Many times I have been faced with a comment about the show on cable tv that features couponers at their best - - and worst. While I love watching the show, it isn't realistic and a short few minutes spent google-ing the fraud involved with that show will garner you a vast variety of information and lead you to see where the issues are.
In the last couple of weeks, I have come to find that at least three of the people we have seen on the show used fraudulent coupons, used coupons for which there were no matching items and committed other crimes because let's fact facts here, it is a criminal offense to knowingly abuse coupons. Not only is there the criminal factor, but every time a coupon is abused, it makes it more difficult for you or me to use coupons to provide for our families or donate to worthy causes. That being said, if you have learned anything from me, please take care to use your coupons the right way, on the right product and before they expire (unless your store takes expired coupies. Yep, some do).
I'm not saying that the things you see on the show are unobtainable, because they can be, within reason. If you are writing out a grocery list that looks like this:
- you aren't going to get a great deal on everything on your list.
To be an extreme couponer and get the really GREAT deals, you save every coupon you can get your hands on. Then you peruse every circular in your area to find items on sale that match up to the coupons you have.
Sales all run in a cycle of usually about 8-12 weeks. There are also certain items each month that go on sale, for instance June is Dairy Month.
Your goal is to figure out how much of the particular item you need to get through until the next cycle. Maybe you go through a bottle of ketchup a month. Let's say you find a great deal on ketchup in late June, right before Independence Day. Ketchup will probably be on sale again right around Labor Day, roughly 2 months away, so you need at least 2 bottles, right? (But at Labor Day if you find a sale you may want to pick up more to last until after the holidays. Ketchup doesn't go well with turkey, so don't count on it being on sale for a bit.)
Back to the show. If you watch, what you should have noticed is that the shoppers have many, many, many of each coupon and they wind up purchasing many, many, many of each item, right? Did you see the kid that was buying something like 60 Campbell's soups? That's because he had that many coupons for the soup. And sure, he had a total that was super high and he paid around nearly nothing for it, but he only purchased a few different products.
Here's an example. Let's say I go on that show (which is *never* going to happen). I obtain 100 coupons each of the $1 off Almay Eye Makeup Remover, the $1 off Heinz Vinegar, the $3 off Bayer, the $1 off 2 Milky Way and the $.50 off French's mustard.
I go to Walmart and I purchase:
100 Almay Eye Makeup Remover @ $1.14 = $114 - (100 $1 Qs) = $14
100 Heinz White Vinegar @ $1.14 = $114 - (100 $1 Qs) = $14
100 Bayer Low-dose Aspirin @ 2.22 = $222 - (100 $3 Qs) = overage of $78
200 Milky Way (ad-matched to next week's Walgreen's sale of 59 cents)
$118 - (100 $1 Qs) = $18
100 French's Brown mustard (let's say we matched the Target price)
$87 - (100 $.50 Qs) = $37
My total before coupons would be $655
After all my coupons I would pay $5. *before tax, but that wouldn't even be $10
Yep, Five freakin' dollars for 600 items. It can be done... but not for your everyday grocery list.
My point here is that you can't go into it expecting that your typical weekly shopping list will net you a nearly zero dollar grocery receipt. It takes time, you have to stockpile if that's what you want to do. You have to learn what the maximum price you will pay for items is. For example, if you asked me a month ago what I will pay for cereal, I would have said $1.48 is my max price. But as my stockpile grew, my price went down and now I will only buy if it is under $1.20 a box. Look at my blog. My first couple of trips were really expensive but they've gone down. In fact, even with trying to stockpile my family to be okay during my absence, we have hardly had to buy "groceries" at all.
I have been trying to make sure that the people I talk to about all this know that I haven't been doing it for long. Really, I am only about 2 1/2 months into it. What started it all was Complete Contact Solution. Back at the beginning of May, I just happened to see a Walgreen's circular on which they advertised Complete for $7.99 and then said it was free after a $7.99 Register Reward.
Say huh? I've been wearing contacts for 25 years and regularly pay through the nose for solution and they were giving it to me for FREE??!! Not to mention a brand that I like and not the Equate that I usually settle for!
I bought 2 and had I known then what I know now, I would have bought 6.
The next couple weeks, I was diligent about checking the Walgreen's and CVS circulars. Then I noticed that both the Walgreen's and CVS circulars routinely put by an item being advertised "$x.xx after coupon in most Sunday papers". So I started buying two papers every week for the coupons and it backfired.
