coupons

jenhenning219

does anyone do extreme couponing? if so can someone please tell me some sites that have them so i can stay with in my budget?

MFPAddict

What they feature on that show is not realistic in most stores, and some of the things they do is unethical, fraudulent or both. That being said, you can still cut your expenses significantly with the use of coupons.

slickdeals and hotcouponworld are two sites I have used

cessnaholly

bump.

I get coupons from the Sunday courant too.

Nos150

States or Canada? because i have loads of Canadian sites!

chevysarah

States or Canada? because i have loads of Canadian sites!

I would love to know some Canadian sites please!!! :flowerforyou:

mezzosoprano89

I use krazycouponlady.com

But I do agree with one of the posters above, what they do on the show CAN happen, but its not realistic to happen EVERY week. I've made one huge haul in my time couponing, and a few times have paid nothing but sales tax, but I never clear shelves or buy more than I can realisticly use.

the_journeyman

My wife does a lot of coupons. She gets the Sunday coupon packs from anyone that doesn't use them and clips & organizes with baseball card organizers to keep up & organize her stockpile. Then, she waits for items to go on sale we use and she has coupons for. While not crazy amounts like on Extreme Couponing, it's not unusual for her to cut the grocery bill in half if the store(s) are having a good sale. Thing to do is look at ALL store's ads and find who has the best sale on items you use and use your coupons there.

JM

krista010105

couponmom.com is what i use. and i skim through the coupons in the sunday papers some weeks are better than others so the good weeks iwill buy 2 or 3 newspapers. get the coupons and donate the newspaper to the animal sheter they use them for pee pads for dogs and cats, and in bunny and bird cages

jend114

I always check out moneysavingmom.com and dealseekingmom.com
hotcouponworld.com is awesome for trading coupons

CMmrsfloyd

You cannot watch a show and then suddenly decide you're an extreme couponer. It's much harder than it looks, and there is money being spent that they don't talk about on the show. Money for newspapers (please don't steal your coupons), money paying online coupon clipping services, gas going from store-to-store, time spent gathering/clipping/sorting coupons, researching sales, learning individual store coupon policies (they differ greatly between different stores), planning shopping trips, and actually shopping (time is money).

When you're first starting out, start small. Buy a couple of Sunday papers (or get coupons from friends or neighbors that don't use them). Notice I said A COUPLE - don't go out and get 50 newspapers when you don't know what you're doing yet, you may end up finding there's not a lot of coupons you really care to use from that particular Sunday, and you may find that you don't know how to be organized enough to use enough of those 50 duplicate coupons for it to have been worthwhile. Get somewhere from 1-5 papers - one good way to decide how many you want to get is to actually flip through the coupon inserts and make a mental note of how many coupons you see for items that you would normally want to buy anyway - if you see coupons that you KNOW you will use that are worth more than what the paper costs, go ahead and get a couple extra. You will KNOW that you'll get your initial investment back, and if deals come along that can utilize the other coupons in the paper you can consider that a bonus. You'll get better at figuring out which coupons frequently tend to work out for great deals the more experience you get, which will help you better decide how many papers to invest in in the future. Just don't start out buying a ton of papers when you don't even know yet how useful those particular coupons are going to be for you.

