6/10/12 Coupon Insert Preview

There should be 2 inserts in your paper tomorrow.  Click on the links below to see a preview of what might be included.  Keep in mind coupons and inserts may be regional.  Happy Shopping!


1 Smart Source
1 Red Plum


Thanks to Delissa over at HCWT for the previews!!

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Extreme Couponing Joyce & April

My recaps aren't going to be anything to extreme or long.  I just want to point out some things I notice in the shopping trips.  I didn't catch all of the stores they shopped in, but if I did I include it.


Joyce


She is from West Columbia, SC and she is a waitress and her customers leave her coupons as tips.  She talked a lot about how she is addicted to couponing and how she "has to be addicted to something."


Her crazy stockpile included 500 boxes of Bayer, 837 razors and 560 cans of fruits/veggies.  I honestly don't understand people with things like this.  She uses the items from her stockpile to work out with so they don't have to have a gym membership.  If anything at least she is creative, right?


She had over 20 coupons for free 12 packs of 7-Up..that seems legit, right? *sigh*


One of her "quirks" is she has to have the "perfect" cashier.  She will walk around for hours after she is already done shopping (meaning after spending hours already) until she finds a cashier that fits her requirements.  Two that I remember her mentioning are "young and smiling"....I just can't....too much craziness.


April


She is from MI and uses the items she gets couponing to trade for favors.  One being that she can use the work computers to print coupons.  Now she gives the people working the cookies or whatever to use their computer & printer.  I wonder if her job is okay with that?


She has a 1 BR apartment filled to the brim with her stockpile.  She made her boyfriend/husband (can't remember which) move his desk to the basement so she could use that spot for her stockpile.  She mentioned since he is going to school and she is paying the bills it is up to her.  Sounds like a fun relationship.  I was curious why her stockpile couldn't go to the basement, but what do I know.


One thing I wanted to mention and she is a prime example for this.  If you really pay attention "Extreme Couponing" is not anything impressive.  Any one can go and buy $1,000 tubes of toothpaste (for example) that are $1.00 each and use 1,000 $1/1 coupons.  That right there is a $1,000 savings.  I don't understand how people think that is impressive.  Anyway.  Here are the things they said she got:


120 Sobe (she somehow had $1/1 coupons for these)
30 protein bars
100 cinnamon rolls
845 cookies


Am I the only one that sees all the greed with these people?

Extreme Couponing Jeff/Sam & Kelly

My recaps aren't going to be anything to extreme or long.  I just want to point out some things I notice in the shopping trips.  I didn't catch all of the stores they shopped in, but if I did I include it.


Jeff and Sam


Father and son from Chatham, NJ.  


I honestly didn't see much wrong with this episode.  I was impressed with this 8 year old.  One thing I did want to mention is the coupons without expiration dates.  That was really neat how they pass them down, but some stores won't accept coupons without expiration dates so be sure to check that out if you have any.


This one they ended up spending $85.39 with a savings of 77.5%.  This is how a normal couponing trip is.  I didn't think these were "extreme" in the ways the others are.  If you are going to try to be like any of the "extreme couponers" these are the only ones I would recommend.


Kelly


She is from Wooster, OH and she is another one of them that gets her coupons from God.  Seriously that annoys me so bad when they say that, but I will keep my opinions on that to myself.


I didn't catch the store she shopped at either, but they didn't seem to have any limits.  She mentioned how when she sees high value coupons in the stores she "snatches them up" so when you see the empty tear pads and blinkie machines in the stores people like her are the ones you can thank. (greedy)


She said she spends 20 hours preparing for a shopping trip.  That seems reasonable, right?  Haha.  No comment.


