coupons

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

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

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.

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

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. :-)

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.

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.

great tips...thanks

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!