If you've ever watched a sitcom, there's going to be that person who walks into a store, picks up tons of stuff, then dumps all of it on the checkout along with a giant pile of coupons. People who do that actually exist, and they're called extreme couponers.
Couponing is the act of using coupons, which everybody does. Extreme couponing is what happens when you take it
up to eleven.
So You Want to be a Cheapass
Let's cut to the chase - Extreme couponing is the act of being cheap. Extremely cheap. So cheap, you're the kind of person who will collect and re-use their own sweat. This isn't the "Oh hey, there's a coupon for the sandwich I was about to buy. I should grab that." it's, "Meet your DOOM, back page of the newspaper! *starts shredding the page with scissors*" Extreme couponing is the act of hoarding as many coupons as possible, getting a
box full of folders, then organizing them either via category or expiration date. In this economy, it can be helpful.
Extreme couponing is most helpful with groceries. Buying a week's worth of food for multiple people can easily cost over a hundred dollars, so cutting corners (and picking up the corners to use later) will save you money. Most stores offer coupons on food, anyway. There might be the odd coupon for toothpaste, shampoo, or a Weight Watcher
©™Ⓡ scale. Places like video game stores will probably have some kind of membership program that you can use in place of a coupon they never offer. All coupons have an expiration date and food is the most consumable product (Get it? "Most consum-" yeah you got it) so you should be able to make use of them fairly quickly.
Gathering coupons is pretty easy. Newspapers tend to have coupons in the back, and a lot of extreme couponers buy several Sunday papers so they can have duplicates. Stores tend to have coupon pages somewhere near the front, probably in some kind of rack. Take one or ten and mercilessly slaughter them with scissors back home. Sometimes stores send out coupon sheets and deliver them to homes; restaurants (especially fast food joints) are fond of this method for some reason.
I'm Up to My Eyeballs in Coupons - Now What?
Take them out and use them! By now you probably should have them sorted (by product or expiration date, as mentioned earlier) and ready to be used. Grab the relevant coupons for whatever you're buying and head out. I'm not too sure about grocery stores, but restaurants tend to have a "one coupon per customer" policy, so make sure you read the fine print. Keep up your obsessive coupon use and you'll see a profit turnout. Oh yeah, you might not want to do this when a lot of people are at the store. You might end up pissing off the people behind you while you fiddle with coupons (maybe as much as those old ladies who count out individual pennies).
Extreme couponing isn't going to give you enough money to go car shopping in a short period. It's a slow, creeping process. Save a few bucks here and there, you have that many more dollar bills than you would've otherwise. It can be used for whatever you want. Money's tight in this day and age, and everyone can benefit from extreme couponing.
As said earlier, this is most helpful with groceries. Since most people here live with their folks still, few might
actually have a use for this. When you move out, though, it can be used to great effect, especially with the low-income "entry-level" jobs that most young adults get. Still, you could always help out your parents and introduce them to this concept.
