Posted on 12/31/2010 5:24:06 AM PST by PJ-Comix
My expectations for Extreme Couponing were, to say the least, extremely high. As every child raised watching Supermarket Sweep and the less-superior-but-still-notable Shop Til You Drop, I have a great appreciation for retail-based programming.
I have to admit, however, that my initial impression of Extreme Couponing led me to believe it was a competitive show — a one-episode special of sorts. Incorrect. It was actually a profile of four individuals who had firm grasp on the art of grocery savings to an inspiring extent. (One woman filled her cart with more than $600 in merchandise and paid only $2.64 after coupons. A true American hero.) I even found myself running to grab this week’s circular out of the trash where I had just placed it, hoping to find a deal like those I’d just seen taken advantage of on the special. I found no such deal and was uninspired as quickly as I had found my desire to coupon, leading me to toss the dirty paper back into the receptacle with a “pfft” for good measure.
But the failure also gave me an idea: I want to learn how to do this.
While my initial desire was to see a show in which the extreme couponers compete to see who could save the most money, I’ve concluded that a simple show of versus would not be enough to put these people’s skill to use. (Yes, I’d count saving buckets of money a skill.) They should mentor others about couponing.
We have British ladies teach parents how to raise their kids. We have screaming muscled people teach us how to be skinnier. Why can’t these people be experts in the art of coupon savings and mentor us over-spenders? I’d seriously watch that. (Disclaimer: I’ve been known to watch some truly vile unscripted television.)
What do you think, PopWatchers? Did you watch Extreme Couponing? Would you watch more of this? And if so, how could TLC make this into a weekly show?
Delica! Got them and gave them to some diabetics. Free with NO tax. So totally free.
Right now for chow, the Red Barons pizza deal at Walgreens can’t be beat. Use the format I outlined above plus you will get a Cogate toothpaste in the deal.
BTTT
I’ll take your word for it but I really don’t get how you get free stuff. All I ever see are coupons for 5-10% off.
You didn't read my post above about how I SPECIFICALLY got free stuff at Walgreens and which coupons I used? I'll think of you tonight when I eat my FREE pizza and then brush my teeth with my FREE Colgate.
Nice find.
Tanks!
If you want to hear a little background on the show, go to my favorite coupon blog, www.jillcataldo.com and see why she did not participate in this show. If you want to save big in a practical nutritious way, but not be extreme, read her words of wisdom.
I went to a free seminar talk she gave two years ago, have been running my spreadsheets of what I’ve spent, and have always saved at least 50% each month. I have fed lots of people, shared lots of food, and almost always have full pantries.
I'll think of you tonight when I eat my FREE pizza and then brush my teeth with my FREE Colgate.
You claimed you couldn’t figure out how I get free stuff yet I posted on this thread specifically how I get...free stuff with coupons.
I look for in store coupons and couple them with ones from the paper..don’t forget to look in the Parade section as it often has a coupon or two. Any coupon I don’t want goes to a friend. Krogers doubles my coupons up to 60 cents. After a while they start sending you their own coupons, I get free coffee ones (store brand) which I use as it is better than the name brands. I only buy what I can use, rotate my stock. My shelves are stocked for 6 months. I especially like bargains on things like laundry soap, shampoo and other grooming items which have been climbing in price faster than food prices. A 99 cent bottle of ALL is a good bargain. Buying a Pro-fusion razor for 99 cents makes me smile as it it cheaper than buying refills.
Walgreens has that little booklet of coupons out, check them out then check out your coupon box. A box of Blink (lubricating tears) with their coupon was 7.99, with the 4 coupon on the box that made it 3.99, and since I use a lot of the stuff I try to look for the bargains.
I remember reading somewhere on FR that SOROS has an interest in CVS.
bookmark
I love this site for supplements and natural body care products: vitacost.com The shipping is $4.99 regardless of your order, but we make up for that on just one item. For example, the natural sunblock we order is $5 cheaper at vitacost than it is at Walmart, the cheapest brick and mortar we’ve found. EmergenC is almost half-price, as is the organic real apple cider vinegar that my whole family loves.
Gotta stock up on my FREE Tide. Only have enough for less than a month now. Need to stock up for a couple of months this week.
Buying a Pro-fusion razor for 99 cents makes me smile as it it cheaper than buying refills.
Been there, done that this week with Fusion Pro-Glide razors at Walgreens. Used $4 coupon combined with $5 register rewards. On sale at $9.99 so got it for 99 cents plus tax. Oh, and it spit out $4 register rewards. That and a buck gets me two more Red Baron Deluxe pizzas.
