Over the past few months I've had a couple people ask me if I would do a post about couponing. Now that we are back on the east coast and trying to stretch our dollars as much as possible, I thought it would be the perfect time to share.When you hear "extreme couponing" I am sure you think of the crazy TV show where people buy 500 cans of yams and a life supply of sugar packets. It seems wasteful and ridiculous. While some people create crazy stockpiles of hemorrhoid cream or hand sanitizer, you can choose to use these techniques to save yourself a ton of money.
About three years ago I decided to teach myself how to extreme coupon when I moved to Atlanta. I will tell you right now, the southeast is the best place in the country for couponing. It can be done everywhere, but the southeast just has the best coupon policies and offers the best assortment of coupons. I have lived in every region except the northwest, but was never able to coupon like I was during my time in Atlanta and Nashville.
Over the course of a year, I couponed like crazy - and am extremely proud to say that I am still living off of the shampoo, floss, deodorant and so much more that I shopped for three years ago. I chose to coupon quality stuff that I would actually use. All of my shampoo is John Freida and my toothpaste is Crest (out of preference). Couponing doesn't mean that you have to get weird brands - you can get the brands you love for FREE.
The best shopping trip I ever had was a day that I went to Publix. If you don't know what Publix is, it's a grocery store, and it was one of the best places that I couponed. Their policy is different in Florida, but outside of Florida, you can really get a ton from shopping there. I went in the store with 8 coupons for disposable Venus razors (among other things). Publix has a list of items every week that are buy one get one free. So here is what I did:
Venus Razors, Buy One Get One Free (one pack cost $4)
Had 8 coupons for $3 off a pack of Venus razors
You can use one coupon for every item in your cart (regardless if it is a free item in a BOGO)
So two packs of Razors cost $4 from the BOGO
I used two $3 off coupons
Cost: $4 minus $6 coupons = -$2
Or in other words, I made $2 on every two packs of razors I purchased
My bill that day was about $112 - Publix paid me $2 to walk out of the store. Yes, stores will pay you the balance they owe you. I made $8 alone off of the razors. When all the coupons were factored in, they completely covered all of my items and I made $2.
I know you may look at the paragraph below and think it sounds confusing or you may feel a little overwhelmed, but couponing is so easy once you get the hang of it. The first few times you may feel panicked at checkout or you may get embarrassed because you feel like you are holding up the line - but when you look down at your receipt and see your $250 bill only cost you $30, trust me, you'll be hooked. It becomes almost addicting to coupon. I love to see how much I can save and before you know it, you have a really hard time buying things that aren't on sale or that you don't have a coupon for.
The biggest thing you have to do is to find out what your local stores' coupon policies are. Once you find that out, you can start to make a plan of action.
Target is amazing with coupons, especially when you combine coupons with whatever is on sale that week in their circular. They allow you to use one Target coupon, one manufacturer's coupon and the cartwheel app for every item in your cart. If you don't know about the cartwheel app, google it immediately. What this means is:
1 box of Rice-A-Roni, $1 (on sale in the circular)
$.25 off Target coupon (printed from their website)
$.25 off manufacturer's coupon (from newspaper/online)
$.15 off from the cartwheel app
Cost: $.35
So a box of Rice-A-Roni that usually costs $1.50 when it's not on sale, can be purchased for only $.35. This is when you buy 5-10 boxes. When you can get an item that you frequently use for much cheaper than normal, you buy a bunch. These will last you until the next time they go on sale.
This may feel like an overload of information, so over the next couple of weeks I will touch on the best stores I've couponed at, learning coupon policies, what NOT to do when couponing, and things you should never pay for because you can always get them for free.
If you have any specific questions on couponing, please leave them below and I will add them to one of the posts coming up!
