Lately I\u2019ve been watching TLC\u2019s new show, \u201cExtreme Couponing\u201d which is sort of like watching a train wreck. You know you should look away but you just can\u2019t. The show profiles people who get hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for free or close to it, thanks to their use of coupons.<\/p>\n
This show has sprouted a lot of interest in couponing and many people are wondering how they can do this, too. The truth is, you probably can\u2019t do extreme couponing. At least not on any sort of consistent basis. Real people who use coupons probably save anywhere between ten and fifty percent on their average shopping trips. This is great but it\u2019s not the extreme shown on TV, which leads some to feel like they\u2019re failing. You\u2019re not failing. You\u2019re normal. These people on TV are not normal. Here\u2019s the truth about how they get those deals.<\/p>\n
There is a reason the word \u201cextreme\u201d appears in the title of the show. Many of these people have been planning their attacks for weeks. They aren\u2019t going for the typical items like break, milk, or produce. They are buying things like boxed pasta, health and beauty aids, canned food, and other items that don\u2019t expire. While it may look cool that they\u2019ve saved all this money, this isn\u2019t (or I hope it\u2019s not) all that they feed their families. Off camera, they are probably making other trips to fill in with other items. They aren\u2019t getting everything for free.<\/p>\n
The show profiled one woman who wanted to divide her order into multiple transactions to take advantage of the fact there her store was offering $10 off of every $50 purchase. She broke her huge order into multiple $50 transactions to further her savings. The manager came over and told her the policy was one discount per person. Since she had her husband with her, she was eligible for two discounts. Rather than be happy with that, they called all their friends to the store and made them each do a transaction. Is it legal? I suppose so since the manager didn\u2019t complain (but then again he probably didn\u2019t want to come across as mean on national TV). Is it within the spirit of the policy? No. Another woman is now suspected of engaging in coupon fraud. She used a convoluted process to exploit a technical flaw in the store\u2019s computer system. There\u2019s a good explanation of what she allegedly did here. If this is true, what she did is illegal. If you have to resort to cheating to get the savings, you haven\u2019t saved anything.<\/p>\n
These people are the reason why cashiers roll their eyes when you show up with your coupons. They take hours to check out and some are rude to cashiers who make mistakes or who don\u2019t process their orders in exactly the right way. The ones who resort to fraud or sketchy practices are why cashiers and managers scrutinize every coupon you present and why some stores have stopped taking coupons altogether or have limited their doubling practices. At least now I know where some of the hostility toward coupon users I discussed last week comes from.<\/p>\n
Many of these people pay to get coupons from clipping services, or by buying multiple copies of the Sunday paper. Many are printing large quantities of online coupons. If you factor in ink and paper, each coupon may cost a few cents to print. One couple on the show carried supplemental insurance to the tune of $35,000 to insure their stockpile. The premium for that policy eats into the savings. One woman took a day off work to do her shopping trip. That\u2019s either lost wages or lost vacation time. To be a true representation of the savings, all of these things would have to be accounted for.<\/p>\n
Not every area has stores that double coupons or triple coupons. To get these kinds of savings, you have to have stores that multiply coupons. You also need to have stores that don\u2019t limit the number of coupons you can use. For example, my stores here say that I can\u2019t use more than five coupons for the same item in one transaction. Therefore, if I had ten coupons for the same brand of cereal, I\u2019d have to make two trips. My stores double coupons, but only the first five. You also need a store that will let you make \u201coverage\u201d on coupons. That means that if the price of the item with coupon ends up being lower than the price of the item, that the store will apply the overage to the order. Many stores will simply cap the amount of the coupon at the price of the item, meaning you have no \u201coverage\u201d that reduces your bill for your non-sale items even further.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it was coincidence that TLC\u2019s other show, \u201cHoarders\u201d aired right after \u201cExtreme Couponing.\u201d These people have stockpiles of stuff that they will never be able to use before it goes bad. Even things like deodorant will lose their effectiveness and toilet paper will start to degrade. Cereal will go bad. It may be great that you have two years worth of cereal, but unless you can eat all of it before the expiration date, it\u2019s wasted. They have devoted whole rooms of their homes to their stockpiles, stuffed items under every bed and in the shower stalls, and stopped using their garages for cars to accommodate the piles of stuff. Stockpiling is fine, as long as you balance using your stock with replenishing it. Most of these people spend too much time adding to it and not enough time using it. They\u2019ve sacrificed living space to service this addiction.<\/p>\n
One woman spent six hours in the store. She logged in to her computer first thing in the morning to look for deals and spent all day on the computer. She admitted to leaving family events early to go shopping. Others spend hours managing their stockpiles. At the very least, they spend hours collecting and organizing coupons and matching coupons to sales and then shopping and checking out with multiple carts full of stuff. This is a full time job for most of these people and for some, it\u2019s an obsession. The time they spend allows them to get big savings, but most couponers don\u2019t have the time or desire to devote this much time to this.<\/p>\n
Another aspect of the truth about extreme couponing is these people eat a lot of unhealthy food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are coupons out there for healthy items, as I\u2019ve discussed before. Not every coupon is for junk. However, these healthy coupons do not appear en masse every week. This is why you see many extreme couponers packing their carts with Ramen noodles, boxed mac and cheese, cereal, and jarred\/canned food. You can use coupons and eat healthfully, but you will never get everything in your order for free. There just aren\u2019t enough coupons for fresh produce, meat, and organic items. If that\u2019s all you\u2019re willing to eat, extreme couponing is never going to work for you.<\/p>\n
So can you save with coupons? Yes, but probably not to this extreme. The most oft-quoted coupon strategies still apply. Match your coupons to the sale items and only use coupons for things you can and will actually use. You\u2019ll save money. Maybe not the extreme that these people do, but you have to remember this is \u201creality TV\u201d where things are often anything but real. Even if you can\u2019t save hundreds of dollars, ten dollars saved is still ten dollars. You\u2019re still doing well at couponing. Don\u2019t fret if you can\u2019t be like these people. Chances are, you don\u2019t really want to be like them, anyway.<\/p>\n
Yes, The 52 Week Money Challenge Does Save A Ton<\/p>\n
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Here Is How Millionaires Actually Save Money<\/p>\n