Crissy Thompson (pictured left) is among the coupon clipping elite. 11Alive News followed her around one day to learn some of her secrets. At a local Publix, Crissy managed to get two-thirds off her grocery bill and at CVS picked up $140 worth of goods for $5. Often, she spends only $10 a week on groceries and that’s with 3 kids and a husband. Check out some of her techniques and her favorite coupon web sites, inside…
Crissy’s incredible results don’t come without preparation. She usually spends an hour week getting prepared for her shopping trip which takes her 3 to 4 hours and includes 3 to 7 local stores.
Like any good soldier, Crissy starts by gathering her ammunition. She does this by buying 2 copies of the Sunday double paper which renders 4 sets of coupons. Next she hits her favorite web sites which include: gottadeal.com and hotcouponworld.com
Crissy decided to show the news crew a sampling of what she does and they proceeded to hit CVS and a Publix, two of her favorite stores.
At Publix, Crissy made good use of the buy 1 get 1 free coupons. Most grocery stores will also let you buy just one item and get 50% off. If you can then pair that with a coupon, you can get the item for free or next to nothing.
Crissy also explained that when a coupon reads “1 coupon per purchase” you are not actually limited to using it only once. For example she took 2 boxes of cereal that were buy 1 get 1 free for $3.79 a box. Crissy also had 2, $3 off coupons to go with each of the boxes of cereal. Crissy made over $2 on the cereal. At checkout Crissy’s total was $15.38, she saved $36.22.
Next they went to CVS. Crissy says the best deals there are coupons and Extra Care Bucks. Extra Care Bucks are given on specially marked items. You receive the bucks at checkout and use them on a following purchase. Most people would simply use these Extra Care Bucks the next time they came to the store, or forget about them altogether. However, Crissy uses them the same visit by splitting up her purchase into separate transactions.
They arrived at the checkout counter where Crissy proceeded to split her checkout into 5 transactions. She took the Extra Care Bucks from each transaction and applied it to each following transaction. Apparently, CVS has no problem doing this for Crissy. All said and done, Crissy bought approximately $140 worth of merchandise for under $5. Crazy, huh?
It looks like the Crissy-craze is catching on, she will even have her own website soon. What are your favorite little-known coupon tricks?
If I Didn’t See It With my Own Eyes [11 Alive] (Thanks to Josh!)
(Photo: 11 Alive)
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@rwyuan: BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Oh, the self righteousness!
Everyone who’s bitching and moaning about waiting behind her, take a deep breath. Standing in line for an extra five minutes isn’t going to ruin your day, keep you from destiny, or kill a small puppy. Patience is a virtue that sadly most of the public lacks.
Are we all looking at the same photo?
By what scale is this woman fat?
Between the free-floating misogyny and “blame-the-victim” comments I sometimes wonder why I read this site…
What’s the difference between 5 small transactions and 1 long one? 2 minutes.
I’m with the people who have commented on how long her transactions take. As a cashier, I don’t mind if people use coupons, as long as they give them to me all at once and actually read them so I don’t have to give them back to them. Anything to save some money now.
As a customer, I would be annoyed to be stuck in line behind her during her multiple transactions. I know we all need to have plenty of patience when shopping, but we all have our limits.
Coupons are a lot of work for the benefits you get from them. I find it is only worth cutting and searching online for them if you get at least 25% off your purchase. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time.
@donkeyjote: and in a retail environment, 2 minutes is much longer than it sounds.
5 small transactions still takes quite a bit longer, because she has to pay for each transaction seperately, so it is the processing/etc that is going to make it take longer.
obviously if there is no policy against it, then she can feel free to do it. but just because theres no policy against someone being a douchebag, doesn’t mean they SHOULD be one either.
she is just being obnoxious. coupons take forever anyway.
if i was behind that person in line, i’d change lines or hope the cashier has the power to do something.
theres a line you cross from being a good wise consumer to being a dumb obnoxious douchebag.
***understandably, there are situations where this could be more reasonable. i do understand that maybe she has 5 children and both her and her husband have jobs just trying to make ends meet. H
**HOWEVER, you have to realize that no one else in the line behind you knows that and most do not care. NO MATTER HOW TOUGH your life is, you still have to be considerate of others too, not try to take in all the sympathy you can.
and, just a second thought… people really think she is that overweight? where the hell are you from? she seems to be a fine healthy individual, there are PLENTY of people that are much more “overweight” than most of you are claiming she is… i don’t believe she is really overweight at all.. sorry she isn’t 96 lbs. and only eating an apple for breakfast and an orange for dinner.
i had to at least come to her defense on THAT aspect of this.
@forgottenpassword: As a former cashier, though, I have to say that at least 50% of the time, people have expired or otherwise invalid coupons, and they get pissed when we tell them that.
Damn you guys can be harsh.
Let’s boil this down: Crissy is doing something that works for her and some other people would like to take her knowledge utilize it for themselves. If you can do that great, if not, you’re not out much more than your time reading the article.
End of story.
