Extreme Couponing For Real

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As much as I love watching Extreme Couponing on TV, that show is wildly exaggerated. Many of the stores allow shoppers to film after hours, ignore stated coupon policies, even—gasp—use fraudulent coupons! (Everyone knows how big I am on ethical couponing.)

Is it possible to extreme coupon under normal conditions without breaking the rules?

Absolutely!!!

Here is an example of how I do it. I bought all of the items in the above pic at Walgreens this week for $4.00. Not per item, total! And that’s 53 items—26 bottles of AZO Cranberry Supplements and 27 boxes of Culterelle Probiotics.

I started with a $6.00 Register Reward from last week. I used that, plus $4.00 cash to buy the first box of Culterelle. I got a $10RR in return.

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Because both items are exactly the same price and produce the exact same $10 Reward, all the subsequent items were free!

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How did I do this? I did 53 separate transactions, over the course of 3 days. I’d pay for an AZO, then use the Reward to pay for a Culterelle, back and forth. Walgreens has a maximum of 20 transactions per day tied to each Balance Reward account. Usually, my store has a limit of 4 per item. This is at manager’s discretion. Because my store had boxes and boxes of extra product, I was allowed to buy as many AZO and Culterelle as I wanted until I hit the 20 per day mark. There were no extras on the other deals this week, so I skipped them.

Please keep in mind that this is an advanced couponing technique! I couponed for at least 2 years before I ever tried extreme couponing. If you do want to try this, here are a few tips:

1.   Use the register in Photo or Cosmetic. Don’t use the main register! It will back up the entire store. Shop early or late. If a line forms, let others take a turn, too.

2.   Obey the store limits. If the manager let’s me have extra, great! If not, I move on to another deal.

3.    Leave at least 1 or 2 on the shelf for the next shopper.

4.   Take some time to learn the Walgreens coupon policy. RR are a little tricky and most deals will require a filler item.

Extreme couponing can be awesome, but it’s time-consuming for sure. The key is always planning, but no plan is perfect. For a small financial investment and a large time investment, I now have a two-year supply of Probiotics. As for the AZO, that will be donated!

 

Have you ever tried extreme couponing?

30 thoughts on “Extreme Couponing For Real

  1. Christina Shirley

    I could be considered an “extreme couponer” by some. I have enough shampoo/conditioner/toothpaste/razors/deodorant for probably 3 years. We have enough dish tabs for the rest of this year. I love it. And I follow rules and don’t clear shelves. It takes time to properly build a stockpile 🙂

    Reply
  2. Jennifer @TheRebelChick

    I’ve never tried extreme couponing because our stores don’t allow doubling coupons or using more than one coupon per item, plus they don’t offer cash back or anything crazy like that. I just use regular coupons when things are on sale and save a ton!

    Reply
  3. Ashley

    I haven’t done extreme couponing, I’m not certain I have the patience for 53 different transactions. I’m always impressed, though, by those that do.

    Reply
  4. Theresa

    I used to extreme coupon, but it was too exhausting. Making 53 trips is a little more than I can handle right now, but I think that is awesome you were able to stock up on healthy items for so cheap!

    Reply
  5. Jaime

    I’ve done couponing, but I’m not extreme, by any means. I now work 30 minutes from town, whereas I used to work downtown, and I was close to the big stores (like Target.) I can still often get items close to free at Target, if I double up coupons, but I only get things that I know I’ll be using.

    Reply
  6. A Mom's Take

    I used to coupon (about 2-3 years ago). I still have some things leftover from couponing (like way too many bottles of shampoo). I don’t go for things I wouldn’t ever use, though.

    Reply
  7. Kecia (@KeciaHambrick)

    I don’t think I’d ever go “extreme”. There are too many shelf clearers in my small town so I cannot get a lot most of the time. I am not even actively couponing at the moment due to lack of time and frustration over never finding the items I have coupons for…

    Reply
  8. brett

    I have done extreme couponing- I just haven’t had time to do it in a few years. I hate watching the shows that promote doing it illegally and bending rules- like you show here, you can totally do it BY the rules!

    Reply
  9. Shell Feis

    I love that not only are you an ethical couponer, but a polite one too. It is so great that you actually leave some product behind for others who need it- I wish the people around here did that!

    Reply
  10. Cara

    I don’t coupon at all, I don’t find it helpful. Most of the coupons and sales seem to be for items we don’t use. Our stores also don’t double coupons.

    Reply
  11. Eliz Frank

    Ive always wondered how people do it… Thanks for the tips. You also reminded me that I had a coupon to submit for a $10 refund. 🙂

    Reply
  12. Ashley M

    That show is SO exaggerated and it makes people who do coupon legally and ethically look bad. That being said, I love couponing -we wouldn’t be able to survive without the money I save.

    Reply

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