Monday, March 14, 2011

Extreme Couponing.....More Like Extreme Headache

I've been dutifully collecting those little coupon magazines that come in the mail and in the Sunday newspaper for two weeks in preparation for my new hopeful hobby of saving money via couponing. After all the raving over "Extreme Couponing" I decided to join in. Little did I know what a job it would be!

I began my adventure at Couponmom.com (recommended by several blog sites) and found out that one of the secrets to couponing was combining coupons with sale prices. Simple enough. They have a handy program that lets you see the actual percentage of savings on multiple items at multiple stores. I went through and created my list of potential buys. 

The next part is where the headache really began. After searching several stores....CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Target, Wal-mart, Kroger, etc.....I found that most of them had similar sales on the same items. So I started comparing the lists. Yikes. That took forever and I eventually gave up and decided to just buy a few "sale items" to get started.

Then I started the process of finding the actual coupons. Links upon links of printable and downloadable coupons and stacks of clipable coupon magazines had to be gone through. Abbreviations of SS, RP, RR, and ECB had to be deciphered. Oh great, I forgot to organize all my clippings by store. Ugh...starting over. 

2 hours into this process I realized the time period in which I could go to the store before I was in baby meltdown zone was dwindling and I still hadn't made my actual list of items I needed to make this weeks meals. I gave up. I felt like a couponing failure. I sadly drug myself to the store fully aware of the high prices I paying.

I have decided to give this another shot. Apparently extreme couponing takes a little more work than just sitting down for 30 minutes on Sunday and clipping coupons. It's time for me to head to couponing school. I'm hitting the internet in hopes of finding the secrets to this new hobby. Get ready....one day there will be a part 2.

4 comments :

  1. haha i loved this post! cracking up.
    i know this topic all too well....and it took me like 5-6 tries and 5-6 times giving up, and about a year later....i finally got it down. you just have to find your routine.

    and p.s. i dont go to the stores to look at potential buys....i just go online and look at ads and then take out my coupons to combine the two.....just last night i finally put my binder together because the amount of coupons i had was getting ridivulous....and i needed organization....and i just typed this one handed. eek. anywho im going to post pictures of my book here either tpday or tomorrow....sorry for all the misspellings

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  2. RIGHT?! I've had this same idea, but never have figured out how to make it work. I think I'm just impatient ;-)

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  3. There is NO way I could shop like that!!! Just the thought of it stresses me out ;-)

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  4. Extreme couping is beyond me. I have a couple of stores I shop at and I use coupons at them, but I can't handle the effort to max out the process.

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