My Daughter, Dena is the coupon queen. She saves the coupons, puts them in a big notebook then when she does go shopping, she uses them. Alot of their shopping is done at the Commisary at Fairchild Airforce Base, as they are both Veterans. Alot of the time, she saves more than it cost her to buy her load of supplies. They have a big house, with a pantry closet downstairs in the basement. The store the stuff there. You look in there, and it is like looking at the shelves of a store. Every once in awhile they load their truck up with all kinds of food. Even fresh meat, and bring it to me so I won't have to buy groceries. They even buy pet food and treats for my two spoiled housemates. It is VERY much appreciated. I am on SSD and it pretty much takes most of my check just to pay the monthly bills. How many others out there are serious about coupon shopping?
I would love to learn how to do it the way she does. I've used coupons and have gotten a few free items but have never seriously had the time to figure it all out.
I use coupons but I do not have the space to keep a large stockpile of items so I keep it fairly simple. I love shopping at CVS because I can stack manufacturer coupons on top of their own coupons and extra care bucks to maximize my savings. Another trick that I use is incorporating reward apps like Ibotta and Checkout 51 that give you cash back for purchasing the featured products. You can save even more by using these apps in combination with manufacturer coupons.
I'm also a coupon fan and have saved a lot of money over the years with coupons, but in the last couple of months, I've been so busy that I haven't been clipping and printing coupons like I usually do. I really need to get back on track because it takes time to get a system going and have a decent collection of coupons. My coupon file is almost empty, so I have to get back into the routine of clipping coupons.
I enjoy clipping coupons but not to the degree that your daughter does. I don't have the room to stockpile items and don't WANT to stockpile items that I will never need. Not that your daughter does that but you see it a lot on the couponing shows. I just have a small little coupon book that I keep them in. I get them from the Sunday paper and coupon websites. My favorite place to print them from is Swagbucks. Everytime I redeem a coupon printed from there, it gives me 10 Swagbucks in my account!
My sister is pretty big into couponing but not into stockpiling. She buys what she needs and then donates the rest to local homeless shelters. I would say she probably dedicates about 3-4 hours a week to this new hobby of hers, has a coupon binder she brings with her and a well planned list. It makes her happy to save money and she feels good helping others.
