TLC’s new television show, Extreme Couponing, has been a huge hit. This show revolves around “couponers” who collect massive amounts of coupons and get hundreds of dollars worth of products for a couple of dollars. These women spend countless hours during the week perusing through newspaper inserts, online coupons and some even go to the extreme of dumpster diving for coupons.
Each person has their own system and method of couponing, some have rooms full of newspaper inserts while others use a binder with baseball card dividers to organize their coupons. When first watching the show, these people seem crazy, let’s be honest who wants to stand in line with a whole binder full of coupons and argue with the clerk as to whether or not you can stack manufacturer coupons with store coupons. Once you start watching though, it becomes fascinating. These women literally get hundreds of dollars of groceries for pennies, it’s hard to even fathom that there are that many coupons available and that they can all be combined.
Another thing that becomes apparent while watching the show is the amount of organization these people need to make sure they buy all the correct items at the correct time. These people have a very methodic system in which they utilize formulas and mathematical equations to know exactly how much money they expect to spend and save.
Because of this show, coupon has now become a verb, it has become a phenomenon in which people are devoting their time and energy towards being thrifty. There are even blogs and workshops that teach you specifically how to coupon. After reading the steps, it is apparent that to get started you need to start slow, rather than jump right in.
Online and newspaper inserts are a great way to find coupons, many companies will have online specials or deals, for example, Next Day Blinds coupons are available online. Also, many stores will allow you to take home the extra Sunday papers left over on Monday.
Tune into Extreme Couponing on Wednesdays at 9: 30 PM Eastern Time.