A couple people seemed to take exception to my previous comments about the inside story on Crissy’s coupon-clipping life. So I decided to turn to last week’s Sunday paper to hunt coupons, maybe for crow I can eat later. I’m going to list everything that I found in the 2 circulars, SmartSource and redplum
SmartSource: BBQ sauce; ziploc bags; sweepstakes; airborne; glade air fresh; contrived yogurt snax; baseball caps; omaha steaks; discover app; shampoo; deodorant; candy; nutrisystem; pledge; air freshener; dow bathroom chemicals; stain remover; bug killers; windex; english muffins; sleep number beds; discover card app again; oil of olay; oreck vacuum; checks; tampons; dog snax; air freshener; address labels; bras; weird arthritis gloves; direct tv; and grandy’s restaurant? (33 items)
and redplum: frozen garlic bread; fruit juice; arthritis supplement; canned dog food; skin lotion; skin lotion; sandwich crackers; visine; check printing; bras; foot pads; dish network; and eyeglasses. (13 items)
Here’s what I’ve learned:
1. There’s almost no food. BBQ sauce, english muffins, Ocean Spray juice, steaks, candy, kids’ yogurt snax, frozen bread, snack crackers. 8 items. Most of the items are barely food–they’re really unhealthy snacks. The only near-staples are the muffins and the juice.
2. Most everything is discretionary and premium-priced, such as credit cards, satellite tv, name-brand cleaning products, pseudo-gourmet beef, silly inflatable beds and name-brand toiletries.
3. All these things are priced at a premium over similar products. Some of the items require large purchases–you must buy 10 cans of dog food to get 75¢ off. Even with a coupon, there are almost certainly much cheaper alternatives available, e.g., I’d never buy eyeglasses at EyeMasters.
In the old days, I remember getting coupons for coffee, frozen OJ, sugar and paper towels. Indeed I would be constipated if I tried to eat this food, what little there is. There are 3 separate ads for air fresheners.
My jokes before were aimed at the fact that for most of us, these coupons won’t allow us to buy needed products, and we won’t really save any money if we try, because we’ll have to buy premium brands and unhealthy, unneeded items. YMMV: In other cities, there may be more couponage. FWIW, I have no interest in organic foods or farmers’ markets. I don’t consider one’s grocery shopping habits an issue of terpitude–it was just teasing.
By the way, on Scott Tissue’s website, you can get virtually unlimited $2 off coupons for TP and other products.
Wow….just wow. I do not know how this article got put on this website, but it did. And many of you (who say your time is so valuable) have nothing better to do than judge, degrade, and villify me? To me, that seems a bigger waste of time than providing for my family on a strict budget. Yes, we are a one income family. Yes, I feed a family of five with anywhere from $10-$50 a week. Yes, we eat fresh fruits & veggies, and YES, there are coupons for them. We eat fresh meat as well. And guess what? I use these magic little pieces of paper to do it with, instead of food stamps or any kind of welfare. My family gets provided for, and it costs you nothing. Not even time, because, unlike the majority of the people I see responding here, I am actually considerate of the people around me, even complete strangers. I will stand back and let people go in front of me. I shop during the slow times…early morning on the weekdays, and late at night. And if I am doing more than one transaction and someone happens to walk up, I will stop and let them go. So no, I am not holding any of you up, not wasting any of your time. You seem to do that on your own tho, by posting so many negative things. Coupons allow my family to eat much better than we would. And yes, every once in a while I do make a box of hamburger helper or something easy. But most nights, I make dinners from scratch using items I got with coupons. It is possible and they are out there. Seems like most people are looking for an excuse not to use coupons, but there are no excuses needed. Either you do or you dont. I quit working, making $14 an hour. In exchange for that $14 an hour, I get to stay home with my children (priceless), provide for my family better food than we ate when we both worked, I have more time to cook better foods, and so much more. So for me, it is definately worth it. But please dont jump to conclusions so fast. It is very disheartedning to see so much negativity. And over what? Someone you will more than likely never meet, and something that does not affect you negatively in any way.
You do know that stores just price things up to cover the cost of the product – coupon? Else how could they make a profit off the already increased priced products?
I still would like to know how she saved ~$36 on:
“Crissy also explained that when a coupon reads “1 coupon per purchase” you are not actually limited to using it only once. For example she took 2 boxes of cereal that were buy 1 get 1 free for $3.79 a box. Crissy also had 2, $3 off coupons to go with each of the boxes of cereal. Crissy made over $2 on the cereal. At checkout Crissy’s total was $15.38, she saved $36.22.”
According to my math that was only, what? $10? So, wait, the store gave her about $20 to walk in and take stuff off the shelves? If so, I should quit my day job and cut coupons for the rest of my life.
So lets argue this coupon thing for a second. So, lets argue that coupons do indeed save you money.
I decided to do my own investigation.
I googled for “dominick’s coupons” (its right down the street so why not) and found:
[www.chicagotribune.com]
Seems pretty legit right? Because all newspapers are trustworty. Well, I proceed to the coupons link and it seems fairly user friendly. I click on a few coupons, and low and behold it wants to install some spyware/adware crap on my machine. Over my dead body.
I don’t give up easily. So I googled for “grocery coupons” and came up with: coupons.smartsource.com
Seems legit, although the idiot who programmed it put in JS code to prevent you from going back in your browsers history….why would they want to back to the previous page?
In any case, I selected a coupon and again it wanted to install crap on my computer. I even dugg a little deeper and one wanted my email + zipcode (why would you need my email to show me a coupon?). Then I also stumbled upon a site that looked like the first but the HTML was screwed up and wanted to install the same crappy spyware.
