Nikki The Extreme Coupon Lady

I'm warning you....this is a long post.

I am a little addicted to the TLC's new show Extreme Couponing. I think that it is amazing that you can get so many deals just by clipping coupons. I thought....that's something that I should try. Everyone likes to save money and especially with grocery prices and gas prices on the rise....who can afford not to? So I tried my hand at getting organized for my very first extreme coupon trip to Albertson's. I followed the very simple guidelines for beginners on my new favorite site called The Krazy Coupon Lady. She makes it sound so easy and tells you a bunch of ways to find coupons, ways to collect them, what to look out for, and even goes through weekly ads for you telling you what savings you can find that week. I must tell you, if you are serious about saving a serious amount of money, it is a huge time commitment. Locating the coupons, clipping them, organizing them, going through the ad and matching coupons, going online to find additional sales, going from store to store finding the best deal. Me.....I love stuff like this. If they can figure out how to save that much money, so can I.

SO here's what I did:

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  I went to the Commissary and grabbed a stack of each coupon book that they had up front in their doorway. Some are military coupons, but a lot of them are manufacturer coupons. I also grabbed a stack of military papers that have coupon books such as the P&G saver, Red Plum, and Smart Source coupons. I also ran into another lady saying that you can buy the Seattle times from the dollar store for even more coupons...the paper is only a $1. I didn't even think of that. I also went to my favorite brand websites and signed up to receive free samples and coupons in my email and mail such as Kellogg's, Downy, Gerber, stuff like that. You can also print coupons online. I haven't started to do that yet, but its my next step.


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  I went to my Krazy Coupon Lady website and printed off her template for my coupon binder. I have a 2 inch binder that I am using with photo sleeves inside from an old photo album. The baseball ones were just too small and hard for me to see what the coupons were for.


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  I clipped coupons for items I use or might like to try. Great coupons come out for new items and sometimes you can get them free.


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  I called our local store to find out when they have double coupon days and went online to find their coupon rules. I also went in the store and spoke with the manager. The worst thing that could happen is that I put all the groceries up and then my coupons wouldn't work and I'd be stuck with a giant bill. No thank you, I want to prevent that. They were so helpful and explained all of the rules....and there are a lot of them. I see why it can be so confusing and hard to do.

Here are a few things I have learned:

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  You can use manufacturer coupons one per item, if its the same coupon. For example: $1.00/1 Downy Fabric softener from P&G, $0.50/1 Downy Fabric softener from Red Plum. You can actually use as many coupons as you like, just not double of the same coupon. SO collecting them makes it much easier to get these great deals


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  Follow the weekly ads to find the best deal and use your coupon on top of their store deal.


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  You're not going to go to the store to buy your normal grocery items. Each week you will get a few really great deals creating a stockpile. Depending on how much you want to save or what your overall goal is is how much you can stock up on. Since I am just starting, I plan on stocking up on free items as much as I can, but not obsessive. We do not have the space in our home and we don't need 100 tubes of toothpaste. But I would like maybe 10 free tubes, that will last us a while.

Here's my first trip $16, not too shabby huh!: I went to albertsons on one of their double coupon days. I was under the impression that they would double all of my coupons up to a $1.....wrong. They will double up to 3 coupons for 3 items, per transaction. You also must clip the coupon out of their flyer since they have to scan them. They do not mail these out, you have to go in the store and get them. I talked the manager into letting me do multiple transactions since I had done so much planning and worked so hard. He was very nice. I purchased about $80 in product for a grand total of $16.00. Not too bad for my first trip, but I can still do better. My best deals include a free can of infant formula. We currently have Lily on whole milk, but when we are on the road, it would be nice to have powder formula for when we can't have cold milk on hand. I received 4/$5.00 coupons for the formula making it free for me! Another great deal was on Reynolds Foil Wrap. Tin foil is expensive. I had a 1/$1.00 coupon and albertsons doubled the coupon making each box $0.29. So I bought 5 boxes. Pretty good stock pile started. Another great deal was on General Mills Cereal, they were $1.88 each if you buy 5 boxes. I used 2 coupons that were save $1.00 on 2 boxes, and then $1.00/1, and then $0.75 off of one. They doubled my coupons making each box $0.88 each. Not bad for cereal that was priced at $5.99. We never buy cereal cause its so expensive. Now we have a little stockpile. I bought Cheerios and kix for crunchy snacks for Lily and golden grams for the hubby. He loves them, but never gets them cause I refuse to pay $6 for a box of cereal. So now he is very happy. I got a few more deals, but those were my awesome deals :) Pretty proud of myself for giving it a try. I'd like to try and stick to this and get a nice little stockpile going, especially with another baby on the way, more expenses, less time. Worth a try right? I may even start a little Oka Harbor Coupon club or something. Pretty lame? Uh No! I'm awesome and saving money at the same time.