Pick one or two stores that you are interested, learn their coupon policies, and find a site that has a section that focuses only on those stores. Look at the sale ads for those stores for this week and for the upcoming weeks (sometimes ads are available a week or even more in advance, which helps a lot with planning when to stock up). I always suggest people pick stores they are already at least a little familiar with, and only start with 1 or 2 at a time since you have to learn their policies and procedures which can be very unique to individual stores. Learn how many coupons they allow per transaction, learn how many LIKE coupons they allow, learn if they have store coupons available and learn if they allow you to 'stack' one of their coupons with a manufacturer's coupon (some do, some don't). Learn if you need a frequent shopper card in order to take advantage of their deals. Learn if they have a 'rewards' program that gives you back additional earned coupons at the register - if they do, that's a whole new ballgame you're going to have to learn in addition to their general coupon policies. The big drugstore chains have these rewards programs, and they are VERY different from one another. There are a lot of intricacies that you have to learn in order to be successful. You might consider picking 1 grocery store (or Target, or Walmart, etc) and 1 drugstore when you are first starting out. The strategies involved will be different enough that you shouldn't confuse their policies in that learning phase. Plan your trips precisely based on the sales available that week. Get items you KNOW you will use, so you don't come home with a bunch of 'cheap stuff' that ends up being useless. Remember that most things have expiration dates, don't stock up on something so much that you won't be able to use it before it goes bad. Even deodorant has an expiration date. LOL And REMEMBER, if it's on sale and you can get it cheap now, it will surely come around cheap again within a month or two - most of the deals get extremely repetitive so keep in mind that you will likely have another opportunity to get a similar deal very soon. This is ESPECIALLY true of the drugstores and items like toothpaste, shampoo, etc. You don't need to get 20 toothpastes if they're on sale this week. They will be on sale at the same store or another one where it's free or cheap within a week or two. Trust me. :-)

Also, plan your meals based on the cheapest meats and produce each week. And if you are able and have the space, consider investing in a small chest freezer. Every now and then great deals come along on frozen items and it's nice to have that space available to stock up. Or at least that's what I hear. I wish I had an extra freezer. :-)

MFPAddict

There are forums on many of the coupon sites. Based on my experience and the experience of many coupon friends, a store that will order you 500 toothbrushes or cereal is extremely rare. Many stores impose limits on how many coupons you can use for a particular item. One of my grocery stores has that limit at 3.

Still, I haven't paid for a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. for several years now. I accumulated a modest stockpile without ever clearing a shelf.

CMmrsfloyd

There are forums on many of the coupon sites. Based on my experience and the experience of many coupon friends, a store that will order you 500 toothbrushes or cereal is extremely rare. Many stores impose limits on how many coupons you can use for a particular item. One of my grocery stores has that limit at 3.

Still, I haven't paid for a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. for several years now. I accumulated a modest stockpile without ever clearing a shelf.

Exactly - you don't have to act like a crazy person to save a lot of money and really see the benefits.

I like slickdeals and hotcouponworld, too, and afullcup is another good site. They are all pretty good about answering questions and helping out newbies.

takehimaway

WeUseCoupons, AFullCup, Sweetie's Freebies, but I lost my full binder, so I'm a bit turned off right now. ;/ [None of you also happen to be sweepstakes junkies, do you?]

Jade_Butterfly

Thank you all so much for all the wonderful tips as well as sites to get started with. . I really appreciate it. That being said

couponsuzy.com is another one.

chicky89

mrsjanuary.com- no coupons, but great tips- also on FB
Websaver.ca
gocoupons.ca
These are for Canadians!

My sister is an "extreme couponer!" She has found lots of deals, and are now giving classes about how to use them and get the best bang for your buck!

I can talk to her and get more sites/info if anyone is interested!

smilebhappy

great tips...thanks

chicky89

Brandsaver.ca
websaver.ca
gocoupons.ca
save.ca
livingwell.ca (printable site)

jenhenning219

mrsjanuary.com- no coupons, but great tips- also on FB
Websaver.ca
gocoupons.ca
These are for Canadians!

My sister is an "extreme couponer!" She has found lots of deals, and are now giving classes about how to use them and get the best bang for your buck!

I can talk to her and get more sites/info if anyone is interested!

please talk to her for me, i am not looking for anything crazy just small stuff that i buy weekly

mrsdizzyd84

I use coupons as well.

The extreme couponing thing is largely fantasy, but you can save a significant amount of money couponing. I save on average 40%-50% on my grocery bill and 60%-70% at drug stores. As much as possible, I try to only buy items when they are on sale so I can increase my savings margins. As others have mentioned, the Sunday inserts are your first stop. Then there are several websites with printable coupons or coupons you can load directly to your store loyalty cards.

