- 4 months ago
Extreme Couponing
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TVTranscript
00:00Extreme couponers do whatever it takes to make sure they always score the
00:07biggest bargains. I need 48 bottles. In the next half hour two of America's most
00:16coupon obsessed will reveal their compulsion to save. I know that you don't
00:20like this kind but it's free. I don't want to pay anything. For these bargain
00:23hunters couponing is a full-time job. I dedicate about 60 hours to couponing each
00:28week. I have five computers in my house I can print up to ten coupons per item.
00:33They won't let anything stand between them and a good deal. Don't interrupt me
00:38okay I'm in this flow today. They'll risk it all at the register. A small mistake can
00:44really ruin this whole trip for me. No way I'm gonna pay $500. To bring home massive
00:49hauls for nearly nothing. Your total savings is $484.77. This is extreme
00:56couponing. I wish I had a coupon for everything in the world.
01:08Wait there it is. Awesome. Now I can go and get my gelatin for free.
01:14To acquire the massive amount of coupons they need to score great deals. Many extreme
01:19couponers spend thousands of dollars a year on newspapers. North Carolina homemaker Desiree Young
01:24has a cheaper solution. If you want to save money dumpster dive. My name is Desiree and I'm addicted
01:31to couponing. I wish I had a coupon for everything in the world. I spent absolutely nothing for every product in here.
01:37It hurts me to pay for anything. For Desiree to put together deals for free products. She needs to collect massive amounts of coupons.
01:45And there is one place in her town that has a never-ending supply.
01:49Alright so I'm gonna step inside the dumpster and see what I can find. OMG.
01:54Coupons to me are money and you wouldn't believe how much money people throw away in those dumpsters.
02:04So this is an awesome, awesome coupon. These weekly coupon hunts have allowed Desiree to build a stockpile of over 2,400 household and grocery items.
02:13Occupying her entire spare bedroom. This collection includes 45 bottles of dish soap, 105 deodorants, 125 bottles of hair and body wash, and 480 razors.
02:23The retail cost of all of these razors is close to $4,000 and I paid absolutely nothing for them. How could you beat diapers for 23 cents a box? I will never run out of deodorant and shampoo and body wash. I'm never gonna stink.
02:38If I ever am pressed for space, that's when I will donate or tell my neighbor, come over and shop if I need more room.
02:46The ability to save an average of 90% on all of her groceries did not always come naturally to Desiree.
02:52I remember looking into coupons and I was very overwhelmed. Well, then my son was born and that's when we started living paycheck to paycheck. We would buy groceries and then have like $20 to live off of.
03:03And then when I started getting into coupons, people on online forms showed me that if I kept to it and dedicated to it, that I would start saving more and more money.
03:13There is a negative side. Of course, you're gonna have to put a lot of time and effort into it.
03:18I dedicate about 60 hours to couponing each week.
03:21With Desiree's couponing occupying more time than most jobs, the busy homemaker must keep a very tight daily schedule.
03:28On Monday from 9 to 1130, I will be doing my online prep. I do check my website every hour just in case there's a new deal posted.
03:36On Tuesday from 2 to 6 p.m. is when I'll hit the recycling bins at a local school.
03:40On Wednesday, I'll be doing more online prepping and ordering.
03:44On Thursdays from 9 to 1.30 a.m. is when I'll be doing my deal finding.
03:48Friday from about 12 to 5 p.m. is when I'll be doing major shopping.
03:51On Saturday, I'll be doing my binder clean out and getting rid of it.
03:54Then Sunday is when I'll be finding my papers.
03:56That is a 60-hour coupon week that is jam-packed full of prepping, organization, and shopping.
04:04Today, Desiree is shopping at her local supermarket's biggest sale of the year.
04:08And since her non-stop couponing means she rarely has time to socialize,
04:12Desiree is bringing her friend Blair along so they can catch up and she can help with a haul.
04:16I'm expecting my grocery bill to be over $1,000, and I would like to get it down to under $55.
04:23Desiree hits the market with two binders filled with 4,000 coupons that she'll use to pay as little as possible for the 637 items on her list.
04:33First up is flavored water, which was on sale last week but out of stock.
04:39So Desiree got a rain check, a voucher that extends the sale price on an item.
04:44It's originally $1.49, but last week it was on sale for $1, so I got a rain check, and I will get them for $1 apiece.
04:50With my 50-cent coupon doubling, I will pay absolutely nothing for them.
04:54I need 48 bottles.
04:57We'll run for 2, for 3, for 4, for 4, for 45.
