I know it seems kind of simple and lame in comparison to Crissy, but I keep my coupons in an envelope so that they're always handy when I'm out. I don't have scheduled shopping days, so this way I go through my coupons quickly before making a purchase and use any that apply.

This explains why it took me 25 minutes waiting in line at CVS to buy a candy bar.

I am torn in the savings vs. working hours to get your products. On one hand you could spend half a day trying to clip coupons to save say 50% on your items. So you were gonna spend $200, you'd save $100, but how hard would it be for you to be creative or just work for $20 an hour for 5 hours and make that same $100 you saved then spend an hour and get what you want. The average person is so obsessed with saving that they don't realize that they are actually losing their life (which you can't get back) to save less then they are actually worth per hour.

I usually separate my coupons into envelops and try to only buy what I have a coupon for.

Me and my wife spend an hour on it during the week. Also, the "free" sections in most on line deal sites have coupons you can print to get expensive items..usually cleaning products..for free or next to nothing.

There is such a thing as going over board. Obviously, saving money is great, but it may come at a cost. For example, all the time it takes to collect and sort the coupons, and the 3-4 hour shopping trips. God bless you if you have the time to do it, but not everyone does. Sometimes, it gets to the point for me where I wonder, is the time worth it for me to save XX dollars. If it's gonna take me an hour (of prep time and driving to multiple stores) to save $5 for example, forget it.

Further, not every store or cashier would allow people to massage the system like Crissy does. She probably has built a good rapport with the cashiers and the stores, but it's not guaranteed to go over well for everyone.

As a side note, you KNOW the people in line behind her grumble the whole way through her 5 transactions.

Outsource your coupon cutting?!

i check consumerist's Morning Deals every morning!

@boss_lady: and this too.

Coupons are great if all you want to eat is food laden with sodium, preservatives, and near-poisons like hydrogenated oils. We used to clip coupons all the time until we realized that the only grocery items for which coupons are available are incredibly unhealthy for you. Coupons for organic foods and even produce are pretty rare.

We're lucky enough to have a farmer's market nearby, and we're members of our local food co-op. We don't spend any more on food than we used to, even with the massive couponing, and we're much healthier today than we were two years ago.

I bet the people behind her in line love her

Clipping coupons and following sales as well as stocking a pantry & buying in advance allow me to cut my grocery bills by about 60%.

I don't go as indepth as this person does, but she is right about it saving tons of money.

Another good bit of advice is to wait 3 - 4 weeks AFTER a coupon comes out because by then, the manufacturer wants to report high sales and success of their promotion and 9 times outta 10, the item has been reduced in price @ the store prior to you applying the coupon.

Free Sample sites are good too. Try www.fatwallet.com & www.slickdeals.net. I have not had to buy any travel items for years as a result of sending samples to myself.

It seems, especially with gas prices so high, that going to so many stores is not worth it. I agree with Jharbert as well, usually coupons are for items unhealthy, and things I normally wouldnt buy.

"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."

Get the fuck outta here!! They paid her to take the cereal out of the store... c'mon!!

I love playing the CVS game. I often get those "$2 of a purchase of $10 of CVS brand products" - then use them to buy things that are already on sale. And use ExtraBucks if I have them.

CVS could usually care less how much you game them on coupons.

I love these odd ball super coupon clippers, sure you could pull it off.

But I live in an area without 'double' coupon news papers, no cvs, And in alot of these super coupon clippers: we dont have stores that double the amount of the coupon

im a manager at a CVS and we have absolutely no problem splitting someones purchase into multiple transactions. the problem is people take it to the extreme and get multiple CVS cards which obviously ripping us off and my store particular will black list people have we have a list of people that me and the other managers watch when they are buying stuff to make sure they dont use more then one card.

I find that many times, getting the store brand version of an item is cheaper than buying the name brand with a coupon.

@backbroken: that would also not happen in our store or whoever was running register would be torn a new one. lol sorry for double posting by the way

The down side of this is that if everyone did this - the wait would be much longer and ultimately, manufacturers and stores would institute tough policies

I'm mind boggled!!!!! Yet I slowly comprehend it. She really is going overboard with the items... I mean soo many coupons for the same item? Bleargh!

@Joseph: OOORRR you could work to make $100 extra a week, and still SAVE $100, making a net gain of $200 a week? AND, even though you say that they don't realize that they are actually losing their life... I know some people who find getting a great deal a rush! My mother found it relaxing, actually. Good for Crissy. Wish I had the same tenacity.

I stopped bothering with grocery coupons because (as others already said) they are mostly for overpriced, chemical laden processed food. Most of the non food coupons are for overpriced specialty cleaning products that are not much of a value to begin with.
I do get some decent coupons from Target at the register since they generate coupons based on your past purchases. Target had a $10 off a new prescription that was worth it and JcPenney does $10 off coupons sometimes.
I do keep a coupon sorter in my bag but most of them are for % off various stores rather than the typical grocery store coupons.

