Thanks to a new series on TLC, just about everyone has heard of “extreme couponing” these days. Extreme couponing is the art of getting hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of groceries and household goods for next to nothing, through the use of coupons – and the strategic use of sales fliers, stores that double coupons, and quite a bit of time to invest.
While you have probably saved $2 or $3 using coupons before, people who go to extremes can get hundreds of dollars for pennies! People who participate in extreme couponing generally buy items in bulk. If you want to get involved, you’ll need space to store everything you buy using this process.
Extreme Couponing Tips
Saving hundreds or more on groceries and household items with coupons is not easy. If it were easy, everyone would do it! Here are some tips to help you get started:
Start Stocking Up on Coupons: If you’ve ever watched the coupon show on TLC, you’ll notice that people have binders completely full of coupons. To save money the way these people do – you literally need to have hundreds of coupons each month. How do you get these coupons? You’ll need more than one subscription to a variety of newspapers that come with coupons; you’ll need to spend time researching printable coupon websites to print out other coupons, and even ask your friends and family to save coupons for you.
Find Local Stores that Double Your Coupons: you need to find a grocery store that will double the value of your coupons in order to get enough savings to make this whole process worth your time and effort.
Be More Organized Than Ever Before: You need to know exactly what coupons you have, what the store sales are, and how to combine a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon and a sale all at the same time to get the deals. And that’s all before you leave the house! You also need to be organized while shopping, and have very good attention to detail so you are buying the right products that match what is allowed on each coupon.
Invest Part Time to Full Time Hours: If you’re thinking you need a lot of time to make extreme couponing work – you’re right. Consider it a part time job, at a minimum. Between the hours you spend looking for and collecting coupons, sorting them so you can find them when you need them, calculating to make sure you’re using the right store and coupon strategy to save the most money, and the actual shopping – it can even turn into the equivalent of a full time job time-wise.
