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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Extreme couponing, I don't get it. Please explain.
Literally I don't understand how they do it. I can't wrap my mind around the logistics of it.
I use coupons. This week cheerios were on sale 2 for $6. I had a $1 off coupon if you bought 2 boxes. So I got 2 boxes of cheerios for $5. Even if my store doubled coupons I would still be paying $4 for 2 boxes of cereal.
I just don't understand how that woman got $340 worth of groceries for $9.10 and she bought high quantities of stuff. Please explain... I feel stoopid I don't get how it works.
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Re: Extreme couponing, I don't get it. Please explain.
I don't get it either. I tried to watch an episode and it drove my nuts. Anyway, I did read this article on it and found it interesting:
https://consumerist.com/2011/04/meet-americas-coupon-police.html
I am not saying that coupon clippers are frauds...just the one in this blog. I found this to be an interesting read.
Go Phils!!
BFP #1: 6/25/09 EDD 2/13/10 @ 6 weeks- Saw HB @ 9 weeks - DS born 2/11/10 (39w5d)
BFP #2: 2/20/13 EDD 11/4/13 - Saw HB 3/19/13 (7w2d) - MMC discovered 4/13/13 (10w5d) - Est. loss @ 9w3d - D&C 4/14/13
BFP #4: 9/10/14 (3w6d) EDD 5/21/15 - natural MC 9/23/14 @ 5w5d
BFP #5: 11/23/14 (3w3d) EDD 8/4/15 - Please be our Rainbow!
How about the woman who called her friends to come to the store because they wouldn't allow her to use the $10 off coupon more than once? Yes, I am going to inconvenience my friends to save $10.
With the exception of the people who donate the items, I would think the whole thing would be very wasteful. The food has to go bad at some point, right?
Go Phils!!
Bar tab = $156,000, Bus to Foxwoods = $0, Puking in the Stanley Cup = Priceless
You have got to be kidding me! Please don't tell me her friends actually showed up to help her....
and was she literally trying to use the same coupon multiple times or did she have multiple copies?
It was an in-store deal 10 off a total purchase of 50 or more. She separated her transactions to multiple 50 dollar totals and they would only let her do it once so she had to call in reinforcements. They were there for 6 hours between shopping and checking out.
The item has to be on sale, you use a manufacturer coupon that is doubled and then you stack that with a store coupon.
Item regular price of $3, on sale for $2. Have manufacturer coupon that is .50 off and that is doubled. Item is now $1. Use in store coupon worth $1 off and get it for free.
That is of course one scenario. There are also stores that give you store credit so you bought something last time that gave you a coupon for $5 free in that store so they could use that also to take $ off the total.
There are many ins and outs of it and it takes a while to get it all figured out. And yes it's time consuming.
They must have better stores I only have two and even with a coupon and a sale stuff is still expensive and there are no coupons for most of what I buy you can't get fresh food coupons can you?
The problem I have is that I buy very few items that are not from the produce section, dairy case or meat counter. For example, one prepackaged thing I buy is pasta, but it's 99 cents at trader joe's whereas getting it that cheap at a large grocery store where it is almost $3 takes too much work trying to align a sale and multiple coupons. Or bread- $1.99 at Trader Joe's vs nearly $4 at the grocery store.
I'd like to see how many fresh fruits, veggies and lean/extra lean cuts of meat these women are buying and how cheap that is. THAT would be impressive to me. I don't care to invest the time in getting 500 boxes of mac and cheese for free, lol.
they often shop at kroger.
our kroger (Frys in Arizona) is awesome with coupons. They make ALL coupons = $1, and they accept all manufacturer coupons.
My Time is worth more than that IMO. I hate grocery shopping I would go insane if my trip took 6 hours.
Same here. I do buy some frozen vegetables, but it's not worth it for me to spend hours clipping coupons to save a couple of dollars.
My Dad has always used coupons and we grew up eating crap. He wasn't as extreme as the people on these shows, but he would often get $75 worth of groceries for around $10-15. This would include boneless skinless chicken breast, london broil and ground beef.
