When I was in San Diego this past weekend visiting my family, we had a couple days to just unwind and watch TV. Since it was a holiday weekend, I guess, there was an "Extreme Couponing" marathon on TLC...and I got completely sucked in for hours and hours. With each new episode my jaw continuously dropping to the floor!
It really is shocking to see people, who typically seem just as busy or busier and no smarter than me, checking out $1000+ worth of items for less than $50 over and over, and over again. Then, to see the stockpiles in basements and pantries, that look and appear like grocery store isles (and know that everything in there was basically free) was even more mind blowing. So it got me motivated to give couponing a chance.
All week I have been dabbling around on the Internet looking for tips and tricks of the trade. Then yesterday I checked out this article online "How to be an extreme couponer in 10 days" and felt like I hit the jackpot of all coupon tutorials. I totally recommend this link to anyone interested in trying this out:
I still need to shell out some cash to get my newspaper subscriptions (for Sunday coupons, which Internet resources recommend getting 2-6 sets of newspapers), so I didn't clip any of those, but in the mean time, I was able to print out some coupons online to get started...so shopping I went, coupons in hand!
Today, I went "couponing" for the first time to basically get a taste of the experience, and to see if I will really want to get those newspaper subscriptions. I went to Target, and Costco, so no double couponing today. Costco only allows you to use their store coupons, so I made a list of all the items I needed from their coupon booklet. I wouldn't say it was anything near or even approaching extreme, and I really didn't end up with huge savings, though it was enough to leave me feeling satisfied. But, the good thing about this trip, different than any others, is that I stayed focused and only put items in the cart that I had planned on buying/needed/had coupons for and COMPLETELY avoided impulse buys (which saved me about $100 right there.) Next, I went to Target with a stash of coupons (both store coupons and manufacturer)...but I realized before I went that the Target store coupons were for the store brand, not brand name, so no huge savings there.
So, here are the results:
Costco: 77.89 (including 15.25 saved with coupons)
Target: 35.11 (including 5.00 saved with coupons)
TOTAL: $113 (total saved 20.25 with coupons) for a 15% savings today.
It's no 90% savings, but it was definitely fun enough as an experience to give me a new outlook on shopping. Brigham is also excited about this new development. I suppose if you count the money I would have spent in either of those stores on an average trip (usually Target is $60 and Costco is $200) I guess you could say I saved at least 50% today.