Most of the stuff that she's buying is all unhealthy garbage, and she looks more than a little bit jowly. So my question is: how do you coupon clip and still eat healthy?

when i worked at a super maket, i think they had a crazy deal on snapple, and with coupons this we would have had to pay the lady like $3, so the manager just came over and said we were not allowed to do that, so she just got all of her snapple for free, so in a way she is scamming the system, but since she has a bunch of other stuff on the shopping list, well she gets away with it. BTW, THE PEOPLE WITH ALL THE COUPONS SUCK!

i only look for coupons if i know i'm getting a big ticket item...usually electronics or computer stuff.

I also would hate to be behind her in the store. I was in line behind someone like this once. The woman asked what everything rang up for and said "wasn't that on sale?" or "that was 30 cents off!" she only had about $30-$40 worth of stuff too. I was tempted to just give her the $5 she was looking to save, tell her to shut up, and keep the line moving.

Also, working as a cashier for years, it's usually the women who shopped like this. The guys tend to pay the total and leave. Get in, get what you need, get out. that's the way it's supposed to be.

As good as this all sounds, as it becomes more common practice by more and more people, stores are just going to change the coupons to avoid "system beaters".

I worked at a grocery store for almost 3 years and almost every front end employee, including managers, hated people like this. Not because of the money they saved, but because they would usually come in at the busiest times of the day and hold up the lines, and nothing makes a manager grumpier than having to actually do something and hop on a lane to help out or deal with impatient customers.

Half the time, the people would hold up the lines even longer because a good majority of their coupons were expired, or the customer didn't read them carefully enough so they would bitch and complain as the lines got longer and longer, which led to more complaints and more pissed off customers.

And that little bit about having 5 separate transactions...in most stores, they may let you do that once or twice..but if you make a habit of it...they'll simply throw in a "policy" forbidding it.

Sounds like a thrilling and fullfilling life she lives.

@jharbert:
Agreed! If all you want to do is feed your kids Cap'n Crunch, Hamburger Helper, and other sugar/salt-laden junk, then go ahead and clip coupons. When was the last time anyone saw a coupon for fresh vegetables or organic milk/eggs?

The rest of the coupons are always for things that you simply don't need, like Swiffer cleaning systems, Glade air fresheners, or the newest flavor of chewing gum.

If saving money means ending up with a house full of plastic doo-dads, and eating like a kid in a candy store, then I'll take a pass, thanks.

@verucalise: Yeah that's definitely true. I guess that's why I'm torn. On the one hand, I know there are lots of people who enjoy it and find pleasure in getting the upper hand. I think it's great that this lady is launching a site to share her secrets though. She does live in FL though and I'm sure stores are a lot nicer down there. In Washington D.C. you might have a harder time trying to do five separate order checkouts back to back.

@Hambriq: Right on. I rarely find coupons for things that I will actually put in my body.

But I understand the basic coupon+on sale combo- coupons usually come out for new products, then about a month or so later the items will start to go into the sales cycles of the stores. If you clip coupons and put them away for a month it's very likely that you'll find the same items are also on sale, and thus get the best deal.

But nothing is a bargain if you don't NEED IT.

True story, folks:

A new CVS recently opened up down the street from my apartment. As part of their "Grand Opening," they mailed out special coupons (including vouchers for free items and $10 off coupons) to local residents.

I walked into the aforementioned CVS the other day, armed to the teeth with said coupons and vouchers. Somehow -- I'm still not sure how it happened -- I walked out with a liter of milk, a liter of Diet Dr. Pepper, a can of tuna, a box of brownie mix, a Symphony chocolate bar and a bag of cotton balls -- for FREE. I'm pretty sure the check-out guy made a mistake, but he seemed very confident in his coupon deduction skills.

In any case, I'm not complaining! Oh, and did I mention that I also received a $25 gift card, just for transferring my prescription to CVS Pharmacy? Sounds like another FREE shopping trip is in order! Go CVS! I'm high on savings.

my mom used to do similar for toiletries. i have 3 brothers and 2 stepbrothers that lived at our house, needless to say, you're looking at a lot of soap, deodorant, toothpaste, etc...so she would look for the coupons for those items, regardless of brand, stack em up and then wait until the stuff was on sale and she'd walk out with 30 bucks worth of stuff for 3 bucks or whatever.

food though, it seems like all the food on sale is horrible for you. i've tried the coupon thing, but rarely do i find something thats healthy and tasty.

@kborer22:

Doesnt sound like the lady was scamming anyone. Just being a savvy consumer.

As an avid coupon user I really HATE dealing with cashiers who scrutinize my coupons like I was some sort of scam artist trying to get away with something. Walmart cashiers are the worst at this. EVERY single time I use more than 5 coupons at walmart I always get shit from the cashier.

