A Beginner's Guide to "Extreme" Couponing

A couple of weeks ago a couple of friends of mine hosted a Coupon Class so that they could teach us all of their money saving tricks.  I went in to the class hopeful, but had low expectations that I would actually be able to save money, easily, on things that we already buy.  I've used coupons in the past, but just randomly here and there and never really understood how "50 cents off" coupon could really save anyone real money.  After sitting down and listening to them I began to understand all the ins and outs of how coupons can really make something FREE or close to it.  I'm so grateful that they showed me the way!

After the class I went home determined to not waste any time and got just one sunday papers worth of coupons together, made a shopping list and headed out on my first mini grocery trip.  I went to Publix, which is one of the nicer grocery stores in our area.  Since I was shopping the last day of that weeks sales, alot of the shelves were emptied of the things I had on my list and I was getting more and more frustrated thinking I was not going to be saving any money at all.  Until... I checked out and saw my total. 

On my first trip I wrote down only the things that were extremely discounted and didn't get any produce or meats while I was there.  The only thing I HAD to get without a coupon, knowing it would throw off my "fun" total, was laundry detergent.  But, we were out... so I HAD to.  In that grocery trip I purchased:

-2 Jars of Creamy Peanut Butter
-1 Jar of Crunchy Peanut Butter
-1 tube of Colgate Total + Whitening
-2 bottles of Bayer Aspirin
-3 large jugs of 100% apple juice
-Organic Valley whole milk
-Land O Lakes White American Deli Cheese
-Ronzoni bowtie pasta
-Ronzoni 3-minute quick-cook pasta
-2 containers of Voskos greek yogurt
-4 sticks of Land O Lakes butter
-2 cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli
-3 cans of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni
-Large jug of Purex laundry detergent + Zout stain booster

Total paid: $5.77
Total saved: Approx $61

If it weren't for the stupid laundry detergent I would have gotten everything for under a dollar.  ;)

So my point is... even though it was the last day of the sales and shelves were emptied on certain things, and I didn't have several weeks of coupons saved up, I still saved 90% by couponing.  Granted my next trip required several expensive meats and produce so my savings were only about 50% on that trip.  It's still 50% though!  Some weeks you may pay a few cents for groceries, and other weeks you'll pay $100 but that $100 will be going towards $200+ worth of groceries.

After starting couponing it becomes a game, you want to see just how little you can actually spend.  It's addicting almost instantly... and you want to share your addiction with others.  So that is why I created a little list of what I've been taught about couponing.  There is tons more knowledge out there, but starting small will help you get started if you decide you'd like to learn as well.  I'm no expert... but here's my take on couponing:

1. Start buying 2 Sunday papers every week.  Sunday papers are still the best places to find coupons.  In each Sunday paper there will be an insert called "Red Plum" and an insert called "Smart Source".  Pull both of those inserts out of the papers and also make sure to check for any bonus inserts that week.

2. Get Organized.  Purchase a zip-up three ring binder, clear baseball card holder pages, and dividers with labels.  Label each section with things like: dairy, frozen, crackers, produce, meats, desserts, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, etc.  You will be bringing this binder with you to the store so that you can easily flip through the pages and find the coupon you were looking for.  You may also want to get filing system to put all of your coupon inserts in sorted by the week they were published.

3. Clip what you will use.  Don't go scissor happy and clip every coupon you see.  Clip the ones for products that you already use, or have been wanting to try.  If you see a coupon for produce, meat, or other rare coupon items clip those as well.  That being said, do NOT throw away the rest of the coupons, instead put all of the coupons you will for sure be using into your 3 ring binder that is sectioned into catagories and put the rest of the coupon inserts into your pop up folder sorted by the week they were published.

