I began couponing in July of 2009, shortly after my family and I moved to the metro Atlanta area. We moved from Kentucky and ended up having to sell our house at a tremendous financial loss due to the soft real estate market. We actually ended up having to pay money to sell the house! This left nothing for a down payment on a new house in Georgia, not to mention paying for any moving expenses. We were almost ready to stay put, but the Georgia job opportunity (I am a stay-at-home mom) was just too good for my husband to pass up.
We found a house that we loved and really wanted to buy, but to be able to afford it (and to recoup the considerable financial loss from the old house), we had to budget ourselves pretty tightly. I tried to find a job for months, but had no luck. That’s when I heard about something called “extreme couponing” from a news item and decided to give it a try. I began amassing all the coupons I could get my hands on, asking friends and family for any leftovers, printing from whatever online sites I could find and purchasing the Sunday paper. My first trip using coupons was to my neighborhood Publix store. I had visited several couponing web sites to learn about what day the good sales began before shopping, so I felt pretty confident in my ability to pull this off. Little did I know that I would walk out an hour or two later with two carts full of food having spent less than $50!
After that, I was hooked! I started looking for bargains everywhere, scouring every online database I could find. I began looking for ways to save money on everything, not just groceries. I found a great secondhand clothing and furniture store in our neighborhood and started buying my clothes and home decor there. I started making my own bread (with the bread machine that had been gathering dust for 2 years in my cupboard), making my own baking mix (there are great recipes online), and stockpiled enough toiletries to last my husband, myself and our three boys for the next 2 years (and I am not exaggerating!). I even found ways to buy enough food that I could easily make regular donations to the food bank at our church. It makes me feel wonderful that not only am I helping my family to save, but I can help make life better for others as well.
So that’s my story. Things in our new home are still just as tight financially as they were when we moved here, but being able to feed my family of 5 on a budget of less than $500 a month (you heard right–I usually average about $475 per month on food, household cleaning items and toiletries) makes life a whole lot easier. I have a huge stockpile of food and I almost never have to run out to the store at the last minute to pick up something I’ve run out of.
One thing I must emphasize though….If you are going to be an “extreme couponer”, you MUST be a responsible and courteous one. Don’t try to cheat the system by using bogus coupons, or slip in expired coupons hoping the cashier won’t notice. Also, try not to be greedy. Don’t clear the shelves when you find a good deal. Talk to your customer service manager if you’d like to purchase a lot of a sale item; sometimes they will order extra just for you if you request it (I know for a fact that most Publix stores will do this). Let the cashier know at the beginning if you have a ton of coupons to use so that they can call someone over to open a new register if necessary! In short, work with the system so that the whole thing doesn’t break down.
Some of my friends look at my overflowing pantry cupboards and wonder why on earth I need that much stuff. I tell them that by stockpiling, I am paying the price I want to pay for things, not the price the store tells me I must pay. That usually quiets all the critics. I have even had people who were behind me in line at the grocery store stop me afterward and ask me how they can save as much money as I do. And I am all too happy to tell them.
Sherri Spichiger
