Extreme Couponing 101: How to Extreme Coupon Diva Style and Save 75% + on Your Groceries, Body Care Products, Household Supplies and Much More
With record high unemployment, rising gas prices, home foreclosures at an all time high, and our overall economy in a downward spiral, who wouldn't love to learn how to stretch those precious few dollars we have in our pockets to provide everything our families need and yes, even want!
I know that was my driving goal, to provide for my family after both myself and my husband were laid off from our jobs within two months of each other! So panic struck and down to only a few bucks, I watched every coupon program I could find and read every couponing blog/website I could get my eyeballs on to learn the skills needed to save money with couponing!
Nervous, unsure and flat broke with three hungry boys, my hubby and myself to feed, I started dumpster diving, pulling from recycle bins throughout my neighborhood (with permission of course) and collecting every free coupon I could get my hands on! Never in my wildest dreams did I believe it would lead me to having a garage, two freezers, a pantry, several closest, and many cabinets overflowing with food and products to supply my family for over 6 months AND couponing has allowed me to donate to several local food pantries, animal shelters, daycares, women shelters, several struggling friends and family members, and all kinds of strangers I have met along my journey. Couponing has blessed my family and myself tremendously and I hope I can ignite within you that same spark I found so you too can be blessed and continue forward (Pay it Forward) the blessings by sharing and teaching others. Together we all can do our part to help each other out and hold each other above the water so no one drowns (goes hungry!)
That is my story and just as I have one I am sure everyone that reads this has one too, in any case the fact you are reading this is a step in the right direction....... you have decided you are going to start couponing. First, allow me to congratulate you for taking this quest on as it will save your family a lot of money additionally, it will allow you to put things in your pantries you might otherwise had to shy away from purchasing due to their cost. Considering the average American family spends between $500 to $1,000 a month on groceries, pet supplies, clothing, toiletries and cleaning products. We all know it is possible to cut out lots of "wants" from our list to get to the lower end of this range, but with couponing, you can actually cut these same cost down to even lower and get even more than you can use allowing you to donate-donate-donate! Yes, you can and you read that right!
Here is a ball park snapshot of the last three months of my family's savings from couponing:
December: We paid $575.75 for $2,188.68 worth of food, health & beauty, cleaning and dog food) saving about 76% - that's huge!
January: We paid $509.68 for $2,875.91 worth of food, health & beauty, and cleaning supplies. (We didn't need to buy dog food as we stocked up for 6 months in December!) That's saving about 81% and that's not including the outstanding rebates we are waiting to come in.... I call that my fun money line of credit!
February: This was a great month with all those Got 2 B Glued Deals, we paid 380.14 for $3,211.91 worth of goodies (food and such) which without checking the exact math is a savings upwards of 88% savings.... THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!
Now when you look at the savings and factor in all the products (needs and wants) my family has now and all the great stuff we have been able to bless others with too...... who couldn't fall in love with couponing?
I know that was my driving goal, to provide for my family after both myself and my husband were laid off from our jobs within two months of each other! So panic struck and down to only a few bucks, I watched every coupon program I could find and read every couponing blog/website I could get my eyeballs on to learn the skills needed to save money with couponing!
Nervous, unsure and flat broke with three hungry boys, my hubby and myself to feed, I started dumpster diving, pulling from recycle bins throughout my neighborhood (with permission of course) and collecting every free coupon I could get my hands on! Never in my wildest dreams did I believe it would lead me to having a garage, two freezers, a pantry, several closest, and many cabinets overflowing with food and products to supply my family for over 6 months AND couponing has allowed me to donate to several local food pantries, animal shelters, daycares, women shelters, several struggling friends and family members, and all kinds of strangers I have met along my journey. Couponing has blessed my family and myself tremendously and I hope I can ignite within you that same spark I found so you too can be blessed and continue forward (Pay it Forward) the blessings by sharing and teaching others. Together we all can do our part to help each other out and hold each other above the water so no one drowns (goes hungry!)
That is my story and just as I have one I am sure everyone that reads this has one too, in any case the fact you are reading this is a step in the right direction....... you have decided you are going to start couponing. First, allow me to congratulate you for taking this quest on as it will save your family a lot of money additionally, it will allow you to put things in your pantries you might otherwise had to shy away from purchasing due to their cost. Considering the average American family spends between $500 to $1,000 a month on groceries, pet supplies, clothing, toiletries and cleaning products. We all know it is possible to cut out lots of "wants" from our list to get to the lower end of this range, but with couponing, you can actually cut these same cost down to even lower and get even more than you can use allowing you to donate-donate-donate! Yes, you can and you read that right!
Here is a ball park snapshot of the last three months of my family's savings from couponing:
December: We paid $575.75 for $2,188.68 worth of food, health & beauty, cleaning and dog food) saving about 76% - that's huge!