She was showing her stockpile and I am sure a lot of people that don't coupon are so impressed.  80-100 boxes of cereal.  Yes that is impressive.  The sad thing is she just keeps getting more.  I guess she doesn't realize things have an expiration date.  Who honestly needs 600 razors.  These people are definitely extreme. -_-


One thing I thought was funny is how they said she just happened to notice the lotions that were $1.00 and she had the $1.00 coupon.  Wow nice surprise, right?  Yes such a nice surprise until she asks them for the others that she PRE ORDERED.  How do you do that if it's a surprise?


So dumb......

Extreme Couponing Cole & Anglique

My recaps aren't going to be anything to extreme or long.  I just want to point out some things I notice in the shopping trips.  I didn't catch all of the stores they shopped in, but if I did I include it.


Cole


He is a High Schooler from Lebanon, OH.  He shopped at Bigg's.  See their coupon policy HERE.  One thing I noticed right from their coupon policy is this:

Overage

Remke Biggs stores do not allow for overage, but will instead adjust the coupon value down to the price of the product if necessary.

So I wonder how he was able to have $6.17 given back to him.  Makes you think, huh.  A lot of these stores let things slide for the show.  Good luck having that happen with your trip.

This started out showing him dumpster diving.  Remember if this is something you want to do be sure to check the laws before just diving away.  It is illegal in some places.

This store was another with a limit of like coupons, but he did multiple transactions to get around that policy.  Like I mentioned in a previous recap be sure to check with your store before trying that so you don't waste your time.

He also had some questionable coupons.  One he used has been flagged as a fraudulent coupon.  It was the free Quilted Northern coupon.  You will see this one used on multiple episodes.  The Extreme Couponers don't seem to care about using fraudulent coupons.  Jill Cataldo has some more information about the Quilted Northern HERE.

He also used a coupon that was $1/1 Kleenex Cool Touch on regular Kleenex.  

It's just crazy how they have to resort to these measures.  They may get away with it at the store, but it makes things difficult for honest couponers, because manufacturers catch on to this and stop putting out good value coupons and the stores change their polices.  All because these couponers are so greedy.

Angelique

She is from Lynwood, WA.  She was pregnant and suppose to be on bed rest, but her doctor let her do this last trip supposedly.  She shopped at K-Mart.  I can't find an official coupon policy for them.  I know my Kmart is awful to coupon at so definitely call ahead to see what they allow before shopping there.  

She did 23 back to back transactions.  Good luck finding any store that will allow you to do that.

On her site she said that she ordered coupons for the show.  Of course she didn't mention that on the show or say how much she paid for them.  She says she always has to get transactions that are $0.00, but on this trip she had 1 out of 23 transactions where she had to pay $.56 and she was mad.  Keep in mind again that some states (like mine) charge tax on your pre-coupon amount.  Be sure to check that out before you go try to get $0.00 transactions.

She is another that used the fraudulent Quilted Northern coupon.  They showed that she got 768 rolls of toilet paper which means she used 64 of the fraudulent coupons.  Amazes me how the stores go along with that.  This coupon was not released by the manufacturer which means the store won't be reimbursed for them.  Such greedy people.

She also used a fraudulent Doritos coupon.  So before anyone goes trying to learn how to extreme coupon or be like the ones you see on TV remember what they are doing is illegal.  Is it worth it to you?

Extreme Couponing Erin & Dominique

My recaps aren't going to be anything to extreme or long.  I just want to point out some things I notice in the shopping trips.  I didn't catch all of the stores they shopped in, but if I did I include it.


Erin
She shopped at Food Giant.  See their coupon policy here.  I didn't notice any limits in their policy so that is very unusual, but lucky for the wannabe extremes.


One thing I wanted to mention is how her daughter kept saying she was embarrassed by how her mom acted.  Knowing this her mom still goes to her practice while all of her friends are still there and asks her coach if he has any coupons for her.  She couldn't have waited until the other girls left?


The big thing I noticed with her couponing is how unorganized she was.  It was crazy.  If you want to coupon efficiently you need to be organized.  You can choose whatever method works best for you, but I definitely think you need some sort of a method besides just throwing all of your coupons into a big pile.  When you are couponing your shopping trips are longer than a normal trip.  Having your coupons nice and organized will make your trip a lot smoother.  It will also help to know what coupons you have and how many you have.


