So how do those coupon users on tv do it?

S

Shann

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Sep 2, 2004
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I do the family grocery shopping. I try to use coupons to save money. If I'm lucky I might have coupons to get 3-4 dollars off of a hundred dollar bill. I see commercials for these tv shows like extreme couponing where they get $800 worth of groceries for like 5 bucks. The local Hannafords I dont' think doubles coupons and you have to buy like 3 jars of Prego to save $1.00. That would last us for months (we don't eat pasta often its just an example).

So is there a place you can actually get good coupons to save real money or is just an ad scam, like everything else? Don't get me wrong, I'll use coupons here and there to buy stuff I was already going to get and like to save a buck or two, probably a hundred dollars a year or so, but it doesn't really make any difference. I generally just get them from the Sunday paper, which I get to read anyways.

I almost posted this in W&C, but I actually would like to know if there are places to get better coupons online or how to "maximize" my couponing.
 
Seems like it takes a lot of work.

Occasionally they will mention that the person will order a ton of Sunday newspapers, or sort through the recycle bins for coupons.
Then they shop at a place that doubles the value, then they buy when the item is on sale. They also try to get the product as cheap as possible, so they might buy the smallest sized product the coupon is good for.

Guess there are also places they subscribe to that they get coupons from as well. Seems most on the TV show are hoarders as well. I can't imagine anybody really needing 500 toothbrushes, or 100 bottles of shampoo.
 
I agree w/d_clark. Most places around me do not double coupons etc.. It is a lot of work and there are always "catches" .
Yeah, they might get 800 bucks worth of stuff for 5 bucks but is it stuff they can use? There's tons of coupon sites out there but I just stick to the grocery store I frequent,check their weekly circular and if they have a deal on something I regularly use then I may stock up. Recently my local Acme had 5 Tombstone frozen pizzas for 10 bucks! That's a deal and I bought 10. They're regularly like 6 bucks apiece. Good thing they are healthy and low cal:D
 
From what I gather, it is basically a full time job to maximize your coupon usage, and you have to go through hundreds or thousands of advertising flyers as well as trade coupons with other kooks. I mean extreme coupon users. It does look cool to get 5 carts of groceries for free, but the time it requires and the payoff you get (5 carts of something you don't want) make it lose its luster. If it were easy, and worth it, everyone would do it. I do think that moderate coupon usage - i.e., saving a few bucks on items you were going to buy anyway - is a highly agreeable endeavor.
 
If I see a coupon for something I like and want and would buy otherwise, I'll cut it out and stick it in my wallet and use it.

My coupon coup: a few years ago, a local free-circulation publication ran a coupon for a dollar off the exact brand of dishwasher powder I use. The store was running a buy-three-get-one-free promo on the same product. I rounded up a bunch of those coupons and bought about two years worth. But that was a rare triumph for me.

I don't plan my diet -- much less my life -- around coupons.
 
If it took you 20 hours to find, clip and organize your coupons, and you saved $795 on your next grocery visit, that means you're paying yourself around $40/hr. I'd say that's not too bad.
 
From what I've seen, there are two main factors in those "couponers" :D
First, you need to spend a huge amount of time searching for coupons everywhere. And sorting up some kind of catalog. Not something you can do in a couple hours.
Second, you have to be willing to buy (or get) and store huge quantities of things that you wouldn't have bought without the coupons. Then you can trade them, resell them (I'm sure many people do so), or just decide that you are now going to use that particular soap (that you would have never bought in the first place) cause you managed to get 20 bottles for 3 usd.
It's a choice, and a job somehow. For those who are willing to do it, I assume it's great. I don't think I would (anyway, there are no such things here...

:cool:
 
By the way, don't shop at a store that doubles coupons unless you're using coupons for just about everything you buy. The product's manufacturer only pays the face-value of the coupon. If the store doubles it, the store has to pay the second half. And grocery stores aren't charities. If you believe that the store owner just gives you that money out of the goodness of his heart, the I've got a land deal I'd like to talk to you about. No, they have to charge higher prices to pay for those discounts.

One of the reasons why "warehouse club stores" are able to offer good prices is that they don't double coupons and actually process very few coupons. If you read the fine print, you will see that the coupon applies to the 8, 10, or 12 ounce size. The warehouse club has only the 48 ounce size and the coupon does not apply. Part of the contract that the warehouse club made with the manufacturer to purchase a trainload of the 48 ouncers was that any coupons the manufacturer issues in the next six months can't include the 48 ounce size. Of course, the warehouse club sells the 48 ouncer for about two and one-half times what the typical grocery store sells the 10 ounce size for, so, dollars-per-ounce, your best deal is at the warehouse club without a coupon.
 
As said before, it's a lot of work and you often have to buy stuff that you don't normally use.

I had one great coupon deal a long time ago. I bought some paper towels that were on sale and also had a coupon. Then there was a rebate that I mailed.
I ended up with free towels and made $2 on the deal. :D That was the one and only time that happened.

RE: doubling coupons. Manufacturers have gotten smart. You may notice that a lot of coupons are for 55¢. The stores generally won't double a coupon if it will total more then $1.
Safeway will add 45¢ to a 55¢ coupon.
 
"10% of nothing is still nothing." If you aren't going to use it, why buy it? I have occasionally used a coupon here & there, but the time & effort it takes to really make it profitable is not worth it to me.

I watched one episode of Extreme Couponing, and it actually saddened me. The kid doing the coupon thing had a garage full of stuff - literally, he had warehouse racks set up, and had everything categorized, etc., and he was still going out and buying huge quantities of groceries. The shelf life of most of what he had was expired by months or years before he or his family could use it.

From my own experience, both in myself and among several of my friends, I recognized some pretty disturbing behavior in the kid on the show: he showed the classic symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; he would "forget" to eat on the days when he went through sales papers (18+ hours one day); he had developed a pretty serious hoarding problem (grocery items he'd bought two years before still stashed in his bedroom closet); and judging from how he acted in the store, he had a serious anxiety disorder as well. And his family was supporting him the whole time.

I'm all for being a good steward of your money, but the way the people in the show were going about it was all wrong, IMHO.

~Chris
 
To paraphrase,

"Everything you see on TV is true."

-Alexander Hamilton
 
My girlfriend cuts a lot of coupons. she learned how on a website I don't want to post here in case it breaks any rules. she matches coupons with ongoing sales in the store inserts. she said if you shop sales and use coupons, she saves about $30 for every $100. You have to shop for different things at different stores. Times are tight for us right now with the lobster business so for the last three years she has been cutting and saving coupons.

That extreme couponing stuff is a rarity and an oddity. that is why it is on TV :D
 
If one enjoys doing all the work and trouble then fine. It's not for me to go around spending allot of time and gas driving around to match up coupons and offers at all the various stores. It easier to make a list of the things I need and do my shopping at one store and go home and use the day in the garden instead shopping and ending up with more goods than needed.
 
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