How To Save Money Without Extreme Couponing

To Coupon or Not To Coupon

So the other night I decided to tune into the new TLC show, Extreme Couponing. I knew it wasn't going to be something I'd ever get into and I know it's a TV reality show that isn't exactly...reality. I was pretty annoyed by the hoarding tendencies I saw but I will admit that I was at least a little inspired.

Not what I bought this week!

I've used coupons off and on forever. More recently I had checked out services like The Grocery Game that show you how to pay pennies on the dollar for lots of stuff but I decided for various reasons they weren't for me. I faithfully shop at local grocery store HEB and SuperTarget and that's it. The TV show along with several other friends who are great at couponing and save a ton prompted me to put in a bit of extra work last week to see how much I could save.

The first step was one I took a few weeks ago. Someone knocked on my door and offered to sell me the Sunday newspaper for only 50 cents a copy. In the past I have often bought it on the way OUT of the grocery store for $2.50 in order to get coupons for the following week. That practice is nowhere NEAR as effective as paying 50 cents a copy to have it delivered to my door so I can clip the coupons BEFORE going to the store!

The second step was pulling out the weekly fliers for Kroger, HEB, Target and CVS. I did one big coupon trip to Kroger, the first time I'd shopped there...ever...and determined I hated it. They recently stopped doubling and tripling coupons in Houston so that destroyed the biggest reason all my friends shop there. I was highly unimpressed with their meat, seafood and produce. A few items were pennies cheaper than HEB, but most were actually more expensive.

Simple Couponing Techniques

So this past week I focused on Target and CVS. The great thing about SuperTarget is that they put out a huge number of store coupons, which can be stacked on top of manufacturers coupons. I find that for staple processed foods like cereal and frozen pizza, SuperTarget has the cheapest prices. So I carefully went through my coupons and combed the flier to see where coupons matched up with sale items. I compared prices of certain things that were on sale in both Target and CVS and made two piles and two lists. I refused to buy products we don't normally use and I focused as much as possible on household goods and non-junk foods.

Big Savings Results

My results? At Target my final bill ended up being $139 with $60 in savings. That totally amazed me. The biggest coupon was $7 off Zyrtec-D, a product I use literally EVERY DAY. Not everything I bought had a coupon or was even on sale, but I had coupons for clementines, fresh artisan bread, bagged lettuce, yogurt, and boneless skinless chicken breasts. That just goes to show that coupons are not all for junk food. I also used a lot of coupons on dog treats, a couple of beauty products, and paper products.

At CVS I focused on the upcoming Easter holiday but I also noticed they had milk and my Tide laundry detergent super cheap. I know it is not the cheapest method but I always by the smallest bottles of Tide because the larger ones don't fit in my cabinet. I had coupons for Tide, candy, and some haircare products. My total bill was $40, I saved $30 and I got $7 in CVS ExtraBucks, which I can spend on my next trip there.

All this really didn't take that much extra work on my part and I didn't even go online to lookup and print coupons like I have done in the past. I am definitely inspired enough to put in that tiny bit more effort each week to save money.

What's YOUR couponing philosophy? Got any east tips for me? (I'm all about easy.)

This post is linked up at the Works for Me Wednesday blog hop.