I have been invited to an Extreme Couponing Party

[jrnunzio3]

Hi all,
Just wondering your thoughts on this. I have been invited to an Extreme Couponing Party. I don't have too many details, but I do know that it is $25.00 to go to the party and they are supposed to give you tips and websites to go to to help you save money and to become an extreme couponer.

I am not sure that I want to go. The invite is through my boss (it is her daughter hosting the party).

I have been couponing my whole life and feel that I do pretty well. Last year I saved over $2800 in coupons/rebates/ECB's.

Has anyone been to one of these parties and is it worth it to go???

Thanks for any help.

 

[richmond282]

I wouldn't do it. Sounds like a rip-off to me.

 

[Nayan]

I wouldn't pay to go when you can find all of that info online for free.

 

[Kycha]

I have never been to one. And I think that the info and tips that will be supplied can easily be found on the internet very easily for free. And the websites they are going to tell you about have probably all been mentioned numerous times on this board in one way or another. For $25 I wouldn't do it. If it were $5, maybe.

 

[DawnM]

I have been to one. It was FREE to attend though! The woman was great. She is a Moderator on HotCouponWorld.com and lives in my area.

I would NOT pay $25 to attend.

Dawn

 

[Travelingdad]

My wife just watched a showon coupons last night that blew me away. Some lady bought some ridiculous amount of groceries, like $1,800 and paid only $45 because of coupons. If this is for real I am in total shock. So how realistic is this, saving like $10K a year is something I never would have guessed. I'd put some time in to get that kind of cash and take another vacation or two.

 

[vicki_c]

Sounds like a good way for the host to make $25 x # of attendees and not much else.

And travelingdad - there are numerous posts here on the Budget Board about couponing, and quite a few on the Extreme Couponing show as well, just do a search on the Budget Board.

 

[jrnunzio3]

Thank you all for the replies. I figure that I know just as much if not more than the person doing the party (simply by reading the Budget Board on the Dis and all of the great posts here). And, I didn't want to waste $25.00.

I just don't want my boss to be mad once I tell her that I don't want to/can't go.

 

[DawnM]

There are many threads on this show here if you search.

What you may have missed is the amount of TIME spent per week, often 30 or more hours on couponing!

I do some, but I don't hoard and I can't spend that amount of time.

Dawn

My wife just watched a showon coupons last night that blew me away. Some lady bought some ridiculous amount of groceries, like $1,800 and paid only $45 because of coupons. If this is for real I am in total shock. So how realistic is this, saving like $10K a year is something I never would have guessed. I'd put some time in to get that kind of cash and take another vacation or two.

 

[miztressuz]

My wife just watched a showon coupons last night that blew me away. Some lady bought some ridiculous amount of groceries, like $1,800 and paid only $45 because of coupons. If this is for real I am in total shock. So how realistic is this, saving like $10K a year is something I never would have guessed. I'd put some time in to get that kind of cash and take another vacation or two.

The other thing you have to take into account is how much is spent on coupons. So they only paid $45 at the store but these services where you order coupons cost money and they hardly ever mention how much the person spent to get the stack of coupons. They're still not spending 1800 to get the coupons but I don't think the savings are as astronomical as the shows portent.

And as someone else pointed out, they can spend enough time as a part-time or full time job just prep for the trip. I'd rather use that time for something more worthwhile.

For the OP, I agree, sounds like a way for the Host to make $25 a head but only spend a couple hours online getting the info. Maybe I should think about running that kind of scheme.....

 

[Poohforyou]

I don't need to spend $25 for someone to show me how to clip coupons. I learned how to use sissors in kindergarten .

 

[MickeyBA]

I've had one in my house. Kelly from kansascitymamas.com came and did it for us. It was $8 per person minimum 15. I just paid the $120 and had my friends bring the food. It was fun. She has all of her info on her site though so I don't think I would pay the $25. We wanted to do it as a party for a fun little thing for our friends to all get into.

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

I don't need to spend $25 for someone to show me how to clip coupons. I learned how to use sissors in kindergarten .

 

[hpfan100]

I don't need to spend $25 for someone to show me how to clip coupons. I learned how to use sissors in kindergarten .

made me laugh out loud

 

[basketkat]

I don't need to spend $25 for someone to show me how to clip coupons. I learned how to use sissors in kindergarten .

 

[coastiewifern]

I have a friend who coupons. I invited her to lunch and she shared her tips with me. I bought lunch I thought that was fair and a good excuse for lunch with a friend

 

[Meshell2002]

i would graciously decline, a conflict comes up perhaps?:

You can find tons online about couponing for FREE.

Extreme couponing is not the real world, yes you can save a lot (I do stockpile if the price/ space is right) but you also need to think about your nutriton/ health. NO ONE needs 200 free candy bars or 77 bottles of mustard Also the people on the show used coupons for products they didn't buy (I DVR the show and paused it....so I know they weren't honest couponers).

 

[timmac]

My wife just watched a showon coupons last night that blew me away. Some lady bought some ridiculous amount of groceries, like $1,800 and paid only $45 because of coupons. If this is for real I am in total shock. So how realistic is this, saving like $10K a year is something I never would have guessed. I'd put some time in to get that kind of cash and take another vacation or two.

In addition to what others have already said, remember too that many of these examples are very extreme trips (not every trip is that good), and even when someone does make out like that on a particular grocery run, there's a definite lack of variety in the items purchased.

 

[nathaliabrown]

25 bucks to someone who knows nothing about "extreme" couponing might be worth it. We have been doing the whole coupon thing for about 2 years now and those first few months were a little hard to find all the sites and ways to work the deals. heck those first couple months we spent more then we saved making purchases we should have never made. If I were to have had all the tools in the very beginning our trips would have been much better. But as for someone who has even just been couponing for a couple months 25 bucks def not worth it.