Topic: No Laughing!!

[John Florida]

I happened to be up late the other night(because of daughter) and ended up watching something called extreme couponing and watched what seems to be impossible to me. Women buying 1800 bucks worth of groceries and spending under 100 bucks for it all.

  Now I know some of it had to be total bull but if it evenends up being half true I figured it would be worth a try. So today I start doing something I have never done in my life. I'm starting to clip and actively hunt down coupons and tomorrow the Sunday papers come out and getting serious abut couponing.

 I have no idea if it's worth the time but I'm giving it an honest try. Hell some of the women showed what they had in their storage areas and one had 20K worth of grocery items from shampoos to papertowels and so on. Since were all about this subject I figured I would give you all a chuckle and see what comes of it.

 I even found a couponing for beginners web site.

[charlesoakwood]

The more you spend the more you save  

Hey, that's not funny.  Yes, I do grocery coupons and use the grocery store credit card [::pandora scream::] and they track my purchases and every month the send me coupons related to my purchase and also cash credit checks and discount my fuel purchase from them and if a buy a lot more food I get a bigger fuel discount.  This is not even counting the clipped coupons.  

Speaking of TP and paper items and other missile lainious items and some food items (ice cream, salmon, jello) Walgreens, if you are diligent and patient will cut some good coupons.  There is one route I make that passes 4 and if the trip and the coupons hit at the same time it's coming and going times 4.

Eager to hear what you discover.

 

[Pandora]

More power to ya, CO.  Because I won't/don't do it doesn't mean y'all shouldn't.

http://www.shopathome.com/Discounts_And_Coupons/Affiliate-Grocery.aspx?refer=92126&src=AFECXX

http://supermarketgiveaways.com/grocery/index.v1.php?lid=::add-13410_grocery_NONE&add_offerid=4342852&addomain=rscounter10.com&addomain_id=66&uniclk=true

I do not vouch for these sites as I haven't tried either, but they came up easily with "coupon website" in a search engine.

[John Florida]

http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/beginners-guide-to-coupons/thebeginners-guide-to-coupons-2/part-two/

 That's the one I found that breaks it down step by stp and she also has utube vids.

Publix Coupon Shopping 11-11

 This is just one ant it's gets you to where she has other vids.

[LadyVirginia]

I've finding using coupons to be hard--hard in the sense that it's not in my nature to spend time on something like that.  I don't find it fun.  However, about 3 months ago I decided that since there were few ways for me to gain money I should try to save more (not that I wasn't in other ways already) especially since gas is high.

I refuse to buy a paper but my mom gives me her Sunday paper.

After my first trip out with a list and coupons in hand I spent $78 and saved about $78. So 50% ain't bad.  Couple of days later one of my kids says hey, you should watch this show about coupons.  A show on coupons?     I watched it--it's not really a how-to.  It's Hoarders for couponers.

Anyway, these folks get these bargains because 1) their store allows for the doubling of coupons, 3) some places like walmart will allow you to use a coupon even if its value is greater than the product--the difference is applied to your order or given in change, 4) they buy dozens of papers or print out dozens of coupons by using several different computers, 3) they live in areas where there are bargain grocery stores that also accept coupons.

I live in area that has a high cost of living so there's no way I'll ever save nearly 100%.  No stores here double coupons.  One woman on the show has 4000 coupons. another spends 60 hours a week, every week on her coupons, another spends $2000 a year on newspapers.  A lot of them buy stuff to get the overage (see above walmart example--especially lucrative if there's a rebate form too).  They also buy stuff I don't use or need. 

Walgreens has register rewards and CVS has EBCs---basically a coupon for a dollar amount off your next purchase.  You earn these by purchasing designed products.  The trick is to use coupons to make the cost of the product go down and get the RR or EBC. The other trick is to only buy products you use--hahahaha. 

A few weeks ago I had four $1.00 off Honest tea coupons.  CVS had them on sale for $1.00. Yeap, got 4 free.  Now my kids like honest tea but it's not something I'm going to usually buy at 1.89 a pop.  A lipton teabag works for us.  But it was free and will be a nice surprise in their lunch at camp.

I only buy stuff we use or I can get free or nearly free.

At CVS you have to use a store card to get the EBCs.  They will email coupons for % off total purchases or $5 off of $20 and stuff like that too. I set up a gmail account to use  just for the couponing (often need an email addy to get online coupons)


This website posts updates all day everyday about coupons and ads.  I use this site to match up sale ads with coupons.  She usually covers Target, walmart, walgreens, cvs, rite aid, safeway and a few others regional to her:
http://myfrugaladventures.com/

this site is also useful--she was on that couponing show:  http://mylitter.com/


I'm curious to hear how it goes for you, JF.

[trapeze]

I won't go any further than the loyalty card which is good for the instore discounts and for $0.10/gallon off on gas. As it is, though, I almost never buy anything that isn't on sale. As a serious diet soft drink consumer, for instance, I always buy the 2-liter bottles but I never spend more than $1 for a Coke/Pepsi product...usually less.

