Great 'Extreme couponing UK' Hunt - tell us your tips and tales

piknie47

I don't think there's any chance of that happening over here. However, I must say that I was really inspired by watching a couple of the episodes earlier on in the year. I wasn't looking to replicate what they do in the US but I figured if I followed the principle as well as using all the advice given on these forums I'd be able to make some savings.

Well, I started about 2 months ago and I'm staggered how much savings can be made by some very careful and almost military planning! It's not all about junk food, but it does mean that you can get to try stuff you wouldn't normally buy due to the cost. Now I vary my brands and buy the ones on offer and use my coupons to get the biggest savings. I think I was in a bit of a shopping rut and didn't really take much notice of products in the shops. Now I'm a lot more adventurous and have been able try a few nice things.

I get what you all mean though and I suppose it's a bit unfortunate that quite a few of those featured on the series would certainly be classed as 'obese', which gives the impression that they only buy junk, especially when we see the other stuff they buy. I've often asked myself 'where's the real food?' but then we're only seeing one shop and guess they've picked the most dramatic one just for the show.

Personally, I absolutely love it because I do pick up tips and also for the entertainment value. I have even been known to go on You Tube and search for extreme couponing. I've come across a lady called Susan Samtur who seems to have a more sensible approach to it. If you're interested you can take a look here http://www.youtube.com/user/couponqueen?v=KAeeOub_-xY&feature=pyv

My 2 pennies worth.

beautifylife

There are ways to do very well, last week I got a £70 shop down to about £20 and built up my stockpile. I wasn't even using all of the techniques we can use to decrease it further.
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Hi No Choice Now, that sounds great. Can you share the way you managed to do this, was it with the ideas you mentioned in the other extreme couponing thread?

I need all the strategies I can get right now so I'd appreciate hearing how you achieved this if you are willing? Thanks :T

angelathewillows

Hello Everyone

I am addicted to the Extreme Couponing programmes and love watching them.
I was checking when the new series was out and I know there is adverts on the channel to say it starts 10pm on Monday night, but there are two episodes on tomorrow at 4am and 4.25am. I have checked the programme information and it looks like they are the same episodes of the new series that are to be shown on Monday night.

Just thought I would let you know as it is a great show.

Hope I have posted it in the right place and hope the info is correct! I will be up early to watch it tomorrow morning!

no_choice_now

beautifylife wrote: »

There are ways to do very well, last week I got a £70 shop down to about £20 and built up my stockpile. I wasn't even using all of the techniques we can use to decrease it further.
==================================

Hi No Choice Now, that sounds great. Can you share the way you managed to do this, was it with the ideas you mentioned in the other extreme couponing thread?

I need all the strategies I can get right now so I'd appreciate hearing how you achieved this if you are willing? Thanks :T

It's a combination of things but it always starts with lots of planning. There's no way I could explain everything in one post I think I would run out of room! To summarise though, you need excellent coupon management by expirey date and if possible, category. Use websites like mysupermarket.com to find things on offer and use coupons to get further discounts. Use loyalty cards to collect points. Collect other peoples loyalty points. Use supermarket price guarantees to get rebates if your basket was cheaper anywhere else. Split your transaction to ensure you maximise this by using things like trolleychecker.com

Use glitches and store policies to get money back, being deliberately overcharged in Tesco gives you twice the amount of money back, often more than the value of the product to begin with. It's so hard to list everything and I'm learning all the time. £70 to £20 is quite feasible after a month of study, trial and error.

Best of luck on your couponing adventure!

ziggycj

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi7RWm23Bow&feature=relmfu

How can someone get all their shopping free??? I dont get it, do these shops give out loads of coupons for free things or did they get them from the books??

...I want one of those coupon books

LadyDee

Surely, supermarkets will simply inflate their prices to compensate for excessive couponing, and those of us who can't get the coupons or don't want to fill our garages with shampoo we'll never use in a lifetime, or our freezers with food we'll never eat, will end up paying more for our shopping to compensate.

Clowance

just got back from my second trip to the us that was partly self catering. The prices for food in the supermarkets - including walmart - is pretty much double what it is here, hence I imagine there is scope for coupons. However most people would not use many if any coupons so the supermarkets can afford to support the few extreme couponers I suppose.
ALso noticed how much added sweetening is in food (either sugar or artificial sweeteners) compared to here. Even the sliced bread tastes sweet. No wonder there is an obesity crisis, the population are trained to like sweet things by the cynical food industry. Saw several people who were so vast they couldn't walk and were in wheelchairs. And I am pretty fat myself, but it made me feel normal size!

John_Pierpoint

The USA supports its farmers by encouraging (subsidising) the use of corn syrup (a sort of fermented brew up of maize); there is some sort of carve up agreed with the European Union to favour European beet farmers. We stick with the beet and they stick with the maize.
The third world growers of sugar cane get to pick up what is left.
The "world" (cane) sugar price bounces about all over the place "smoothed" by City of London speculators.
I'm not sure who picks up the tab for the rotten teeth and the obesity - Probably you and me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

http://www.investmenttools.com/futures/softs/#log

tiff

You can definitely save a lot of money here, for example recently we could get unlimited Dove coupons for £1 off. Tesco had them 2 for £2.10, so using 2 x £1 vouchers you ended up paying 5p per can. A while back Morrisons had Aunt Bessies gravy on offer and there were 50p vouchers available, so the offer was 2 for £1 but using 2 x 50p coupons the gravy was free. Cheerios were on offer recently for £1 in Tesco, and there are 30p coupons available so I bought loads of cereal for 70p a box.

Its that kind of thing, look for the best offers for your coupons. Another one is Clover, 30p coupons available and on offer in Tesco 2 x 500g for £2, so 2 for £1.40 with coupons. I had to switch from using Flora which was £3 for the 1kg tub!

--Tony--

until changes a couple of years ago (unfortunately caused by methods being revealed & abused on this site) we were able to pay for virtually all shopping with coupons, as rules tightened we went from coupons covering 80% (could have been 100% if abused) of shopping to 50% to 33% now to very little.

I use many extreme methods, one often could cover 100% of shopping & I have even found myself buying items so the shop does not owe me money at checkout. Problem being if you reveal these methods they get abused by the masses and it ends, which has happened time and time again. I cringe when I see people revealing things I also do as I know the days are then numbered.

With a further twist on our payment method I was able to make 1000's a year totally legally which covered the cost of two annual holidays each year. The method is not possible right now, however its not gone away just on hold.