I agree, that guy is doing it right! Glad he's doing something with his hobby. Those other people that had 42 bottles of mustard (and her husband hates mustard!) are ridiculous. I saw someone else buy a ton of Maalox...really?!?!? My mom is really good with coupons but stores and the companies advertising with coupons have caught on. I've noticed that $1.00 off coupons expire the day before something goes on sale for 10 items for $10 for example. I don't think we've paid for toothpaste in years, my mom always gets it for free.
I coupon. I routinely save about $2500/year. I actually put my receipts into an Excel spreadsheet. Unless we have to buy it at Costco, my paper products are completely free. (Even then we get a percentage of our Costco trip back every quarter, so I could argue that I never pay for paper products.)
Frys (Kroger) is the best store for couponing IMO. The make all manufacturer's coupons $1.00. They also give back store bucks, and store coupons on checkout. They also accept competitors coupons which is fabulous because you can stack coupons. An example would be my kid's organic cereal. It is usually $5/box. It was on sale for $4. I had a frys coupon for $1 off each box up to 10. That made it $3. Then I had a manufacturers coupon for $1 off. Then Target had a $1 off in their mailed coupons. I then had an online coupon downloaded 10 times to my Frys card for a $1 off each box that expired the same day they went on sale. So I bought 10 boxes, and they were all free.
Lots of times I get personal care items that they pay me to take home. The biggest one was Gillette had a coupon for $2.00 off their body wash if you bought a deodorant. I had a coupon that brought the price of the deodorant down to $.50 each, and then another that gave me a free body wash with the purchase of 2 deodorants. So I bought 10 deodorants for $.50 each, got 5 body washes, and used the $2.00 off coupons 5 times. Then I had a receipt coupon (they print those and give them to you with your receipt) for $5.00 off my next purchase of $15.00 in personal care/hygiene. So the store/manufacturer gave me $15 for taking 10 deodorants and 5 body washes home.
It takes time. I probably spend 2 hours getting ready for a grocery trip. Most of my neighbors give me their newspaper coupons, along with my family, and some of the other teachers. I usually have about 20 circulars. That is how I get so many of the same coupons.
One of the local grocery stores (Fresh and Easy) mails coupons ($5 off purchase of $25) with their Wednesday circular. Frys honors that coupon so that is another $5 free dollars.
My produce I buy through a co-op. My meat I buy at an all natural foods store. We eat mostly organic/natural. I still save a ton. I do buy frozen veggies for pennies with coupons. The best deals are the receipt coupons they give you.
I save the equivalent of a nice vacation every year. I don't buy crap, and I don't hoard. That is just crazy. Who needs 300 cans of sodium riddled soup?
Edited to fix math
This I can understand, you use all the groceries you buy and still manage to get good food for an excelent price. I dont get the people on tv that show have like 300 bottles of dish soap or 409, and have their basement looking like a grocery store.
I linked it above in my response. It was really interesting! It's like these people are smart enough to figure this all out. They should put it to other good LEGAL uses.
In my area, (Philly 'burbs) we have a place called Produce Junction and it's dirt cheap and the produce/flowers/plants, etc. are great! I am talking a dozen roses for about $3. I love it!
Go Phils!!
Here is the thing...they always buy things on sale, use coupons and often the stores double coupons. When you see they've gotten $500 in groceries for $20, the $500 is the total before the sale prices. So your store has Cheerios on sale 2/$6 if the regular price is say $5/box the way the look at it is they bought $10 in cereal for $5. KWIM? The beginning price is the retail price of the items, not the sale price.
I cut coupons every week, try to use them on sale items, and at stores that double coupons. We have a store here called Giant where the double coupons up to $.99 AND for every $1 you spend, you get gas points for Shell gas station. For every 100 points you accumulate, you get $.10 off/gallon of gas. So, if you have 400 points, you get $.40/gallon of gas. I try to shop there so I can double my rewards!
I think extreme couponing is entertaining...that's it. These people are insane and belong on Hoarders...coupon edition.!
I watched an episode this weekend and the thing that got me they didnt buy things that were useful for the week or month. I don't go threw 500 tubes of toothpaste or 50 bottles of tums.
It didn't show them buying milk, cheese, bread, or anything like that.
