Gaya’s extreme couponing, minus the extreme part

So by now most of us have heard of the hit TV show “Extreme Couponing” (notice the 684 dollar sub-total, and the -676.29 coupons!).  Here are a few highlights of the show, and then my attempt at extreme couponing.

Some general strategies I learned from watching the show

i)     Getting rain checks for items on sale, so once you have a coupon for that item you use the rain check and the coupon together

ii)    Use store sales with store coupons and manufacturers coupons. Some stores double coupons, and even offer overage if the coupon is worth more than the item's price.

iii)   You can donate some of the bounty to others in need, or you can stock pile it in your house (I for one, sure as heck have room for 600 candy bars, 2500 diapers, and a 400 rolls of toilet paper). For tax purposes you can also define your house as a warehouse, and get a tax license.

{pic from show of a stockpile}

v)     You can dumpster dive for coupons. Americans throw away 57 billion dollars in coupons every year, and those dumpsters are ripe for the picking.  It is the most affordable way to use the 500 coupons a week.  I have had friends in Atlanta see people do this at the farmer’s market…awesome

{pic from the show….side note, the lady is wearing a 150 dollar Anthropologie jacket, I am not kidding}

Recently stores (Rite Aid, Kroger, Publix and Target) have been changing their coupon policies to prevent these shenanigans.  They are making it tougher to create that perfect stockpile.  So I wanted to go test my talent at this….

Gaya’s extreme couponing….

So I clipped a bunch of coupons from my parents Sunday newspaper and a lovely co-worker who graciously gave me the coupon section.  Elliot wanted none of this coupon crazy-ness, and was really raining on my coupon parade “Gaya, we don’t need that” “Gaya, I don’t even like cheerios” “Gaya don’t buy that, that looks disgusting” “Congratulations of spending money on crap we don’t need”…..and so on and so on.

Now, I was also buying normal groceries, so not just coupon items.  So my savings are not obvious from the receipt, but I did alright.

Here is a pic of the coupons I did not use (I forgot to take a picture of the ones I did use)

Here is a pic of the receipt. As you see I saved 6.60 from manufacturs coupons, and 7.81 from Kroger in store savings. I also had my husband check out separately and buy another bag of stacy’s pita chips (soooo delicious) which were originally 2 for $7, on sale for 2 for $4, plus a coupon, leaving the grand total to 1.53 after tax…not bad for delicious pita chips indeed.  I also got a box of mini penne pastas for like 50 cents (don’t be jealous!)

But overall, this was not a success, I also ended up with a bunch of crap spilling out of my pantry, that I would never have bought in the first place (dangit, Elliot was right), it also took a while finding those coupons, clip them out, find an envelope to stuff them in to, sort through them at the grocery, and spend extra time in the grocery store.

Summary: Domestic fail

To do: Next time I want to save some cash, go to the stores with good sales that week (for example right now Kroger is having a sale on berries).  I also want to go explore in various supermarkets that might be more affordable (so maybe Aldi (I hear if you are not happy with a product they will give your twice your money back) or IGA foods)