Realistic Couponing

Yes, I’ve read that a lot of the stores that are featured allow doubling of coupons to said couponer just for the show when they don’t openly offer it to everyone. Or they’ll allow couponer to use more than the allowed number of transactions. Don’t get me wrong, I learned some good tips from the show but it also gave me some very unrealistic expectations.

I have always been happy with a 50% savings which I can achieve with a little effort. The shows are not always realistic to everyday life.

Thanks for making this website, I am new to couponing and love your website! It is helping me so much!

I have a relative who used to do this. Her shopping was extreme. She had a huge stockpile in her basement plus 3 double closets stuffed full. You would go to her house and she would make these wonderful looking meals but then you’d take a bite and everything tasted stale. What a waste!! One of her freezers broke and there was meat in there that was over 10 years old. Who’s going to eat that? Not me!!

Great tips!!

I just want to say “Thank You”. I have been couponing for over 15 years now…longer than Extreme Couponing. I have to say my biggest complaint about that show was it was not realistic and now that they have put it out there the manufacturers and stores are all catching on. It is so nice to see someone who understands how this system works and knows exactly how much you can actually save. Seriously anyone who thinks that they can do that all the time is nuts. I mean on this show when did you ever see anyone buy anything other than junk food or frozen meals. There was hardly anyone that would buy produce, meat, dairy stuff that you need. Again thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Very cool

U help me alot woth my couponing thanks

Thank you!Very helpful. 🙂

This website is very informative. In a couponer in training. I’m able to watch for store sales but haven t really connected it with the coupons often enough to notice savings with couponing yet.

Thank you SO MUCH for this article!!! My Mom is quickly becoming an addict. Just yesterday she went shopping, spent 2 1/2 hours at the store, and bought $500 worth of groceries, most of which SHE DOESN’T NEED. For real, who needs 30 boxes of hamburger helper “just because it was a good deal?” I mean, once I move out at the end of the month, it’ll just be her… what is she going to do with all those boxes of hamburger helper???

I mean, I’m certainly glad that she can save between 40 and 50 percent on her bill during the average shopping trip, but are the huge stockpiles — especially those of perishable goods, like yogurt — really necessary, if she’s going to go shopping every week anyways?

I may have to share this with her 😛

This is a very helpful site. I just read all the comments posted and only saw one mention of ebay for coupons. When I want a lot of one coupon, I go to ebay where people are selling mostly lots of 20. But the price is usually less than $2 mailed. So on items that I use a lot that have a long shelf life I buy them on ebay. There are also mixed lots of a variety of coupons. I have been doing this for over 2 years and have never gotten a bad deal, and even if I got a bad lot of coupons, the amount I paid would have been less than $2. I like the “buy it now” lots so I get them really fast and buy from poeple with good ratings, usually “power sellers”. If you are going to buy on ebay you need to open a pay pal account because this is the only payment accepted for coupons due to expiration dates and the need for fast mailing. This is easy to set up. Just go to the pay pal site and follow directions.

I like to watch the couponing show when it has people couponing to donate to charities. And I also like to see how low they can get their bill to be, but I do not quite think it’s necessary to have hundreds of tic tac containers like that one lady had in a show. We coupon to save money-not to hoard.

I just don’t get this at all. I buy VERY frugal. Toilet paper 12 rolls for $2. For 2 weeks.
Charmin is on sale for $8 for 12 rolls. Enough for 2 weeks. But even with the manufactures coupon (about 2-3$) I’m still paying $5-6. I can’t use another coupon on it or my store card it’s still more expensive and I’m better off with the cheap stuff. Can someone please comment or email me about this? I don’t get how to save even realisticly when I already buy so cheap.

I have been a couponer for over 30 years. I totally agree, if you can get 50 to 60 percent savings your doing good. Frankly I feel the Extreme Couponing Show has done more harm than good. I live in Calif. and we used to get good coupons. But I haven’t seen the large amount coupons in a long time. And they usually expire in about 6 to 8 weeks. So it doesn’t pay to have alot.