$.60 says she has 10 tons of spyware/adware on her machine. Dibs on helping her uninstall that crap + the $140 she “saved”.
So in the end, you are not “saving” any money. Because the money you “saved” you have to use to hire some geek to come and fix the computer you screwed up. Or do what most people do is just buy a new one after they have trashed the one they currently have.
I have seen some useful coupons floating around, like $5 off at best buy or something…but it is NOT worth installing spyware and getting paper cuts for the amount of money you would save from coupons. Morale of the story, everything is good in moderation.
Someone prove it to me with broken down facts that coupons are actually worth it. Otherwise, from personal experience, I am telling you that the news article is a little fishy in terms of how much she ACTUALLY saved.
Sorry for my rant, its late and I’m tired. So if some of it seems a little…unapporatite it’s my asleep brain typing.
@ChuckECheese: I am a coupon to the extreme. I’m one of the ones who buys multiple papers. I do not use the coupons I don’t need, you have to remember that these are -advertisements-.
First off, let’s start with the dog food. The coupon was for Alpo, right? My local store had it on sale for 10 for $10 last week. A dollar a can. And they double coupons. So, that 75 cent coupon is worth $1.50. So that’s a can and a half of dog food for free.
And last time I checked, my dog planned to eat on each of the next 10 days.
Here is another example, I’ll work the math for you:
3pk Zest Soap
–
Original Price: 2.29
Sale Price: 1.50 (2/$3)
Coupon Value: 70 cents (35 doubled)
Total Cost: 80 cents (Price per bar: 27 cents)
–
When was the last time you spent twenty-seven cents on a bar of national brand soap? 1964?
Hell, I can’t even claim to be a coupon genius anymore. I used to do all the hard work. Now I use a service that tells me “Hey, on March 30th, there was a coupon in the Smart Source for 75 cents off of Product X. Supermarket Y has it on sale for 1.50 and they double coupons! It’s free!”
No one around here doubles coupons at stores.
I coupon clip and use them on a limited basis and manage to save a decent amount. I scan the ads every week and clip the coupons for the products that we use anyway – the brands of toiletries, the brands of cleaning products, the cereals, etc. I keep them filed and then when we go shopping I pull the ones that are on that week’s list. I also keep an eye out in the grocery store for products that we use (like cereal or spaghetti sauce and pasta) that may be on super sales but not on that week’s list and stock up when they are on sale.
I save maybe $250 a year just from the coupons, which take practically no time to do…not sure how much more I save just by keeping my eye out for the sales as we work our way through the store. It works for us, saves us some money and takes practically no time or effort.
@CrissyT: Crissy, thanks for chiming in. Not everyone here is so negative, but there are a lot of elitist and immature people on the internet.
If you’re still here, I would like to know how you find coupons for normal items? Most of the coupons in my Sunday paper are for snacks or non-food items, and most of them are for new products the manufacturer is trying to push. I would have no problem devoting time to couponing but it is rare for me to find a coupon I can actually use. How do I do it?
The first thing I would suggest: If there is a product you like, no matter what it is, send the manufacturer an email, or give them a call. Most of the times they will respond with coupons. This is especially good for products you dont see many coupons fdor. Also, the sunday paper coupons go in cycles. It is not the same coupons every week. Check them often. As for organics, http://www.mambosprouts.com has some great coupons they mail out quarterly I believe.
@aristan: All the power to everybody who can make this work. But it clearly doesn’t work in some markets/regions and for some people.
The dog food coupon I referenced is Pedigree brand. I do not have a dog (cost $0) so I don’t know the prices. If you use this coupon, you will save 7 1/2¢ a can. Your deal on Zest soap is great. But I don’t get coupons for Zest soap, and my supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Lowes Big 8) do not double coupons. So I get 40¢ off frozen garlic bread slices and $1 off Oust air freshener.
Clearly there are big regional differences in coupon availability. Crissy must live in a part of the country where there are a lot of coupons available. If I tried to live on coupon purchases, I’d starve. I check the coupons every week I get a Sunday paper, and I usually browse the mail ads that show up on Tues or Wed each week. They rarely have deals that make it worth my while to make a special trip.
Albertsons and Lowes here have extremely high grocery prices, usually 2 to 3X (no exaggeration) Wal-Mart’s. I don’t like paying $5 for a 5-lb bag of flour, $6 for a gallon of milk and $3.75/lb for hamburger. El Paso has higher than national average grocery prices. Nobody gives coupons for produce here, although there are ethnic markets with inexpensive produce.
I’m aware of that smart-buyer online service you speak of–it was featured on Consumerist a few weeks ago. It is not available in El Paso, a city of nearly 800,000 people.
So my conclusion is that some of the snark you find on here is due to the fact that there are meaningful differences in coupon availability throughout the U.S. The rest of the snark comes from the fact that internet commenting is more locker room than group therapy. Nothing personal, Crissy; it’s just the nature of the beast.
@CrissyT: “Also, the sunday paper coupons go in cycles. It is not the same coupons every week.”
Definitely. Some weeks it’s a total waste and I pitch the entire insert. On the flip side, P&G BrandSaver week is my favorite. Good for me, good for my local shelter!
Locally we get coupons doubled to $1 but not over; where I used to live they had double and triple coupons, no limit. That makes a biiiiiiig difference in how well I do couponing. I’ve also lived places where there’s no doubling.