05:00So I have two buggies full, and everything in my buggy is free with my coupons.
05:11My goal today is to be over $1,000 in retail value.
05:16I want to get it down to about $55 before tax.
05:20Okay, Blair, if we don't hit that 55 mark, you've got to put all the groceries back.
05:24Oh, no.
05:26Ew.
05:28Next up on Desiree's list is cream cheese.
05:30Since her coupons don't specify a size, she'll get the smallest packages to ensure the biggest deals.
05:36Alright, so I am getting 28 tubs of cream cheese.
05:39The small packages of cream cheese are $1.09, but Desiree has a 55-cent-off coupon that will double up to the price of the item, making them free.
05:47So, 6, 12, 22, 24, 26, 28.
05:56So, our last cart, number 6.
05:59Let's go ahead and check out.
06:01Will Desiree's 60 hours of prep be enough to get her out for under $55?
06:06There's no way.
06:07There's no way I'm going to pay $500.
06:09With six carts full, North Carolina homemaker Desiree Young is ready to check out on her biggest shopping trip ever.
06:22But because of her store's coupon policy, she will need to split her purchases into four separate transactions.
06:28I'm doing separate transactions because at this grocery store, you're only allowed to use 10 light coupons per order.
06:34I have more than 10, so I need to split it up so that my coupons will double.
06:37So, right now your total is $51.94.
06:43Before any discounts, do you have your bonus card?
06:45I do.
06:46Okay.
06:47Okay, that makes your grand total 9 cents for this order.
06:50Alright, here you go.
06:52One penny is your change.
06:56Before any coupons or discounts, your total is $92.75.
07:00Okay.
07:05Okay, that made your total $3.14.
07:08It was at $92.75 and I got it down to $3.14.
07:15Alright, so I have my third transaction ready.
07:21Okay ma'am, your total is $285.92.
07:25I'm going to hand over my coupons for you.
07:27The retail cost was $285.
07:31And I just spent $17.48.
07:34Three down, one to get.
07:36With the third transaction, Desiree's total has exceeded $20.
07:40Almost half of the $55 limit she set for herself.
07:43With her largest transaction still to come, her nerves start to take over.
07:47I'm feeling a little stressed out.
07:49This is my last transaction.
07:51I don't want errors, I want to double check every single thing.
07:53Alright, so I am at right now $493, so almost $500.
07:58There's no way.
07:59There's no way I'm going to pay $500.
08:03Four.
08:07My total right now is $647.
08:11Let's see if I can get it down below $55.
08:15Could I scan your bonus card please?
08:16Sure.
08:17There you go.
08:25This is a very pressure moment for me, that's why I'm being calm and collective.
08:29I was at $647 and now I'm at $539.
08:32Do you have coupons on these items?
08:35Let's start with this stack right here.
08:38Just as Desiree's total shrinks down to $364, the register locks up.
08:46What just happened?
08:48More items allowed now.
08:49Okay, we're going to have to refer to our corporate office for just a second.
08:53Condell's going to call and see what we need to do.
08:55I'm guessing that I hit my limit of how many items can be scanned.
08:57They're on the phone now trying to figure out what to do.
09:00My total right now is at $364.
09:04And so...
09:07Yeah.
09:10I was stressed out.
09:12I thought it was my error.
09:14Here's probably going to be the easiest solution to this problem.
09:16Okay.
09:18Is I'm going to cash out the total, which is $364.42.
09:22Then we're going to have a clean slate.
09:23Okay.
09:24Then I'm going to scan the remainder of your coupons.
09:27Okay.
09:28Which will give us a cash total.
09:29We'll deduct that from your $364, and then that'll be your grand total.
09:32Sounds totally good.
09:34To come up with a final tally, the manager will have to scan the coupons while the clerk keeps track of the total on an old-fashioned calculator.
09:41Any mistake in calculating the transaction could jeopardize the 60 hours of labor Desiree has put into the shopping trip.
09:48We're close, you guys. We're teetering.
09:50We're on the end. We're almost there.
09:51I was stressed trying to figure out, okay, what is going to happen?
09:55Are we going to have to re-ring this whole order up?
09:57Am I going to have to separate my coupons?
09:59What is going on?
10:03Your total is 55 cents for everything you bought.
10:0755 cents.
10:09Wow.
10:11That's what your total is today, Desiree, 55 cents.
10:13So that means today you would have spent a grand total of $1,077.66, but with all your coupons, your grand total is $21.26.
10:23That's awesome.
10:25She saved a whole lot of money.