I am a single parent of 2 tween girls and have been couponing since EC started — watched the first episode and was hooked! I am in the Houston area (thank you Tiffany Ivanosky)- so our Kroger does not double any more (dang u Kroger!)

i do have a “stockpile” of laundry det., (which i was able to get each bottle/box under $2 with coupons and sales) shampoos, fem products, body wash and razors and some freezable items – some of the shampoos i didn’t have a coupon for – they were marked down to .49! We are set on the taxable items for about 6 mos (maybe more, maybe less) — they way i look at it– get it up front when I have “extra cash” – then i will have “extra cash” for other items when i shop at a later date– i have only been able to save about 38% using coupons and my card — i JUST WANT TO GET THE 50% mark LOL my goal is to budget $200 or less a month or so for groceries – and when i don’t “spend” the $$ — put it up for “whatever reason”

this week my kroger has some pretty good deals going — so we will keep fingers crossed! I am at a week where i have “extra cash”- so i am getting things for Christmas dinner and to have a few extras for a later date. I do not plan to grocery shop for the remaining of the year. We freeze milk and bread, eggs are a great sale item this week as well for me I tried shopping at Walmart and doing the price match thing – but only saved $49 in coupons and less than $5 in price matching (my bill was still $250) so i am sticking with kroger (plus i get fuel points) i like to see my card savings matched with coupons and my percentage

i have a binder and spend about 2 – 4 hrs a week printing, cutting and putting in binder. some weeks may be a little longer – some not at all — but i don’t shop each week nor do i put items in my binder every week so some times i need to scrub the binder – and donate all the expired coupons to the SERVICE FAMILIES!

if you notice – they are not buying alcohol either – so i am not sure if that is what is causing my savings not to hit that mark!

and i do agree– who needs 170 bottles of hot sauce or mustard! WOW i mean i think 75 is fine ( just kidding!) WELL GREAT COUPONING TO ALL!

After reading several articles about how the events for EC are staged, rules are broken and coupon fraud is committed, I have discontinued watching the show and re-evaluated my use of coupons. I will continue to use coupons, obviously, but have stopped my quest to get things free like on the show. In my town, it simply is not possible. For example, the EC couponers always claim to get their toilet paper for free. Now we know how much even a 4 pack of TP costs. Most newspaper coupons I find are for 25-50 cent Charmin. Even doubled, this no way comes close to getting the product free. So it certainly appears that they are either lying or they have found a source for coupons that I’m unaware of.

I found it ridiculous that people buy 200 bottles of hot sauce or mustard that they’ll probably never use up. A little bit of hot sauce goes a long way, why buy enough to fill up a couple bathtubs? I would rather have extreme savings on items my family will actually use, such as meat and vegetables. Does anyone know of any way to get coupons for large bags of frozen vegetables (not just those tiny little steamer bags with unneccessary sauce)?

I’m sure I’m. showing my age, but I got an object lesson long ago about hoarding: how many here remember the “shortages” of the 1970s? They were almost always followed by HUGE price increases of the short item… in my area their used to be a discount chain store (along the lines of Kmart, Target & Walmart) named Zayre’s. They had an unbelievable sale one time on a shortage item… my cousin went to stock up– and did he ever! The sale was toilet paper… my cousin stored it all in a small room in his house… can you see it coming? As Jimmy Buffett says, ” You just can’t reason with hurricane season”… every roll turned into paper mache! sigh!

Thank you for commenting on the HUGE amounts of odd items these people buy! Who needs 143 bottles of Bayer Aspirin? or 86 bottles of mustard????? I have really enjoyed your website. thank you.

thank you just trying to get started.

Family loves it

I work as a team member at a Target store and I can’t tell you how crucial articles like these are. People come into my location with huge amounts of doubles, illegal reproductions, or forges of coupons and then curse at ME when I turn them down. Savings are nice, but there is no free lunch and you can’t expect to save bajillions on every trip; you have to think realistically. Not to mention I laugh everytime someone comes through a checklane with 20 or so items they don’t need/could donate/have expiration dates, spend upwards of $50 on them and then proclaim how much money they’ve saved, lol.

Hi I”m brand new at this, I litterally just went out and bought my first sunday paper. Sorry if my question is simple , but ive always just shopped at Giant Food Stores, i really like it but can i just use the coupons i find there, or do I have to go to different stores? Im limited on my time, so this would not be worth it to me. Plus on the coupon sites ive visited, all the stores they offer, ive never even heard of. Where do I start? thanks

If these extreme queens where donating so much, why are their stockpiles worth 10 – 15,000 dollars. Come on. Give us realistic couponers a break and leave a few items on the shelf.

I use coupons regulary. but in a good sense. I usally save over 50% of my bill with coupons and instore deals. and usually only buy what is on sale. sometime even if i have coupons I don’t buy the item just because it is on sale. Family time is more valuable then coupon time. you can have both.