My one piece of advice is to REMEMBER YOUR CALORIE RESTRICTION. Unfortunately, a lot of available food coupons are for highly processed, high sodium, and high fat foods. I tend to leave those things on the shelves and focus my couponing on household products, feminine products, and personal hygiene items.

uniquewrapz

I don't do "extreme" couponing but I coupon to save money on the things my family uses. I follow a few pages on facebook: livingrichforcoupons.com, frugalfamilyliving.com, Melissa's Bargain Blog, Budget Savvy Diva

These are great because when a new coupon is released it's in your feed.

They all offer match ups with the sunday's coupons and the stores you shop.

Good luck!

marycmeadows

most of the things I buy - there are never coupons for.... ugh..... there's always coupons for bad stuff, but never coupons for fresh foods (with the exception of the occasional fresh express coupons or cutie coupons)..... always coupons for junk food though.... 'they' don't want you to eat healthy! haha.

twinmom430

There are forums on many of the coupon sites. Based on my experience and the experience of many coupon friends, a store that will order you 500 toothbrushes or cereal is extremely rare. Many stores impose limits on how many coupons you can use for a particular item. One of my grocery stores has that limit at 3.

Still, I haven't paid for a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. for several years now. I accumulated a modest stockpile without ever clearing a shelf.

I completely agree with this. I am a couponer, haven't paid for a toiletry since I started couponing. In my area the most you can use if 4 like coupons, and I don't see the need for 500 toothbrushes like on Extreme couponing. My favorite site I use is www.livingrichwithcoupons.com. Gives you a list of stores and matches their sales up to a particular coupon. Also gives you links to print particular coupons. Feel free to friend me if you would like some pointers.

lisawest

couponmom.com is what i use. and i skim through the coupons in the sunday papers some weeks are better than others so the good weeks iwill buy 2 or 3 newspapers. get the coupons and donate the newspaper to the animal sheter they use them for pee pads for dogs and cats, and in bunny and bird cages

I use this one also, along with frugalcouponliving.com and raininghotcoupons.com I follow those two on FB. It really is more work than they make it out to be on the show. I buy one paper a week and surf the printable coupon sites (I like swagbucks because I get points towards rewards when I use the coupons) for additional coupons. If you shop at a Kroger store, you can also load e-coupons onto your Kroger card. My only warning with those is that they don't double the e-coupons and you CANNOT stack an e-coupon on top of a paper coupon. Makes sense to me, but they annoy some people.

My high savings % (which did not include savings from choosing the store brand over the name brand and such) is 35%. I average around 25% savings a month. I don't do it to the extreme, but saving $50 off my usually $200 grocery bill is a tank of gas I can take out of my budget.

Also, even if you have a coupon for it, check to see if the price of the storebrand is STILL cheaper than the namebrand with coupon! We have run into this more than a few times. If we would have bought the namebrand with the coupon, we would have ended up spending more than needed!

Let me know if you have questions!

edited to add: I just heard about a book yesterday and downloaded it to my amazon account, but I haven't read it yet. It's called "The Coupon Diet" by Beth Jones. It looks interesting. See if you can find it.

MFPAddict

My one piece of advice is to REMEMBER YOUR CALORIE RESTRICTION. Unfortunately, a lot of available food coupons are for highly processed, high sodium, and high fat foods.

Excellent point. One of the things they talk about on the show is using coupon overage to offset the cost of produce & meat. An example of coupon overage is using a $1.00 coupon on an item that cost (on sale) for less than $1.00. What they don't tell you is that many coupons clearly state that the coupon value CAN NOT EXCEED the price of the item. Stores that allow coupon overage are rare.

EReeves2

My wife does a lot of coupons. She gets the Sunday coupon packs from anyone that doesn't use them and clips & organizes with baseball card organizers to keep up & organize her stockpile. Then, she waits for items to go on sale we use and she has coupons for. While not crazy amounts like on Extreme Couponing, it's not unusual for her to cut the grocery bill in half if the store(s) are having a good sale. Thing to do is look at ALL store's ads and find who has the best sale on items you use and use your coupons there.

JM

Couldn't have said it better myself I do the exact same thing that JM's wife does.

MFPAddict

Exactly. Your best chance for huge savings is to have ZERO brand or store loyalty.