(And ignore the haters. There’s always some dope who has to chime in on frugality posts going, “Saving money is stupid!” Must be nice.
)
I own one of the websites this shopper frequents. And I too am a coupon shopper. The fact is, there are hundreds of brands out there in the organic/natural foods segment that have $$ off coupons. Last week, I bought $50 worth of organic tomato products for $19. Next week, I have planned out a trip that will save me $200 on organic foods, many of them being free.
HCW has a database with every coupon out there we know about, and we even have a couponing board for shoppers transitioning to a green lifestyle as well – and those members there get some screamin’ deals on organics.
As to the savings? I am a FT MBA student, and I’ve couponed while working FT jobs as well. My savings over the last five years off retail…$55,000!!! You know where that money goes? It fully funds a $16K 401K plan. So I am saving after-tax dollars that I use to fund a pre-tax account. The savings for us, combined with the interest earned is huge. And we’re a 6-figure earning household. You’d be amazed how many people are professionals who coupon. We have mods who are pharmacists and lawyers. We have members who are business owners. For many of us, we want to keep what we have, not give it away paying retail. And the cashiers in my area…they’re thrilled cause I share the deals with them. They are working for little above min. wage – they are happy for the extra coupons I throw their way.
Is couponing for everyone? Not really. You have to commit to wanting to save that kind of money. But there’s lots of ways to save on food and get the quality of food you want – you just have to be willing to be out there.
As the forum owner, I am thrilled when I read about how this has changed our members lives. They have paid off debt, houses, cars. They are going back to school with their money. They are retiring early. They donate THOUSANDS of dollars and products back into their community. Many of them (myself included) even have keys to their local foodbank so they can drop off goods whenever they want.
We appreciate those who pay full price and think nothing of it – it keeps the good deals coming for the rest of us!
@rwyuan: @rwyuan: @rwyuan:
AMEN!! I laugh my ass off at all these righteous people who come on here and say they will ONLY eat organic, all natural, no-antibiotic, free-range, grass-fed, blah, blah, blah. You all know that is a complete crock, right? It is not more nutritious, better tasitng, healthier…but I guess if it makes you feel superior to the rest of us, more power to you!
@CrissyT:
Crissy, I’m VERY glad to hear that you are so considerate of others. From my experience, people who know they’ll be there for a while and are willing to let others go first are damn near fictitional.
Having been a cashier, I can tell you that most coupon clippers aren’t very nice people. I hate to say that, but it’s the truth – they try very hard to slip in expired/wrong store/wrong product coupons, and when you tell them that you can’t ring a coupon up because it’s for a $100+ Sonicare system and they’re just buying a $3 toothbrush, they scream and insult you. It gets to the point where you see someone with coupons and sit there mentally going “PLEASE, not my register, PLEASE”.
I’m very glad to hear of your consideration for others, and I am quite happy to eat crow here.
As I said originally, I do admire your tenacity and resourcefulness.
/munch munch munch… mmm, crow
//I have a feather stuck in my teeth now.
I do want to add – we have a whole section at hotcouponworld where we shed light on coupon fraud. We’ve ferreted out fraudlent coupons before the manufacturer even knew there were problems and alerted the CIC, a non-profit that deals with coupon fraud.
We also encourage our members to treat cashiers kindly.
@bonzombiekitty: It’s even better for the store than what you describe. The store gets $3 back for each box of cereal. Plus, the cost of the promotion is almost invariably borne by the manufacturer – so the manufacturer is making sure that the store loses no margin on the cereal. So if the store buys the cereal for $2.79, and marks it up to $3.79 every day, then the store also gets back at least $2 on the buy-one-get-one offer. I work for a major food manufacturer in marketing, and we put out coupons all the time. A really successful coupon for us would have a redemption rate of about 1.5%. While Crissy herself costs us money, the benefit comes from the 99% of other customers who see our coupon in the newspaper, either cut it out or don’t, go to the store, and then pick up the product on the shelf and buy it without a coupon. I wish I were as disciplined as Crissy with the couponing, even though I likely make more/hour than she saves.
@RandomHookup: Regarding the bar codes, the codes are set by some quasi-governmental organization and each manufacturer applies for the first five digits. Most companies have brands save because you can have, technically speaking, 99,999 unique codes (the last 5 digits of the UPC) per manufacturer code (the first 5 digits of the UPC). Most brands don’t have that many different items. So at my company, you can use a coupon for one product, technically speaking, on I think 8 different brands.
I don’t see what everyones problem is? Not everything we coupons buy is “bad” for us! I once shopped at walmart and was able to get $350 worth of stuff for nothing, as a matter of fact, they had to give me $9.00 out of their register! And as for not getting deals on healthy foods we do. I have gotten many, many, many fruits and veggies free as well as juice. Even organic foods. So I think you all need to do a little research. And if the world goes into another depression…guess who’s gonna be stocked up on food. Obviously not you! Don’t be a hater.
@Doofio:
I used to work at a CVS and everyone there felt the same way. Except my manager was a push over and would allow even the most outrageous coupon fraud. So not only would my manager make me look like a jackass for trying to prevent said coupon usage, some customers had the nerve to complain that i had a “bad attitude” while ringing up there 75 coupons with a line full of impatient customers.
