Cut your bills with ‘extreme couponing’

By MoneyWeek editor-in-chief Merryn Somerset Webb Nov 25, 2011

Merryn Somerset-Webb

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There is a reality TV show in America called Extreme Couponing, which makes for fairly addictive viewing. In it, “couponers” spend hours searching for, and clipping out, money-saving coupons and then compete to save as much money as possible while accumulating as many groceries as possible. It works. Check out past episodes on the internet and you get to watch the truly dedicated leaving supermarkets having paid $50 for $500-worth of food. It is also proving to be a pretty popular concept as real wages continue to stagnate in the US – not only does the show have millions of viewers but its theme has been picked up by scores of websites that purport to be able to teach people super-couponing skills.

You might think couponing sounds awful. If so, you won’t want to read on. Why? Because the extreme money-saving craze has crossed the Atlantic. Visit Motivatingmum.co.uk and you will find a section written by Debbie O’Connor, an accountant and coupon user who attended a talk on extreme couponing in America. Since then she has, she says, used her new knowledge to cut her grocery bill by 35%. She reckons that, should we want to, the rest of us can do the same. How? First you need to know where to find the deals. In America, newspapers and magazines print hundreds of coupons every week. Couponers then cut them out (I remember doing this as a child in the States), and use them as needed.

That doesn’t work here – we don’t have much of a tradition of printed coupons. So while you can pick up a few, if you want real deals, you need the internet. O’Connor recommends regular visits to the top voucher site, including the likes of Savoo.co.uk, where participants both find deals and list ones they have used for others to use too.

She also encourages subscribing to all the retailers’ online newsletters. These look like spam, but are “teeming with money-saving offers”. So open a special email account for them, she says, and check it before every shop. If you shop at Tesco you should also use Tescopricecheck.com. Pop the details of your receipt into the site and if your shopping wasn’t cheaper at Tesco than Asda, the supermarket will make up the difference. Mysupermarket.co.uk is also good for comparing costs and offering voucher codes that cut your bill (£15 off at Sainsbury’s, for example).

Extreme couponing will never be quite as lucrative in Britain as in America – I can’t see Tesco letting anyone cut their bill by 90%. But our shops are entering a brutal pre-Christmas price war. So if you want to save money and you enjoy – as O’Connor does – the “thrill of the chase”, you could find the next few months quite satisfactory.

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Published in Money-saving tips | More articles by Merryn Somerset Webb

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  • 1. Coupon-Smart

    (07 December 2011, 09:38PM)  Complain about this comment

    Thanks for the great article! I've been couponing for years and trying to get others to do it as well - mainly because of the unbelievable savings you can experience! :)

  • 2. Davis

    (08 December 2011, 12:25AM)  Complain about this comment

    Saving 90% on your food bill definitely sounds worth the time in collecting coupons. I'd be interested to know how much time you would have to put in to save about 35% at somewhere like Tesco. That's a decent amount too though so I think I would be willing to do it.

  • 3. Stella

    (08 December 2011, 01:05AM)  Complain about this comment

    From what I've learned about extreme couponing there are basically three steps:

    1. Collect coupons on products you need/use
    2. Use the coupons/buy the products when they are on sale so you maximize your savings (aka "stacking")
    3. Buy enough of the product when it's on sale so that you don't run out when the price goes back to normal (stockpiling)

    This post has 45 tips to successfully (and ethically) doing extreme couponing:

    http://www.savings.com/blog/post/Extreme-Couponing-45-Tips-from-Shopping-Experts.html

    but mainly it's about coupons stacked during sales and stockpiling between sales cycles.

  • 4. Kenny

    (08 December 2011, 07:01PM)  Complain about this comment

    Great tips! I should start signing up for those deal saving emails.

  • 5. dealseeker

    (08 December 2011, 07:05PM)  Complain about this comment

    I always just throw out the coupons I see in the newspaper etc. But maybe I'll start giving them a second look. Interesting stuff

  • 6. Amy

    (08 December 2011, 07:26PM)  Complain about this comment

    I always check coupon sites to get codes before placing an online order. It takes a minute and you get to save money just for entering a code. Score!

    As far as extreme couponing goes, I've never been like that, but do use coupons whenever I can.

  • 7. Debbie

    (09 December 2011, 10:55PM)  Complain about this comment

    Its a question of being tuned in to deals on things that you buy and use. Once you start looking for them, they pop up everywhere. I'm keeping a page of my best finds on Motivating Mum so I have them all in one place when I need them. Then you have to remember to use them when you are shopping, and to pounce on things when the deals are best.

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