There’s regular, everyday coupon clipping and then there’s extreme couponing. Extreme couponing goes much further than simply gathering a few coupons for your trip to the store. In fact, it requires a specific strategy to achieve the mass savings that extreme couponers ring up at the register.
Stockpile and Organize Coupons
Extreme couponing goes beyond clipping a few coupons in hopes of saving a couple of dollars on your grocery bill. It requires stockpiling large quantities of coupons. Many clippers have parties or get-togethers with like-minded individuals to swap coupons and share information.
A huge pile of hundreds or thousands of coupons isn't user-friendly. Extreme couponers organize them in large binders in an order that makes the most sense to them. Some people may use dividers to organize by product category; others may opt to alphabetize by product name. The goal is to be able to quickly find out what coupons you have. Binders also need to be regularly updated and cleaned out as coupons expire.
Devise a Plan of Attack
Extreme couponers typically spend weeks planning their shopping trips. With their coupons neatly organized, they gather up fliers from local grocery stores, drug stores, and discount chains that accept coupons. The key to being a successful extreme couponer is to match coupons up according to sales involving those items.
Here's an example of how extreme couponers manage to get products for free. Let's say you have a .50 coupon for dog food. You peruse the local store ads and find that your local grocery store has a sale on the same brand of dog food that week and is selling it for .89 per can. The store’s policy is to double the value of coupons worth .50 or less. So, when you buy one can with your coupon, you are actually getting a store credit worth .11! Multiply that by 20 coupons for dog food and you are getting 20 cans of dog food for free.
What You Need to Become an Extreme Couponer
To get started, you need an abundance of patience, motivation, and plenty of time to devote to the job. In fact, many extreme couponers consider couponing their job. It also helps to have a thick skin, as fellow shoppers may groan when they find themselves behind you in line.
You'll need as many copies of the coupon-rich inserts in the Sunday paper as you can get. Ask friends, neighbors, and relatives to save them for you and hit the local value store to buy multiple copies of the paper. You'll also need at least one copy of local stores' sales flyers so you can match which coupons to use where for the biggest deals.
You'll need scissors, a binder to organize your coupons, a vehicle large enough to carry your treasures, and a place to store them at home. It's common for extreme couponers to come home with three or four baskets of products. Serious enthusiasts have entire rooms full of shelves devoted to storing their loot.