10:26I put my mission at 55 bucks, so I beat that.
10:29So I'm very proud of myself.
10:30I'm very excited.
10:32Desiree not only accomplished her mission, but scored a load of groceries that includes 20 boxes of toothpaste, 28 boxes of tissue, 45 boxes of cake and cookie mix, 59 packages of candy, and 96 bottled beverages.
10:45A retail value of $1,077.66.
10:50Her cost, just $21.26.
10:53A 98% savings.
10:56I'm addicted to couponing because the thrill that it gives me, it's a job, but I like doing it.
11:03If I didn't have coupons, we would probably be living paycheck to paycheck.
11:06We would not be where we are today.
11:08Whatever teenagers are in my house, they get to pick out whatever they want to eat.
11:14Meet the Georgia mom who uses coupons to feed her whole neighborhood.
11:19If there's some type of nuclear accident, I'm coming here.
11:21For housewife and mother of two, Stephanie Barr, taking coupon inserts from the driveways of unoccupied, foreclosed homes is just another part of her full-time extreme couponing lifestyle.
11:42My name is Stephanie Barr, and I'm an extreme couponer because I'm not afraid to use hundreds of coupons in one transaction.
11:52I will not buy a box of cereal if it's more than a dollar.
11:55That being said, my son eats cereal that he doesn't like.
11:58That's what I get.
11:59I know that you don't like this kind, but it's for you.
12:02I cannot fathom having a life where I don't use coupons every single time I shop.
12:07I have to have my coupons.
12:09Can you sit them down on the couch?
12:11To satisfy her need for coupons, Stephanie buys 30 Sunday newspapers every week at a cost of almost $2,000 a year.
12:18But when her weekly supply of 6,000 coupons isn't enough, Stephanie goes to greater extremes.
12:23This is a dirty secret.
12:25I kind of stock the houses in my neighborhood to see which ones are being foreclosed on.
12:30And as soon as I know no one's living there, I will steal the papers from the end of the driveway.
12:35See, there's an upside to a down market.
12:37I get more coupons.
12:39But not all of Stephanie's coupon collecting requires a getaway car.
12:44When taking abandoned coupons isn't enough, she relies on her five home computers to get the one she needs.
12:50With printable coupons, you are allowed to have two prints per computer.
12:54But since I have five computers in my house, I can print up to 10 coupons per item.
13:00Using these couponing tactics, Stephanie has accumulated a stockpile of over 1,400 food and household items valued at $20,000.
13:11Dominating her entire garage, this supply includes 43 boxes of cereal, 162 rolls of paper products, 200 bottles of water,
13:19and a five-foot-tall freezer that holds 160 pounds of frozen food.
13:22I would say that I probably have 60 to 70 cans of soup on hand at all times.
13:30My son and my husband can safely eat soup for about six months.
13:34This is my peanut butter.
13:35I go through a lot of peanut butter.
13:37So that's probably about six to seven months of peanut butter.
13:40But when it goes on sale twice a year and you know that ahead of time, you know how much to buy.
13:45Stephanie needs to keep a lot of food on hand.
13:47Along with her family of four, she feeds all of her son Phillip's friends.
13:51My house is very popular in the neighborhood.
13:54It's kind of the house that all the kids end up at because I've got so much food.
13:58This house is mad cool to be in. It's really cheap.
14:00I don't know anybody who has this much food in their house.
14:03If there's some type of nuclear accident, I'm coming here.
14:08But it hasn't always been a party at the Barr family home.
14:11In fact, it was a hardship that first led Stephanie to start couponing.
14:15I started couponing about four years ago.
14:17I had back problems and I ended up laid up in bed for a while while my husband had to work two jobs in order to afford everything.
14:24While I was laid up in bed, I started researching saving money on coupons.
14:28That's how I got started in it.
14:30We've been able to have my husband stop his second job.
14:33I have a gorgeous SUV that I love.
14:36And we have a beautiful house.
14:38And all of that I got because I coupon.
14:40I'm pretty much obsessed with them.
14:42And I think about them sun up to sun down.
14:45Stephanie's obsession is practically a full-time job.
14:48She spends over 35 hours every week preparing for her shopping trips.
14:52A lot of couponers want to make this look like it takes two or three hours.
14:57Anybody that tells you that they do less than 10 is a liar.
15:00When planning a shopping trip, Stephanie matches up all of her coupons with the weekly sale advertisements,
15:05writes up a shopping list, and then meticulously organizes her coupons in her binder.
15:10If I sort something wrong, it is like losing money.
15:13No one's allowed to touch my binder.
