We've Taken the "Extreme" Leap

If going to Walmart to grocery shop wasn't enough, we've now taken the leap into couponing! In fact, you could say we've gone Extreme.

Mr. C and Miss M are addicted to the show "extreme couponing" and have become convinced that we need to get on the couponing bandwagon. They even volunteered to take on the couponing job. If I would give them my grocery list and guidelines for things I needed to stock the pantry and bathrooms, they would find me the best deal. When they heard that Walmart would price match, they were pumped.

Sunday, after church, our kitchen table was taken over as coupon headquarters. Spreading out the newspaper and coupon circulars, they began their work. Overheard at the table were various conversations...

"Do you have a manufacturer's coupon for this item, I have a grocery store coupon?"

" We could price match this at Walgreen's and, if we had a manufactures coupon to add to this, think of the savings"

"Mom do you need paper towels? I've got a great coupon."

"Too bad we don't have a dog, there are some great coupons for dog food."

"If we are really going to do this couponing, I'll need some better scissors."

"We can really add to our stockpile with these coupons, too bad our store doesn't double coupon."

"Do we have a stockpile?"

Then Monday, they perused my grocery list, matched it to the coupons we had and then organized the coupons in envelopes. By Tuesday morning (shopping day), they could hardly contain their excitement. Dad sweetened the pot by promising the kids that any money they could save we could put towards a fun outing at the end of the summer; I'm thinking the kids are dreaming Disney and Dad's more on the Dairy Queen idea.

Let's just say it was an interesting shopping trip. Coupons were flying out of our envelopes, children were rushing around looking for matching items, and when it came time for checkout I was informed by Mr. C that we needed to watch every transaction for errors. "Do the price match first mom that way we can make sure the checker knows what she is doing!"

In the end, we saved about $11.50 with coupons, price matching, and sales on top of coupons. Not bad. Sadly Miss A said no one clapped for us when were done, the checker didn't tell us how much we saved like they do on TV and unbelievably no cameras or film crews were present at the time.

We did, however, get some couponing advice from the lady behind us in line, and we now signed up for two online coupon sites. Guess the theme is with extreme couponing "go big or go home."