The new catch word seems to be “extreme”. Everything is extreme these days from sales to prices to couponing. As I am trying to get my head around an idea this title/show keeps popping up.

First to be honest, I do watch the show and enjoy it most nights even to the point where I DVR it so I can skip the commerical or fall asleep. But while watching, I look at their shopping trips as not their “usual” trip but it fact their most successful trip every! If you listen most of the couponers on the show will say at least once “this is my biggest/best trip”. In reality they spent months trying to put this trip together and on most occasions as I am learn get extra help from the stores or the producers. Now that I have established my thoughts on the show, how does it relate to me? or this idea I am talking about?
Second question/step- Yes, I have been called an extreme couponer. Yes, I plan specific trip to a store with a list in place and plan to purchase what is on sale. And YES, I have a stockpile. I started seriously couponing about a year ago as a way to save money so I could stay at home longer. Now, I am playing a game and couponing is my hobby. In the process, I have learned alot and we are actually enjoying a higher standard of living becuase of couponing.

Third- I want to share this idea with others and also use it to bring glory and honor to God’s kingdom. So how can this work? I have blogged in the past about the deals I have gotten. I plan to continue to do this but I want to move it up to the next level. Over the past several weeks, I have been able to make several donation of soap,deodrant and toothpaste to different ministries at our church. With each donation, it seems that we still want to do more. Matt and I have been talking about how we can use couponing to make a difference. Now this is in hopes of getting the ball rolling!

The Goal: To accumulate a stockpile of items to be given away at our new church building to anyone who will take them.

I am hoping that I will be able to start collecting unused coupons from people in the church, develop list of free or items that can be purchased for less than $10, share this information with anyone and everyone I can get involved. I have already talked with a couple of people at church and we have made an announcement about bring in the unwanted coupons. I also have gotten at least 2 other people who are willing to go shopping. So the ball is rolling. Now comes my part, I am planning to develop a list on a monthly basis of things to donation that can be purchased at Walmart for $10 or less. Next on a weekly basis I am going to develop list that can be used locally to pick up free items to stockpile for this drive.

With all this being said, I guess it is official I am an extreme couponer and proud of it!

I did find time on Haley’s birthday to make a trip to Harris Teeter. The reason of course is the fact that they are having their “Super Doubles” event which means they will double any coupon up to $1.98. I was able to grab a lot of stuff for free. In total I spent $24 and saved $114 or 82%. I am REALLY pleased with this for a couple of reason. I purchased 6 containers of strawberries and 2 bags of Doritos for Haley’s party this Saturday without coupons. They both were a decent price but still NO coupons. I also got a 6 pack of Pedisure for Zach that after coupon doubling to $3 the price for 6 was around 7.50. I couple of items I got for free included bandaids, creamer and milk. I am planning to return on Sunday to finish using my 22 coupons that are left! Of course that depends on how well I survive Haley’s party on Saturday!

CVS has also been running a good sale on Coke products, which is $1 each with 5 ECB when you buy $15, making them 0.66 a piece for 2 Liter Diet Cokes. At this point I have a stockpile of around 45 Diet Cokes and did get a rain check today for another 15. I am hoping to return once more this week to get another second rain check. My reasoning for 2 rain checks is that rain checks never expire so if prices rise as everything is saying they are going to, I can plan to have Diet Coke at least once a day for a long time!

I was disappointed today(Sunday) , to find that most of the items I intended to buy were out of stock already. In fact I only bought one item on my list, contact lens solution. I had 5 ECB from last week and I had received a coupon from the Redbox for 3 off a $10 diaper purchase. I have learned and always carry Diaper coupons with me! Today, I checked and Huggies were 8.99 a pack using the overage from the Contact lens solution, the store coupon and 2 $2.50 coupons I had I purchased a bottle of Contact lens solution, 2 packes of Diaper and a bottle of Hair Spray for $7.01 a savings of 81% or $37. I also used my green bag and received an additional 1ECB!

Life is in full swing around here and this week I have been able to do something fun. I have been doing a lot of coupon shopping this past week as well as making plans for at least one trip to Harris Teeter next week for Super Doubles starting on Wednesday.