15:15Because if someone drops it and the coupons fall out, I would kill them.
15:19The 1,500 coupons that Stephanie keeps in her binder are only part of her coupon collection.
15:24She also always makes sure her supermarket loyalty card is fully stocked with digital coupons.
15:29If I go to my grocery store website, they have e-coupons that I can load to my grocery store card.
15:35It works with the paper coupons, so you can use two coupons on one item.
15:40Today, Stephanie is attempting to purchase over $400 worth of products, but pay absolutely nothing at the register.
15:47Any small mistake, and she could end up spending money she doesn't have.
15:51This will be the biggest shopping trip that I have ever made.
15:54Hands down, by far.
15:56To help her with this haul, Stephanie has enlisted the help of her 18-year-old son.
16:01She's taking this opportunity to prepare college-bound Philip to shop like an extreme couponer.
16:06So what's first?
16:09First up, Stephanie hunts down her free coupon items.
16:12I have two pelvic medicines for free.
16:15I have coupons for two of these, pizzas for free.
16:17I've got five free item coupons, so that'll make five of these free.
16:23Stephanie makes sure not to pass up any deals that will provide her with an overage.
16:27This occurs when the coupon value exceeds the price of the item, with the difference becoming a store credit.
16:33So this is stain remover.
16:34It's my favorite kind, but you can see it's expensive.
16:37For each of the $5.99 packages of stain remover, she has $6 worth of coupons.
16:43I actually make it for me by buying it.
16:45All right.
16:48Okay, so will you get 12 of that kind?
16:50Those are priced at what?
16:5175 cents.
16:52Thanks to a 50-cent coupon that will double at the register, Stephanie will make 25 cents on every package of candy.
17:01With all 165 items on her list filling three carts to the brim, Stephanie heads to the register.
17:08I'm a little bit nervous about checking out.
17:10A small mistake can really ruin this whole trip for me.
17:13My total before coupons should be about $465, and my total after coupons should be zero.
17:26This is the biggest checkout that I've ever done, so I am nervous.
17:30She's freaking out right now.
17:32Your total before your coupons and your store card is $5.16.12.
17:42Stephanie's total comes to $50 more than she had originally calculated.
17:46That's a little over my $465 that I thought it was going to be.
17:53Will another mistake mean failure for Stephanie?
17:55I don't think I did very good.
17:56I don't see a lot of my e-coupons that I've already loaded to my card.
18:02At a Georgia supermarket, Stephanie Barr and her son Phillip are attempting to get three full carts of groceries
18:11and pay nothing by using a combination of paper and electronic coupons.
18:15Even though she miscalculated her pre-coupon total by over $50,
18:19she is still confident that her store card and coupons will bring the price down to zero.
18:24All right, and here's my first store card.
18:27All right, your total after your card is $461.35.
18:39I don't think I did very good.
18:40I don't see a lot of my e-coupons that I've already loaded to my card.
18:44Some of Stephanie's electronic coupons will not register.
18:47This could mean she will fail at reaching her goal of a $0 checkout.
18:52With the e-coupons not coming off, I imagine my total to be about $35 to $40 now.
18:58The only way for Stephanie to salvage this trip is to make sure every one of her paper coupons scans correctly.
19:04And this is my stack of coupons.
19:11Right now I'm watching to make sure that when she scans one coupon, she has the right amount coming off,
19:17and that it actually pulls off with the total.
19:23I'm a little bit stressed.
19:25Yeah, she gets a little bit on edge.
19:29The last of Stephanie's coupons are scanned, and she anxiously waits for them all to process.
19:38So your total after your coupons is $29.06.
19:46If I had had the e-coupons come off, that would have been $4, so that would have been my best trip ever.
19:53She may not think the total is good enough, but I think that getting $29 down from $516 is really good.
20:02Your total savings is $484.77.
20:05Thank you so much. I really appreciate your patience.
20:10Even though she didn't reach her goal of a $0 checkout, Stephanie managed a haul that included
20:1416 frozen pizzas, 26 packages of candy, 34 bags of rice, and over 300 cans of soda.
20:21A retail value of $516.16 that came down to just $29.06, a savings of 95%.
20:33Yeah, it was a little stressful. It didn't go the way I had planned, but I still think I did a good job.
20:37And I got to teach Phillip a bunch.
20:41Hopefully, I taught him a little bit about just rolling with the punches a little bit today.
20:45He's seen me save on smaller trips, but we have never done anything near this big together.
20:50So I think that it taught him a lot about just how much you can get.
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