Occasionally there is one of those coupon printers at the register that shoots out a particularly good coupon (free RedBox rentals are always appreciated) but for the most part I can't be bothered with the whole thing. No double or triple coupons where I live. Not ever.

[Glock32]

LOL, some of these "extreme couponing" people sound like people who spend all day mining gold in online games like World of Warcraft, to then sell (for real money) to other players. I even read an article about how various governments were seriously looking into ways to establish a revenue presence in these online worlds to tax virtual "earnings". I kid you not.

As for those loyalty cards every place seems to use these days, I've managed to acquire them without filling out the forms. So when I use them they're not getting one bit of useful demographic data. Whatever happened to just putting stuff on sale?!?! 

[John Florida]

I've finding using coupons to be hard--hard in the sense that it's not in my nature to spend time on something like that.  I don't find it fun.  However, about 3 months ago I decided that since there were few ways for me to gain money I should try to save more (not that I wasn't in other ways already) especially since gas is high.

I refuse to buy a paper but my mom gives me her Sunday paper.

After my first trip out with a list and coupons in hand I spent $78 and saved about $78. So 50% ain't bad.  Couple of days later one of my kids says hey, you should watch this show about coupons.  A show on coupons?     I watched it--it's not really a how-to.  It's Hoarders for couponers.

Anyway, these folks get these bargains because 1) their store allows for the doubling of coupons, 3) some places like walmart will allow you to use a coupon even if its value is greater than the product--the difference is applied to your order or given in change, 4) they buy dozens of papers or print out dozens of coupons by using several different computers, 3) they live in areas where there are bargain grocery stores that also accept coupons.

I live in area that has a high cost of living so there's no way I'll ever save nearly 100%.  No stores here double coupons.  One woman on the show has 4000 coupons. another spends 60 hours a week, every week on her coupons, another spends $2000 a year on newspapers.  A lot of them buy stuff to get the overage (see above walmart example--especially lucrative if there's a rebate form too).  They also buy stuff I don't use or need. 

Walgreens has register rewards and CVS has EBCs---basically a coupon for a dollar amount off your next purchase.  You earn these by purchasing designed products.  The trick is to use coupons to make the cost of the product go down and get the RR or EBC. The other trick is to only buy products you use--hahahaha. 

A few weeks ago I had four $1.00 off Honest tea coupons.  CVS had them on sale for $1.00. Yeap, got 4 free.  Now my kids like honest tea but it's not something I'm going to usually buy at 1.89 a pop.  A lipton teabag works for us.  But it was free and will be a nice surprise in their lunch at camp.

I only buy stuff we use or I can get free or nearly free.

At CVS you have to use a store card to get the EBCs.  They will email coupons for % off total purchases or $5 off of $20 and stuff like that too. I set up a gmail account to use  just for the couponing (often need an email addy to get online coupons)


This website posts updates all day everyday about coupons and ads.  I use this site to match up sale ads with coupons.  She usually covers Target, walmart, walgreens, cvs, rite aid, safeway and a few others regional to her:
http://myfrugaladventures.com/

this site is also useful--she was on that couponing show:  http://mylitter.com/


I'm curious to hear how it goes for you, JF.

 There's no double anything here either. But I saw this thing and it seemed that laundry soaps and paper goods were the most frequent free bees. What we spent on papaer towls around here is just nuts.I'm trying to cut down on what we spend on the crap that gets thrown away so I'm starting slow but as soon as I get some of it figured out I'll report back in.

[John Florida]

I went out on little test flight and ended up spending 11.97 including taxes on a 26.91 tab.Now that would have looked better if they werren't out of an item that sells for 4.99 and I have  two 5.00 coupons for it would look like 11.97 for36.91 tab.

[charlesoakwood]

Some stores will have a limited amount of sale items.
It's best to hit them as soon as possible.

[John Florida]

Some stores will have a limited amount of sale items.
It's best to hit them as soon as possible.

 This was more like a blind taste test more than anything else.But you are right of course.Fortunately most of the players are within a 5 minute ride from me so going back on Monday is no problem. But I am just starting to clip and pile up coupons and learning how the game is played. But one thing is for sure that I will not buy anything I don't use as a rule and if something that I do use has the right price I will buy it when I see it needed or not.

 Today what I got was all cleaning products that we do buy as a rule and buy them when were out and pay full retail that's one of the big things that needs to change.

[charlesoakwood]

One of the big coupon hooks is to move the customer into buying something wouldn't ordinarily buy. No way, buying something one
doesn't use at half price is a 100% loss.

[John Florida]

One of the big coupon hooks is to move the customer into buying something wouldn't ordinarily buy. No way, buying something one
doesn't use at half price is a 100% loss.

 The only things Iwill pick up that I normally don't buy are the ones with a free attached.