The problems with coupons are often not caused by the consumer — UPC on the coupon is wrong, one store in a chain decides they will do it a different way from the rest of the chain, cashier decides the rules on the spot (I once had a cashier tell me I couldn’t get the $10 on your next order coupon that printed out from the Catalina machine after I bought the right items — he thought paying 16 cents for my order wasn’t enough — we called the manager). I’ve been cursed out by customers because the coupons wouldn’t scan right (it was the right coupon, just some problem)…I’m sorry I wasted your time at 8 on a Sunday morning.
Bigtime couponers will tell you the big savings are in the Catalina deals and Rx transfer gift cards. But then again, I’ll eat anything.
@Joseph: “…how hard would it be for you to be creative or just work for $20 an hour for 5 hours…”
In some cities, I would totally agree with you. However, where I live now, making $20 an hour is exceedingly rare. Most people in my rural town are lucky to be in the $10/hour range, if they’re employed at all. My take is that if you’d otherwise spend that time, say, watching tv or just dinking around, this extreme couponing might be worth the effort. Even without going to Crissy’s extremes, we can all take away a few useful tips from her experience. I love feeling like I just stole a box of Lucky Charms after using a good coupon trick.
Most of the coupons I see are for crap I don’t need or want.
@CrissyT:
Cheers to you young lady. Thanks for stopping in and putting some of these trolls to rest. While this site has lots of quality posters and very knowledgable folks. There will always be the elitists who choose to snub their nose or look down on those of us who try to make the right choices in life.
Keep up the good fight.
@lamorevincera:
You prove my point. While many are quick to jump few in this world are willing to accept that they may have jumped to soon and even fewer are willing to publicly retract.
“thumbs up” to you for being mature enough to not only think what you said but to publicly state it.
@jharbert: You are absolutely right, and it’s something I always notice. The worthwhile coupons for “food” items are usually for expensive, highly-processed junk with little or no nutritional value. We hardly use them. There are quite a few lower-value coupons (35 cents, 50 cents) on dairy and produce items, or staples like oil, tuna, sugar, or condiments, and in the summer we use lots of coupons for ice cream, nutrition be damned
.
I’m still an intensive coupon clipper, for personal care items, makeup (drugstore-type brands, not high end), cleaning and household products, and pet supplies. When I have two $3 coupons for L’Oreal foundation, for example, and the store is having a weekly two-for-one special, I can get two foundations for a fraction of the cost of one. Each one rings up separately at the register (so I can use both coupons for buying two items). Because of the “twofer,” the register will later deduct the price of one of them. So, for example, if the foundation costs $12, I’m buying two for $12, applying a $3 coupon for each one, and end up paying $6 for both. At CVS, I usually plan to use other benefits that lower the price even more – buying products when there are Extra Care Bucks offered, and using coupons CVS sends regularly by e-mail, such as, for example, $4 off any $20 beauty products purchase, or store coupons for specific brands. I buy all my cosmetics, skin care, and personal care items, and many household products, using this strategy. It quickly adds up to substantial savings.
I find you need to stay focused on whether the “bargain” is really useful to you or whether it will gather dust because you realize you don’t want to switch from your “regular” brand. If you’re careful to buy only what you can use (or donate to a shelter or food bank), coupons can still be very valuable even if you mostly avoid the food-related ones.
@strathmeyer: Imagine that, not only are you earning so much that you feel compelled to mock people who need to be more frugal to make ends meet, but you even have time to hang out on Consumerist. Good for you.
@DamThatRiver: Huge difference. I don’t understand how you can see a comparison. Taking more ketchup packets than you will use during your visit is unethical at best (“stealing” would be the right word, frankly). Using coupons skillfully (i.e., combining a manufacturer’s coupon + a store coupon during a week that the item is on special to begin with) to bring the price close to zero is not in the least bit unethical. The worst you can say about that is that it irritates the guy at the register and the people in line behind you. You’re comparing rotten apples with sunny oranges.
No offense, but you people are terribly unoriginal in your thinking. I attended at a hacker conference (HOPE last year) a coupon-clipping seminar. No joke.
The guy who was giving the speech would get paid to shop, much like Chrissy here. He’d make $2 on each pair of cereal boxes, or $1 on each bottle of nyquil, or whatever.
There were a few things he did to get even more out of it. He wouldn’t buy anything he actually needed. EVER. BUT, he always walked out not with goods, but with money. He walked out of the store every time with a huge wad of cash… (figuratively… he actually walked out with $500 in-store gift cards that he paid nothing for).
Basically, he’d find what he considered a winning combination, like the cereal example. He’d go online to a website where you can buy 100 or 500 of the same coupon from someone who’s sitting at home just clipping them. So he’d buy 1000 of the $3 off coupons, and 500 of the buy one get one free coupons.
He’d go into the store, he’d bring 500 boxes of cereal to the front, use the coupons, AND BUY A $500 IN-STORE GIFT CARD.
THen he’d walk out of the store, drop the 500 boxes of cereal, and drive home, keeping NOTHING but the $500 store gift card. He’d literally trash the goods he just purchased and leave the store with $500. Sometimes he’d even do the right thing and donate them to food shelters, but the point is he didn’t care at all what happened to the cereal. He just made $500.
