Oh No!!!! Could I Be The Next Coupon Queen?!?

I've been inspired!!!! The new show Extreme Couponing has me hooked! If you haven't seen an episode yet, it's a must watch! The show follows people that save BIG TIME at their local stores by using coupons. When I say that they save BIG TIME, I am not exaggerating. On most episodes you see them bringing a food purchase of over $1,300 down to $50.00. The first time I watched the show I was left speechless! How on earth did they do that?!?!?  I had to figure it out.

After watching a few more episodes, I started catching on to the method behind this madness. The whole idea is to basically collect coupons from the internet (coupons.com) and from the Sunday paper. You then watch the local store ads and see what's on sale that week. They say that using your coupons during store sales is the best way to cash in on the savings. For example: Buy one get one free sales are a great time to use the coupons because you can use 2 manufacture coupons even though one of the items is free, doubling your savings. Some stores also offer double coupon day or they will match your coupons up to a certain price, usually $1.00.


It seems that this show came on at the perfect time!! Noah and I are on a pretty tight budget right now, so saving money is important. I figured that I had to try this couponing thing out. I decided to focus on just a few items on this first grocery trip. I don't want to buy anything that we are not going to use just because it's on sale. In one of the episodes, a woman bought 67 bottles of mustard and no one even eats mustard in her family! REALLY?!? Who needs 67 bottles of mustard in the first place? It goes bad in a year!!! Crazy woman!! Anyway, I noticed that Rainbow Foods had pretty good deal on Kelloggs cereal, buy 8 for $13.00. I went into my coupon stash and I found three coupons for Kelloggs cereal each worth $1.00. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, Rainbow will double your coupon value if your coupon is $1.00 or under, so each of those coupons were actually worth $2.00. In the end, I got 8 boxes of cereal for $7.00!!! HUGE SAVINGS!!! I was so proud of myself! I took advantage of a few other items as well. In the end, my grand total was $57 but with coupons and the in-store savings, I only had to pay $26!! I saved $31!! I saved more than I spent! I was so excited!


I never thought I would get this excited over something like couponing, but saving money is big for everyone these days. How are you and your family trying to save money this summer? Noah and I are looking for some ideas.