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Monday, July 18, 2011

Extreme Couponing: Student Saves $300 A month

(Money Magazine) -- Lauren Liggett, a 22-year-old college student from Carthage, Mo., found herself hooked the moment she saw the pilot episode of the TLC reality show "Extreme Couponing" in December. She began scouring the Internet for couponing websites, bought copies of the Sunday newspaper for the circulars, and headed to the grocery store to shop for her family -- her mom, Joyce, a realtor, and her dad, Larry, a retired IBM engineer who works part-time as a car salesman. The Liggetts are not struggling financially -- they have a low-six-figure income -- but since Lauren lives at home and her parents are paying for college, she wanted to help out. On that first shopping trip, she presented her coupons to the cashier and felt the adrenaline rush of watching her total drop from $263 to $50. "Pretty good for my first time!" she recalls.

Today Lauren has slashed her family's monthly grocery bill from $400 to $100, and the bulging cupboards, pantries, and spare room can make the Liggetts seem like survivalists bracing for nuclear war: 288 rolls of toilet paper, 80 jars of tomato sauce, and 40 bottles of men's body wash.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just learned about this process yesterday, and can hardly wait to go shopping. Any way to save on the grocery bill is good!

Anonymous said...

Okay, the coupons are for name brands and offer cents off. Compare with store brand price. Then realize both products came from the same processing plant. Now realize the coupon price is still higher than the store brand price. Now count up the hours of your life you wasted cutting out coupons.

Anonymous said...

watching her total drop from $263 to $50

6:26 PM

You think the coupon price is higher?

Anonymous said...

since this program a lot of merchants have amended their coupon policies to one per item per family per visit along with not honoring them in combination with in store sales and specials
notice they seldom apply to fresh foods or meats it is all canned crap and toiletries
it is no savings if you don't need it or it expires on the shelves in your home they should combine that show with extreme hoarders