I have been couponing for years. I “average” a savings of about 30-40% per shop, when sales are included. I guess if we look at shows like “Extreme Couponing” like the fashion shows or even auto shows, we might use it to learn something. For the really fancy fashion shows or looking at the auto shows that show prototypes, not everything is very practical, but if we take what we can use and leave the rest, it is an actual benefit. Look at what is shown. Look for ideas or new ways to improve. Take what we want and ignore the rest.

When I first started couponing, I watched an extreme couponing show. It was said to ask your store or gas station, etc. what they do with their left over newspapers. I did that and now I have one that I check with on Monday mornings to see if they have any left from Sunday that I can take the coupons from. Even they are given different policies based on the specific newspaper as to what to do.

Some ideas I have learned lately from EC include using different computers to print more of the same coupon and using a binder system to put my coupons in. I also like the idea of giving to the food pantries, etc.

Another nice aspect to the show was that my husband has become interested in helping with some of the couponing. He now knows what I have been doing for years. He has started to look at sites. This actually helps me because he may see one that I don’t.

I have a ? hope you can help ..if wagreens is sell nivea for men 2 for $7 can I use two coupons for each of -$2.00?

I just found your website today and so glad I did. I have only been couponing for 2 months so needless to say my excitement over saving money has been in turbo blast mode. My stockpile is going great only one problem..no way is my family going to be able to use 50 tubes of toothpaste by the expiration in March 2012, but luckily I have family I can share my good fortune with. Anywoo the point being saving money is a wonderful feeling as long as you can use what you buy. Thanks to your website and the people that post on here I can positively say I will not be appearing on Hoarders(Couponing Gone Wrong) LOL. Thanks for great advice and now that I’m back to my usaully level headed self. I think this couponing thing will be a great addition to my families life!

I have a question. I just bought the Washington post today the early edition to get the coupons an have come to see the majority of the coupons are expired In may. Everything eles is the date it’s supposed to be except half the coupons any one eles run into this problem? Kinda frustrating since I only bought the paper for the coupons. What a waste of 2.10.

I just wanted to mention that I think it’s wonderful when people donate their extra to charity – I regularly donate in many ways to local charities, but there’s another side…I don’t like it when people CLEAR the shelf & think it’s okay bc they’re going to donate to charity…it’s a very nice thought & gesture, but it prevents the rest of us who coupon in part to avoid needing charity to be able to take advantage of that same great deal for ourselves. Nathan, the gentleman from TLC’s EC who donated the Total cereal among other things (also the rock star of ethical couponing) pre-ordered what he was going to buy in bulk…that’s really the way to go bc then you’re helping charity AND allowing the rest of us to save some too! =)

I’ve been couponing for about 21 years now and I love it. I think the extreame couponing show is a little over the top. Why for a family of 2 do you need to go shopping every week when you have a stock pile of alot of stuff that will last 40 +/- yrs. I have my binder and I don’t like the baseball holder I have the larger ones and that way I don’t have to fold any of them. Have you ever heard some of the TV show host say how they place their order for coupons that are already cut and come to you in the mail – you can order as many as you want for a price well I wonder if they add that into their total payout at the end of the shopping spree? I would love to meet up with other couponer and trade advice and coupons. I usually go to Walmart for tolitries, cleaning supplies, and pet supplies, since they don’t double coupons I use my high $ coupons there. Then I go to Kroger for the doublo coupons (1 coupon per item) + my daughter works there and gets a 10% discount of products too. Hey every little penny helps. Lets get couponing!!!!

Is anyone else getting frustrated with Internet Printable coupons?!?! GRRRR!

Not to be a snot, I am truly thankful for coupons.com but are they REALLY the only ones out there?!? It seems like ANYONE else who claims to have IP are all just shells which lead you back to the original site, which as I said before I do appreciate.

My only thing is that they never seem to change to anything new added in there and it doesn’t have any posted policy about how many of each I can print. I’m not hording but having more than one would be nice….

Any suggestions or am I just being a jerk?
No really, feel free to answer, not a trick question.

