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

no_choice_now

--Tony-- wrote: »

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.

Sadly you cannot stop people abusing the system, bit if you read some of the very sad stories here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3421385 you will see that letting the populous know how to feed their children isn't a bad thing.

[Warning! Lots of people have said they've been glued to the thread in tears reading some of the stories so make sure you've not got anything urgent to do before reading]

Kitty_Ears

Clowance wrote: »

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.

This entirely! When I stayed in New York, we were in self catering and I had such a hard time enjoying any food. Bread, cereals, bagels... everything was sugary. I remember have a McDonalds and even that tastes weird. I lived off Subways and apples, not exactly the high of health...

Also when I was in florida; we stayed in a hotel who provided breakfast every morning. The options were fry ups or sugary cereal!

chanie

This isn't extreme couponing, but it was a little bit naughty of me.

I buy Aptamil 1+ milk for DS. In the carton, there is normally a coupon for £1 off your next purchase. Tesco sometimes does the milk for £1 off, so using the coupon and the offer, the milk is £2 off.

Anyway, I needed to get some more milk and I forgot my vouchers at home, so I carefully opened the packet, took the voucher out and then went to the self service till to pay.

smm1

TONY - Isn't this website all about helping people to save money? Thanks for nothing!

beautifylife

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!
==================================

Thanks again for your generous sharing No choice now. I do take Tony's valid point and I appreciate hearing his opinion, while at the same time I believe that this sites primary function (and partly why this thread was started by MSE themselves) is to help the majority, otherwise this site wouldn't have any purpose.

I feel if we all just talk about what great bargains we find and how well we are doing individually without sharing, it doesn't really help anyone. I do agree it's fun to share our experiences and encourage others, this important and is a positive, although it's more useful to combine it with "how you did it" otherwise it isn't always helpful to people who are unsure how to get beyond the "nose pressed up against the glass" experience.

I guess there will be a small minority who may abuse the information, however I feel it's important to support the majority and spread as much help as possible from a giving place.

After all it's a universal law that whatever we plant we harvest....

Queen_Latifah

Would be nice if you could share some of your cherished tips and give something back to the MSE community- after all you are benefiting for other MSErs contributions by reading the boards on the MSE forum...

--Tony-- wrote: »

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.

--Tony--

smm1 wrote: »

TONY - Isn't this website all about helping people to save money? Thanks for nothing!

Thanks for your two posts and zero thanks too....................... "Thanks for nothing" I don't think I need to justify my help to this site ( hmmm thanked 1,112 times!) and your contribution?

Queen_Latifah wrote: »

Would be nice if you could share some of your cherished tips and give something back to the MSE community- after all you are benefiting for other MSErs contributions by reading the boards on the MSE forum...

None of my tips come from this site, if you see my postings I stopped months ago due to this sites problems, I have shared lots over the years, infact had my tips come from here they would already have ended due to abuse caused by the mass membership of MSE (a failure of its own success).

Hadley

no_choice_now wrote: »

Errr this isn't a sneak preview of the new series, that's from Season 1 and I watched it about 6 months ago???

The shows which started this week are from Season 1 but were not shown 6 months ago real time only showed part of the season they showed 6 last time and are showing the rest over the next few months.I have all the air dates if anyone wants me to post them.
I don't know why they are not showing them in the order that they were shown in USA or why they didn't show them all the first time round.There is also a second season for us to look forward to.
America have some really goos money saving and home making shows it'd a pity more are not shown here.

no_choice_now

Hadley wrote: »

The shows which started this week are from Season 1 but were not shown 6 months ago real time only showed part of the season they showed 6 last time and are showing the rest over the next few months.I have all the air dates if anyone wants me to post them.
I don't know why they are not showing them in the order that they were shown in USA or why they didn't show them all the first time round.There is also a second season for us to look forward to.
America have some really goos money saving and home making shows it'd a pity more are not shown here.

I do not consume television shows limited by geography or time.

TLC made 12 episodes in 1 season of Extreme Couponing. I've watched all 12.

Edit: I have just learnt they've started filming season 2. http://www.aoltv.com/2011/06/06/extreme-couponing-season-2/ ready to debut in September 2011. What you're watching on TV now is oooooold.


I completed watching everything they've so far made (all of season 1) six months ago.

Perhaps you need to get with the program?

Kitty_Ears

Can anyone recommend sites, magazines etc of where to get coupons from?!