I was watching the Extreme Couponing show on TLC with my family and couldn't believe the money that was being "saved" by cutting out coupons. I had several questions that ran through my head, such as, "Is there anything such as grocery hoarders?", and, "Do these people have any type of social life?". My main question was, "If they have all this time and money saved, and so many groceries that they have to add a whole new wing to their house, do they help others by sharing their savings?" In our discussion, as we continued watching the show, my nieces proceeded to tell me about how much they save by doing the same thing. After asking them a ton of questions of how, where and why, I figured the only way to prove that I could actually "save" money with couponing, was to actually do it myself.
The last couple of Sunday's, I have taken the Sunday paper and cut out the coupons. I have also went online and logged into the sites of some of my favorite products, such as Purex and Tide. Some coupons I was able to print right off the site, others I received in the mail. Today, I put it to the test. My biggest controversy in the whole "couponing" method was that most of the coupons, I thought, were things that I would never use. I could usually get the store brand cheaper than the name brand anyways. I sorted out the coupons of what I actually needed to purchase and I walked into the store today with my coupons in hand and after comparing some prices, found out that I could actually have saved myself some money.
My total purchase today was $100.65, and after my coupons was $84.26. I know, I know. I didn't get my groceries free, like on the Extreme Couponing show; however, I saved $15.00 and am pretty happy about it. There were several items that were buy one get one free!
Bottom line: it works. I may not have the time, or put in the effort that the "Extreme Couponing" people do, but I did save some money. Another thing that I was unable to take advantage of in my small town was that in some of the larger grocery store chains, such as Dierbergs or Schunucks, they will double your coupons.
