I love coupons. Am I an extreme couponer? Not really. With the way I eat, it's not as possible as I would like it to be. Although I've managed in the past to get $25 worth of stuff at Publix for just $10, most of the products that have the extreme couponers going crazy and stockpiling are processed snacks and products from companies that I avoid purchasing from for various reasons. Most coupons in the Sunday newspaper are Proctor & Gamble products or other big name brands-- Gillette, Skintimate, Listerine, etc. by way of hygiene products, and Kellogg's, ConAgra, etc. dominate the frozen foods and processed snacks. Not very often do you find coupons for pita chips, hummus, almonds, soymilk, Terra chips, Stevia... stuff I actually buy. Don't get me wrong, when I see these coupons, I clip them right away! But I pass on the vast majority of coupons from the paper. I don't care if it's free. If I can't pronounce half of your product's main ingredient, your company tests on animals, or a serving of your cereal has more sugar than a can of Coke, I'm not buying it.
I do always check the Publix and Winn Dixie ads for Buy One Get Ones on products that I actually use. Toufayan wraps and Arnold Sandwich Thins go on BOGO and I stock up. Smart Balance Light, BOGO with $1/off coupon, I stock up. I especially love BOGO pasta deals with coupons. Especially on Ronzoni Garden Delight or Healthy Harvest. Two boxes for $0.79? Please and thank you! Sometimes, stores will actually help you out with coupons. Walgreens does this. My favorite Publix near my home does this. They were doing a BOGO on 28 oz cans of tomatoes (I needed diced) and the store had literally TAPED $1 off coupons onto the cans. So I got two large cans of diced tomatoes for 87 cents. I felt good that day. I start keeping a record of which products generally go on BOGO and then I just don't buy them until they're on sale. It's just common sense... or cents :)
Sites like http://www.iheartpublix.com/ and http://www.totallytarget.com/ are really helpful when it comes to pairing deals with coupons. I check these sites weekly. I also love the Publix and W/D iPhone apps when I can't get online to check the ads. It's great when there are ingredients you need for a meal that week on sale at a local store.
CVS has been known to purposely put things with coupons on sale. Generally, their prices are higher for stuff, but when something is BOGO and you get a coupon for $1 off two, you can save big. I recently got two 11-oz containers of Emerald Cocoa Roasted almonds BOGO minus $1. It was a great deal for really delicious almonds :)
For items I buy often, like almond milk, I go to sites like The Krazy Coupon Lady to check for coupons before I go. When I saw that Wacky Mac (veggie pasta in crazy shapes... I like the shapes, ok?!?) was on sale for 99 cents at Publix, I checked out this site for a coupon and scored 40 cents off. Also, when it comes to printing coupons, know which ones have a limit and sign up on other computers! I am about to download software to print coupons on my husband's computer just so I can print more almond milk coupons.
As for really extreme couponing, where you can get things literally for free by stacking coupons and taking advantage of loopholes in stores' coupon policies, and even making profits on purchases... I think that's just wrong and manipulative. Of course... if you're just buying processed crap, then it's not really worth much anyway.
3 comments:
Agree. We used to buy the paper but we don't buy anything they coupon...
I haven't heard of a couple of these sites so you can bet your bottom I'll be checking them out.
Also, whole foods has some great coups on their sites sometimes...we've gotten yogurt for a good deal there.
I saw a documentary the other day that was about "really extreme couponing", as you call it, in the US. There were women that actually bought stuff worth $1200 and only paid $130. There is no way this would be possible in Europe. If there are at all coupons available, you might save about 10%, but virtually never more than that. I can hardly believe that you can actually use two coupons on one product and thus get money from the store for taking it home. Impossible in Germany. USA... the land of opportunity.
yeah! i love whole foods' coupons because you can print as many as you want! they also have a coupon exchange box at the front of the store at customer service -- you can get a stack of the same coupon. i have a bunch of the stonyfield yogurt coupons!
i didn't clip anything out of the coupons this weekend... but usually there are one or two that I do clip -- hummus, Terra chips, almonds, soymilk, pasta, guacamole... but this weekend was a bust.
@Anna -- i know, isn't it CRAZY!? I can't believe it... i worked at a grocery store and someone got $150 worth of stuff for $45... but it was all junk food and the two people were very large and obviously saving $ was more important than saving their health!
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