FREE BULK FOOD & SUPPLIES!!- Extreme Couponing TLC

[Black November]

Did any catch Extreme Couponing on TLC last Wednesday? If not DVR it!

These grand master coupon clippers were walking out of grocery stores with thousands of dollars worth of bulk food, and only paying like $50 bucks.

http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing/

I wouldn't do all my shopping this way, but if its possible to get 40 boxes of pasta, and 15 cases of canned goods, and hundreds of gallons of water for free, they might be on to something.

[raptor]

It is certainly a commendable and smart way to shop but some of the things they get I can only assume they get them to resell them. 1,100 boxes of cereal and 300 toothbrushes seems a bit excessive unless you plan on reselling some of it.

[callmemike]

"seems a bit excessive unless you plan on reselling some of it"


or donating it to the local food pantry.

[Ridgeback06]

If it's for reselling, food storage, or sharing among family and friends kudos to them for figuring it out!

[Chef]

Might be good to build a stockpile for bartering. Or to issue to your minions and sex slaves when you become lord of the garbage dump after the balloon goes up..

[Apollo-11]

I've been reading this very funny blog for some time. Unfortunately I don't have access to 40 Sunday papers the way this guy does (that's the source of his coupons). His sister challenged him to be able to eat on $1.00 a day for several months using coupons and rebates. He chronicles what he bought, what he paid for it, and how he prepared it. It's hilarious if you have a weird sense of humor the way I do.

He also gets the hundreds of boxes of cereal to donate to a food bank.

http://www.grocerycouponguide.com/

[Black November]

I conducted a small test this morning to see if I could get results like the people on the show.

I grabbed some junk mail out of my recycling, and found Safeway's weekly ad. Safeway advertised buy 1, get 1 free Campbell Chunky Soups. After some quick Google-Fu, I found a printable $2.00 off manufacturers coupon when you buy 4.

4 cans would normally retail for $9.96, but I only paid $2.98. Thats a 70% savings!





I won't be buying thousands of tooth brushes, but if I can bulk up my preps for next to nothing, than I am a believer.

[NoAm]

I use this site quite often
http://www.southernsavers.com/category/other-grocery-stores/

If you look in the "Other" tab you will find Food Lion, Ingles, Winn Dixie and several other stores.

Even if you are not in the South, some of the stores are nationwide.

They give you weekly sales and what coupons apply. They also give you links to printable coupons.

Have fun and good luck! We have saved hundreds of $$ since we learned about this site.

[Shaper]

Subscribed. My wife will love this.

[Resolute]

Set the DVR to record this show - foot just keeps getting more expensive and I'd love to save a few bucks a day

[dukman]

4 cans would normally retail for $9.96, but I only paid $2.98. Thats a 70% savings!

Meh... I have seen them on sale before for less than that.

One thing I heard, I think it was on that $1 a day site mentioned, was doubling of coupons. With Safeway I guess you can "load" coupons onto your savings card to get the discounts at the register, and print out the coupons and use them at the same time to get double savings. I don't know if they closed that loophole or not.

[Black November]

I'm just starting to learn the art of coupon clipping. Safeway had vitamin water zeros for $1.00 and with my $1.00 coupon I got it free.

[Fixxxer]

I spent 5 minutes on coupons.com last night, just to see what was what. After printing several off, I went to the store today. It's not the most dramatic savings I've ever seen, but I did manage to save $11.87 off a total bill of $59.01 at Winn Dixie. Not bad for a couple of minutes worth of work.

[NoAm]

I watched the show last night. DEAR GOD! The amazings were INCREDIBLE!
I just found out Bi-Lo doubles their coupons and Harris Teeter starts doubling coupons up to $2.00 today for a few days (They usually only double up to $1.00)
Find out the grocery stores coupon policies though. I had an Ingles cashier tell me they do no take coupons printed off the internet.

[Resolute]

One thing that helps is to have a printed copy of the store's coupon policy to show the cashiers; if that doesn't work, then ask for the manager.

[ZombieGranny]

4 cans would normally retail for $9.96, but I only paid $2.98. Thats a 70% savings!

Meh... I have seen them on sale before for less than that.

Where in the Pacific NW have you seen chunky soup for less than 75 cents a can?
I want to shop that store.
Some of the kids like that brand of soup.

[Black November]

I have barely scratched the surface of the mysterious world Extreme Couponing, but I found this helpful.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5431558_coupon-clip-technology-savvy-world.html

[uncleben03]

I really need to start pinching pennies if I ever want to save cash. Subbed.

