Just the other day, My wife and I were perusing our satellite television offerings and we came across a “reality” show(I always put quotations on the word reality due to the fact that a budget, director, semi-scripted narrative and significant pay for the participants kind of make it a “not-reality” show) called “Extreme Couponing.” On it, they showed couples competing to see how much they could purchase for the littlest amount of money. What got me interested is that many of these couple were purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of groceries and merchandise and yet, when they tallied all the store’s special offers, sales and hundred of coupons they redeemed, their total was close to zero, that’s right, zero. What left me flabbergasted at first was the simple fact that the participants touted that anyone, even I could do it just like them. Their savings were anywhere from 70-90% off, and initially, my thought was that if I did not have the hundreds of coupons they redeemed, what was the use? That was until I did a little research.
I found that many times manufacturer’s coupons could be redeemed at the same time of a store sale, thereby saving you extra up to double the savings. Next I learned that you could combine coupons on special days like “double coupon day” with a store sale to purchase and walk out with almost an 80% discount. That’s right 80%! Finally, I also learned that if you need a coupon that happens to be unavailable, you can opt to purchase a coupon online for a mere pittance for the exact item you wish to purchase. Trust me, it is worth it. These coupons you buy online tend to usually have steeper discounts and more face value than those you clip form the Sunday circulars and online. At this point I was so excited; I just had to try it out for myself!
My family devours breakfast cereals (it is after all the most important meal of the day) my family also enjoys healthy cereals which tend to be expensive. Whereas a Sugar O’s cereal with 40+ grams of sugar is only a couple of bucks, our “Mighty Family” cereals are significantly more. It would make sense then that if a great deal came along on those cereals we ate, and I could use coupons in addition, that would make for a terrific “Extreme Couponing” first time out right? Wholá, now you are getting the picture.
The Purchase
I had with me a total of four coupons, for almost $4 off different brands of cereal, and I also saw that a grocery store in my area was running a “$1.99 each box when you buy 8″ sale. Perfect. Since I was a rookie I didn’t want to take any chances. I called the grocery store and asked if I could use the coupons in that manner (coupled with the sale) and to my delight, they said “Yes!”
My body was now running with a little adrenaline at this point (don’t ask me why). I took a quick shower, hopped into the convertible and dashed as fast as I could to the store. As I got there coupons in hand, I suspiciously looked around for any other “extreme couponers” that might be wise to my plan, and also try to buy on this sale. My thought was, “I had better hurry up because obviously EVERYONE knows about this sale”. I thought by the time I got there, the selection was going to be terrible, but as I approached the cereal aisle, to my amazement, there were not many people around. I quickly started to load my cart, picking the best tasting versions of the brand on sale, and noticed that some of the boxes were regularly priced close to $6.00; unflinching I continued to load all eight boxes, knew of some other deals and grabbed those and proceeded to approach the checkout line. When the Items rang up, together with my other sale items, the tally was close to 60 dollars! I could not believe it! I informed the cashier of the error, and mentioned the ad price, who in turn got a manager, who in turn got the director of the store and low and behold, they honored it, allowing me to walk away with almost 40 dollars worth of cereal for 12 bucks! I felt like I had scored a 1st round knockout of the heavyweight champion of the world! I could not believe that yes, Extreme couponing is real and does work, provided you simply pay attention and look for the sales. Here is why they had to honor both my coupons and the sale price. They mentioned that the particular brand that was on sale was for select varieties, but nowhere in the ad, or in the store did they mention which specific varieties. Also they only other descriptive information given minus the brand name was the size in ounces of the box, which I paid careful attention to and was within those limits. So bam! I won out, and got out of there with the eight boxes of cereal, five dozens of eggs, two boxes of saltine crackers, two loaves of bread, and 60 dollars worth of coupons to the local zoo all for only 23 dollars! The total value of everything I purchased at regular value (adding in regular value if I went to the local zoo) was close to 170 dollars! So my savings were just about 87% that’s right 87% off! Wowza! Three things you have to remember about extreme couponing
1. Never buy with your coupons, if its not on sale (trust me, there will always be a sale on that item somewhere) 2. It is on the proprietor (meaning the store) to define specific items and limitations on their varieties, size and quantities. If the ad or the store doesn’t specify exact varieties, or limitations on how much you can buy, then by all rights, you should be able to purchase those items. 3. Be Nice- I had to talk to three different people to show how their ad allowed me to buy the much more expensive cereals, however I was cordial and they quickly accommodated my request, and on a side note substituted an item that I wanted to buy for the same price which ended up containing the valuable zoo coupons that weren’t in the original sales item that had run out.
In the end, I walked out completely excited at having saved so much money, and now I can’t wait for the next sale, coupons, or deal!
Here are some links that I used that helped me understand all the specifics of “Extreme Couponing” and the site where you can purchase coupons on line.
See you at the store, Cheers!
BTW- Even if you’re a millionaire, who wants to pay 6 bucks for a box of cereal?