I totally agree. I'm the same way but I do sometimes buy a few convenience items, junk items or stuff like Annie's bunny grahams for LO. Razors, toys, trash bags, and that sort of stuff is good to get free with coupons.
They use the free in store $ they get to get their "outer aisle" items and a lot of times they will buy products they don't even want(and donate it) if they get overage on it and using that overage, they can use to buy other stuff. Say something is .50 cents and they have a $1 coupon. In most stores they get to apply that overage to their total (because the store will submit that $1 coupon and get that money from the manufacturer and only be out .50) and with that they can buy their produce.
Other than using coupons every now and then, for random items, I rarely use them. More often than not, I find that I cut them, and then put them in my purse, and then forget about them at the store, until I clean out my purse and discover they're expired. For me, they're too much work.
Between the grocery store, Sams Club, and Schwans, I think I find pretty good deals, while not investing too much time into saving money.
I agree they really do buy mostly junk. A woman last night was buying 20 rolls of fruity mentos....why???
After watching this show, I would like and try to do better with coupons but I don't want to invest the time or buy stuff I don't need like these women.
But I did love the guy that donated to the troops!!
This is my thought as well. I don't buy a lot of processed brand name foods so I don't use a lot of coupons. I don't even buy cleaning supplies because I use vinegar.
Haven't seen the show, and haven't read everyone's responses, but I'll throw in an answer:
some stores/states double coupons (none here in Chicago, boo hoo). So your 1$ off a 3$ box of Cheerios is now a box for 1$.
some stores do "register rewards" things where if you buy a 3$ shampoo, you get (for example) a 1$ coupon on anything for your next visit. So if you use a 2$ off the shampoo coupon and get 1$ back, it was free.
I am a die-hard, smart couponer. But the "extreme couponing" show seems little better than hoarding, to me.
I think I need to pay more attention to store coupons. I think I'm missing out on savings there.
The people in your grocery store must hate you.
Also, there is no way that we would be able to do this in Canada. Our retailers are really strict with regards to coupons. There was an in-store coupon for $1 off if you buy 2 cans of apple juice & we couldn't even use 2 coupons if we bought 4 cans...
Mom, why are you washing my feed in the sink?!
that woman got busted for coupon fraud
i live in a hcol area that does NOT double coupons, that has a limit on the # of items you can buy w/ said coupon, that carries a minimum amt of money you have to spend to be able to use the coupon. while most stores do take manufacturers coupons, most don't take competitor's coupons so there is no way i can combine my store coupon, w/ a manufacturer's coupon, w/ a target one to get an item for free. all i can do is watch for sales, watch for coupons on items i need and go in and use BOTH when i can.
although i was proud of myself for getting a cg lipstick for half price by combining the in-store sale w/ a cvs bonus bucks coupon ($3)
I am not an "extreme" couponer but am pretty serious about it and thought I'd shared a couple things:
1. I only buy items we use, and we do eat healthy. I think last night's TLC show had the woman buying 95 bags of croutons -WTF? Who would every use those before they went bad? I do stock up on what we use though (salsa, pasta sauce, cereal, pasta, peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing, beans, rice, etc.)
2. I am extremely ethical in my coupon use and ONLY use coupons for their intended purchases. I consider anything else stealing. Also, I follow a pretty strict coupon ettiquete- for example I would never clear a shelf of items (buying everything so no one else had a chance to get that same good deal).
3. Stores actually make money when people use coupons - a store is reimbursed by the manufacter for the face value of the coupon plus they get back a handling fee, so they made money off of couponers. Now, if they store chooses to double coupons obviously they don't make this money back, but that is their choice to make their store policy.
4. I probably spend about 2-3 hours a week doing my coupons and planning and shopping, and I estimate that I save $45-70 a week by using coupons, so that average at about $20+/hour - not a bad deal considering I do most of it in my pjs in front of the TV :-)
5. Something people don't often think about is that a lot of my coupon use focuses on household and personal items. I shop Walgreens and CVS a lot and I haven't paid for toothpaste, dental floss, or deodorant in ages and I get name brand shampoo/conditioner/hair products for $1/each or less.