In fact, for some products it got even better. Some allow you to rip off the labels and get everything from movie tickets to clothing items. So not only did you make $1.50 on each Sunny Delight you bought, but you ALSO make an $8 movie ticket for every 4. That means for each 4 units you buy, you make $8 + $6…. and even if you never intend to use the movie tickets, I’m SURE you could resell them to someone for $5 each. The sad part with this one, though, is that he was unable to donate any food items without labels or proofs of purchase. The shelters wouldn’t take them, and so he often just left them on the side of the road somewhere.
Remember, this is completely without even using the goods you’re buying. This is just using coupons only and then throwing hte products into the garbage.
For all those people saying using coupons to buy goods you’re not gonna use is pointless, that’s wrong. If you’re MAKING money on every unit, you don’t care if you’re buying shampoo, food, or dog shit. It ultimately doesn’t matter. You’re getting paid to walk out of the store with it… the more you walk out with, the more they pay you.
It’s only obvious when they set up systems like this that people will take it to extremes.
I find that the coupons in the Sunday paper are only good for a certain length of time, most 30 days. If the item doesn’t go on sale to make the trip worthwhile, I just have to throw it in the recycle paper pile. I do get some bargains from time to time, but I am not driving all over town just to get them. And as for places like Wal-Mart, they have already cracked down on people in our area. Their price matching is good only if the item is named specifically, even if it is in the picture portion of the ad, if it is not named, they will not honor it. And they look at me funny for any coupon derived from the computer printer. Sometimes, it is worth it and sometimes, it’s best to forget it.
Around here, stores will not give you cash back for saving on coupons. I had a $1.10 coupon on a box of cereal and I used the coupon. The cahsier took 10 minutes of everyones time to call the office and see if she could allow it because their store policy was nothing over $1 was allowed. My jaw dropped. So I went to a sister store across town the next week, and they said that was wrong. They also added that I should not have gotten any money back from it, but the coupon should have been taken at $1.10. I kept trying to tell them that the darned box of cereal was $3.68 so there was no way I was going to get $ back. So, I just don’t go to that store now.
How wonderful to save on 99.9% of store brand crap. Has anyone taken a look at the sodium and fat in coupon items? Not to mention sugar!
Sure, I’d like to save big bucks on stuff like the rest of us but not at the expense of a corinary.
I love all you people who pay full price for products so that I can get them for free. (Somebody has to pay for it – so a big fat THANK YOU to you!)
When I get all my shampoo, makeup, razors, dishsoap, dishwasher soap, pain relief, vitamins, toothbrushes and toothpaste, deo, and even printer paper for free I’m laughing all the way to the bank!
It is true that most food coupons are for unhealthy junk. You have to be picky. I just used coupons for organic soymilk and organic frozen blueberries. There are lots of coupons for condiments. While these won’t feed you, every dollar you don’t spend on ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, or salad dressing is a dollar you can spend on something really good for you. Also, most people do buy junk, at least occasionally. Why pay more than you must for the junk?
While there are rarely coupons for fresh produce, you can still use coupons to get it free or really cheap. A few months ago there was a deal where if you bought 7 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal you would get a coupon for $10 off your next order, good on just about anything in the store. I used coupons to get those 7 boxes for $2 total, then I had a $10 coupon I could use on produce. I did that several times. The food pantry was grateful for the 50 boxes of Rasin Bran, which is reasonably nutritious, and my family had fresh pineapple as often as we wanted. There are deals like this rather frequently if you know where to look. Also, I have seen frozen vegetables free after coupons.
Many coupons are for non-food products. I got up this morning and took a shower. I used free soap, free shampoo, free conditioner, free shaving cream, and free razors. I then got out and used my free deodorant, free toilet paper, free lotion, and free makeup (applied with a free makeup brush). I brushed my hair with my free hairbrush and used free hair styling products. I brushed my teeth with my free sonicare toothbrush (I did pay for the new brushhead I needed) and free toothpaste.
I then changed my baby’s diaper with free baby wipes and diapers that cost about $3.50 per pack of 35.
With all the money I saved using coupons on these items I can afford to buy healthful foods for my family.
Could I make more money working? Not in a part time, mostly work from home, very flexable hours job where I can take time off whenever I feel like it and bring my children with me when I have to. When I do get a babysitter, I usually pay her with stuff instead of money.
$1 saved is not really $1 earned. Depending on you tax bracket, $1 saved can be $2 earned.
” Many of the people who do this are stay-at-home moms/dads who can’t hold down regular employment, so the “get a job” comparison doesn’t work.”
This comment is way out of line. Most people CHOOSE to stay home to raise their children. It has NOTHING to do with holding down regular employment. The parents that do stay at home; their job does not end at 5pm nor do they work 8 hrs job. They work 24/7 with no pay, no thanks, and no one else to help.
There are people out there that want to save money and will find a legal way to do so and there are people who dont’ want to and don’t.
THose that don’t and feel the need to grip about couponers being considerate of other people, well those that don’t use coupons need to be considerate of those that do. Your time is as valuable as everyone else. No one is above anyone else. So what you want for yourself, is most likely what others want for themself also.
I am amazed at the lack of education in this thread.
I will preface my comments. There are shoppers who have an addiction problem. They use coupons for the wrong reasons. There is a valid argument with this specific group.
