Extreme Couponing

Recently I have been introduced to the world of Extreme Couponing.  My dad, strangely enough, really likes the show and gets as excited as my dad can get, that you can buy hundreds of dollars of groceries for practically nothing.  He records the shows and, since I don't have cable, lets me see them when we come over for lunch on Sunday afternoons. 

While the show is pretty interesting, I have simply decided that I will never be an extreme couponer.  For instance: I will not spend tens of dollars a week investing in the paper to get the coupons.  I take the free coupons that land on my driveway every Saturday evening and then my mom and other friends know some of the coupons I use (i.e.: pampers) and will clip & save them for me.

I will also not buy things I absolutely do not need just because I can get them for next to nothing...or for nothing.  The episode where the lady buys like a hundred bags of croutons???  Really???  Or the episode where the twin girls are stocking up on diapers and neither are married or have children.  Scary....  As a friend of mine said the other night, there's a reason that Hoarders comes on right after this show!!

However, I had a couponing moment yesterday.  Probably not good enough to be on the show, but I was proud.  And, as I sit at home, unable to sleep for the second night in a row, I've done the math and I think I'm even more proud of my accomplishment.

I was making my grocery list for the week (since I've gone back to work , we go grocery shopping on the weekends for the next week) and I was writing down my needs, looking in sale ads to price match, and flipping through my coupons; I noticed that Walgreen's had a sale on Pamper's diapers.  We are very loyal Pamper's users, so I did some math and at 2 packages for $18 with $3 in rewards, it made the diapers about $15 or $7.50 a package.  That's a pretty good deal.  It's not great, but good.  I added 2 manufacturer's coupons (one at $1 and one at $1.50) to my total and I spent about $16 on the two packages of diapers. I figured I'd do it so I could earn the points on my Walgreen's card.  Well, when I purchased the diapers, a $5 Pampers coupon printed with my $3 rewards.  So, that afternoon, I sent my mom back to Walgreens with my $3 rewards, the $5 coupon, and 2 more manufacturer's coupons totaling $3.  While for some reason, still unbeknown to me, the store wouldn't take one of my manufacturer's coupon, I still came away with 2 more packs of diapers for about $8.  Now that is a good deal.

So, all in all, I spent about $24 and got 116 diapers (and another $5 off coupon to use at a later date).  That's about 21 cents a diaper.  Walmart sells packages of 110 for $25.  That's roughly 23 cents a diaper.  Target sells a box of 80 for $20.  That's 25 cents a diaper.  It may sound like pennies, but when you do the math...116 diapers at Walmart would cost $27 and at Target: $29.  I saved my family $3-5.  So, I think I did pretty good.  I'm sure it could have been better, but I was pretty pleased that I watched my ads, my coupons, and competitors prices and came away with the better deal.

So, while I'm no extreme couponer, I can still be wise with the money God has given my family and stretch every penny.  Plus, now I can scratch diapers off my grocery list for awhile!!