First off I want to thank Joanie Demer and Heather Wheeler from the Krazycouponlady.com for writing such a great bio on me and sending you my direction! YOU LADIES ROCK!!
I am very excited for the Premiere of TLC’s Extreme Couponing to air Wednesday, April 6th @ 9/8c.
I can’t wait to show you how I live the “Coupon Lifestyle” and make it work for me.
While I can’t share too much information about the actually filming I can answer some of your questions that might help you understand how I get things done.
Q: Why did you buy hamburger if you raise your own?
A: While raising our own animals is my preferred way of providing meat for my family it is not the most cost effective way; it is expensive and ends up being about $3.00 a pound. So when I can get meats at killer prices by stacking sales and coupons I take advantage of it.
Q: This show is only about Extreme hauls, why not show people who use coupons to survive in hard times?
A: THEY DO! While I can’t speak for the other couponers on the show I can tell you about my situation. My husband is a Self-Employed Contractor building homes in an economy that is not building! I have such a tight budget because I have to. Thanks to couponing I am able to make that budget not seem like a challenge but a way of life that takes care of my family!
Q: How is your shopping trip realistic if you had to get approval from Corporate to use “Doublers”?
A: Albertsons has stores in Northern California, Back East and in the Northwest. The Northwest is the only region that regularly offers “double coupons”. I live in the Northwest and we did have double coupons the week of filming that I planned on using. With this show being on a National level Albertsons was afraid it would cause confusion with the California and Eastern stores because they operate differently than my location. With much discussion Albertsons decided to let me use the double coupons and to note on the show that I live in the Northwest where double coupons are offered.
Q: How did you get to use 18 sets of Doublers? Was it only because you were on TV?
A: I am very fortunate to live in a great coupon community. My local Albertsons is amazing to their shoppers and have not set limits on the amount of double coupons you can use. They will not just give you the doublers to take but they will automatically double 3 of the coupons in your purchase for you. My Albertsons also has self-checkout lanes that they allow the coupon shoppers to do multiple transactions as long as they are not holding up any other shoppers. When I walk into Albertsons I already have 5 sets of doublers because I get the EXTREME COUPONING NEWPAPER DEAL.
Q: Why did you get your own special shopping lane?
A: I normally like to use the self-checkout lanes to do my coupon shopping and wanted to for the show; but with having such a large camera crew following me around Albertsons choose to have the checkout done in the last lane of the store so the crew was not in the way of the other shoppers. Albertsons did not shut the store down so TV could take over. They did an amazing job of keeping the store flowing for all their loyal shoppers.
Q: How much did you spend on coupons? Do you calculate this into your total?
A: ABSOLUTELY! If I buy coupons online I always calculate them into the price per item. That is how I decide if it is worth purchasing them to stock up. I also get multiple papers delivered to my house that I calculate into my monthly budget. For the show I only bought one set of coupons that were $.99 + free shipping for 20 vitamin coupons. So yes, I calculated the $.99 into my total OOP for this shopping trip.
Q: How could you submit for 6 $5 Snapple Rebates? Isn’t it 1 per household?
A: The Snapple rebate that I submitted for was actually limited to 1 per person in your house. I have 6 people in my house so I was able to submit for 6.
Q: What coupons did you use to get your total so low?
A: I used a combination of Great store sales, Killer manufacture coupons, Amazing store coupons and the Famous catalinas. Albertsons had a promo of spend $X on participating items and get $X back in a catalina to use on your next purchase. I rolled those catalinas through all 18 transactions I did to keep my OOP low.
Q: What are you going to do with all that food?
A: EAT IT! I create my menu around what in on sale and what is in my stockpile. The items I was purchase was the 6 gallons of milk and produce for that week’s meals as well as items that would contribute to what I already had in my stockpile and what was going to be part of my meal plan for that month.
I hope this helps answer some of the lingering question you may have. I know you will have more once the show airs; put them on my Facebook Fan page so we can TALK COUPONS!!
Tune in Wednesday, April 6th @ 9/8c to watch me on the
Premiere of TLC’s Extreme Couponing.
I cannot wait to see the show! I am counting down the hours. After watching last season I started couponing myself and I am totally addicted!
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