Extreme Couponing

Women who like to spend money call shopping a sport. As successful couponers profess their success like get-rich-quick schemes and media exaggerates normal savings, they changed the name to "Extreme Couponing" to make it sound like shopping is an "extreme sport." Yes, for those who live in coupon-hospitable environments, it does provide an *extreme* savings. But for those where couponing is less receptive by limited companies, it is an *extreme* effort to gain any savings at all.

They say it takes money to make money. Even in Couponing, you must invest money. You must subscribe to a newspaper to get coupon inserts, use up printer paper/ink for printables as well as gas to get to each store for the deals. In addition, you end up spending lots of time cutting/organizing coupons, matching sales with coupons and rebates, searching coupon databases and websites, shopping at various stores searching for the exact products, and waiting at the register for managers to approve transactions.

I gave up couponing shortly after moving to Texas due to the lack of competition (only two grocery stores, and they are not coupon-friendly) and tightening of coupon rules/savings programs (at CVS/Walgreens). But as prices keep rising and the value (and quantity) of the dollar go down, and as our food stamp qualifications come to a close, I feel it is necessary to resurrect that old hobby in order to make that dwindling dollar stretch.

As I reenter the market, I find it even more frustrating than I did before. There really aren't deals to be had at Walmart, other than the fact that they consistently undercut their only other competitor, despite HEB's BOGO gimmicks. (These gimmicks are usually for things I would never consume even if given to me for free, not to mention that Walmart would still beat out the price of the item that you had to buy in order to get the free items, even with a coupon.) Although I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to make the HEB deals worth trying, I am focusing more on the other stores: CVS, Walgreens, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Target.

But I am still coming up with nearly nothing. A lot of times, a sale is only a deal if you have a critical coupon; you could have lots of coupons that make the sale better, but if you are missing that ONE coupon, it's really not a bargain. So far, I have only been subscribed to the Sunday Paper for 2 weeks, so my stock of coupons is limited and my ability to take advantage of these deals is hindered. I have only now realized that I should have forked out a few more dollars to get the Early Edition, rather than the Sunday Edition, so that I could get a head start on planning/organizing (although that would make me less available for my family). I also don't shop on Sunday, so that puts me at a great disadvantage when competing with other couponers. Stores tend to run out of stock on their sale items, not to mention that some stores have no control over how much they get and cannot order more of something they know they will have on sale (as was the case in Walgreens/CVS when I used to coupon before). Furthermore, some printable coupons vanish shortly after they're posted, which means if I didn't find and print them on Saturday or Sunday, those critical coupons might not be available to make the deal a bargain. (Or they were available to print during the week prior to a deal and are no longer found online, but I don't want to print every single coupon in the event that I might need it later cuz that would be a lot of wasted ink/paper which would null any savings),

Last week, I wanted to take advantage of a deal for my brand of makeup (since this particular kind is the only one I've found that does not make me break out). But none of the 5 store locations I visited had the shade I needed, so I lost out on it. Today, one store manager said I needed to call the manufacturer to find out why a certain coupon wouldn't scan. That should be HIS job. I may try again at another location, but I expect to lose out on that deal as well.

So far, I find that "extreme couponing" is an ironic term because I must use an extreme amount of energy to save a tiny bit of money. In places like California or Utah where they are coupon-friendly and have a variety of stores to choose from, couponing works a lot better. The online coupon network works a lot better there too. It's much, much harder here. But I've decided to give it a second chance in hopes that I can make it work, despite my previous lack of success. Perhaps I'm just too frustrated and critical right now. Maybe I just need more faith and practice. Even if my area isn't coupon-friendly and I don't shop on Sundays, maybe I can one day become an Extreme Couponer like the women on the TLC show (which I haven't actually seen).

[But let's not forget to call a spade a spade; if you spend any amount of money on a product you would never have bought in the first place, you can't call it a bargain since you spent money you never intended to spend. It's only a deal if you would have spent money on that product at some point.]

Addendum 12/21
Trying to keep straight all the couponing rules for CVS and Walgreens is maddening. And if you don't get the exact item in the circular's picture (not specified in the print), then it doesn't work out and you have to void it and do it again. Or if they don't have one of the items you need for your sequence of transactions, then it ruins the whole scenario planned out ahead of time. This week, I went to CVS 4 times (two locations) and Walgreens 3 times (2 locations), due to overcharging, getting the wrong item, or items out of stock. This, on top of the time it took to do the matchups and planning and searching, made for a VERY long shopping expedition. When I had to return a few items, their systems wouldn't allow me to give back the amount of money I saved in coupons, so, even though I tried not to cheat them, I basically made $7 off the unused coupons. In the end, I bought $68 worth of stuff for $15. Pretty good for the 2nd week. But I'm with Rex when he says he hopes that with practice I can cut that time by 3/4ths! Time is money! (It's really too bad I can't do this with groceries!)

