Extreme Couponing Lite

Doesn’t extreme couponing sound great? Up to 95, 98, 99 percent off huge grocery bills—who doesn’t want that? That kind of savings is significant, but the downside is that you need to put in a lot of time and effort to get results like the ones you see on TV. Those couponers admit to spending 30 to 60 hours each week and going to tremendous lengths such as Dumpster diving to score big savings.

For the rest of us who don’t have the idle hours or, let’s face it, the motivation, we recommend “extreme couponing lite.” This plan is based on my experience saving 40 to 55 percent on grocery bills with just an hour of couponing investment each week—not too shabby!

Here’s what to do:

1. Pick one grocery store.

Register for its loyalty card, and investigate its coupon policy. Learn whether it:

• doubles coupons

• limits on double coupons (for example, coupons over 50 cents are “doubled” up to $1 or double coupons are accepted only on certain days of the week)

• allows you to use both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon for the same item

Get the weekly ad (from the store, from the newspaper, or online) and know what day of the week the new ad prices take effect.

2. Subscribe to one newspaper.

• Know when coupon inserts are included (Sundays of course, and then usually on the day the new grocery store ads come out).

• Clip the coupons that are relevant to you. Keep them in one place; organize them if you want to, but keep it simple. Extreme couponers carry around binders that are 3 inches thick and sort their coupons by individual brands. My binder is 1 inch thick and uses 10 plastic sheet protectors for product categories such as food, beauty products, dish cleaning, household cleaning, paper products, and miscellaneous (batteries, dog treats).
• Go through your clipped coupons at least once a month, and throw out all the expired ones. Don’t waste any time regretting the fact that you didn’t get to use them.

3. Do the following before each shopping trip:

• Visit your grocery store’s website for its coupons. Print them out or download them to your loyalty card. Then, check your store’s circular for weekly specials.

• Make a shopping list based on the items for which you have coupons and items on sale that week. My list includes the product name, regular price, sale price, applicable coupon(s) that I have, value of doubled coupons, and final price for the item. I specify the quantity I should buy based on the number of coupons.

4. Go shopping.

Use your coupons, shopping list, and loyalty card.

5. Celebrate your savings!

Go ahead and put your receipt up on your refrigerator to astound and amaze your friends, roommates, or significant other. Here’s one grocery trip where I saved $45—43 percent off my bill.

Feeling ready to intensify your couponing? Check out the “Extreme Couponing” show website for ideas.

What are your tricks for saving money on groceries? Share them below or on Facebook.