Why did it backfire? Well it's like this: while you will find the same basic coupons all across the nation in the RedPlum, SmartSource and Proctor&Gamble inserts, the quantity of coupons included is determined by your area. I live in a small city on the Mexico border. The coupons in our paper... what's the word?... oh yes... suck. We hardly get anything and what we do get sometimes, well a lot of times, has a significantly smaller price on it. SuperCaliFragiSucky, right?
Then I discovered that I could print out coupons online. But those weren't always reliable either; different products, different prices, etc - not that they weren't useful because they were and are, I still use them. Then I found out that I could order coupon inserts online and a Crazed Couponer was born.
It was during this time that I found the aforementioned cable show. Man was I jealous! I wanted those deals! I even started to follow a couple of those shopper's blogs, only to have my heart broken later when I learned that what you see on the show isn't exactly on the up-and-up. I still follow a couple of them, but more on that in a bit. You just have to take their words and directions with a grain of salt.
When I was sitting down to write this, I remembered something. In late October of 2009 (I'm taking you way back, lol), I found this deal for a movie at CVS: (top middle)
This was my first big deal and I wish I had looked more. Look at the Revlon! There are *always* coupons for Revlon. Look at the Honey Bunches cereal! I was paying full price for Malt O'Meal and Great Value brand back then! Hold on a second, I need to go back in time and kick myself. BRB.
Actually, I beat myself up all the time about not having done this years ago. When I think about all the money I have spent.... ugh! It took me 2 1/2 years to wake up and see this. UGH! I am an intelligent person, how did I miss this?
Enough of that...
Because I have been asked countless times for the resources I use, and I always want to share, here are the sites I use for coupons and information along with a brief description. Please use them. Please join our Merry Band O'Bargain Seekers. Please share what you find. Please teach others what you have learned.
Go forth, be frugal and provide for your family and friends with the fantastic deals you find!
- krazycouponlady.com ...Click on the blog for the most up-to-date information. This site is run by two ladies who were college roommates, have been through their own financial struggles and are very trustworthy. They have a book also, which is great for newbies but entertaining as well "Pick Another Checkout Lane, Honey". One of the ladies was on the cable show we all know. She was the brunette climbing into the recycle bin for coupons.
- cuckooforcoupondeals.com ...Run by Deidre a wife and mother of three. She constantly updates her site, like several times a day. She posts weekly RiteAid, CVS and Walgreen's deals, weekly baby and pet care deals, upcoming coupons, etc. Terrific resource!
- hip2save.com ...Run by Collin a wife and mother with her sister and mother and sometimes her grandmother. She also updates constantly. Check her site several times a day for up to the minute information.
- wildforwags.com wildforcvs.com ...Run by Christie who focuses nearly exclusively on the two drugstore chains. She has a terrific following and will pass on information from her readers. The best source for unadvertised deals and CVS ExtraCare bux and Walgreen's Register Reward offers.
- iheartwags.com iheartcvs.com ...She doesn't post often, but what I like about her site is that she somehow obtains scans of upcoming circulars and posts them weeks in advance. This really helps with planning and you can easily figure out which coupons to hold onto.
- iheartthemart.com ...Run by Paul a stay-at-home Dad of 7. He lives at Walmart, spending hours there just about every day and shares any deals he finds. He also does coupon match-ups and tells you about items to ad-match. Not a lot of killer deals, but a ton of information.
- Online coupon resources - coupons.com couponnetwork.com target.com smartsource.com redplum.com (the last two are the companies that put the coupons in the paper. some coupons are the same as in the paper, a lot are different though so even if you get a paper, check them out)
- wholecouponinserts.com Just like the name says, this is where I order my inserts. She usually posts the upcoming inserts on Thursday afternoons. Great service.
- mycouponhunter.com Use them for single coupons you may want more of. Remember Mr Roger's when the postman was like "Speedy Delivery"? That's them. I usually get my Qs two days after I order, a lot of times they ship the same day I order.
- I also really like sarandipitysaves.com Sara has a youtube series as well and she is really funny but at the time I am writing this she is taking a break following some negative interactions with the most controversial person I mention below and a few bad store experiences.
This first one is probably the most controversial of the two. I'm not going to post the information here but if you are curious to find out why she is not exactly respected in the coupon community, do a search on youtube, google or bing for her.
couponshoppinwitjane.com ...I've gotten sommmme information from her, but grain of salt people, grain of salt.
And this one is, well she doesn't post often and she focuses a lot on her video series which is mostly (of late) about her cosmetic surgery. There is something, however, that I find entertaining about this couple.
clipcutsave.com
Well, that's it for now. I know this was realllly long. I'm sure there are other sites out there and maybe you will find one that better suits your needs, but these are the ones I trust (the top list anyway) and use.
Til next time....
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