EXTREME COUPONING IN MODERATION



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      I am not a fan of TLC but I was watching another channel when I saw an ad for "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. I was intrigued to say the least. It is a spin off of a one hour special called "Extreme Couponing" that aired December 29, 2010.

      I checked out clips of the special through my blu- ray player's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6NEFdLuQPc option. What I could see was that it was a special which was basically about couponers that are hoarders. Couponers that are smart are not all hoarders. But yes you should stock up when soda that normally is $2.00 is on sale for $1.00. Do you need to grab all of the soda? No and that is not good etiquette. I respect the chase of the deal but you have to understand that some items have expiration dates and you have to like the item that you save on. So I have a desire to lower my grocery bills but only buy what I like. You can be an extreme couponing and not be a hoarder. However a lot of the couponers that were featured because they got some many free stuff were hoarders but they also gave a lot to charity.

    I like Butterfinger bars, like one of the women featured, as well but come on a whole shopping cart? That never seems to work except to make me eat more candy bars. If I could keep that in my condo and never eat it unless I was baking with it or if it was once and a while then that would be a good sale. In the end however it would require me to have a full time Personal Trainer. For me all those free candy bars would cost the price of lipo, personal training and nutritionist thus making free quite expensive.

   One thing that I did like about the extreme coupons is that they found a way to workout without realizing it. Only problem was that some of them ate crap food so it did not do much. I think I should come up with the Extreme Couponer diet: "Save Money,Save Gym Memberships payments, and Lose Weight while shopping" will be the tagline. My mom used to do a simular diet where she worked out/ walked at the Braintree, MA mall except it cost a fortune! Extreme Couponer diet is Patent Pending people...

   The extreme couponers said they would walk about 3 to 6 hours a day in a supermarket and there were lots of pushing of grocery carts. They know their local supermarkets and they shop pretty much everyday and they also shop in CVS and Walgreens. They go through dumpsters/recycling for extra coupons and they fight people in the street if they use coupons to put their gum in (well maybe not the last one but they are crazy).

       I saw this through my blue-ray on http://www.YouTube.com/ and I was unable to see the full hour special. But it lead me to some great things from a couple of woman that were featured on the show. I have to say that I need to update on how to save at the supermarket. I looked on YouTube for the videos and some of the woman featured on the show had their own web episodes. I also found a great woman that was more realistic and someone I could identify with more. I also looked at the YouTube videos and I followed the web pages that they listed on the show. So it led me to research about extreme couponing and how to coupon the last two days.

     I highly recommend "The Krazy Coupon lady" and her blog. She has a good 101 on couponing and a lot of the things I already knew instinctively from shopping with my dad but she has a good course! I have lived here in Stamford for 3 years in August and I need to get a library card. I am going to go down to the library and check out her book Pick Another Checkout Land, Honey: Save Big Money & Make the Grocery Aisle your Catwalk. Her Links to coupons are amazing, Her website actually is just amazing and I highly recommend it! I also am going to pick up the book "How to Shop for Free: Shopping Secrets for Smart Woman Who Love to Get Something for Nothing" by Kathy Spencer." So I am going to be frugal and go walk down to the library and borrow these books. Maybe along the way to the center of town I will pick up some coupons.

     I checked out also this other clip that was recommended by http://www.youtube.com/ which had a woman with two young kids after seeing the "Extreme Couponing" special. She is in her early thirties and she is not a hoarder. Her website is http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/. I highly recommend you start off with this woman's blog because she is savvy and not a hoarder. She exhibits waste not want not chic instead of "I got it for free and I never will use it or get rid of it."

     But it made me want to step up my couponing and my husband was inspired. I have stocked piled certain items before that make sense and I too have a limit of what I would pay for an item when I stock pile. I grew up with the Boston Globe which is great for couponing but since I now live in a Condo we have not been getting the paper. But I would like to look for circulars and go to my local supermarket or my local CVS. I do get a lot of CVS reward points. I should use them for skim milk and other things that cannot live without. I also have a Target near by (with a paid parking though... and it is a bit far for stocking up on supplies) but I should look into shopping there. The problem with Target though is that there is everything there and it has 4 floors!!

    I have finally decided to get a subscription to the local paper the Stamford Advocate and perhaps spending our free Sunday mornings at a coffee shop to look through coupons that are left. We do not have a house and we live in a condo that is only 600 square feet so we are not going to be able to hoard or stockpile as much as if we were living in a house with a basement. But we do need to do some maintenance of this old condo and I have been thinking of redoing one of the closets (with a Elfa sale when we do the bedroom closet and the bathroom) so it can hold more items. I also cleaned up and reorganized my kitchen yesterday and I have some room to spare/stock now.

    I have also signed up for Coupons.com, LV (Learning Vest) "Cut Your Costs Bootcamp" which I learned about from Real Simple,I look through Krazy Coupon Lady for free samples/coupons,  Woman freebies, and I have been searching online for coupons for my favorite products. I got two 0.50 cent coupons for Nestles chocolate chips and I wish I had them when I bought mine on sale for 2 for $5.00 nestle chips last week. I am making more of an effort to grab the coupons.

    As a goal I would like to be able to save 30% of my bill at the grocery store and eventually build up to save 70-80%. I do not want to buy a lot of processed food and there are certain things I cannot live without. So those main things I cannot live without I have been trying to see if there are coupons. There are some things that I do not have brand loyalty to but in reality there are things like Kleenex Cottonelle Toilet paper that I have to buy. I have light skin and I am allergic to a lot of perfume/dyes so I have to be picky about soaps, toilet papers and laundry detergents.

   So I am going to do some extreme couponing but in moderation. So if you see a woman with two carts high-fiving the baggers then that could be me. Luckily for the Stop and Shop employees I know how to use the stop and shop scanner and I already pre-bag my items. That way they just have to scan my 100 coupons and then I am out of there with 0.5 cents for every bag I bring in. Awh-yeah!