Extreme Couponing

Or should I say, extremely sensible couponing...

 I watched the TLC show Extreme Couponing and I fell for it, hook line and sinker. I truly believed that you could create this unbelievably huge stockpile for a few dollars a month, and to top it off, I truly believed that for the most part you could live off it. BOY WAS I WRONG!

 Maybe once upon a time you could have at least partially done this, but so many things have changed since this show began. Companies and stores have become a lot more strict about coupons and their policies. Now I still coupon, I have the huge binder of coupons and I spend hours sorting and matching coupons while the rest of my house falls apart and my kids run crazy, lol. But I do it a lot more sensible. One of the first things I do is before I even buy a sunday paper (or multiple papers) is I check out Sunday coupon preview, The site is usually pretty accurate for my area. I make sure I will use at least $2 worth of coupons for each paper I buy (this is the cost of the paper I buy so I know I will at least be getting my money back). Then comes the cutting and sorting, which is usually a lot for me, with the size of my family I will normally get 5 papers if the coupons are good. I sort them in to piles, then file them into my binder while taking out expired ones. I like the crazy coupon lady's binder dividers and simple baseball card pages to hold the coupons. I will talk more about how I organize my binder later.

 Now for the sensible part, first I only cut coupons for things that I know we eat or will use. I'm not too picky about some things like body wash and shampoo, so I will cut all of those and buy whatever I can find the best deals on. But for things like laundry detergent, I am very picky about what I use so I only cut those coupons. If there is something I want to try I will cut that coupon too. Then I will gather my ad's. I use to run all over town, store to store, to get the best deals on everything.... while spending a lot in gas. Now I pick the stores that I know I am going by or that are close to me, otherwise I am spending more in gas than I am saving. Now for the facts, You CAN NOT live off the stuff that you coupon for (that is if you want to eat at all healthy and eat a variety of foods), so take advantage of the sales as they come around, even if you don't have a coupon. And if a coupon is about to expire for something you do use, use the coupon even though the item is not on sale. you are still saving money. Yes it would be nice to be able to match everything you buy with both a coupon and a sale at the same time, but reality is, it's not going to happen.