My Couponing Story

I am not an extreme couponer, I am a 23 year old with college debt and a budget. Although I do admire the extreme couponers I see on television and read about in articles but you will not see me pulling up to a grocery store in a mini van with my overflowing coupon binder in tow.

I am a couponer however, and proud of it. Two years ago I watched an episode of TLC's "Extreme Couponing", and while my sister and I sat there going "pff...these ladies are LOSERS", in my head I was secretly thinking "I MUST LEARN THEIR WAYS".

My sister still picks on these extreme couponers...but I can tell she secretly wants to learn too.

Extreme couponing is a craze that is taking over the nation more and more each year. Extreme couponers are showing up in articles, through youtube, and on television every day. Young or old, these frugal penny-pinchers all have one thing in common: they all love to save money.

After watching a few episodes about these women (and men) who come home with bag after bag of groceries totaling up to over $500 and literally only spend $1 or less on them at the store, I went online and began my quest to become a young couponer myself.

After a night of researching how to coupon on a site called couponmom.com, I went to bed and spent the night thinking, with small coupons swirling throughout my brain.

I was hooked and I hadn't even started yet.

There is something about the feeling you get when you peel through your Sunday paper and find your circulars for the week; the coupons all shiny and new with expiration dates that seem years away. My heartbeat quickens as I ponder what items I will be bringing home for free this week. A couple tubes of toothpaste perhaps? Or maybe I'll get lucky and score shampoo for a negative transaction total. Oh the possibilities...

Now before I completely scare you away I want to once again remind you that I am not like one of the ladies on TLC. I do not have a giant shelf in my garage loaded with 75 bottles of hot sauce and 100 tubes of denture cream that I will never use. I don't spend more than 5 minutes of my time each day on couponing, and I only use coupons when I know it's going to be a really good deal. I don't buy 35 this or 50 that, but I do collect things that I will definitely be using quickly if I can get them for free. I am an example of how you can put couponing to good use, without having to take time away from your life.

What keeps me couponing? For starters, I haven't spent more than 50 cents on toothpaste in months, and you know those Gillette Fusion razors? The ones that have all the blades and cost at least $10.00 each? I get those for $1.00 or less about once a month. It's amazing that it's even possible to get deals like this, but I'm going to take advantage of it for as long as I can!

Learning to do basic couponing is pretty easy, and definitely worth trying out in this economy. You don't have to be crazy like the middle aged women on TLC, but you can definitely snag some unbelievable deals every week!