I have to say, my second reaction to many of those shows is, “That woman is a hoarder.” I love the people who donate. Having tried expired toothpaste from my own previous stockpile and spat it out in disgust, I can see that some of them just continue to take and store more than they can use. When I was couponing very, very heavily, we were also not as healthy as we are now because so much unhealthy food comes up very cheap or free. All those free drinks chips and candy just make me cringe. We eat some, but bringing dozens or hundreds of packages of candy into a house with kids just can’t be a good idea.

ok so I have read these posts and people keep saying how they dont have all this time to commit to couponing.. If you remember MOST if not ALL of the people on the show explain that they do not have jobs or their spouse doesn’t have a job and that is why they MUST do it. I agree some of the stockpiles are a little outrageous, but most of those people donate on a regular basis. Everything in life takes time, it just depends on which things each individual decides to spend time on. Just sayin’…

Do you save coupons for things you know you would never buy?

Just tried another coupon site, and it’s ok, but I like this one better. Just sayin’.

Thank you I don’t want nor neither can I afford to spend hours getting my coupons together. The people on extreme couponing have crossed the line of stocking up to hoarding. I just want to save money on things we buy to help save as much as I reasonably can.

I’ve always used coupons but now, thanks to so many sites like this on the web, I’m learning to use them WELL! I don’t think I need 1,000 of ANYTHING (except dollars!) but I do try to keep a stock of what we will use in a couple months (till the next sale comes around) and enough to give to friends/family in need.

I’m sure I’ll never save 95% on my groceries but I do save a lot. I have decided to stay at home and raise my grandson, whom I have custody of. I do many things to cut our expenses and couponing is a big part of that. Seriously, if I can get something for .75 that I normally pay $2 for, I will get enough to last me a few months. I think this also keeps me from going to the store as often and we all know that saves money right there!

Can anyone tell me how I could find a few good websites where you can simply go to and print out good food coupons? I am starting to collect coupons to set up a large binder to keep my coupons in, and I have gone online to a hand full of websites that say they offer free grocery coupons,but once there, you are met with opening one window after another searching for coupons, I just gave up after visiting 6 -8 sites. All I want to do is just print some good food coupons to use, thanks.

I have been wanting to get into couponing ever since I was a child. I am going to be 30 in Sept. My sister has just started, and I have saw the Show on TLC. I did not have any “UNrealistic”, prenotions. I know people can do what they do, but first off. I have Autism, and I tend to be unorganized. Never really could take notes, keep track of my notes. Or even be able to make since of them. o.o;; Well, the notes also tend to overwhelm me. I tend to get Anxiaty and Panic Attacks. — But anyways, I know I could never get as good as them. But, I also know that we are in hard times. We get foodstamps, but that is not enough and also my sister-in-law is moving in too. Which is another mouth to feed. She can not get foodstamps, because she is under the age of 24 and has to be on her mothers foodstamps. but her mother makes to much to get foodstamps. I also receive SSI. As does my daughter who is Autistic. An Autistic child already costs alot to raise, so with all of the added stress and an extra person, with the money we are living on. I have been stressing on food, and other necessity. I also, like to help people. I have always been a giving person. I can not stand the thought of a hungry person. Or, a person in need. It is heart-wrenching, the thought of not being able to help them. I have been trying to help people any time I can. But, if I start couponing. Then, It will give me the chance to help people and not be as stressed out over things. Not be as stressed out on not being able to help people. —- I plan on getting a printer. But, right now we are looking for another place to live. Because, there are three Adults and one Autistic child, already. And, starting the 4th. There will be four Adults and one child. So, we need a bigger place. 🙂 I am going to start couponing, and help supporting my family. And, maby start being able to get things we need. 🙂 Wish us Luck!!! 🙂 We are really going to need it. 🙂

Thanks for the great post. I love couponing, and the show got me back into it…but 75 boxes of cereal??? Get real…stuff does go rancid (yes oil, salad dressings, and even medication expire). Those who coupon for donations are wonderful, but stockpile just to have it? I agree it’s over the top. I’m happy with 3 or 4 duplicate coupons a week and I generally save about 50% on my shopping list. Great Blog post!!!!

For those who find the shelf “empty” because of hoarders…go to customer service and get a rain check. They cleared out free “Tylenol Heat Patches” at my CVS and CVS still didn’t have them in on the day the coupon expired. 3 days later I went back with my raincheck and expired coupon and they honored the rain check AND took the expired coupon…so I got it for free :-).

I am new to this site but I am enjoying all the posts from other people… and their tips

i love couponning and saving money it’s worth it…

Not reading through all the comments, but major kudos to each and all who save any amount at the store. Every bit helps, doesn’t it?

