Extreme Couponing

Coupons.....haven't they been around forever? I can remember my Mom using them as far back as the 70's and when I got married in '83, I started clipping them too. My saving money with coupons also led to my discovery of "refunding" or "rebating"! When my kids were smaller I used spend hours filling out rebate forms, attaching cash register receipts, and digging through boxes of UPC codes or proof of purchases I had filed in boxes. My mailbox was always full of rebate checks, free coupons, toys, t-shirts, and other free goodies. It was definitely addictive! Who doesn't want to get something free or save lots of money? Over the years, I guess life just got too busy for me, and little by little the coupon clipping slowed down and my refunding "hobby" became almost nonexistant. I do use an occasional coupon, and I get free Diet Coke coupons from mycokerewards.com (at least I get something back from all the Diet Coke I drink!!), but I'm far from the "extreme couponer" I used to be. I've kind of gotten excited about couponing again since watching the show on TLC. I do have mixed feelings about how extreme some of them are, I mean 75 bottles of mustard...really? When I used to do my "freebie" shopping sprees, I did it on a much smaller scale, but even so, I only bought what I knew my family would use. If there were items I had excess of, I'd share with my family or friends. I don't like the idea of "hoarding" food. I hope to get back into using coupons on a regular basis, and maybe once a month do an extreme shopping trip. There are so many great websites out there on the internet now, so I need to get back on the coupon bandwagon and start saving some money.

I remembered that I was featured in a refunding magazine when Nathan was about a year old. I scanned the article to post here. I got $105.00 worth of formula for $34.00!!

This was posted in Refunding Makes Cents Magazine (I checked and it's still out there...online too!) Nathan was so cute holding all those free cans of formula!!

So I'm on a mission.....clip those coupons...save more money! I really haven't taken advantage of the online coupons that you print from the computer either. I did join Arby's site and got a free sandwich just for signing up, but there are so many deals I'm missing out on. I need to change that now.....off I go......