Shell The Cunning Couponator

If you haven’t heard anything recently about couponing then I’m assuming you live in a cave. I hear non-stop talk about couponing among strangers, co-workers and friends ever since the show Extreme Couponing premiered on TLC. I don’t have cable so I haven’t actually seen the show, but I can imagine exactly what it’s like from the constant chatter I overhear of it. I soon realized how nutty it was getting when on the morning elevator at work, three men were discussing the show. I kid you not, one said “did you see the one where she got like $900 worth of groceries for like $50 bucks!” I suppose it’s foolish of me to think that only woman use coupons but it really was surprising to see three young men discuss the awesomeness of coupons. Overhearing this much about it was like a constant voice saying “hello, get with the program and check this out.”

Luckily for me I have a friend who has recently gotten into couponing and her enthusiasm for the “sport” is what tipped the scales. I could no longer say I didn’t want to teach myself how do it because I had a willing and very able teacher for free. On top of that, could I really say “No, I don’t want to get awesome stuff for free. I’d rather pay, thank you!” Nope, couldn’t do that either. So began my journey into couponing.

My adventure begins with watching an instructional dvd that my friend had purchased online. (Check out supercouponing.com) It’s cheesy but majorly informative. It shows you how you are currently couponing wrong, how to do it right and how to organize yourself to make couponing as fast, easy and simple as possible. It really is a good dvd and I highly recommend you order one. (Or make a date night with me…you can pay me in wine for my time.)

Now, let me ask you this? Do you buy toothpaste? Toothbrushes? Soap? Shampoo/Conditioner? Body Wash? Mouth Wash? Contact Solution? Razors? Deodorant? It’s a very safe bet that you answered yes to almost all of these. What if I told you that you would never have to purchase these things again? Hard to believe? Well, it’s true. If you learn how to super coupon, almost every personal care item you get can be free. Even make-up can be heavily discounted if not free too. You just have to know how to stack your coupons and wait for the right sale. So ask yourself, would you like these items for free? Now that I’ve gotten a few this way, I can honestly say it would be really hard ever going back to paying full price or even the sale price again.

Now, I don’t want to get into specifics. If I were to explain how it all works, it would take many blog entries and to be honest I’m still learning . What I will say is…give it try. Even if you don’t have time to watch that dvd at my house, or you don’t’ have the money to buy it for yourself, there are websites that teach you for free and at whatever time is convenient for you. (Couponmom.com has a series of videos, haven’t watched these to verify if they are good or not.) For those of you who are willing to give it a try and have questions or need help, message me. I’m even apart of a yahoo group that posts good deals and we all help each other out with questions or sometimes we just trade coupons. You can get into that too. The resources are out there to make this super fun and easy to do.

Below is a picture of the very first day I went out. Everything was FREE! I only had to pay tax which only amounts to a couple of cents. Not bad of a scoop when I only had one newspaper to work with. Now-a-days, my gets are much more impressive


(Side note: I'm sending the items I have a stockpile of to my adopted soldier. Just think you could donate your free items to charity or help out your own family.)