Source: Extreme Couponing
By: Joni Meyer-Crothers
Extreme couponing means to never pay full price for any item
that you can get a coupon for. There are two types of coupons, store coupons
that can only be used at that particular store and manufacture coupons that can
be used at any store. Couponing is such an easy way to save money; most people
in an average year are going to save between six and ten thousand dollars, just
using basic couponing strategies. These strategies also apply to those families
receiving food assistance as long as the purchase is for food, stores will
still accept your coupons.
In order to be an extreme couponer you have to collect as
many coupons as you possibly can. You can search your Sunday newspaper for
coupon bundles or collect bundles of store circulars. Get in touch with street
vendors that sell Sunday newspapers, curb side and see if they are willing to
give or sell you their unused coupon bundles at a discounted rate. You can ask neighbors that throw away their
circulars if you can pick them up. Many nursing home residents subscribe to
receive the newspaper, but usually throw away food coupons because their meals
are accounted for. Get in contact with the manager to see if you can leave a
box out front to collect their unwanted coupon bundles. Many family and home based magazines will
often have coupons in them. You can also go directly to a company website,
locate the contact us tab; usually there is a place to leave a compliment or a
message. From there show your interest in their products and let them know you
want to try it out; usually they will send you coupons for their products.
Never ask for coupons directly as history shows they will not send you coupons
in most cases. Some big chain stores
like Target and Rite-Aid will allow you to print coupons directly from their
websites. A few websites that offer printable coupons are RedPlum.com,
SmartSource.com, Coupons.com, CouponNetwork.com and CellFire.com.
Once you are able to collect as many coupons as you can, you
want to pay attention to sale cycles. The key to getting the most value from
your coupon is to buy items when they are on sale. Most products go on sale
every eight to twelve weeks. Along with normal sale cycles you also have
seasonal sale cycles. For example Halloween falls in the month of October,
although candy will be on sale the entire month, the biggest savings will occur
the day after Halloween. Every month there are seasonal sale cycles to take
advantage of, for instance January is National Oatmeal Month, March is National
Frozen Food Month and May is National Pet Week.
Here are two examples
of how extreme couponing works. You have a manufactures coupon for $1.00 off a
container of orange juice; you do your research and find a supermarket that is
offering a store coupon for .50 off the same container of orange juice. The
regular price of the orange juice is $2.50, so by applying your coupons you
would have paid $1.00 for the orange juice saving you $1.50. You could possibly
get the orange juice for .50 if the store doubles their store coupons and free
if they double manufactures coupons. Another example is a box of Cheerios that
sells for $3.99, you have a .75 off coupon which would drop the price to $3.24,
if the store doubles their coupons you will save $1.50 and pay $2.49 for the
cost of the cereal. Extreme couponers will hold that .75 off coupon until the
cereal goes on sale for, let’s say $2.00, now you will be paying $1.25 with
your .75 off coupon and if the store doubles their coupons you will end up
paying .50 for a box of cereal that generally cost $3.99. Note: you can also
stack coupons by pairing manufacture’s coupons with store coupons.
Because there are many families that are facing hard times
and cannot take advantage of extreme couponing it would be great for you to
give back. For example if you are stock piling cereal because you have the
coupons and knowledge to get that product for free, pick up 20 boxes for
yourself and 5 boxes to donate.
Once I became aware of extreme couponing I thought it was a
unique way to save money for myself and others. If you have seen the cable
network show Extreme Couponing, then you know that most families that appear on
that show have basements and garages filled with merchandise worth hundreds and
thousands of dollars, which may not be used within a years’ time or more,
despite giving away a large portion of their purchases to charities and needy
families. The entrepreneur in me asked; Why not find sellers who are willing to
buy those items at a discounted rate. That box of cereal that you paid .50 for
could be sold to a convenient store for $1.50 giving you a profit of $1.00 a
box. Of course I recommend doing your research to find out what you have to do
legally to sell those items without breaking any kind of laws.