4. Don't go at it alone.  There are SO many online websites dedicated to couponing.  The one I use is southernsavers.com and it does 90% of the work for me.  If you're in the Minnesota area I know a similar website called creativecouponing.com but I'm not sure if that's the absolute best one in the area, you may want to google it.  Each week on Tuesday the lady who runs the southernsavers.com website will post all of the sales that start at each store on Wednesday and match each sale up with any available coupons that are out there.  Some of the coupons are printable, but will run out, so you will need to try to print them as soon as you can.  The majority of the rest of the coupons are found in previous weeks Sunday papers.  The website will list it like this for example:

Cheez-it Crackers reg: $3.99 sale: $1.99
M- .50/1 RP 5/12
S-   $1/2 Stocking Spree Store Flyer
S-  .35/1 (Whole Foods coupon, printable)
Buy two, use two .50 off, $1/2, and two .35 off if Whole Foods is a Competitor, makes it 14 cents each.

Did I lose you there?  I'm sure I did... it will all make sense in a second.  This is based on my experiences with Publix grocery stores couponing policy, you will want to look into your grocery stores policies about couponing and make sure you fully understand them so you don't get disappointed if they're not as coupon friendly as Publix.  It may be worth switching grocery stores if you're going to stick with couponing and your current store is not very coupon friendly.

Ok, back to the example above.  Publix has "Buy One Get One Free" sales on several items each week.  Although they would like you to buy two, you don't have to purchase more than one product, they ring up as 50% off... which is why it says regular price $3.99, sale price $1.99.  Since the product is already marked down 50% we're getting off to a great start but now we bring in our coupons.  Publix allows you to "stack" coupons meaning you can use up to three coupons per item purchased, as long as only one of them is a manufacturers coupon, only one is a publix store coupon, and only one is a competitors coupon.  They have 5 competitors listed in each store so you're aware of which coupons they will accept.  A manufacturers coupon will always be labeled that way, so it's easy to decifer which type of coupon is which.  Furthermore, Publix will double any manufacturers coupons with a value of 50 cents or less.

In the above example you may have noticed an "M" and an "S" in front of the coupon, this tells you if it's a manufacturer or store coupon.  Since my Publix accepts Whole Foods as a competitor I can also use their store coupon along with the other two. 

The .50/1 is just an online appreviation to tell you that you save 50 cents off of one box.  The $1/2 means its a coupon that says you save one dollar if you purchase two boxes.  Since you bought two sunday papers each week you will be able to dig out the "RP 5/12" (Red Plum insert published on May 12th) from your filing system and clip two coupons so that you can get 50 cents (doubled to a dollar because it's a manufacurers coupon) off of two boxes that you purchase, so that you can then use the $1/2 store coupon as well.  Then you print 2 .35/1 competitors coupons and there you have it.  Two boxes of Cheez Its for 14 cents each.

So in other words, don't go at it alone.  If you live in the south, use southernsavers.com... otherwise look around for the best similar website in your area.  This whole thing I just explained is probably explained 100 times better on one of their websites... so go check out southernsavers.com before you begin to understand it more.

5. Don't force yourself to coupon every week.  Some weeks you just won't have the time or energy, or maybe you won't see any deals that really work well for your family.  It's fine.  Just put your entire insert into your folder so that you can use those coupons in the future.  If you're going to shop that week without coupons, still shop the sales so at least you're saving money that way. 

6. Save on non-coupon items by shopping around.  There is rarely coupons for produce or meats out there.  You will find some for chicken breasts, hot dogs or frozen meats... but it's likely you'll have to purchase meats without coupons.  Shop smart and realize this might mean you're going to a different store, such as Sam's Club or Costco for meats... and maybe a store like Walmart or Aldi for produce.

7. Monitor the register.  Make sure to watch as the cashier rings you up and make sure your items are scanning at the sale prices and that your coupons are ringing up at full value or being doubled.  Cashiers will typically be nice to couponers and they see plenty of them, so don't be embarassed wondering what they think of your three ring binder and eagle eye (haha!).  It's always best if you have some "questionable" coupons that might not be a perfect match to what you bought (for example Tyson Chicken Nuggets were on sale, but you have a $2 Tyson Anytizers) to hide your coupons in your wallet until they've rung everything up and it's started being bagged.  Then hand over your coupons, the cashier generally isn't going to want to dig items out of your bag to confirm they're a perfect match.  It's not cheating I swear...

8. Use $$$ off of total coupons first.  If you have a $5 off your purchase of $25 store coupon, make sure to use this first when your total is at it's highest before the individual coupons drop your total to potentially below $25.