[Pandora]

One of the big coupon hooks is to move the customer into buying something wouldn't ordinarily buy. No way, buying something one
doesn't use at half price is a 100% loss.

 The only things Iwill pick up that I normally don't buy are the ones with a free attached.

Ditto.  Bartering items.

And, as someone else wrote, I use the "loyalty cards" only because/when my info isn't attached, as in "we'll give you the card now, you fill out the information and return".  "Uh, yeah, okay, right."

[Dan]

My wife does a good job using the Sunday Boston Globe (Yeah, yeah, I know...yecch!), and it more than pays for itself. She regularly saves 25-40% on our rather large grocery bill. Every week, so I'm a believer.  It's time well spent, I think.
Unfortunately, the CFO is now insisting I use coupons when stockpiling. Can't argue, but I'm not the type to cut coupons either.
But I know a losing argument when I give one.

[IronDioPriest]

I caught a couple episodes of this "Extreme Couponing" show when my wife happened to be watching it.

"Haorders for couponers" is about right. It's a trainwreck of another kind. These people have no life.

The only way they can do what they do is because they obsess over it. They freely admit that it takes over their lives - not just the pursuit of a good deal - as in everything for nothing - but it takes over their homes as well. Their existence is built around procuring free/cheap goods, organizing them, and storing them. It takes as much time as a full-time job. The few sane ones looked at their couponing as exactly that - their contribution to the family finances.

But let's get real. If this catches on and starts some kind of couponing craze, the retailers will be forced to discontinue couponing, double-couponing, loyalty discounts, and everything else. These hoarders walk into a store and walk out with $1000 worth of goods for $7. I even saw one episode where the person got done shopping and the store owed HIM money for taking hundreds of dollars of items from their store.

No business can maintain that kind of bleeding. Coupons are meant as a marketing tool, not as a way for people to walk out of the store with carts full of freebies. At the first hint of copycats, they'll shore it up and make it much tougher for everybody to save money with coupons.

[John Florida]

I caught a couple episodes of this "Extreme Couponing" show when my wife happened to be watching it.

"Haorders for couponers" is about right. It's a trainwreck of another kind. These people have no life.

The only way they can do what they do is because they obsess over it. They freely admit that it takes over their lives - not just the pursuit of a good deal - as in everything for nothing - but it takes over their homes as well. Their existence is built around procuring free/cheap goods, organizing them, and storing them. It takes as much time as a full-time job. The few sane ones looked at their couponing as exactly that - their contribution to the family finances.

But let's get real. If this catches on and starts some kind of couponing craze, the retailers will be forced to discontinue couponing, double-couponing, loyalty discounts, and everything else. These hoarders walk into a store and walk out with $1000 worth of goods for $7. I even saw one episode where the person got done shopping and the store owed HIM money for taking hundreds of dollars of items from their store.

No business can maintain that kind of bleeding. Coupons are meant as a marketing tool, not as a way for people to walk out of the store with carts full of freebies. At the first hint of copycats, they'll shore it up and make it much tougher for everybody to save money with coupons.

 This stuff not a new thing it's been out there for years but with reality shows being all the craze it will gain in popularity for a while and then die out slowly. But as for the stores and coupons being a problem I'm not sure they are because the stores get all their money back from the manufacturers and a handling fee also.

 But if it only covers paper goods and laundry products I'm happy with that.

[LadyVirginia]

I believe it's only around 3% of coupons actually get used.  People don't bother or they forget them at home and buy the stuff any way.  A lot of stores do have restrictions in place so it's hard to actually cart away $1000 of goods for $10.

For example--At walgreens you can't have more coupons than items. So if you have a store coupon and a manufaturer coupon for one thing you can't use both unless you have a second item of something (doesn't have to be the same thing).

Yikes...I actually know this stuff.... (there's nothing like standing in line at walmart or target and have to explain their own store coupon policy to the cashier....)

My pattern lately is to make the rounds every two weeks--about when I run out of toilet paper. lol  (I try to buy it on sale with coupons--a reasonable amount not like the woman my daughter saw on the show that has 3000 rolls stocked up)

[John Florida]

I believe it's only around 3% of coupons actually get used.  People don't bother or they forget them at home and buy the stuff any way.  A lot of stores do have restrictions in place so it's hard to actually cart away $1000 of goods for $10.

For example--At walgreens you can't have more coupons than items. So if you have a store coupon and a manufaturer coupon for one thing you can't use both unless you have a second item of something (doesn't have to be the same thing).

Yikes...I actually know this stuff.... (there's nothing like standing in line at walmart or target and have to explain their own store coupon policy to the cashier....)

My pattern lately is to make the rounds every two weeks--about when I run out of toilet paper. lol  (I try to buy it on sale with coupons--a reasonable amount not like the woman my daughter saw on the show that has 3000 rolls stocked up)

 How big was he butt??

[LadyVirginia]

LOL

Based on her usage she apparently has enough for the next several decades