Extreme Couponing 1st Shoppping Trip

Extreme couponing is a way to use coupons to get merchandise for free or almost free. There are many ways to obtain coupons to use for extreme couponing. Click on this link to see how to get a stockpile for your start into saving a bunch of money. It take a lot of hard work and dedication but it will pay off in the end when you are getting most of the items you buy for free.

Well I must say that like most Americans, my family is feeling the crunch of the economy. I have always tried to use coupons but there has come a time, which is now, that I have to do all I can do, to save money or risk losing my house. Growing up my aunt was an extreme couponer and I thought, how great that would be to get items my family needs for free or next to nothing. So for the past year or so, I have been really trying to get coupons for things that I will use and save some money. I have saved probably around $100 in the past year just using coupons at random. Now, I have not been satisfied with that in recent months, so I decided to take on some extreme couponing. I knew that this was going to be very time consuming and hard at first but I feel it is worth it. I also know that there are going to be times when I want to quit but I feel that "free" is always a great way to stay motivated.

With having a stockpile of coupons on hand, I had to look at what stores were having sales for that week. I had found that Walgreens was having a great sale on many of the things that I use. I started out by matching my coupons to the sale items. I knew that with this being my first shop I was not going to walk away not paying anything but this had to be a learning experience. I was pretty confident on getting ready for this shop. I spent the evening before matching my coupons to the sales items. I also looked to make sure that no other stores were having better sales than what was before me. The day of the shop, I quadruple checked my coupons to make sure that they were for the right product and that I had read all of the coupons themselves. Coupons will state what you can and can not do with them, so you have to be sure that you know what you are doing in case there is an error at checkout. I will give you an example of how I did everything below. Now since I live in a major city, I know I couldn't get too many things for free because not a single store within reason doubles coupons except Kmart. Kmart will double maybe 3 times a year for one day, between certain hours, and there is a limit to 5 coupons being doubled.

I used a sheet of paper and wrote the list of items I was going to buy. I marked the original price, sale price, how much off per coupon, and the total I would be spending. Many stores will also allow you to use a store and manufacturer coupon together. So make sure that whatever store you will be shopping at you check their coupon policies. Here is that list and what it looks like. I tried my best to look for the original price but couldn't find all of them. Remember this was my 1st extreme shopping trip.

So I had gone to my local Walgreens and was completely ready and thinking this was going to be so easy because I really prepared for it. Only when I got there and started searching for my merchandise, I got flustered so quick! They were out of a couple of things that I had wanted to purchase and two of the items were not on sale like it was indicated. I probably shouldn't have gone 45 minutes before the store closed but I didn't know, that was definitely a lessen learned. I didn't get everything that I had wanted because I was rushed and flustered. The items I did get were right on target as far as what I had thought they would be. Walgreen was having sales on other things as well but I had left my stockpile of coupons at home and only took the ones I would be using. Big mistake! I could have gotten much more for next to nothing if I would have brought them. I did buy a few sale items without coupons because I felt they were a good sale price. All in all though, I ended up paying only $30.69 for a bill that should have been $76.02. I'd say not too bad for my first shopping trip. I didn't expect it to be so hard once I got into the store but it was. This is exactly why they say extreme couponing takes organization and lots of time. I felt I was prepared but when it came down to shop, I wasn't. Hopefully on my next trip, I will feel more confident while in the store and be more aware of things that could go wrong.

  I can't wait to share more tips and strategies as I learn them and I hope you learned a thing or two by reading this. If you have any tips for me or someone like me please feel free to comment and we could all learn from each other. Happy Savings!