I am a vegetarian who coupons. I do not buy much “junk food”. I saved $160 through coupons and sales in two hours. I do not need to shop until July. Ninety percent of my coupons are organic coupons; the other ten are a mix between HBA and entertainment coupons.
I spend 20 minutes a month clipping and sorting coupons. I spend 3-4 hours a month grocery and sales shopping. I live within 5 minutes of two grocery stores and a Target.
I never run five orders at once (there is nothing wrong with this if done in an expedient manner). If I have a large cart of items, I allow people with smaller orders to check out ahead of me. When I am at the grocery store, I check out at the Uscan (non-12 item or less lines) to ensure we do not tie up the cash wraps.
In the last 2 weeks, I’ve saved $448 in four hours. This is $448 less dollars my husband will have to earn over his professional career. Why would any of you purposely retain longer careers because you can’t be bothered with coupons? This is a sure sign of pseudo-intellectualism.
Please desist with these spurious comments. They have little basis in reality.
@Diningbadger:
There are quite a lot of coupons for dairy, bread, meat, and healthy and organic foods.
You might have a corinary because of the amount of money you’re spending but I won’t because I eat healthy with coupons.
Some of these comments are rather rude. If so many people posting here are in such a great position to never have to save a dime and waste a few hours a week to save 50%+ on their groceries and such then why are so many in this country losing their houses, cars and behind on their bills? With the gas prices going up daily making electric bills, grocery bills, travel expenses, etc to go up tremendously even people who feel they are in a good economic position now are going to have to learn how to cut back and save. Many jobs in this country are being cut and more to come with the way the economy is going. I am surprised so many people still believe they are too good to cut coupons or try and save however is best for them. Charging you credit card up doesn’t constitute being able to afford it.
Not only lower income people use coupons the way Crissy did in this article. Alot of middle and upper class people do as well, they use the extra money they save to put into investments or retirement, whatever. Thats usually why they are in the higher economic bracket, because they are savy in ways of spending wisely and saving money.
For people who think that a few hours a week is too much time to spend looking for a good deal to save money to put into retirement, your childs college education fund, or live debt free you may be the same people who couldnt take the extra time to learn what an adjustable mortgage really is and as soon as it adjusts and your mortgage jumps up an extra $500 a month you will need to learn fast where to find the deals and coupons. I am sure hotcouponworld.com or whoever will welcome you open arms and teach you the ropes.
P.S. not all coupons are for “junk” food. I am vegeterian and I prefer to eat organic in most instances and I still get coupons for the items I love and am able to save at least 50% each time I shop on my grocery bills and my freezer and pantry is fully stocked. Plus I am usually able to get toothpaste, razors, shampoo and such items I use on a daily basis for free or close to it. And you usually cant get store brands for that cheap so its almost always brands I have always used and loved.
Also, alot of these people you find on sites like hotcouponworld.com and such who are stockpiling items you may think are useless donate alot of stuff to charity and dont have to break their bank doing it. Though you may think getting 50 toothpastes useless even if its free but when you walk into a battered womens shelter with them and donate them I don’t think they would agree that it was a waste of time to find the deals.
to Hambriq…
If you look on that website HotCouponDeals.com and read the “Brag Posts” where people post pictures of all the great deals they got, you’ll notice that very little of it is actually useful at all. People have stockpiles of hair products, toothpaste, tampons, etc.
So… You don’t find all these items useful??? Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, shaving cream, razors.. etc??? These items can be had for free or pennies.. and they can be kept for a long time.. so why not get them free and stockpile instead of having to pay full price when you need them?
Also.. it’s HotCouponWorld.com…
to rwyuan… Furthermore, I think that she must be thoughtless to actually expect the cashier to ring out four more times than minimally necessary (you know – each unnecessary check-out is deducted from a cashier’s pay).
I’ve been a cashier.. no one gets docked for extra transactions from one person.. and who exactly would decide if it was an unnecessary check-out??? The store that is making money whether one person buys in 5 transactions or 5 people buy in 1???
Consider this:
In the amount of time it took some of you to read the article, read the comments and post a batch of shit – I will have scanned through my Sunday coupon inserts of which I usually manage to get 20 copies of each, separated each page and stapled each like coupon together (there is actually a youtube video showing a similar operation), sorted and filed each coupon by catagory in my coupon briefcase, prepared my shopping list after reading the local sale flyers, clipped my coupons to my list and be on my way to shop when the store opens at 7 am tomorrow morning.
Now, think about this:
Staple hygiene items such as deoderant,shampoo, body soap/wash, shaving cream, razor blades, conditioners, lotions, Qtips, tooth paste, tooth brushes, mouthwash, not to mention cosmetics, personal products and any other daily use body producs, based on a family of 4 using all or some of these products regularly, can cost upwards of 100.00 per month.
Any given month, at any given national chain store, all of these items can be had for free – yes free using sales, store discount cards, store coupons and manufacture coupons. You are buying brand name, high quality items now, not store brands or other generic type items.
So – you find these items on the correct “free” sale and you stock up – say 1 years worth. That is a realized savings of 1,200.00 per year (using above figures). To get just these items free, you may spend a total of 2 hours including finding, clipping, and sorting of coupons, scouring sale flyers and matching all of the above up, driving to the stores and purchasing these items, bringing them home and putting them away. So consider you have just saved 1,200 for 2 hours work, that is 600.00 per hour. Can any of you say you make that kind of money?
