The topic of couponing has certainly become a big deal lately! I’ve noticed in the aisles of my local grocery store that there seems to be way more people with coupons in their hands than I have ever noticed before. In the last few months I have started couponing myself. Something I thought I would never do. It just didn’t seem worth it to me to save 25 cents here and there. However, when you follow tips from the experts, I have found it is pretty easy to save nearly 50 percent on every grocery bill. It is rather shocking to me, a former non-couponer! The thought of how much cash I have wasted over the years frankly, freaks me out. On that note I thought it was time to share some couponing tips with our Imperfect Women readers!
Enter Stephanie Barr. You might have seen Stephanie on an recent episode of TLC’s Extreme Couponers. She certainly knows a thing or two about couponing. When she is not running her website, Our Coupon Home, or clipping coupons, Stephanie is loving her life in Georgia. She lives there with her husband of 10 years and her two children, a 19 year old step son and 3 year old daughter. Add three cats and the dog they are hoping for in the future and you have the quintessential American family!
When did you first get started couponing?
Four years ago I had to go on disability. I had two back surgeries and the recovery time was long. Unfortunately I wasn’t covered on disability until I was out of work for 6 months. My husband had to take on a second job to cover the bills. I hated seeing him work so much but I couldn’t walk and was stuck in bed. I started researching ways to save money on my laptop. I started doing small things like energy saving and lowering credit card charges, but then moved on to the world of coupons. I could research deals, make a list, clip coupons and organize them all from my bed. It was perfect! Within a month I was saving enough money for my husband to quit his second job. I have never looked back since!
What was it like appearing on Extreme Couponing? Was it different than a normal shopping trip for you?
It was intense! The interviews were long and the setting up and taking down time is slow and boring. Shopping was very different. The shopping trips shown on TV are not a normal trip for a couponer. They wanted us to push ourselves to get as mush as possible for as little as possible.
How many jars of mustard do you currently have in your stock pile and is every room in your house filled with grocery items?
You made me smile! I’m not on “team mustard”. The show has shown couponers in a bad light. I do stockpile but I try to have 3-6 months supply of items and do not over do it. My garage is where I keep most things. I have two refrigerators and a full stand up freezer. I have 5 sets of store shelves as well. Once those get full (2-3 times a year) I load up and donate 90% of it. I just can’t turn down a free item. For instance, I got diapers for next to nothing, but my daughter is potty trained, so I still bought them as a baby shower gift for my friend. If I can’t use it there is always someone who can.
Do you have to be an Extreme Couponer to save a good amount of money?
Not at all! Spend 1 hour a day on my site for 3 months and I’ll have you saving at least 50% on your grocery bills!
How much do you think you save on a Monthly basis on your grocery bill?
I always try to save at least 70% on the grocery bill with every trip. We use to spend $250 a week on groceries and eating out and now my budget is $75 a week. I also buy extra items and I donate heavily to a local domestic violence shelter. I also save money buy buying gifts for the year during bi-annual toy clearance at major retailers, do every mail in rebate possible, take part in gift card offers, use coupons for car repair and doctors visits. My overall thriftiness saves my family between $12,000-$16,000 a year.
How much time do you think is involved in saving that amount of money each month?
It takes a little time to get going. I tell people that it will be hard and confusing for 3 months. After that you will be able to save 50% on bills with only 4-5 hours a week. I really enjoy it so it doesn’t seem like work to me.
Can you give our readers some good tips to get them started in the couponing world?
1. Be patient! This is a new skill and it takes time to use.
2. Don’t stockpile more than you can use or donate. No homeless shelter wants 75 jars of mustard.
3. Check your store match ups. Every store will have a weekly ad. Couponing websites list out all these sales items and then list all the available coupons you could use to make the item cheap. We do the work for you!
4. Never pay for a couponing site. Their are many friendly coupon sites that will teach you for free.
5. Don’t ever wipe a shelf! Leave some products for others to enjoy the good deal.
What do you say to the person who says they don’t have time to coupon?
