It's been less than one week since I saw my first episode of TLC's "Extreme Couponing". Previously, I had probably used a total of a dozen coupons over the course of my entire life. I saw the show and was shocked when the first extreme couponer featured rang up a $1,313.00 grocery bill, and after forking over hundreds of coupons,
the store ended up owing her $0.31! They had my full attention. So I watched the episode over and over, and I DVR'd last seasons reruns until I had a dozen or extreme couponers to learn from.
After hours and hours spent scouring the internet, clipping coupons on my couch (while watching the show, of course) and repeated trips to the store for pricing, I finally did a mini shopping trip. My first one with my new couponing knowledge.
Here's how it panned out.
I walked in with 5 coupons and my list.
Coupons:
3 ~ Buy One Get One Free of any Dove Hair Care product (shampoo, conditioner and deep conditioner treatments)
1 ~ $8 off any 2 Cover Girl face products (foundation, blusher, pressed powder, concealer)
1 ~ $1 off any 1 Dove Mens + Care body wash.
List:
1 large Dove Shampoo (get 1 free)
2 large Dove Conditioners (get 2 free)
1 Dove Men's + Care body wash (get $1 off)
1 bronze Cover Girl blusher (get the $7.84 foundation for free with the $8 off coupon)
My goal for this first trip was to save 50%. I wanted to walk out with 9 items valued at $45.30, for $22 or less.
So I grabbed a basket and went to the hair care isle. To my surprise, my Dove shampoos were wrapped with free 8oz deep conditioning treatments! (Holla!) so I switched up my plan a little bit. Instead of my original plan, I grabbed 6 of the wrapped shampoos. This meant that I would purchase 3 of them at regular price, and 3 shampoos and 6 conditioners would be completely free!
Next, I went to the soap isle and found Red's body wash. Again to my surprise, the one he wanted was wrapped with a free deoderant! I had a coupon for $1 off this item.
Lastly, the makeup isle. I picked out my $3.74 bronzer and my $7.84 foundation. I had an $8 off coupon, making the foundation free.
I left the store with 16 items valued at $70.44.
I only paid a whopping $21.54! That's a 70% savings!
Here is my haul, still value wrapped.
Here it is again, split. The 5 items on the left are what I paid for. Everything on the right was FREE!
The purpose of this first mini trip was meant to be a confidence builder for me. To get myself over using those first coupons. The success of it was partially due to careful coupon clipping, knowing prices before I walked into the store, and being able to the flexible when faced with a surprise. It was also partially dumb luck. Those shampoos werent wrapped when I was in price checking the day before. So again I say: Holla!
Emily