Addendum 1/3
This week's shopping excursion was quite successful! I bought $60 worth of stuff for $15 between Walgreens and CVS. While I still spent a lot of time planning and preparing my strategies, I probably only spent half the amount of time I did the last two times. AND it only took me one visit to Walgreens and two visits to CVS. (The first CVS was sold out of the deal items. When I stopped at HEB to buy the frozen pizzas on sale, the cashier forced through the manufacture coupon I had -- I was surprised because usually they won't let you combine real manufacture coupons with their store coupons (which they designate as manufacture coupons). They have a policy where if it has an "S" on their coupon, it is considered a store coupon, but 99% of their coupons have "M" on them for Manufacture, and every location I've tried has refused to allow the combining of coupons. Still, whenever I check out HEB deals, Walmart beats them 99% of the time without even using a coupon.

Addendum 1/10
This week, I got a good deal on a couple of things from Walgreens that I was actually needing, not just stocking up on: disposable latex gloves (comes in handy when dealing with jalapenos or greasing pans with Crisco) and my specific kind of makeup (2). Because I needed those things, I spent $30 for $60 worth of merchandise instead of the $15 I want to limit myself to. (But I'll get that $10 back when I purchase 1 more of my makeup from another store for a rebate on 3.) I had thought I was going to get a great deal on Axe Bodywash, something I normally wouldn't get but decided to buy because of a BOGO deal + BOGO coupon = free. But when I got to the store, I realized it was a BOGO50% deal, but it would still be worth it because, in the end, it should have come to 1 free + 1 half off. But when they rang it up, they charged me 50% off BOTH. Which would have made it the same as just using the one BOGO coupon. So I made a 2nd trip to the store to get it fixed, and since this was their store policy, I decided to just get a refund. So they had to void the whole transaction and ring everything up again, minus the bodywash(es) to give me my coupon back. However, once I got home, I realized they missed a $1 off coupon in my transaction the second time. But I didn't want to go back a 3rd time just for a $1. It was a hassle for sure, but monetarily, I see it as payback for the previous week's transaction where I couldn't give them back the money for the coupon I didn't use. I went to CVS twice (first location out of stock) and Walgreens twice (2nd trip to fix mistake).

Ugh! I went to Target for more makeup since they had store coupons for it, which is really rare. They actually had one of my shade in stock and...gasp...it was on sale for $2 off! So I got $4 off the regular price when combined with my coupon! Then, when I got home, I discovered they made the same manufacture coupon available online (for which you can print 2). So I went to the other Target near me and they had a ton of it in stock -- only is was all at regular price. I took it to the customer service desk and was informed that they don't price match price cuts from other locations. Furthermore, Target will only give rain checks on advertised sales, not temporary price cuts. I can check back at the original location in a few days and see if they have more in stock, but by the time they ever get restocked, the price cut will probably be over. (Apparently, they usually do price cuts on items that don't sell as well at that location. But they were practically sold out! And I hardly ever see very many in stock anywhere, especially in my shade, which is why I usually can't take advantage of BOGO 50% deals at CVS/Wallgreens [which is regularly priced $2 more than the regular price at Walmart/Target] since it's not in stock at the time. Perhaps next time, I will get a rain check. But oftentimes, the coupon will be expired by the time they have it in stock again!) Oh well, at least I'll end up with $2 off eventually; I will hold onto my coupons to see if I can get a better deal before they expire next month -- unless I can't find it in stock anywhere during that whole time, which has happened several times.

Addendum 1/16
Today, I spent $20 for $85 worth of stuff. While I had to make 3 trips to CVS (all different locations), the 3rd location was a new one I found not too far away that actually had the magic coupon machine I heard so much about but that the other CVS locations I'd been to did not have. You walk in the store, scan your card at the machine, and it may or may not spit out some extra coupons for you.

Addemdum 3/21
I thought I was overspending at CVS and Walgreens today, especially when 2 things I wanted to get to make deals work better were out of stock and I didn't want to make trips to different stores when I was sleep deprived and had my daughter with me (since she was home sick from school, although feeling better). But when I came home and entered my totals, it looked a lot better than I thought after mail-in-rebates: I spent $35 for $105 worth of stuff.