I would just ask if they ever have time to relax and watch a little TV. I do all my couponing while my daughter is napping and I’m catching up on my shows. It is relaxing for me so I like doing it on my off time.
There will be people that truly won’t have time to dedicate to it. That is okay!
Are there just deals to be found in the grocery world or do you use coupons for other items?
There are deals on everything possible! Coupons for car work and eating out are two of my favorites. Then there is the drug stores. You can score awesome deals of all health and beauty items using their reward systems.
I have a prominent tattoo on my chest. When my episode aired I had this one guy say that I wasted money on tattoos, kinda being mean and poking fun at me. Well I got him back with my response. I told him that he was wrong, I bartered for my tattoo and got it for free while my husband helped the business in tax season. 🙂 If you get creative you can find a deal on anything!
Where do you get all those coupons?
I buy 6 papers a week and I also take the papers from the driveways of abandoned and foreclosed homes. I’ll also take a walk on recycling night and grab some newspaper that are in recycling bins. I don’t ever dumpster dive, but if a good enough coupon comes out I will make my husband do it.
How do you organize all those coupons? It must be a nightmare.
Not a nightmare at all. I personally use a binder method. I have a 4 inch double ring binder that zips closed. I use baseball card size plastic pages to organize and sort my coupons into. Once a month I go through all the coupons to pull out my expired ones and I ship them overseas to military families that can use expired coupons up to 6 months.
Do online coupons really work?
Yes, as long as you get them from a trusted source. On my site we have a whole page of trusted internet printable sites. They don’t contain malware or any viruses. NEVER use a coupon from a site you don’t know. Saving a dollar on toilet paper isn’t a deal if you have your computer crash!
What resources does your website have?
My website is a forum based website. This means that you can ask a question at any time and someone will answer you quickly. We have a whole newbie section for beginners, many articles to get you going and a “coupon neighbor” program that hooks new couponers up to a old timer to help them get started. Daily we have posts for printable coupons, grocery store match ups, special offers and free samples. Plus, we have a great community of kind women. They are like my family!
What do you do if the cash register doesn’t accept your coupon?
I don’t worry about it. Honestly, you will have some that don’t scan. Maybe you made a mistake and got a wrong size, maybe the cashier didn’t do something right, but it’s not worth throwing a fit. Once I’m done paying I will go over my receipt and ask any questions to the service counter so that I’m not holding up a line.
Can you give an example of deals that are available this week with coupons?
Sure! Let me shoot for national stores so that everyone can partake in them!
Walmart: Renuzit Odor Neutralizer Solids at $.94
Use this printable coupon: $1 off of 1 Renuzit
Final price: Free and get $.06 overage (deducts from your total)
Target: Neutrogena Facial Cleansing Bar at $1.97
Use BOTH of these coupon: $1 off of 1 Neutrogena Facial Cleaner from the 8/28 Smart Source newspaper insert.
And: $1 off of 1 Neutrogena Facial Skin Care Item – Target store coupon
Final price = Free
Here is a great example of just how much couponing can save you on a recipe. A few weeks ago my good friend Sage sent me a recipe for her favorite dish to take to a potluck dinner. She told me it always gets rave reviews but can be a bit expensive to make.
I tallied up the ingredients for the dish and using regular prices from my local grocery store, I figured it would cost about 16.00 dollars to make. I asked Stephanie Barr from Our Coupon Home to tell me what her cost to make this dish would be using coupons. She came up with a cost of $7.39. Included in her cost (because of the coupon deals) is 2 boxes of Hamburger Helper and some Crystal Light drink mix! So if you minus the regular cost of the Hamburger Helper and the Crystal Light, Stephanie’s version is practically free! Wow! See the deals of Stephanie’s savings below.
Old Settler’s Baked Beans
1 lb ground beef browned and drained
1 lb bacon fried crisp and crumbled
1 onion chopped , sauteed (I cook onion and beef together)
Add
Mix all together
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Rays)
3 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Add
1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can butter beans drained
2 large cans pork and beans with molasses ( I also add some molasses guessing about 1/3 – 1/2 cup. I don’t measure this.)