Remember that a lot of stores charge tax on the total before coupons.  Check to see how it works in your state, because in Illinois with a $2,000 + shopping trip you would be paying around $137 just in taxes so the $0 trip is pretty unreachable.


She showed that she goes around asking people for coupons.  That's all fine and dandy, but I can almost guarantee she had to buy some of those coupons.  None of the extreme couponers ever say how much they pay for their coupons.  That is another thing to keep in mind.


I think the couponers on the show should have to show a list of what they buy and what coupons they use.  There is so much fraud shown on the show it's not even funny.  They don't really show a lot of the coupons used, but in this particular one 3 stood out to me.


1. $5/1 wipes coupon??  I have never ever seen a coupon this high value for wipes.  I tried to google it and couldn't find any information on this coupon.  That seems kind of fishy.


2. 20 free pickle coupons.  There is no way that these were obtained in a normal manner.  She had to have purchased extras.


3. The $5 Del Monte coupons.  These coupons were for $5 off Del Monte FRESH fruits and veggies.  Google it they were everywhere.  They were coupons for teachers.  She used them on cans of Del Monte veggies.  Way to commit fraud there.  Makes me sick.


Dominique


I was pretty impressed with this kid.  He is a college student and it showed his whole fraternity involved.  I was impressed that is until I read Jill Cataldo's post and it was all just a made up trip.  Guess TLC is getting a little desperate.  See her post HERE.


One thing that did stand out in his trip though was how his store had a coupon policy of only 12 like coupons per trip.  He split it into 3 transactions to get around this rule.  Good luck with that.  My store limits their limits per DAY and will not let you split into separate transactions.  Be sure to check your store before assuming they will let you do this.


He had 36 coupons for $6.50/1 Malt-O-Meal.  I googled these and they are actually a free product up to $6.50.  I seriously doubt he was able to just collect these around campus.

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Extreme Couponing

Wow have I been slacking.  No excuse I just get lazy. :)  I am sure most of you know how I feel about that Extreme Couponing show.  Well I boycotted it all last season, and obviously that didn't help it's still here and back for another season.  I decided I am going to watch it and do recaps on the episodes showing what is wrong with it.  I have a lot of people ask me how they can become like the couponers on the show.  I can't help with that.  I don't think anyone should be trying to be like them.  I figure if I show specific examples from the shows maybe people will see why you shouldn't want to be like them.


First and foremost when you coupon you should coupon honestly.  You can get plenty of free and cheap items without committing coupon fraud.  TLC likes to highlight fraudulent coupon use for some reason.  Not only is it illegal it causes stores to change their policies which makes it harder for honest couponers.  I am not saying all of the Extreme Couponers commit fraud, but a good amount of them do.


Also there is no reason to shop the way they do.  It's pretty much impossible for a regular shopper not on a show to have trips like the ones they show.  If you go to any of the couponers that were on the shows personal sites they will tell you that is not a normal trip for them.  Check your stores policies.  Most have limits in place of how many like coupons you can use.  Good luck trying to purchase 845 cookies for free when your store imposes a limit of 5 like coupons per day.  Good luck trying to get around the policy by having 23 separate transactions.  I bet your cashier won't be smiling like they are on the show, and I bet the store won't allow it.


People should strive to coupon for what is needed.  Having 80-100 boxes of cereal in your stockpile is ridiculous.  Don't even get me started on 1,000 tubes of toothpaste.  Things expire. It's such a waste.  


I watched 4 episodes last night.  I think I might be caught up, but I'm not sure.  I will be doing those recaps here shortly.  I also plan on doing a post on starting out.  It would be nice if there was a show that showed people how to coupon honestly and maybe gave some pointers, but that is not the case.