PJ, I’ve followed your couponing sagas, here and have just a couple of questions.
Where are you putting everything? Do you have kids? If you are just a couple, how long does it take you to go through extreme stores of items?
I have 2 chest freezers and a large freezer in my fridge. We just got our venison in and I had to ask a fiend to take some large roasts until next week, when I will have more room. I bake and my favorite recipe makes 3 loaves of bread. If I can’t freeze two of them, it makes no sense to make that recipe and to bake one loaf of bread always seems like too much to go through if time is at a premium. If I make soup, it also takes up space and a gallon of homemade soup will last us for a couple of months, if frozen.
I have a 12’ closet filled, 2 chests of storage drawers in another room filled and about all I can spare of space for extra TP/towels/cooking oil and foil, filled. My pantry is stuffed as I move items from storage to pantry and then replenish as I make room.
I looked at the tens of thousands of dollars the people on the show had in their garages/spare rooms and I didn’t even see large families. I always donate to food drives and I have given 2 weeks worth of food at a time, organized into 6-8 serving meals, to people I knew were facing hard times and were not eligible for food stamps. Even after depleting stores when my husband was out of work, I think we had enough left of most items for a couple of months.
As for commercial pizzas, I buy them at 10/$10 and they last us 2-3 months. I use them, with add-ons,on nights when my husband has late appointments and eat late with little time to cook. A tube of Colgate toothpaste is $3 or so and lasts us months. I just bought 2 tubes for $3 and, if I had gone with Aim, I could have gotten them for $2.
My DIL coupons and either trades for them online or gets extra Sunday papers. She has 6-8 bottles of detergent in her laundry room at all times, 12 bottles of shampoo, every cupboard stuffed and some of her food storage is 2 years out date. Last year, I spent some time reading at the Grocery Game and some women were taking the wallboard out of their homes in order to use the interior wall space between the studs as storage space. I start to wonder how much of this is almost an addiction, like gambling. It just seems excessive. How many bottles of EVOO does one need to have on hand, especially when people seem to go out on foraging trips with their coupons 2x-3x a week to make sure they get every last deal possible?
For later.
I appreciate the work that is involved in saving money with coupons, but please, you contradict yourself in the two sentences above. For the average shopper running into the Shop-Rite on the way home to grab some milk and eggs and a steak for dinner, the sight of someone ahead in the 20 or fewer lane with a fistfull of coupons is like seeing brake lights on the Turnpike.
I do a large shopping every 4-6 weeks, fill in every 10 days or so with produce, but I grow lettuce and cherry tomatoes hydroponically in the winter and use Green Bags, so my produce lasts weeks. I keep extra cream, which is always on sale after the holidays, frozen in small quantities, just as I described for milk. Last week, Aldi had butter for $1.19/lb, more that 1/2 off anywhere else. I have a quarter shelf in the fridge stocked with butter and won't buy it until the next sale, which will be in 3 months or so. Ditto coffee, sugar, flour, broth. A 6# bag of egg noodles lasts me nearly a year, same with other pasta and I buy 15# of Bismati rice at Sam's every 12 months or so and have to package it well to avoid bugs. 1/4 of one freezer is full of tomato sauce and one cupboard still has dehydrated tomatoes from 2009, which are still good, due to vacuum packing with a silica gel packet. I will take some and add olive oil to it and put it in fancy jam jars for gifts. We buy entire cuts of beef and pork and portion it ourselves. I grind venison 50%/50% with sale beef for hamburger, adding excess beef fat from the portioning of top sirloin, at $1/pound total cost. Chicken is inexpensive if you stock up on bulk sales or get 2-for-the price-of-one whole roasters. Ditto turkey at certain times of the year. We stock gasoline w/Stabil for the generator and use it in the cars when prices are high. As prices go down, even temporarily, we refill the empty cans.
I use ammonia or vinegar or baking soda for cleaning. For $3 I purchased removable caps with the silicone seal for Swiffer containers and fill them with whatever I need, as needed. I found my favorite wood floor cleaner available in a concentrate for the same price as the diluted type and have used it for 3 months and have half left. I do use liquid hand soap, but it is often on sale in gallon containers and I probably purchase it once a year.
All this takes about as much time/space/money as we are willing to invest. I understand the allure of FREE, but, so far, everything is still manageable for us and it takes organization and planning ahead, as it is. I mark every can and package w/the date/weight. We don't eat huge portions anymore and things last a long time, it seems. Heck, we don't even take the local papers, although I will sometimes print out online coupons if I see something I can use.
fiend=friend
Those Green Bags really work? I was wondering about those.
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