Extreme Couponing is THE Hot Topic right now.  Scoring a great deal is rush to the shoppers on the show and America wants too see more! Tonight we met Chicagos’s Extreme Couponing twins Taryn & Tie AKA “The Double Saving Divas” and Nathan came back for another round.

“Couponing is a lifestyle, we eat it, sleep it, dream about it.” The twins have mad it their mission to never pay retail.  They grew up with a mother who clipped coupons and follow in her footsteps.

Their Strategies:

• Look at the inserts & sales online

• Matching coupons with inserts

The twins took also decided to shop on the optimal day for coupons- their birthdays. Their goal was to stay under $60.00 for the entire day.

What did they grab?

Several stores offer exclusive birthday rewards- resulting in a lot of free goodies They visited a local clothing store and scored 3 Pieces of jewelry for free. $10 Value. Next, a local burger restaurant for free meal. $20 Value. (I know Denny’s has a free meal on your birthday deal. And they topped it off with some free birthday ice cream!

Their Strategies:

• Buy travel sizes, a lot of manufacture coupons don’t exclude travel sizes.

• 80 coupons from Sunday newspapers, printable online coupons, catalinas from the store they shopped at (Jewel), competitor’s manufacturer coupon &, loyalty program coupons (Huggies Rewards) & 2 gift cards for using the stores in house pharmacy. (transferred prescriptions)

• Watch every detail during the checkout (make sure coupons are processed properly)

• Store loyalty card ($60-$70 in savings this trip)

Register displayed $385.04 and they brought it down to $13.96!

Nathan

Last week we met Nathan, a Kentucky couponer who has a stockpile close to 10,000 products. Among those products Nathan’s garage is filled with 700 bottles of body wash, a wall of 1000 toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper and cereal and thousands of other items. He says that since he’s been couponing his family has achieved financial stability. This week he was shopping to give products to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

His Strategies:

• Coupon inserts, categorized by date and type
• Checks out the Circulars online
• Matches circulars and coupons and compiles a list
• Organizes by aisle

This week he brought in his mom to help him AKA “mama coupon.”

What did he Grab?

• Flavored water is on sale for $1.00 and he has a $.50 off coupon, which doubles at his store- making it free.

• $.50 off Toothpaste coupon-which doubles at his store making his $1.00 toothpaste free.

$883.36 reduced to $27.04 =  97% savings

His goal was to create 1000 care packages for American Soldiers overseas and he achieved it by donating over $20,000 of his stockpile to the troops.

I’m starting to notice a trend:

1. Look at the sales fliers

2. Match sales fliers to coupons.

3. Make a list (detailed, even the aisle if possible)

4. Use a Savings card if you have one.

Sounds like a good start to me! Next week I’ll talk more about Catalina’s and rewards programs…stay tuned & Happy Couponing!