One Mom’s Journey into Extreme Couponing

Perhaps you’ve seen the show Extreme Couponing on TLC with borderline obsessive couponers stuffing over-burdened binders, seams splitting, with mountainous stacks of coupons and dumpster diving to retrieve any wayward “free money” that some careless spendthrift shopper may have discarded.  These coupon warriors meticulously plan their shopping trips much like a four-star general strategizing his plan of attack in war, their desire is to “stockpile” by “stacking”.  Eventually, they descend on their store(s) of choice with a steely resolve to pay as little as is humanly possible for almost everything from toilet paper to toothbrushes to baby wipes, usually coming away with anywhere from a 50-95% savings on their final total.  Sounds more like an extreme sport akin to the Iron Man (Iron Woman?) than a weekly duty to be checked off the Mommy List.  Anyone else have images of the crazy Black Friday lady from the Target Christmas commercials?  What normal person could take that on and still have some semblance of a life?!  Well, I did…for a while.

For the better part of my twenties, I shunned coupons.  I don’t really remember why.  Perhaps I had some baggage from my childhood about being “poor” or some other stereotypical notion, but for whatever reason I would roll my eyes as I watched moms dragging their over-tired tikes through the grocery store while they intently scanned circulars and flipped through accordion envelopes looking for just the right deal.  Eventually, I became a stay-at-home mom and financial reality set it.  So I began to try different techniques for clipping, storing and using coupons to my greatest advantage.  My couponing was hit-or-miss, at best, until I met Jennie.  She did a presentation on couponing at a women’s conference I was attending and her ideas were strategic and efficient.  She waxed poetic about large discounts on her grocery bill, huge stockpiles of non-perishables in her basement and boxes upon boxes of free Eggos in her chest freezer.  She spoke of saving enough money on her grocery bill to buy a car.  I was intrigued!

Her first suggestion was to get organized.  I thought I was until I saw Jennie’s system.  She used a large three ring binder with baseball card pages containing index tabs on the edge of the pages to indicate various categories.  Brilliant!  We were instructed to get a three-hole pencil case to put in the front of the binder for pens, a small calculator, a notebook, a small pair of scissors and anything else we might need before setting off on our money-saving excursions.  After demonstrating the ease of searching through a binder versus continually shuffling through an accordion folder, I was sold.

Her second suggestion was to buy multiple copies of the Sunday paper so that we would have several of the same coupons.  Now why didn’t I think of that?!  To think that this whole time I had been lamenting when there would only be one coupon for Pampers in my Sunday paper.  She gave suggestions for efficient ways of clipping and sorting coupons and then moved on to show us how to match up our coupons with the sales in the circulars for our local grocery stores to maximize our savings (don’t worry, I’ve included a link to a great tutorial at the end…no sense in re-writing someone else’s perfectly good instructions).  Overall, the presentation was awe-inspiring and more than a little motivational for this Penny-Pinching Princess so I went home from the conference and put my binder together.

I won’t lie to you; it is a lot of work.  Because I found a great deal on delivery of the Sunday paper and because the Sunday paper at our local stores were almost always gone before I could get there, I ended up having three copies of the paper delivered to my driveway every weekend.  If I was particularly on-the-ball, I would clip the coupons for the week the day that they arrived and, after clipping, sorting and stuffing them into my binder, it would take me about an hour.  If (as I am prone to do) I would procrastinate for several weeks, I would be swimming in about two-and-a-half to three hours of clipping unless I could cajole my husband into helping me.  However, once they were clipped and organized it was a breeze to make my list and find the great deals.  What a rush!  On average, I would save anywhere from 30-50% more on my grocery bill than I normally would in my pre-organized couponing days.  It was nothing like Jennie’s savings but, as she told our women’s group, you get out of it what you put into it.  On occasion, between a doubled or tripled coupon and a store’s sale, I would get free items but, unlike Jennie and other extreme couponers, that was the exception to the rule on my trips, primarily because I am, for the most part, brand loyal.

After two years of some high-inducing money-saving, though, I finally faced facts.  As I stared at 17 stacks of unclipped Red Plums and a binder full of expired coupons, I declared that my couponing days were coming to an end and I passed my binder on to a friend eager to blaze her own money-saving trail.  It was in no way a failure of the couponing system itself but rather a transition in my family’s personal consumption habits and philosophies (a post for another time) that allowed my couponing passion to grow cold.  I certainly still use coupons.  I’m not adverse to them but I no longer get the Sunday paper and I no longer spend hours clipping coupons.  The seasons of our lives are constantly changing and we have to be willing to let go when something no longer fits.
If you are considering extreme couponing, I’d like to give you some things to mull over.  They might help to clarify whether or not this is a good fit for you.

1.    Am I brand-loyal (prefer only a certain brand of certain types of products)?  If you are, you can still save money but not as much as some of the extreme couponers will.

2.    Do most of the coupons reflect the type of food that I prefer to feed my family?

3.    Do I have the time, discipline and organizational skills to keep up with clipping large amounts of coupons on a weekly basis without sacrificing time with my family or becoming obsessive?

4.    Am I realistically able to travel to all of the grocery stores in my area to take advantage of the best deals without added stress and significant inconvenience to my family?

5.    Do I have addictive tendencies?  Yes, this is a serious question.  Many extreme couponers advocate stockpiling (buying large quantities of discounted items to maintain a supply until the next sale).  For a person without healthy boundaries in her life, this has the potential to lead to hoarding.

6.    Can I be balanced about my couponing?  It might seem like a sport but it’s not a competition.  Be realistic and don’t compare yourself to others.  You’re not a failure if you miss a “great deal” or two.

7.    Are the savings I am receiving worth the time and effort I am putting into couponing?

Being a careful and calculating couponer can reap great rewards if it’s the right choice for your family.  Give it a try!  It might work well, even if it’s just for a season.  In our crazy financial world, we need to find ways to save extra money wherever we can.

If you’re just getting started and need a primer on extreme couponing, check out Couponing 101 on Moms Need to Know for some great information and instructions.  

Are you a veteran couponer or money-saving mommy?  Give us some of your best tips.  We'd love to hear from you in the comments section!