1 can mild chili beans, not drained
Mix all together and put in oven for about an hour at 350
This is good as a side dish or a main dish with cornbread and coleslaw
Old Settler’s Baked Beans – Coupon Style
1 lb ground beef browned and drained – Free this week at Kroger when you buy 3 hamburger helper meals. Use this $.75 off of 3 coupon from the 8/12 Smart Source newspaper insert.
Final price for hamburger meat and 3 boxes of Helper = $2.25
1 lb bacon fried crisp and crumbled – I have this stockpiled in my freezer, so free for me, but as for sales and coupons – Carolina Pride is around $3.00 at my Kroger. Use the $.50 off of one Carolina Pride bacon coupon from the 8/28 Smart Source newspaper insert. This coupon “doubles” at Kroger because they double any coupon $.50 or under. So I will get $1 of off 1.
Final price: $2
1 onion chopped , sauteed (I cook onion and beef together) – Picked from my garden! Lots of couponers have their own veggie garden to get these items for free. Another option is to check out you local farmers market for cheap veggies!
Final price: Free
Add
Mix all together
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup ketchup
Use the $.50 off of 1 coupon from the 8/21 Smart Source newspaper insert. This will double the coupon value to $1 off of 1.
Final price: $1
1 cup barbecue sauce (I use Sweet Baby Rays)
Kraft BBQ Sauce is on sale for $.99. I have a coupon that gives me $2 off Crystal Light Canaster drink when you buy 1 BBQ suace. Crystal List is priced at $2.19. So for $1.14 I will get BBQ sauce and drink mix.
3 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Add
1 can red kidney beans, drained
1 can butter beans drained
2 large cans pork and beans with molasses ( I also add some molasses guessing about 1/3 – 1/2 cup. I don’t measure this.
1 can mild chili beans, not drained
Instead of buying canned beans buy a bag of dried mixes beans. A little more effort, but you will save a bundle. Mixed dried beans in a bag are $1 and there are way more beans for your meal.
Mix all together and put in oven for about an hour at 350
Cook this in your crockpot during the hot months to save money! It takes less energy to cook and it won’t heat up your house, which would kick on your air conditioner more.
This is good as a side dish or a main dish with cornbread and coleslaw
Cornbread: Is easy to make! I can of creamed corn and two boxes of $.33 jiffy boxed cornbread is what we do.
Publix brand potato salad is buy one get one free the week.
Final cost: $1.35 for 16oz
How about a cheap dessert as well? Betty Crocker Pouch Cookie Mix are buy on get on free this week at Publix. Use the $.40 off of 1 coupon from the 8/7 General Mills newspaper insert. This coupon will double to $.80 off of 1.
Final price: $.60
Wow, glad to see this post. I love saving money and getting a bargain but always loose steam when it comes to couponing. I just can’t keep it organized or find coupons for brand specific items I use or store discounts to use coupons on to save big. For example, if you only like Windex for windows, is that when you stock up if there’s a coupon? Makes sense huh. In other words, I needed this post!
Stephanie, I will definitely be visiting the newbie portion of your site and am looking forward to my IW friends sharing some motivation with me here.
I buy mostly fresh- meats, bread, veggies & fruits. Do you see coupons for those items other than the stores weekly specials? Staple items, cleaning supplies and health & beauty all add up fast so I guess I should try harder to get this going & keep it going!
Nice interview PattyPie! I’ve watched extreme couponing and its funny how you really cheer on the families saving big!
BlogHawg: Thanks for the positive comments! There are coupons for organic and healthy foods. Try http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=15046&zid=uw18&nid=10&bid=alk06290906482cac7c5267216 for a trusted source of organic printable coupons.
For meat, buy in bulk and separate and freeze it or get the discount meat that is about to go bad and freeze it right away. You can also get a coupon overage to pay for healthy items. If and item cost $.40 and you have a $.50 coupon then you will get $10 to put towards any other item in your basket.
