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40oz

Extreme Couponing

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A coworker of mine swears on this being an awesome way to save money. She's shown me receipts where she's gotten almost $250.00 worth of food at the grocery store for less than $150.00. She said she clips coupons from magazines and prints out coupons from coupons.com -- the site she found so far has the best savings. She takes to coupons only to grocery stores that permit "coupon stacking" which means she can use multiple coupons on the same product. So if for example, if she bought a bunch of some kind of cereal that's already on sale, and carried three different coupons for $0.75 off, she can knock off $2.25 the price of each box. Many places don't let you do that apparently, or at least without obnoxious arguing, haggling, and complaining.

I'd like to get in on this but I've got some concerns that I want to ask her about, but I figured it might help to get some opinions from here too.

Does something like this only work because she has a husband and kids? Between my wife and I, we don't eat a whole lot of food, so to get extras for the same price might not be worth it if we're just going to throw half of it away.

Do you often find yourself buying a bunch of stuff you don't normally buy just because of the savings? (She did mention one day that she has boxes and boxes of pierogies in her freezer that her kids won't even eat, but she didn't want to pass up on the amazing deals she was getting.)

Is there a lot of risk involved? Do you have to spend hours of shopping to find out some coupons don't give you as much savings as you expected, or that you misread the fine print that said you had to get two or more products to get the discount on one, or that simply getting generic brand products would have given you the same results?

It seems cool getting $250.00 worth of food for almost half the price, but the wife and I usually only spend about $100.00 a week on our food just by getting essentials, sticking with mostly non-perishables, and generic brand products (we agree we can't tell the difference.) In most coupon magazines I've looked at, getting a dollar off of something is still not cheaper than getting a generic brand of the same product. Coupon stacking may have different results.

Anyone here use coupons and have had good or bad experiences with it?

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40oz said:

Do you often find yourself buying a bunch of stuff you don't normally buy just because of the savings?


One problem is a lot of coupons are for crap nobody wants. Make sure you buy only what you need or else you can end up actually losing money in the long run. Otherwise, coupons are awesome.

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Seems dodgy to me. First of all, I don't understand how there are so many stores in the USA that allow this. Every time I look at coupons they have the kinds of perfectly sensible restrictions that prevent people from getting truckloads of free stuff. Is this some kind of stupidity on the part of the stores or some kind of scheme?

Secondly, it takes too much time to do. This time is only being used to acquire a narrow selection of things (usually consumables from a grocery store). Apply it instead to putting yourself into a situation with better pay or benefits if you can and you run less a risk of your life going to shit. 400 rolls of toilet paper and 10,000 granola bars is less helpful when you get sick, evicted, shot, sued, or arrested.

Coupons are awesome, and I like it when I remember to carry the ones for things I use, but extreme couponing is a silly way to spend time and money.

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I can't imagine you'd save much more than just going to a cheaper grocery store in the first place. That's what I do, I'd estimate I save 1/3 to 1/2 on most things, and like you say most of the generic brand stuff is just as good as the name brands. (In a few rare cases, I actually like them better.) The little bit of extra hassle having to bag your own stuff at a place like Aldi adds seems like nothing compared to having to plan your entire shopping trip around what you can get with coupons.

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kiss your dignity goodbye. If you never plan on getting a shag again in your town then extreme couponing is the way forward. There is nothing less sexy than a man who chooses not to pay for Cilit Bang or raspberry jam without some piece of paper he cut from a fucking newspaper.

How much is your dignity worth to you? If the answer is less than the pitiful amount you can save buying shit you don't actually need then don't. fucking. do. it.

also, if you are aware of any OCD tendencies in your life then couponing is a superb way of shitting that up as well. Value your time at the minimum wage; if it takes fifteen hours to make seven dollars worth of savings from coupons...

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darknation said:

There is nothing less sexy than a man who chooses not to pay for Cilit Bang or raspberry jam without some piece of paper he cut from a fucking newspaper.

Yes there is: A man who printed that piece of paper off his computer.

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HK!D said:

One problem is a lot of coupons are for crap nobody wants.

That they are. Most of the coupons I see are pre-printed on the back of cash register dockets and are for stuff I've no interest in or use for. Apart from petrol discounts, Australia's big two retail conglomerates don't seem to be showing much interest in coupons.

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GreyGhost said:

That they are. Most of the coupons I see are pre-printed on the back of cash register dockets and are for stuff I've no interest in or use for. Apart from petrol discounts, Australia's big two retail conglomerates don't seem to be showing much interest in coupons.


I only get Dominoes coupons in New Town, all my mates in the northern suburbs get them for kfc, pizza hut, hungry jacks, mcdonalds, etc etc...

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I can understand coupons. A girl I hooked up with years ago was an extreme couponer. Know the best way to save money? Not spend any of it.

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coupon combos are weird, we dont have that kind of thing in our country. I remember first learning from that coupon stacking from Innerspace movie from 1987 if anyone has seen it

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Toys R' Us has the lovely strategy of offering one day sales, or weekend sales, on popular products, but seldom advertise it outside of the store. The result is a metric shitton of profits from impulse purchases. Although not directly related to coupons, it's a good example of how difficult it can be to save on discounts, coupons or not.

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Generally, I just use coupons for Pizza places like Papa Murphy's or Dominoes.

Granted, Coupons for Dominoes makes you look like the fat pack of cola a day video gamer you probably are or a pot smoker

whereas

Going to Papa Murphy's makes you look like the quaint family man.

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Netflix has Extreme Cheapskates. You learn a lot.

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