Posted on 07/20/2011 6:35:48 PM PDT by lowbridge
Lauren Liggett, a 22-year-old college student from Carthage, Mo., found herself hooked the moment she saw the pilot episode of the TLC reality show "Extreme Couponing" in December. She began scouring the Internet for couponing websites, bought copies of the Sunday newspaper for the circulars, and headed to the grocery store to shop for her family -- her mom, Joyce, a realtor, and her dad, Larry, a retired IBM engineer who works part-time as a car salesman. The Liggetts are not struggling financially -- they have a low-six-figure income -- but since Lauren lives at home and her parents are paying for college, she wanted to help out. On that first shopping trip, she presented her coupons to the cashier and felt the adrenaline rush of watching her total drop from $263 to $50. "Pretty good for my first time!" she recalls.
Today Lauren has slashed her family's monthly grocery bill from $400 to $100, and the bulging cupboards, pantries, and spare room can make the Liggetts seem like survivalists bracing for nuclear war: 288 rolls of toilet paper, 80 jars of tomato sauce, and 40 bottles of men's body wash.
There's no baby in the house, but Lauren couldn't resist buying 30 containers of infant formula on sale for $3.78 each. Because she had collected piles of $5-off coupons, she earned a $1.22 store credit on each sale -- the holy grail to serious couponers. (She used her credit to buy ribs for a Memorial Day feast and donated the formula to tornado victims in nearby Joplin.) As couponing became an obsession, her mom started to worry. "Your eyes light up like a slot machine whenever you see a deal," Joyce told her. "Admit it, you're an addict!"
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
IMO coupons (beyond a limited point) are for the deluded and the waiting to die. That applies to bond payments in the financial world as well. Learned the lesson from the example of a trader who was the Barron's magazine roundtable a few decades ago.
My wife has become quite to coupon addict as well. I like it. We have filled up all the storage areas in the house.
One no brainer is, when buying anything online and there is a box for ‘coupon code’, is to open another window and google to se if there is one readily available.
I’ve sometimes saved 20-30% off and not just on inexpensive stuff.
Grandma knew the value of coupons. The silver lining to this economic mess might well be that the generation growing up now will be coupon clipping savers rather than spendthrift boomers, x’ers, etc.
Classy. Baby forumla definitely won't go to waste in Joplin.
I’ve looked at the couponing sites and in the paper... your option is buying over-processed food. I mean I buy some frozen vegetables, whole wheat pasta, pasta sauce and canned diced tomatoes...but then what?
Proud to see her learning to be thrifty.
I manage to save some on my grocery bills with coupons. I just only clip the ones for stuff that I’m going to actually use or need. And I’ve managed a little stock pile of things like rice and beans and some canned goods. However it would pro’bly take me two or three years to use up 40 cans of tomato sauce. lol
Anyway when I’m looking at the coupons I also try to find enough discounts to pay for the gas to get to the grocery store. lol That may sound goofball. Especially since I office at home and don’t drive that much. When I do venture out, I try to get everything done in one swell foop, like grocery, cleaners, post office, bank, eat out, pet store, mall specialty store, favorite boutique to check the clearance sales, bakery, etc. Luckily church is right across the street. It requires organization and a list, which almost drove me nuts at first.
You can do that in a large town or city, but, it doesn’t work if you live in a small town and there are no large cities or towns close. No double coupons and I’ve gone online and printed out coupons only to find the local grocery stores don’t carry that brand or that item. We have one very small local newspaper and the coupons are minimal.
Well, you have to give her credit for doing it with coupons instead of doing the same thing by applying for food stamps.
Try it without a vehicle. You learn fast. :)
A WASTREL? That’s stupid. You conveniently cut out the part about how she got PAID to remove the formula from the store, and then donated it.
I agree. I never see a coupon for fresh spinach, or a block of good cheese, or a bag of carrots. It’s all bathroom cleaner, hyper-processed junk food, or some new miracle product guaranteed to make me 23 again. I don’t buy that crap anyway and no coupon is going to induce me to do so. Honest, I try, but so far I have yet to see a coupon for anything decent and nourishing.
When you sign up for Kroger’s discount card, (granted, some say they won’t give their real info), they send coupons about once a month, based on your shopping history. There are cents off coupons, but also free items. It might be ice cream or bacon. Or, it might be veggies.
True. Stuff you don't want or don't need.
Look, I use coupons. There's a small pile on top of microwave. It's all stuff we already use, and use a lot. But most of the stuff we buy is fresh food. Non-coupon.
As the article shows the girl is training herself to be a mega-shopper, not an efficient shopper.
You have no moral or ethical problems with this kind of legal-looting? Is she really a good neighbor? Should she get any public credit and thanks for so looting the store and manufacturer? Should she feel good about it?
The store redeems those coupons with the manufacturer, who then pays the store the amount of the coupon.
The store loses nothing.
Yeah, but she has to learn the other half - how to NOT buy things that she won't use.
I wrote “looting the store and manufacturer”. Still a form of looting. What’s your point? Is okay to steal from some places but not others?
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