You can’t be brand loyal though. I use Glass Plus because they go on sale often and when I combine the sale with coupons I get a bottle for $.17 each.
Come check us out. We’d love to help you learn!
Stephanie please email me or send me a message on Facebook so I can learn to coupon too
Very nice article, everyone wants to save a buck. Due to having a garden I can and freeze most of my vegs for the winter. It’s the paper and cleaning products that make you scream in the store. I do try and use a coupon and have bought ahead, sometimes even though the product was not a sale. I figured I saved at least this much. Is that a good idea?? I hope you come back and give us some more tips for couponing and being the leader here to keep everyone involved. Thanks pattypie for the great interview!!
Is it possible to save big if you live in an area where there is no coupon doubling?
Hey Stephanie thanks for coming by to answer questions and thanks for the interview! Very informative.
Great interview pattypie!! Very informative. I live in a smaller town that has only 3 large “chain” stores. I try to shop the food sales, but have only used a coupon here and there. I do, however, shop the clothing sales and last week, got my niece 3 nice swimsuits for $3.49 each (reg. $28.00). I will definitely be checking out the newbie section of Stephanie”s site. I’m all for saving money!!!!
Good question, Kathy! I don’t know of any stores in my area that allow coupon doubling either.
Good grief! I wish I would wait a second before hitting “add comment”. I also wonder if it is possible to save big when the store has a limit for items, such as $1.00 for first 2, thereafter you pay the regular/sale price.
Stephanie , looks like we all need lessons. This is going to be fun!
I need to get into couponing, I really do. I have more time now to pursue this and I am going to. One of the problems I have had in the past when I have attempted to do this is organization of the coupons when taking them to the store.
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I love the binder idea with the baseball size plastic pages. But how do you organize them when you take them to the store? Do you take your binder?
Hey ladies… You might have noticed for one of the first times we have included a second page with this post. Did you all notice it? It has a great recipe!
Thanks, Patty, I almost missed the second page with the recipe. Sounds so yummy!
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Great interview. I love Stephanie’s practical, but easy going approach. I think she is a wonderful ambassador for serious couponers! She demonstrates that considerate, non cut-throat couponers can still save a TON of money and help others while doing it. I will be checking out her site for sure. I am not currently couponing, but this article makes me interested to try, even on a small level. Hey a buck saved, is a buck saved. And it adds up!
I bought Reynolds Tin Foil wrap for 32 cents today at Walgreens! Coupon plus sale!
Great article Patty! I love the site as well and will definitely be back. I will make sure Steph knows that there are questions. Also, can’t wait to see what you’re “cooking up” for the newsletter! =-)
@Anya – It DEFINTELY adds up. I only started couponing about 5 months ago and I save at least 50% in each trip. I only shop from my sales ad, and get my meat on manager’s special.
@Pam – I can only speak for myself. I have a binder, but I make my list and take the coupons out that I will be using for the day and put them in a big envelope. I also put a small envelope in there, and put my binder in the baby seat of the cart. Once I put the item I am purchasing in the cart, and cross it off my list, I then take the coupon out of the big envelope and put it into the small one so that I’m not fumbling around trying to figure out what coupons I didn’t use. The binder comes into play if there is an unadvertised deal. I can just flip to the binder section I need (dairy, frozen, etc) and pull the coupon from there.
Oh where I live there is no coupon doubling!
More power to you couponers! I do look for items on sale when I shop, but I don’t use coupons generally. I just don’t have the patience or the interest in modifying my menus based on what’s on sale. But I’m amazed at what people can save when they really devote themselves to it!
A few months ago I was just like you Jennie. Now I coupon! LOL.
It’s crazy to me how much money I can save. One thing that really hit home for me was one day when I was in the line up at the grocery story. I was buying Cheerios a big favorite of my son. I had gotten a special discount with my store card and I had coupons so I was able to buy 4 boxes for 1.89 each. The guy in front of me also was buying the same box of cereal and he was paying nearly 5 bucks, I think it was 4.79. It blew me away that I was paying 3 dollars less a box!