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.

I mean, it's great that you got $60 worth of hair gel for $8.00 out of pocket, but in my mind, that's still $8.00 wasted if you weren't going to buy that hair gel in the first place.

Keeping my dignity is worth more than the 60 cents off a can of Pringles.

@HungryGrrl: But nothing is a bargain if you don't NEED IT.

My thoughts exactly! If you weren't going to use the product in the first place, it doesn't matter how good of a deal it is. It's still wasting money.

@kborer22: that almost happened to me once. Lady came in with a ton of coupons for huggies wipes and somehow they were in our system. I was taking them off and it got to the point where it said coupon cannot exceed the purchase amount. I had to call a manager over and she took care of it and didn't have to deal with it after that.

Turns out the coupons were for BJ's wholesale, and weren't even for the item she was buying, she was basically buying half the product, and still wanted the entire coupon.

@MissPeacock: I agree. There are a lot of great store brand products out there that are just as good, and cheaper.

Having been a cashier, I can't bring myself to do the CVS extra care bucks thing. It's not hard for the cashier, but multiple transactions slow things down for the other customers. The CVS stores in my area are certainly not designed for large purchases (not much counter space and no belt at the registers), so this slows things down further.

I do like what she did at Publix though. That is pretty reasonable.

I want an electronic system where it will load the coupons onto your store card. Has anyone started this yet?

There's a reason this woman is in the news folks; it's because she's good at saving money beyond what most folks are willing/able to do. This is how she contributes to her family...$100 in savings is probably worth $175 in pre-tax earnings. 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.

There are lots of ways to save big money, but they aren't going to work for most people because they aren't willing to put in the time and effort.

Oh come on - the comments about processed food are just ignorant. I've recently used coupons for bagged apple slices (oh gee,I'm sorry, they weren't organic, though), all kinds of frozen veggies, orange juice (the ones I like best), etc. Coupons have no nexus whatsoever with a particular type of food. They are about trying to get you to favor one product over another. Yes, the bulk of coupons are for crap, but that's only because the bulk of what a grocery store sells is crap.

And no, you won't find as many coupons for organics, becausee those who buy them will buy them anyways for the most part.

If the implication is that I need to shop at Whole Foods and the Farmer's Market to eat healthy, well that's just snobbishness. I do shop at both but my budget won't handle it full time.

@Juggernaut: and, if enough people do it, policy will change. Not all stores will allow that, right now.

So, I'm browsing over at hotcoupon...where are the coupons for Bob's Red Mill stuff? Bean sprouts? Mushrooms? Bell peppers? Carrots? Real lettuce? Olive oil? Spinach (you should have known that was coming!)?

I'm not saying there isn't good stuff there, and I might hit it up for deals, but I don't see enough to save more than about 10%.

The way I'm really hoping to save is to catch a road-side vegetable stand or two. The weather has not been helping (and it's the right time to get tomatoes).

@Doofio:

I worked at a grocery store also for many years and absolutely hated the people with coupons for many of the same reasons you stated.

In addition, half of them didn't have the right size or quantity and we would have to waste time getting their order in compliance so the customer could save their precious $.40.

She probably holds up the line further by paying with a check too.

My sister in law used to work at a grocery store at the customer service counter. Many times people would get all kinds of coupons there at the automatic dispenser with thr receipts, and wouldn't take them. She'd collect them, including the $5 off your next purchase and $15 off your next purchase ones. She regularly was able to save and actually get paid after her grocery shopping. She also says she likes "sticking it to the Man".

@jharbert: That's pretty much what I was thinking. Everytime I look at the coupons in the Sunday paper, it is almost always for crap I wouldn't normally buy anyway (and as it is, the stuff is usually pretty expensive to begin with!) I shop at Publix, and I alway just buy their own branded items for pretty much everything except coffee. To add to this, Publix doesn't usually have their own coupons (nor do they have a "card" like Kroger - their prices are already kinda low) so I never really feel the need to worry about coupons.

That's why I think everyone flipping out over groveries bills adding up is funny. If you people wouldn't insist on name brands, it wouldn''t be as bad.

My grocery limits coupons printed off the internet to ONE.

Not for anything... but up here in Upstate NY there's a store called Price Chopper that I LOVE, and they have super deals here and there like "Buy 5 general mills products and receive $5 off your next order" (there's some fresh fruits and veggies for free!) and their coupon machine generates coupons based on what you just bought... So it's coupons I WOULD use for things I DO NEED. And they also had a thing out, you could pick 1 manufacturers coupon and they would double it up to $3.00 - I bought a package of diapers for $2.00, saved $6.00 in one shot. So sometimes... it IS worth it, and some stores DO give you options for saving on the good stuff ;-)