coupons

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.