Funny, the Extreme Couponing marathon is on TV right now.
We use a few coupons, but make no effort to coupon. I must not be very good at it. The coupons I find usually are for products I don't buy because they are too expensive, even with the coupon.
I haven't seen a store around here offer double coupons in I don't know how many years. And the real bargain warehouse stores never took coupons, they didn't have to, their prices were already lower.
Walmart really changed that when they opened up here, they offered the lower prices and they take coupons.
I do recall my college economics Professor in the late 1970's bragging he found a coupon with no limit, for more money back on cat food than the food retailed for locally. He made money on the deal, then went out and bought a cat to eat the cases and cases of cat food he had purchased and still had money left.
You're right that it won't work the same way for everyone. Around here, grocery stores double coupons with a face value of up to 99¢. Every once in a while, a store may offer triple coupons (with a limit). If your stores don't double, or give overages on coupons that exceed the retail price, then you will have a hard time coming remotely close to what those extreme couponers do.
A typical shopping trip for me will pretty much include a coupon for 75%-90% of the items in my cart. I don't purchase anything that I don't use unless it's a MM (money-maker), in which case I will place the item in the donation bin on my way out of the door. This week, I had coupons for fresh vegetables, berries, and free eggs, as well as rebates for plums, tomatoes, bananas, beef, ground turkey and milk. For the upcoming week, I have a coupon for $10 off a $50 grocery purchase, $3 off of a $15 produce purchase, $1 off my next order of any size, a free head of lettuce, free loaf of Italian bread with a $5 purchase, $1.99/lb boneless chicken breasts, free milk when I purchase cookies (which will be almost free after coupons, and are going into the donation bin), and yogurts that will be a MM after coupons and rebates. I've barely begun to do the sales/coupon matches for the next trip and only the cookie coupons will be doubled so far.
The key to extreme couponing is to not purchase what you will eat next week, but to purchase what you will eat before it expires. To look at my shopping list on any given week, you would shake your head and declare that you can't feed a family with what I'm buying. But I might load up on a good cereal deal this week and not buy cereal again for 2 months. Last week was a great week for $1 produce at the local market and they also offered $5-off a $20 purchase when you signed up for their new card-less loyalty program. So I filled my vegetable bin for $15. The squash, carrots, onions, potatoes, apples, pears and garlic are still good for this week. I only bought a few leafy greens this week to add to my produce. I buy meats when they are an especially good price and freeze them for later use. I have shelves of canned goods (tomatoes, olive oil, juices, peanut butter and jellies, etc.) and cabinets full of pasta, rice, flours, sugars and spices. It takes up a lot of space, but I have a huge kitchen.
So very very new at this ..
