Extreme Couponing

And my family and some friends thought/think I'm crazy for carrying a 3-ring binder full of coupons in base ball card holders. Not to mention, fully equipped with scissors, pens, envelopes, and a highlighter. Who knows when you may run across a store coupon and need to cut it out.

I sometimes thought I was a little overboard on some days and stores (Bi-Lo) with my couponing. Sometimes so bad that John would not want to be seen with me in the store!  :)  All of this is before my sister called me last night to tell me to put it on a show on TLC. The show?  Extreme Couponing

I can no longer say I am a good couponer. Not after watching the show last night. One lady, a retired RN, walks around her neighborhood every Monday to get the neighborhoods discarded, unused coupons and papers.  She then takes these coupons clips them and uses them for her own shopping.  During the show, she and a friend went to the store to do some shopping, with all her coupons in tow. She spend over $600 dollars in groceries and ended up actually paying around $6.35!!!!!  That's around a 93% savings!!!!

The next person on the show, a male, and the last person on the show was wwwaaayyy overboard.  He spent over $5,000.00 in groceries and actually ended up paying a little over $500.00.  He had a savings of around 95%!!! In this visit, he purchased 1100 boxes of cereal and only paid $150 for them. He purchased them to donate to his churches food bank.

After seeing this show, I now know that I still have a lot to learn when it comes to couponing.  A good thing though is that my sister wants to learn now. So even if I can teach her what little bit I currently know, maybe she too can start saving some money and quit paying full price for everything!!! 

Do any of you have any helpful hints, tips, etc that you use and wouldn't mind sharing? I'm up for all kinds of learning saving now!

Happy Shopping and Couponing!