Publix – Lets us use 3 coupons per item. Manufactorer, Store, Sale of item, and competitors. Bill before coupons $43.63 and After coupons =$21.84

I did not buy anything that I would not use. My bill consisted of nothing ridiculous where as I would stock pile anything. I have 2 kids, so I bought 2 Gogurt pks of 8 tubes, 6 Yoplait Yogurts, 2 Pillsbury Toaster Strudels, Quilted Northern TP, Sparkle Double Roll paper towels, Classico Spgh. Sauce, Dawn soap, Tot. Pizza Rolls 90ct, Dig. Pizza Stuffed Crust, Salad Mix.

I used to spend about$ 600-800 for a family of three. Now I’m at 400, which is huge for us. I tend to by organic and healthy foods so I’m limited to coupons, but still saving $300 a month helps!

Hello, I’m trying to find out how a class can be taught in TX? Michelle R, from the savannah savvy shopper refered me to you, she just taught a class at our church to about 88 people. I was telling my father about this and he asked me to find out if there was a way or if someone could put us in contact with someone who could offer a class. Thank you for taking yourt ime to educate people on saving money!
Heather Stacy

I am a mother of four and a coupon cutting queen. I love saving money for my family and it makes me feel good that of my children will be able to make it to college. This is what you really call a REAL HOUSEWIFE and I am not from Orange County or New York.

great show cant believe the money ive been throwing away…i still dont understasnd stuff like coupons that say 1 coupon per shopping

I had been looking into couponing for about 6 months but had not actually put in practice when I heard about the TLC show. While I would love to buy a ton of groceries for little money, I honestly see the behavior exhibited by the extreme couponers to be bordering on mental illness, perhaps OCD. It’s definitely horder’s mentality. But, to each their own. I just want to be able to cut my grocery bill down by 30% eventually, with the occasional high savings days:-)

very interesting

So glad to finally see realistic couponing. The tv shows are beyond belief. They don’t relate to the everyday family. I have couponed for many years and have never saved that amount of money. The tv show with the very overweight couponers buying loads of candy bars and chips was too much!Publix ,Walmart doesn’t double coupons and there are very few Winn Dixie nearby.I noticed the couponers went to Krogers,Albertsons which are no longer here.The twins bought many bottles of Malox? Do they have stomach problems? Doesn’t make sense to me.It’s as though they are all trying to make a senseless point,”I can outbuy everyone for practically no money,even though I don’t really need it.” I really like this site. I am learning alot. Thanks.

I think what we all need to keep in mind is that the show is called “Extreme Couponing” for a reason. According to some of the websites of the people who have been featured on the show thus far, TLC’s staff and crew asked them to go above and beyond for the craziest, most extreme couponing trip they could fathom. This includes making Joanie from thekrazycouponlady.com jump into the dumpster and the guy from the first show purchase all of that deodorant (which I have read that he actually did pre-order before the show taped so that it would look more extreme).

Also, all of these couponers already have an existing stockpile that they are adding to. Most of us here are creating a stockpile – whether that be with a 2-month supply or a year supply of the staples our family will realistically use. They are not going on these extreme trips to shop for their actual weekly groceries, they are going on these extreme trips to create a larger stockpile – therefore only purchasing things they can get for free. This then adds to the “extreme” nature of taking their shopping total from $1600 down to $30.

One last thing that I want to make sure is pointed out is this – while I’m not about all of the people portrayed as of now, some of them have mentioned on their websites that they have donated a majority, if not all, of their extreme hauls to their local food bank. I am not defending the fact that the mustard lady cleared the shelves but at least she gave it to people who could use it instead of stashing it away in her extra bedroom like the lady with all the noodles and toilet paper from episode one.

There is a fine line between extreme couponing and hoarding, I agree. But I feel that the majority of us couponers out there are doing it the right way – only purchasing what we can use within a reasonable amount of time. I just went to Kroger this morning and bought 24 boxes of cereal because of the General Mills promo going on right now. My kids are growing boys and we will go through that cereal pretty quickly. My getting it for less than $ .68 per box saved me a lot of money! I love my little stockpile – I could feed my family for about 4 months if I couldn’t get to the grocery in that amount of time – and my kids love going down to the basement to “shop” for the next box of cereal they would like to bring up for breakfast!

hey there i am a mother and grandmother of 10 and we r raising them all aznd we are both layed off right now i am really excited about couponing and really need it we r a very large family and i could even tell you how much we spend on groceries please help with any hints you have to get started,thanks so much lori
if you know of any couponing groups in the antelope valley california please let me know

I love this post! Shows like that…though I love them…give people unrealistic expectations and turn them of to couponing because they are willing to devote that kind of time. Not to mention, it gets overwhelming if that is your first lesson in couponing. YIKES! It’s a necessity for some, a game for others, and both for the rest. Love it!