One of the reasons that it can be a challenge to shop and save lots of money in Lexington is the fact that Food Lion is one of 3 “chain” grocery stores; Walmart and Aldi are the others. Food Lion does except coupons but never a double or triple. Most of the time I try to only go to Food Lion once a month or if we need staples without time for a trip to Costco. However, this changed this week, I have made 4 separate trips to Food Lion this week making multiple transactions each time. This week, Food Lion has several deals going on at one time. They have 2 promotions for money off. The first is the store brand promotion in which you receive a coupon for x amount off your next order. The second is called “Big Deal” in which you get 5,10 or 15 off instantly. Finally, like several other stores I have heard they have a buy 3 boxes of cereal and get a free gallon of milk. On Thursday, I took all three kids and spent around a hundred dollars. This does include alot of the food for Haley’s party this week. Matt and I returned Thursday afternoon using his MVP card. We stocked up on bagged Chex mix which was on clearance for 1.25 with 50/2 coupons. I have been using these sales to buy some staples I would normal go to Costco for, buying the store brand and receiving 0.25 off each item. I have stockpiled BBQ sauce and sodas this week as well. I returned to Food Lion on Friday at lunch to grab bread and things needed for dinner. Today, I made a final trip to get milk. My saving today, the only trip I can find all my receipt for was around a 52% savings but the things I purchased today were all things we were out of so I am not too disappointed.

I made a quick trip to CVS today and was able to score another 6-12 packs of drinks for $1.66 each. I am excited because I know that we now have enough drinks for our Disney trip. I hope at least. I am going to try and make one more stop at CVS to pick up 6 more on Amanda’s card this weekend but I don’t think we have the storage space for them. I was so excited to try and write this post tonight. I was able to purchase 6 12 pks of Soda, 4 boxes of Bandaids, 1 bottle of Maalox liquid and 1 bottle of Maalox pills and 2 candy bars for $26. I entered it into my saving tracker and realized it was only a 62% saving. So it was just average but the idea that we are stocked up on drinks still makes me happy and so did the half of Snickers bar I enjoyed. Over the past few weeks I have been getting back into couponing. It was a struggle after I returned to work and through the Holidays. But I have made some changes to my plans and hopefully they will work even better in the future. Here are 5 things I have learned changed about couponing this month.

1. I am planning to buy one newspaper for each insert it contains. So last week there were 2 inserts and I bought 1 paper and will get the second one from my mom.

2. After reading about the upcoming sales at CVS, always make sure to check the comments. I was able to purchase 4 bottles of Maalox for tax over the past two weeks because of something someone posted. I have also decided that if a coupon that I need at CVS covers the cost of an additional paper and I will be able to use the coupon that week. Purchasing additional papers makes sense.

3. Stockpiling is much easier when you have the storage space and it is sorta organized.

4. Never leave the store without checking price of items that you get store coupons for. I was able to make eleven cent each on the candy bars I got today. I had received a coupon for $1 off a candy bar and did not realize the “regular” price of most of the candy bars were 0.89.

5. Checking frequently for items you have rainchecks for means you can still use most of the coupons you have pulled!

I often think of couponing as a game. First you prepare/practice which includes buying papers, sorting coupons, finding list, cutting coupons and then finally planning when to go to the store. Sounds like a lot but in reality, I spend about 10 minutes a day on a regular basis but some days none at all. So now on to game day… This past Sunday. Harris Teeter started super doubles on Wednesday and CVS has an awesome sale this week. I decided that I would hit both stores on Sunday. What I forgot to plan on was the impeding snow that sent everyone to the store on Sunday.

CVS was the place where I stocked up on canned Drinks and coffee as well as diapers. I usually do a couple or at the most 3 transactions this week I did 7. I did have to go to the car after 3 to unload my buggy. I spent $55 and save $102 or 69%. This is the most I have spent at one time but for all that I got and simply because 4 bags of coffee at $9, diapers and drinks I am really happy. In fact, I may return on Wednesday or Thursday to buy more drinks.

Next on to Harris Teeter, this was a little more complicated because of they way they force you to use coupons on Buy One Get One Free items. The items ring up half price but they only let you use a coupon on one of the two items. My solution, I had Matt do a transaction in front of me. We used the same VIC card and only 20 coupons. I was upset that the 11 boxes of pop tarts for 10 was not available but I did get a rain check. We ended up spending $43 and saving $102 or 70%.

We are really focusing on budget the first few month this year. I hope that even with stockpiling on these items I am able to cut some out of the groceries this month!

This is something I have never done before but you know a year worth of free groceries or for us 6 months of free groceries are worth it. Click the link below and I get an extra chance to win. Please and thank you

IT PAYS TO EAT PASTA