9. Split up transactions if necessary.  If you have certain coupons like the one I mentioned in #8 where you save a certain dollar amount for spending a certain amount you will benefit from doing a few seperate transactions if the cashier will let you.  For example if you have three $5 of $25 dollar purchases and you know you have close to $100 of products in your cart, stop the cashier once the value hits $25 and use your coupons for those items in one transation, and split up the second transation until you hit $25, and the third will complete your order.  You just saved $15 instead of $5 for splitting up transations, not counting all the money that will still come off once you use your individual item coupons.  Some stores may not let you do this, so make sure to ask.

10. Always buy "money-makers" if your store deducts them from your balance.  Money-makers are items that are less than free after the sales and coupons.  Publix will allow money makers to deduct off of your total balance, but will not give you money back if your entire cart is full of money makers.  For example, I bought two bottles of Bayer Aspirin because by doing so and using coupons, I made 50 cents off of each.  Same with the 3 jars of peanut butter, I earned about 50 cents back on those three combined.  The reason you should always buy money makers is that then it's like getting money off of a non-coupon item in your cart.  For example, if I had purchased two avocados and had no coupons for them I would be paying $2 a peice, but since I have money makers in my cart they will drop the price of those avocados down to a few cents.  It won't always work out this wonderfully, but whenever you see a money maker oppurtunity go for it.  (Within reason of course... in case you haven't seen the show "Extreme Couponing" which should really be called "Hoarders"!)

11. Know how much is too much to spend on a particular product.  There are certain items that you should never pay for... things like toothpaste and toothbrushes.  There are certain items you can always get for a few cents whether it be pasta, peanut butter or something else.  Knowing the couponing value of certain things and when something is really as inexpensive as it's going to get will be something you learn as you go.  For example, if you're trying to get a 12-pack of Diet Coke for 30 cents, it's just not going to happen.  Realize that when you can get it for $1.60 a pack, it may still be a good deal and buy it.

12. Don't over stock your cupboards.  Having backup is great, but sales will rotate in and out of stores typically every 6-8 weeks so the general rule of thumb is to only buy what you'll use over the next two months.  For example, three jars of peanut butter will last us two months... there is no reason for me to stock up on 15 jars when I'll get a similar deal in 6-8 weeks.

13. Learn to ask for them.  Start asking for coupons at customer service everytime you're in a store.  Often store coupons aren't actually mailed out to people like you may think.  They keep store coupon booklets behind the service desk and will gladly give you some if you ask.  You can also check out most stores websites for a link to some of their printable store coupons.

14. Use social networking sites.  Oftentimes if you "like" a product on Facebook you will be given a coupon for it.  It's also a good idea to "like" the website you use so you see updates when you check your page even if you're not on their website.  For example I see updates from southersavers on facebook each day, so I don't miss out on a new deal that might have been added.

15. Use coupons for other things besides grocery.  Everytime you go to a clothing store first sign up on their website for emailed coupons, printable coupons, or even text coupons... if you have to purchase something, a 20% off coupon will help keep your cost down.  If you like to go out to eat or go to museums, playplaces, zoos, etc check out websites like livingsocial.com, groupon.com, and restaurant.com.  Now that you're saving at the grocery store, you should be saving everywhere.  A great way to learn about hidden promotions and deals is by "liking" the place on facebook.

16. Invest in saving more.  Subscribing to a magazine such as "All You" may cost you a couple bucks in advance, but the coupons that come in the magazine pay themselves back just as quickly as a Sunday paper.  If you're wondering what this magazine is all about check it out next time you're at the store and rip out a subscription card for savings off of the store price.  That way you'll get even more coupons delivered to your mailbox once a month.

Alright at this point I'm not sure that I've made much sense, and I'm sure I left several things out... but, this is all I've got for right now.  If you're interested in couponing, I suggest familiarizing yourself with stores coupon policies and checking out your local shopping website for help on finding the deals.  If you want me to help you out or clarify anything further, I will do my best!  I haven't mastered couponing at CVS yet, which I hear is a huge goldmine if you shop correctly.  So if I get that store down, I will try to post an update on that as well.  Hopefully this helps get some of you who were interested started!