I had no idea where to start, especially as using coupons in America is easy – there are free coupon books in supermarkets and pharmacies; a free Sunday newspaper comes with a massive pile of coupon inserts, not to mention if you were to actually but a newspaper with coupons. They also have places where you can order coupons for a small handling fee and have them delivered – all cut out and ready to use. Some shops in America also double the coupon value, so if an item costs $1 and you have a 50c coupon, the store doubles it, making the item free. Another difference is that coupons are socially acceptable in America and stores will let you carry out 18 transactions to ensure you can use all your coupons. Morrisons even place a limit on special offers to 3 per customer. 

Not knowing where to start, I turned to the ever faithful Money Saving Expert and found a whole thread dedicated to the art of couponing. The thread looks completely daunting at first, but it’s easy to follow. The first few posts show coupons available and posts are updated almost daily, if not more than once per day, so that’s where you get your coupons from. The rest of the thread tells you about offers that are on, experiences of using coupons and just general chat.

 

Saving money is great, so using a few 30p, 50p and £1 off coupons is nice and everything, but that’s hardly extreme couponing is it? If you’re not ready to take it to the extreme (albeit a minor extreme) then that’s fine, just print off the coupons for items you were going to buy and save a few £££, job done. There is nothing wrong with this at all!

 

However, if you’re me, you will take this further. Welcome to how I’ve spent the past week of my life! I started by reading through the MSE thread to jot some ideas down (and if you do read the thread and get any ideas do write them down straight away – the thread moves so fast that you stand no chance of remembering what to go back to). My first discovery was that Finish were offering a £5 coupon for a dishwasher device that was on sale in Asda for £5, Sainsbury’s for £5.08 and Tesco has a 2 for £10 offer. So they work out to be either free or 8p depending on where you pick them up from. I was a bit apprehensive about trying this out at Tesco because of their offer, so off I went yesterday and picked two up. I was a little bit naughty and made sure that I constantly chatted to the lady at the checkout in order to appear friendly and likeable – and it worked! I managed to get £24.77 worth of couponable stuff down to just £1.59 with the offer on the Finish dishwasher stuff and coupons. The downside of this was that I was really tempted whilst in Tesco and still spent £14.26 because pizza was on offer…then I wanted tacos for dinner, and really, who keeps all the ingredients for tacos in their cupboard at all times? Here’s my receipt to show you.

 

 

So I basically got 2 Finish Quantamatics, a bag of fish cakes, Lenor fabric conditioner, Lacrofree cream cheese and a pot of apple and cinnamon yoghurt for £1.59. Amazing.

 

Of course this needed to be repeated again today. I had planned to go to Asda for a few deals such as a free Huggies newborn starter kit – the voucher scans at £5 but the kit is only £3, netting a £2 profit to be spent on other items in your transaction, but my plans for the day fell through, and even I thought a 50 mile round trip just to use coupons was a bit excessive. To get the deal you need to register at Asda baby club and print the coupon (which you can do twice) to use in store. It expires two weeks after printing and you can only use one per transaction.

 

I regiggled my plan and went to Tesco again after work, armed with a shopping list, just the coupons I needed and an action plan. I was a bit disheartened when I found that many coupon items were sold out – had the whole of Ely been reading about coupons and raided the shelves? I managed to grab the yoghurt, but no Blue Dragon sauce on offer, no Toblerone left on the shelf, no Lactofree cream cheese left…panic started to set in. Tesco were on to me and my cunning plan. I raced to the laundry/dish washing aisle and was pleased to find the shelf stocked up on Finish Quantamatic stuff, and nabbed myself 6. No, I still don’t have a dishwasher.