Thank you for showing the way couponing should be. They really need to rename the show Exteme Couponing to “Hoarders Using Coupons”. Bedides where I live they do not double or triple coupons nor do they offer any store bonus cards or loyality incentives so what can you do? One woman had 1500 newspaper coupon inserts, I’m sorry where I live the Sunday paper is the only day they have coupon inserts and at $2.00 a paper that would be $3,000 I don’t get it ,your idea of one paper per person in the family makes much more sense.

Trying to go to school, losing my job, and feeding a family of five is hard. Hopefully I will cut some of my bill. I have no crazy fantasies about saving crazy amounts but saving 20% would be a help. You have a great website.

For whatever reason, TLC JUST premiered EC in Hawaii tonight. And as I watched this show all I kept asking myself was how are these people any different than the people on the hoarding show? And then I realized they’re not. Sure, you can sugar coat it and say that these extreme couponers are more organized but realistically these extreme couponers are just hoarders with OCD and a whole lot of time on their hands.

You guys are all getting me so excited with your savings stories that I want to start saving too! I have a famiy of 8 and cant afford to keep us in food and neccessaties for a month, although I have a healthy budget for these things. It has never made sense to me. I have tried couponing in the past on a small scale and didnt feel like I was really accomplishing anything. I think because I usually buy generic and to use a coupon I had to buy name brand and the coupon just made it the same price as the generic. I just don’t know how to get started I guess. 🙁

I have to say the TLC show both shocked and inspired me. It also took me to this website. Reading through the “Teach a (wo)man to fish” series over the weekend I told my DH how I really appreciated how you keep things in perspective with couponing and stockpiles. He serves as my ‘checks and balances’ (as we both know I can get a little overzealous at times with projects) – so I clip the coupons and look at the ads while he makes sure that we have room and money to buy what we need. Despite watching the ppl on the show, we realize that we probably won’t ever save 90% on a grocery trip, but even 10% is good enough.

I think creating a tower of 100’s of boxes of cereal in your driveway is a bit over the top. It’s great to stock pile and even buy extra to donate to food banks but don’t be rediculious and clear the shelves. I love your site and you have helped me save money and I am very thankful to you! I hope others will learn how to save money as well but not get so addicted that they hoard items they will not possibly be able to use. People need to remember that greed is a sin. Thanks for all you do!

Just got back from CVS from my very first couponing trip. I saved $46 on items I will use and would have normally bought at full retail price. I’m glad I saw the show and I’m even more glad I read this website to get a better idea of the real value in couponing! I can’t believe how much money I’ve wasted in the past! Especially at CVS! I’m ashamed to say I’ve rarely looked at my receipt and have probably thrown away many ECBs in the past. Not any more! 🙂

I couldn’t agree more. I regularly save 50-70% of my grocery bill with a family of 7 by using coupons. Once upon a time I had a coupon stockpile. Then I got lazy, we had a good amount of money coming in, and I just didn’t take the time. Now I am having to build it back up. Which sucks. But what they showed on “EC” was way over the top and will give people unrealistic expectations of what you can do couponing. The last guy though that donated the stuff he bought in excess I didn’t have a problem with. The girl who had her kids and her pregnant friend in the dumpster looking for coupons, I had a HUGE problem with. Seriously, dumpster diving for coupons. EWWW! And the black lady from Philly was rather realistic with her approach as well. She stated she didn’t stockpile and only bought what she needed. Which is great. I do the same thing in the grocery store she was doing, I have to admit. If I see someone buying something I have a coupon for but am not using, I had it over.

BTW- I love your site and visit often for the Target deals and Walmart deals you post. Thanks for taking the time to do all the research for me!

I started couponing almost exactly one year ago. I decided to keep really strict track of my out of pocket expenses so that I could decide if this new habit was really worth my time. I too spend about 1 hour couponing and putting together my lists a week. My year is up, and my numbers are in: using your website, adding CVS to my shopping repertoire and one hour a week have saved me $1770 this year!! That is money, that at this time last year, I had already spent on groceries and items for my home!!

I appreciate the savings sites like yours have given me, but as you said, time with my family is just as important. 70 hours a week!? That’s a little ridiculous!