Since may I would say that I have saved 100’s of dollars – around 600- 700 to be exact with spending maybe 1 or two hours a week.
For me it means I have a better stocked pantry and since may I think I have saved about 500 bucks
Oh I love all the comments! I’ll try to answer all the questions.
@Snickers: The best way to get your cleaning supplies and paper products are by shopping the drug stores. I know what you’re saying, “they are more expensive there” but they run promotion often on these items where they will give you a store card discount, additional store coupons and you can use regular coupons on top of everything. For example, at CVS they have “Extra Care Bucks” that print on the bottom of your receipt. These can be used like cash on anything in the store. They have deals where you can get a large package of say Cottonelle toilet paper. The price may be $8.99 for it but you will get $5.00 in “Extra Care Bucks” to use on your next visit. Combine this with , say a $1 off of one regular coupon and a CVS store coupon (they have $5 off of $20 coupons often) and you’ve got yourself some cheap TP!
Other ideas are to watch for buy one get one free sales on cleaning supplies. If you are already paying half price and you combine it with two coupons (since you are buying two items) you will get everything super cheap. You can’t be brand loyal though.
And when you find a deal buy 3-6 month supply. The sales cycle will repeat every 3-6 months. Is there a great deal on paper towels this week? Well you can beat that there will be another great deal on paper towels again within 6 months.
@Kathy: YES! It is more of a challenge, but it is doable. My Co-Owner lives in Florida. There are never doubles in Florida, but she does well with the heavily advertised buy one get one free deals. Another great tip is to sign up for free product coupons (you can check my coupon forum). My member usually find 4-10 free or close to free item coupons every month. In fact I just got a coupon for a free package of Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs in the mail today for playing their Facebook game about a month ago. Yesterday I signed up for a free box of John Frieda Hair Color.
Another tip is to write to the companies that you love. Ask them for coupons and compliment their products. It’s amazing how many companies will mail you coupons for free products!
@chardonnay4me2: Great job on the clothes! I tend to get my clothes from a thrift store on half priced Wednesday. I go a beautiful Cold Water Creek jacket last week for $4!
For my teen son I will by name brand clothes, but we shop on a good sale week and always hit clearance first.
Last week Bealls Store put out a coupon for all Florida residents. It was for $10 off of a $10 or more purchase. One of my friends made her totals just above $10 per transaction. She spent $78 and saved $1,300. There is always a deal to be had 🙂
@chardonnay4me2 (again): I feel very strongly that limits are WONDERFUL! I don’t wipe a shelf of any product and try to stay with reasonable amounts of food. If a store has a limit it is always per day. So I might stop by my local store 2-3 times a week if they have a killer deal with limits. At least I will be able to score a few of every deal because they don’t allow one person to buy the entire stock.
I also have been known to buy my limit (say 2) and then after check out I will swing by customer service for a rain check for another 2 items. Rain checks will extend a sales price for one month. This way on one trip I will have 2 in my buggy and 2 to pick up next time.
@Bloghawg: that might be in order. It looks like you all will be seeing me around. Pattypie is working with me to give you all more tips!
@Pam@IW: Yep, I bring my binder to the store with me. It lays across the child seat portion of the shopping cart. Other people use a shoe box or accordion folder method. You can see a photo of it here: http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-bargain-hunter/2011/04/26/atlanta-woman-seeks-to-redeem-extreme-couponing/
If you need help on setting up a system stop on by and we’ll help you out!
Hey thanks Stephanie for coming over to answer the peeps!
We are looking forward to seeing more of you!
Thanks Stephanie,
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I think I will try the binder. I am going to start out slow and build my way up, LOL.
Ladies,
If you go to the Betty Crocker site, there are $40 dollars worth of coupon’s offered.
I really need to get going on this, thanks snickers!
Hi, great post! Thanks..
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