 

Pleased with my find, I went checkout assistant profiling – a tip I learned from watching Extreme Couponing, opting this time for a plump middle aged lady who looked like I could have a chat to and make her believe I was a wonderful person, and therefore not look too closely at my coupons. It’s worth noting that I don’t do any coupon cheating – no photocopying; if the coupon says one per transaction then I use just one (I’ve not been brave enough to try multiple transactions…yet) and obviously purchasing the exact item that a coupon is for. Of course with my luck all the Finish items had a security tag and the lady’s security tag remover wasn’t working. This wasn’t shaping up to be the best trip – she was shuffling between her till and another for my Finish items, not even hearing my “how are you?” with which to start the conversation flowing. Panic set in. My till total reached over £60…I did not have £60 spare to pay for the shopping, there was a queue behind me (I had tried to warn people that I had coupons) so if the transaction didn’t go well I’d have to ask for the items to be voided. There was one moment when she counted out my Finish coupons, asked if I could use them all and was about to call a supervisor over. Again, I stress that I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” with my coupons, but the embarrassment would have been bad enough. I quickly pointed out that the coupons all had different bar codes, telling her I’d been watching Extreme Couponing and therefore had done my research. This seemed to please her and off I went with my £67.58 worth of shopping for a whopping £5.90 – and milk was £3 of that!

 

I am now therefore declaring myself an Extreme Couponer and I now wish to share my knowledge with you. (I do realise that I’m not an extreme couponer, I’m just starting out and I don’t know everything, but what I do know, I’ll share).

 

Firstly you need to find some coupons. Luckily the lovely members of MSE have already done that for you (and if you’re a member, please remember to press the “thanks” button at the bottom of the posts to show your appreciation) and I’m thinking of doing a weekly Extreme Couponing post as your one stop go to place to see what coupons net you free items or even a profit. You need to be able to print the coupons and you’ll have to install a small piece of software in order to do so. This is done when you try to print coupons – it’s such a little deal that you don’t even need to restart your browser. This software automatically prints coupons and logs your I.P. address so they can place a limit on the amount of coupons you can print – usually two. If you have access to other computers then you can obviously print more – I’ve been doing this but I don’t know if there are any consequences yet, so please don’t take this as gospel. Coupons printed with the coupon printer installed usually have a unique bar code and the terms and conditions will clearly be displayed. Cut out your coupons and you’re off…until…

 

Stage 2, deciding where to use your coupons. Now you could just go and do your normal shopping and save a few £££, that’s fine and a great thing to do if you’re not too confident about using coupons or you don’t have time to research deals. The people on Extreme Couponing spend 30+ hours per week on this…I’m nowhere near to that, but I reckon I’ve spent 5 hours doing research for two shopping trips. If you want to be a bit more savvy with your coupons/try to get items for free then there are two great places for you. The first would be the MSE thread mentioned above and the second would be MySupermarket, where you can compare the prices of items across Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. This helps you to see what offers are on at the moment, and if you can find items on offer and combine a coupon, you can often get a great deal and a profit.

 

Some things to know:

• Coupons expire a set number of days after printing, so you can wait until an item is on offer before printing.
• Some coupons can be printed multiple times – generic coupons with no unique bar code – terms and conditions may state only one per transaction though.
• Photocopies are not allowed. Please don’t do it. You risk stores refusing to accept any coupons or manufacturers reducing the number of coupons they make. Stick to the rules!
• I haven’t been inundated with junk e-mails from the many places I’ve had to provide an e-mail address to print a coupon. In fact I’ve had one e-mail from Asda Baby Club and that’s it!
• Coupons will sometimes have your name on – ensure you’re the one to use them if this is the case. 
• Tesco accept coupons for their competitors – that’s Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons, Aldi, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Co-op and even Boots! These are the “conditional spend” vouchers such as £5 off a £50 shop.
• Coupons can be used at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, Somerfield/Co-op, Home Bargains, Savers, Wilkinsons and possibly loads more places.
• Confirmed places that do not accept coupons are Lidl, Aldi and Netto. 
• Don’t forget that if you’re shopping at Tesco or Asda you can use your receipt to do a price comparison and receive the difference back in coupons. 

Right, I’m really hoping I’ve covered everything in this post, but any questions then please feel free to send them my way and I’ll reply to comments, so please check back!

 

For whatever reason you need some cash within a week. A mere 7, or fewer, days to get some money together. It feels impossible. You know eBay will take too long, so what can you do?

Help, I need some cash within a month/longer term!