Now, if you are really diligent, and have paid very close attention to rebates available both from the manufacturer of the product as well as the store where your purchased it, or maybe even both with the inception of online rebate filing, you can profit in real cash
This is all being done legally, morally and ethically, with very little effort on your part.
With just doing this – you can take the 100.00 you would have normally spent in CVS on toiletries and head on over to the grocery store and stock up on free range chicken and organic veggies. That is a whole nutha post – I can also explain how to leagally, morally and ethically get your organics free or very inexpensively.
@Coupons4u:
I think you are over-analyzing my comment. I wasn’t being negative about the SAHMs — “can’t” in this case meaning that it is impractical, not that they don’t have the skills or willingness to work a full time job. It’s just almost impossible to stay at home with kids and have a normal full-time job.
I’m a hard-core couponer, so I am not one of the naysayers.
@RandomHookup:
It is not impossible to be a SAHM and work full time – normal or not. SAHM by day – full time employee at night. It is not hard at all. I stay home with the kids during the day whilst my husband whittles away his day at work 1st shift – we dual parent 2nd shift and 3rd shift sends me off to my RN job at the local hospital.
Other SAHM’s enjoy the benefits of telecommuting. There is more than one way to skin a cat
Out of 83 coupons on Coupons.com…I found 6 that I could actually use. We have certain brands of products (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.) we use and I’m sorry, but I’m not going to buy products we don’t use just because there are coupons for them…even if I could end up getting them free!
A lot of the people on HotCouponWorld are stockpilers (hoarders…though they don’t like to be called that). Some of them buy large quantities of particular items they have gotten free or nearly free, such as blood glucose monitors, and then sell them on Ebay. They even sell coupons on Ebay…I could not believe that!! Some of these people are crazy and the people who BUY coupons from them are crazier!! This has gone way past coupon clipping to save money!!
Here are some posts from those coupon clipping fanatics:
“A great way to get TP is through ECBs or Walgreen specials, that is how I have gotten most of mine and even had enough to send 2 12pack rolls to my daughters.”
Wonder how much postage that cost her? Why can’t the daughters buy their own TP? After all, they all live in the same state.
“Re: LOTS of K-Y jelly $90 value ends 01/20/08 9:00 PM EST
WINNER! You are the grand prize winner ***********..these are great for all of the CVS deals + the clearance products you find * also look for the gift sets. When those are marked down the $3 can cover the entire cost”
What is this woman going to do with that much KY???? LMAO!!!!
And this one just floors me…here’s one of the hoarders I was talking about…
“Re: What do you have in your stockpile that will last you more than a year?
spray sunblock
make up
face cleanser
lightbulbs,
paper plates, cups
cleaning stuff
toilette paper
tissue
detergent
dawn
fabric softener
spag sauce
tomatoes
pastas
mustard
canned meat like salmon
ketchup
tooth paste
deodorant
razors
pork n beans 60
dry beans
dole jar fruit 18
dole fruit n gel 12 4pks
brown rice 10 2# bags
boxes rice dinners, boxes potatoes, 36 boxes
bbq sauce over 30
a-1 -16 bottles
heinz 57
salad dressing 28 and 10 dips for wings
baggies
trash bags
foil
breakfast bars/snack bars
shampoo conditioner
body wash
spices/marinades
hair colors
tea
welches low sugar grape drink
powder cool aid, hawaiian punch, tea singles
peanut butter 12 jars
sugar free jelly
sugar free relish
sugar free bread n butter pickles
cooking oil – 22 bottles
syrups, karo, molasses
bread crumbs
cream of soups, stocks, soup,
box pudding, gelatin, pudding cups
ds cereal – post hbo
This is hard, some of the stuff I am about to buy again.
After next week I will have enough for a year of:
mayo, tuna and canned chicken, chef Boyardee
ketchup and hamb chips/ whole baby dill pickles – I need much more than last yr.
I have a good stockpile and most of it will last a year, but if something goes on sale I will buy more and rotate my stockpile for a yard sale or donation.”
Would you buy any of these things at a YARD SALE?? I know I wouldn’t!! Some of these people have serious problems with hoarding it seems to me. These people shop every week and sometimes more than once or twice a week…buying the same things they already have a years supply of. Maybe they have some sort of mental disorder…I don’t know!! I’m all for saving money, but holy crap coupon addicts…get a life!!
Go here to read the bashing some of you received…lol
[www.hotcouponworld.com]
@cheynesnana:
You said…..So… You don’t find all these items useful??? Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, shaving cream, razors.. etc??? These items can be had for free or pennies.. and they can be kept for a long time.. so why not get them free and stockpile instead of having to pay full price when you need them?
I don’t find them useful if it’s not the brand I use! There are certain brands of razors, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, etc. I like to use. Why would I want to buy something, or even get it free, if it’s not the brand I prefer and won’t use?? I don’t care how long they can be kept!! I had an aunt everyone called “Aunt CooCoo” because she was always buying stuff she didn’t need or use just because it was on sale. One time she bought 10 pairs of men’s shoes in different sizes just because the store was having a good sale on them. When asked why she did it, she said, “Well, you never know when someone is going to come along and need a pair of shoes!” She still had all those shoes the day she died…guess no one ever came along!! LOL