[man in black]

subby

[Chantrea]

I used to do couponing as a hobby, and spending $75ish for over $300-400 worth of stuff was pretty normal for me. (Some areas are more coupon friendly than others, for example, around here there are not many stores that do double or triple coupon days, where you can really rack up the savings, especially utilizing specials and sales)

However--it does take time. Many times you'll need to buy or beg extra Sunday inserts (not a big deal if you make connections). I had a giant binder organizing the coupons so I could not have to hunt forever for them. It is a really good way to build up your prep stock, since most of the items are processed with a long shelf life.

To this day I NEVER pay for toothpaste or toothbrushes, even though I do not mega coupon anymore.

Mega couponing also means that you have to be patient and charming sometimes. I did my shopping on a very specific day where I knew the manager and a couple of the cashiers who were good (a lot of times though the manager would put his new people on me so they could be trained in on coupon use--which was nice because they wouldn't get huffy and would allow me to help them as well), and for politeness' sake I chose a time where I would not be holding up the line if there was a new/inexperienced person. (Because couponing is fairly rare, a lot of times cashiers don't know what to do, and if there is a line building up behind you they get frustrated. Be prepared for nasty comments from other shoppers too, if you do this during a rush). I also for courtesy made SURE that I had the correct coupons, organized properly, ready to go (had all the ones where the cashier must write in the price separate and asked if they wanted those first or last, ect.) I also separated out the stuff that did NOT have coupons attached and had the cashier put those in bags first, so that if we needed to fish through stuff if there was a scanning problem we knew were to find the items.


It can be a really fun hobby, though. When I finish up my preps pantry project and have assessed my inventory, I will likely take it up again--but ONLY for non- or not-as-much- perishables and toiletries and first aid supplies. I don't feed my family processed crap--and a lot of the foodstuffs available through couponing (junk cereals, ect.) that are the best deals are just not things that we've decided as parents to make part of our lives. (We buy 80 percent of our veggies from local farms, all of our meat/eggs/dairy/poultry from local people. Wintertime is really the only time I utliize the grocery store on a regular basis. But if you eat a lot of of the stuff anyway, it is great for majorly axing your food bill!

If you are totally new to this it MAY be worth the investment to join a website that gives out lists of loss leaders/specials/plus coupons that you can use on top of them so that you learn how to put that kind of thing together for yourself. You will find that most stores (and flyers/inserts) operate on a 6-8 week cycle--so you'll need to clip everything you want and save it for a couple of weeks before it's the right day to cash in. Just clipping every week and looking for coordinated sales that week may save you some money, but the real couponers need to save/store their coupons and spend awhile each week checking out the specials and what they have in ther box so they know what to use when at each store. It is complicated, but pretty fun, IMO.

[LtCmdLeia]

Everyone asks me how I feed such a large family.. my answer is cooking from scratch and couponing.

To get savings like they show on that program you need a store with a good doubling or tripling policy, access to tons of extra coupons and they have to allow printed coupons and as many coupons as you want to use (my local doubling store only allows 3 like coupons, which makes my super savings shopping trips difficult now)

To really save you have to be flexible and very organized. As soon as the ads are online I go through them and match the sales with coupons that are available (and ones that will be available that week, which means you need to get preview lists) then I get the coupons I need together (often I have to trade to get them or order them from coupon clippers) and then plan out my shopping trips (I often have to hit 4 or more stores to get what I need).

If super couponing is too much work for you, please at least use some coupons and save what little you can. There's no reason to pass up even the smallest savings.

[Flying Lead]

The showing of the food stores just got me hard. I'm gonna look online for some coupon sites.
But the hoarding of 100 plus years of deodorant lost me though.
There was something about 650 bucks in groceries for a few dollars that really got me thinking.
The stores around me don't double coupons, a definite bummer. That's living in a small town with just 3 stores for you.
but with a little forethought and planning, I thing saving 25-30 percent is doable.

[Fixxxer]

The stores around me don't double coupons, a definite bummer. That's living in a small town with just 3 stores for you.

I live in a city with dozens and dozens of stores and I'm not aware of any that double coupons. Only a few that take competitors' coupons from time to time.

Which reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg skit where he discovered that Pizza Hut honors competitors coupons. "I think Pizza Hut is the cockiest pizza chain on the planet, because Pizza Hut will accept all competitor's coupons. That makes me wish I had my own pizza place. "Mitch's Pizzeria... This week's coupon: unlimited free pizza. Special Note: coupon not good at any of the Mitch's Pizzeria locations. Free pizza oven with purchase of a small Coke. Two-for Tuesday: buy one pizza, get one franchise free."

[ZombieGranny]

I can recall ever seeing only one store that doubled coupons.

If you are interested in picking up coupons, though, check out the garbage cans at the post office boxes on Wednesday and Sunday/Monday. Most box holders just dump them as soon as they are pulled out of the boxes.
Must be discouraging for the people who must stuff them in the boxes in the morning and then clean them out of the trash bins later.