I don't do coupons, I just buy whatever's on sale.

Yes, me too. I buy whatever is on sale or BOGO.

I just buy what I want. Then I complain about how I wish I had more in my savings account.

The show profiled a woman that has not paid for deodorant, toothpaste, or toothbrushes for the last 35 years. Most of the people on the show had a warehouse type situation in their garage. All of their groceries were neatly arranged according to type. You could live a year, or longer, off the groceries they have stored.

One woman bought 40 jars of Ragu pasta sauce on one trip. Another guy special ordered a thousand boxes of Total cereal. The woman that bought the Ragu sauce had a bill of over six-hundred dollars and paid two after her coupons were scanned.

I don't have that kind of dedication but I should clip for things like detergent, toothpaste, and such.

Those people make coupon-clipping their job. I have a job, too, and I'm guessing that I make more doing mine than they do doing theirs. Of course I don't have 40 jars of Ragu, so I might be losing.

That should read dedication or desire. And speaking of coupons I just learned about Groupon last week. I heard a story about it on NPR. I logged on and my favorite yoga place was offering a deal and I bought it.

I mix aggressive couponing with sale item targeting and use of chains' privacy-killing card programs to usually save 40%-50% on groceries (that's off of their 'regular prices' which are often obviously inflated). Good coupons are getting harder to find; and it's usually the same products over and over: I get it, General Mills, you're pushing the Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but what about those of us who like Kix? And the expiration dates which used to give you 3-4 months to redeem have shrunk to 30 days or less. There are online coupons you can print out of your computer printer. Here's a portal for them (I'm not so sure about the rest of Teri's Grocery Game site). And there are sites that have pre-clipped coupons for 10%-20% of their face value as a "service charge", but they have high minimum orders and I've never used them.

Still, the best control I have on my grocery spending now is the fact that I don't have a car and am using the local Runabout bus, which limits me to two bags (although most drivers let me bring three).

LoriFLA, I was a little more coupon crazy a few years ago when I had a big car to drag it all home with... but half of what I bought and stockpiled passed its "Best By" date before I could use it... Ragu's not the best sauce, but Expired Ragu? Even worse, I know.

It's cash in your pocket. The Fresh 'n Easy near me has junkmailed '$5 off $25' every week since it opened. That makes it affordable for me. I clip 'em and stick 'em straight in my wallet as if they were actual cash.

I used to use coupons religiously when I was struggling but I have to admit that I've gotten pretty lazy in the last decade. I just don't have time or the mental energy to deal with them.

The Total cereal guy had dozens of filled carts, and had a separate trolley that carried the cereal. He ended up spending 200 plus dollars. I gathered that he must pay for some coupons because he belongs to a "clipping service", whatever that is. I don't spend that for a week's worth a groceries so it seems like a massive waste of time. He had hundreds of toothbrushes in his cart plus dozens upon dozens of vitamins. He had enough hand soap at home to last a lifetime and bought 100 more. The only thing he was donating to his church food pantry was the cereal. It's an obsession for these people.

The problem with Groupon is that most OR ALL of the 'reduced price' you pay goes to Groupon, not "your favorite yoga place". And most of the people who use them are people who would never go back at 'regular price'.

So Groupon has built a multi-billion dollar valuation while many of the local business depending on it to drive traffic are losing their shirts. No wonder Wall Street loves it; it's putting Main Street out of business.

You are so right, oneswellfoop. Groupon does not seem to help many business owners. I will most likely continue to pay full price after the yoga package is over. It is a very expensive place and was tempted by the deal. I heard numerous listeners call the radio show with the same complaints you are describing. Business owners lose money and some risk going out of business because they sell too many offers. However, a woman that offered a belly dance class called in and said that Groupon had helped her business. She was going to hold the class regardless, and the same goes for yoga. The belly dance woman made money, was able to sell some accessories, and had some return customers. The restaurants seem to be the losers.

And I know what you mean about the products expiring. One woman had fifty jumbo bottles of Motts apple juice. I used to buy that for my kids and I know it goes bad. How in the world she is ever going to consume that much juice before the expiration is beyond me. I get the dozens of bottles of Tide, not juice and SpaghettiOs.

oneswell, apologies for not acknowledging your mention of the pre-clipped coupons before I started blabbing again. That must be the "clipping service" I was speaking of. And thanks for the link. I might dabble in a little couponing.

Oh, I do this. Not the extreme part, but I clip and match up with sales. Nobody extreme coupons like that on a daily basis. Mainly because the really great deals like the ones they show don't happen every month. I've also read that the producers will egg them on to get more than they normally would, make it extreme as possible. But it's hard to be loyal to a store or a brand when you coupon. With gas prices going up, I don't think most people are going to stick with it. Umm, but yeah, I'm never paying for lip balm again. lol

I used to be really into coupons. I even had an alphabetized coupon holder that I always carried to the grocery store. But that was 15 years ago before all the news was online and it was still worth it to subscribe to the newspaper.

Just in the past few days, though, I've started looking up people who post coupon stuffs on Twitter. (And I should note that Twitter never holds my interest for long.) But, just today, I found one thing that ended up in a free $20 Target gift card. It required subscribing to a website (which I did from a gmail account I set up just for that purpose) and referring four friends (who were fake friends at fake gmail accounts that I set up for that purpose). It was a LOT of work, actually, and it only worked because I have access to a computer lab at work with a bunch of unique IP addresses. But I'm thrilled about my $20 gift card, and I don't feel at all bad about claiming it from those marketers. I worked harder than they did for it. Plus, money's tight around here.

I don't buy most of the stuff that they print coupons for. But when I do come across one that applies for me, I feel really smart cashing it in.

I forgot, I do use the CVS coupons that print out on my receipt there when I use my CVS card. I shop there enough that it's worthwhile for me. And sometimes the coupons are "extrabucks" that I can use to buy whatever there. I had one worth $7 recently.

I saw a woman on TV once who ended up paying nothing for a huge cart full of food. None of it was food I'd particularly want to eat - it was all highly processed - but she was happy to get it all for free by clever couponing.

I'd like to get to the point where I'm growing a large percentage of my food in my back yard. If I live somewhere where there's water, it's free+labor after the cost of the initial seeds.

Like this person. I don't know her, but she lives in my town.

Plus the cost of land, depending on where I live.