January: We paid $509.68 for $2,875.91 worth of food, health & beauty, and cleaning supplies. (We didn't need to buy dog food as we stocked up for 6 months in December!) That's saving about 81% and that's not including the outstanding rebates we are waiting to come in.... I call that my fun money line of credit!
February: This was a great month with all those Got 2 B Glued Deals, we paid 380.14 for $3,211.91 worth of goodies (food and such) which without checking the exact math is a savings upwards of 88% savings.... THAT'S WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!
Now when you look at the savings and factor in all the products (needs and wants) my family has now and all the great stuff we have been able to bless others with too...... who couldn't fall in love with couponing?
Now, I am thinking you’ve possibly seen the ‘SHOW’ and feel it could all be a little over whelming… or you have been behind someone in line and watched them rack up the savings and wondered how you could ever do that........ well, don’t despair, if I had only one single piece of advice I could offer you, it would be......... that the key to couponing is to start slowly.
That said, there are some things that you are going to need to do to get your savings flowing like a pro.........
First step is to decide what level of couponer you want or need to be. Think of couponing as having four levels: casual couponing (old school), the store and generic brand hunter (sacrificing to save a buck or two), the coupon deal hunter (buying up BOGO deals and store specials), and last but not least the Extreme Couponer (all the above and then some type!)
The first type, the casual couponer, is what most consumers that use coupons here and there are considered, paying for a whole buggy full of products and only using 8 or so coupons resulting in a very minimal savings. The second type, the store and generic brand hunter, they target mostly generic/store brand items forgoing the use of coupons most of the time to save money without the hassle. They do save a little more then the casual couponer, but they sacrifice often on quality and value to do so...... Which leads me to the first of two most rapidly growing types of couponers, the coupon deal shopper, this couponer will set out to utilize store deals aligning them with manufacture coupons, saving big bucks often getting things for just pennies or free! This type of couponer knows that everything eventually goes on sale and if I just wait, I can save! They average an overall 70% - 85% savings. Pretty great stuff, but can you believe it can get better then that? Yes, read on......... The last of these two new breeds of couponing styles that is rapidly taking the industry by storm, is the EXTREME COUPONER, this couponer utilizes not only store deals, manufacture's coupons but also stacks and uses store coupons, targets deals with rebates attached, and basically following a similar strategy as the coupon deal shopper but they do it many times over, meaning instead of taking advantage of one great deal on pasta - they figure their family will need 8 boxes until the next sale cycle and they do the same deal 10 times (8 for their family and 2 to give away!) And lastly, I would not be doing justice to the extreme couponers description if I didn't give them credit for targeting all the money makers and using the store bonus coupons ($5 off $25, ect.) The ultimate savings scenario of every great couponer would be: Combining 3 types of savings (store coupons stacked with manufacture coupons on top of store specials! That's the mack daddy savings scenario we all strive for!
So as you can see here, gone are the days of the little pocket full of coupons you may or may not use tucked away in your purse. Welcome to hard core savings!
First step is to decide what level of couponer you want or need to be. Think of couponing as having four levels: casual couponing (old school), the store and generic brand hunter (sacrificing to save a buck or two), the coupon deal hunter (buying up BOGO deals and store specials), and last but not least the Extreme Couponer (all the above and then some type!)
The first type, the casual couponer, is what most consumers that use coupons here and there are considered, paying for a whole buggy full of products and only using 8 or so coupons resulting in a very minimal savings. The second type, the store and generic brand hunter, they target mostly generic/store brand items forgoing the use of coupons most of the time to save money without the hassle. They do save a little more then the casual couponer, but they sacrifice often on quality and value to do so...... Which leads me to the first of two most rapidly growing types of couponers, the coupon deal shopper, this couponer will set out to utilize store deals aligning them with manufacture coupons, saving big bucks often getting things for just pennies or free! This type of couponer knows that everything eventually goes on sale and if I just wait, I can save! They average an overall 70% - 85% savings. Pretty great stuff, but can you believe it can get better then that? Yes, read on......... The last of these two new breeds of couponing styles that is rapidly taking the industry by storm, is the EXTREME COUPONER, this couponer utilizes not only store deals, manufacture's coupons but also stacks and uses store coupons, targets deals with rebates attached, and basically following a similar strategy as the coupon deal shopper but they do it many times over, meaning instead of taking advantage of one great deal on pasta - they figure their family will need 8 boxes until the next sale cycle and they do the same deal 10 times (8 for their family and 2 to give away!) And lastly, I would not be doing justice to the extreme couponers description if I didn't give them credit for targeting all the money makers and using the store bonus coupons ($5 off $25, ect.) The ultimate savings scenario of every great couponer would be: Combining 3 types of savings (store coupons stacked with manufacture coupons on top of store specials! That's the mack daddy savings scenario we all strive for!
So as you can see here, gone are the days of the little pocket full of coupons you may or may not use tucked away in your purse. Welcome to hard core savings!
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