One day, Jasmine Idley walked into a drugstore with a little more than $30 in store credit. She walked out with 23 items and $33.87 in store credit. Total out-of-pocket cost: $0.
"Ever since I got a whiff of couponing, I have not paid retail for anything," says the Dallas-area resident, who blogs at Dealicious Finds.
There's no reason you should pay retail, either. Sales plus coupons plus store-credit offers make it easy to get toiletries, baby items, vitamins, over-the-counter medications, cleaning supplies and even food for free.
Sound like a bother? It's not anymore. Deal bloggers and coupon sites do all the work for you. They highlight each week's best deals and tell you where to find coupons to match.
If you need more convincing: For her nine-person family, Tiffany Ivanovsky of MyLitter.com pays an average of $495 a month for all food, toiletries, household products and even baby items. She currently has two kids in diapers. Two.
Ready to turbocharge your own budget? Read on.
1. Stack up
The supersavers do this by "stacking": combining sale prices with manufacturer coupons, store coupons and store credit in the form of Register Rewards (Walgreens), ExtraBucks (CVS) or UpRewards (Rite Aid).
All three stores offer free items every week, says Stephanie Nelson, aka The Coupon Mom. While working on her book "The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half," Nelson went after every single freebie for three months. The result: 216 items, after just $45 spent.
The rewards are associated with weekly specials. For example, I recently bought a tube of Colgate toothpaste for $2.99 (minus a 75-cents-off manufacturer coupon) and got back a $3 Register Reward good for my next purchase.
Cash rebates used to be the rule at Rite Aid and Walgreens. Rite Aid still offers its Single Check Rebates, but the weekly ads focus heavily on UpRewards. The scrip at these two stores is good for two weeks; at CVS the credits last a month.
The rewards-only model is a stroke of marketing genius. Consider:
* Hot deal gets you into the store; once there, you'll likely buy more stuff.
* You might lose or forget to use store credits.
* Using your credits gets you back into the store. A cash rebate could be used anywhere.
That said, a smart shopper can profit by continually paying those credits forward. Suppose you start with a $5 purchase and get $5 in scrip. Apply it toward another freebie to get more store credits, or put it toward something you needed anyway.
2. Stockpile
The TLC reality show "Extreme Couponing" features interviewees with extreme stockpiles of items. The fact is that most coupon hounds, myself included, regularly donate to friends, relatives and charities. Ivanovsky and some fellow deal-seekers recently filled 350 gallon-sized Ziploc bags with stockpiled toiletries for Japanese earthquake survivors.
Those with whom I spoke were generally lukewarm or critical toward the show, saying that it sensationalizes what they do and could drive away potential coupon users who really need to save money. The only exception was Ivanovsky, who was featured on the program on April 6; her episode airs again on April 20.
Everyday couponers don't get 1,100 boxes of cereal for free in a single shopping trip, like on the show. But, because they're willing to shop before they need items, they do get deals such as:
* Forty-six cents for toilet paper, two body washes, two deodorants, two packages of baby wipes, two Listerine Pocket Packs, four Purex Complete laundry detergents, two bottles of fabric refresher and a small bag of Skittles. "I consider (couponing) a part-time job," says Harry Lee Martin, a California real estate agent who saw his income drop by 75% after the U.S. economic downturn.
* Nothing spent for Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner, two organic conditioners, Eucerin lotion, L.A. Looks gel, Listerine Pocket Packs, Phillips earbud headphones, Gillette deodorant, Colgate Sensitive toothpaste, Carmex lip balm, a bottle each of Advil and Excedrin, and 10 candy bars. That was Idley's aforementioned haul, a trip that also netted $10 in manufacturer rebates.
* They pay you. Physicians Formula mascara is normally $9.99, but Jessica Killion had a $5-off manufacturers coupon and $5 in store credit. The purchase netted her $7 in new store credit, and there was a "try me free" rebate on the mascara package. "I got paid to buy that," says Killion, a Southern California resident who blogs at This Frugal Life.
* Five cents each for disposable diapers after coupons and a buy-one-get-one deal at Walgreens. Anna Tew, a mom-to-be who lives near Houston, says that's 14 cents cheaper than either Wal-Mart or Sam's Club.
All the talk of store credit in the form of EBs, RRs and URs -- to say nothing of BOGOs and catalinas -- can be a little confusing. Many couponing sites offer short video tutorials and user forums where you can learn the lingo and ask questions.
