, hygiene, and household products. If you can get most of those for free or for pennies on the dollar, it frees up a TON of cash for buying fresh, healthy, and/or organic foods.":::...

Well said. Newcomers don't always understand the difference. Yes there are items that will hardly or never have coupons. The goal is to save money on the items that DO have coupons, so it is easier to buy the items that don't.

...:::"with $35 worth of Woolite, razor blades, and laundry starch. Ouch. ":::...

Razor blades are one that are harder to get coupons or sales for, bc they are such high profit items. I'd imagine with items like that, you can get deals by amassing register rewards or extra care bucks. They know that everyone needs the blades, just like how everyone needs ink after buying a printer.

...:::"Some of those things, I'm pretty sure I could get for free with enough patience and time.":::...

One thing that used to frustrate me was following blogs where they explained exactly which coupons you needed to get these deals. One of them would ALWAYS be some online coupon, and by the time I clicked the link, it said "all discounts claimed". I don't expect to get a hot deal 2 days after the fact, but sometimes an hour or two after the post had hit, the deal was gone.

Then, there is learning how to "roll" things into other things. At target, DF and I figured out the granola bars we liked were on sale, and if you spent $15, you got a $5 gift card, AND we had a coupon. So by combining the coupons with the sales, and then splitting the purchase so we could use that $5 gift card, we were able to get the bars very cheap.

[Nazgul Girl]

I guess I would be classified as a hoarder by some standards, too. However, we keep in in a cupboard in the basement, plus one (little) corner of the "large items" storage corner. Our state can have severe weather, extreme changes in temperature, occasional flooding, and long power outages of up to a week or more. We keep some cash hidden in the house, have 30 gallons of water stored in gallon jugs, plus littler bottles of water, have a 4 shelf cupboard filled with staples which can be eaten without needing any cooking ( they might be cold, but they're edible ), and a freezer full of meat/vegetables. We just went to the store with 4 coupons and bought enough toilet paper, paper towels, lightbulbs, and kleenex to last us for 6-8 months. However, we got it all at 25% to 40% off, and it's not going to hurt us to have it sit downstairs for awhile. When the price of laundry detergent went up so sharply a few years ago, I started buying it on sale. I do have to admit we have too much of that. We havent' had to buy any for 18 months....I'd rather not pay top dollar for the same things later, though. That being said, we don't have a lot of junk we don't use.