I would love to be an extreme couponer, but I simply don’t have the patience for it. I don’t want to sift through newspapers for coupons to save $0.50 off a product.
Extreme Couponing Isn’t For Me
So in theory, extreme couponing sounds really fun, but in practice it’s very boring. It means digging through countless flyers and searching online databases just to find coupons that are relevant. There are tons of coupons out there, but 99% of them are for things I neither need nor want. I suggested creating a website that brings the coupons to you based on the products you normally buy so that you don’t have to spend the time researching.
Amanda at Frugal Confessions just released The CVS Drugstore Game that helps shoppers save A LOT of money at CVS. If you shop at CVS, check it out. It’s amazing how much you can save when you know what you’re doing with CVS rewards. And Amanda also alerted me to a site that does something very similar to what I’m looking for.
Savings Angel Bring The Coupons To You!
Savings Angel lets you select which product categories you want the site to watch for you and the minimum percentage discount you want to be alerted for. It then delivers coupons to your inbox (and is available for review on the website).
As a test, I selected pasta and breakfast cereals that have coupons resulting in at least 50% off the product. A few days later, I got an email with a list of all coupons for the products that met my criteria. They even found one for $1 off 2 boxes of my favorite pasta (Barilla Whole Grain Pasta). No work and I was already on my way to saving money!
50% is a pretty large discount, but you can set the percentage to whatever works for you. If you want to save even 20% on your groceries or staples, this can be a great way to be alerted when things are going to be cheapest for you.
Drawbacks of Savings Angel
The only problem I had with Savings Angel is that it didn’t have the largest selection of supermarkets. I shop at Ralphs, which wasn’t on the list. Since it’s where we do a majority of our shopping, we’re left out in the cold there. We also shop as Pavilions, which isn’t on the list, but I believe they are part of Safeway, so we’re covered there. As Savings Angel network grows, it will become an even more valuable resource.
Combining this strategy with buying staples from Amazon when they are cheap should yield pretty good savings without much effort. I don’t consider myself an extreme couponer just yet, but if I can save 25-50% off products I buy regularly, it should help
Sounds like a neat idea, I’ll have to check it out. It looks like the normal grocery stores we go to are on the list, so we’re in luck.
This is a great idea for those who don;t have the time and still want to save money.
This sounds great, I just don’t have the patience to sift through piles of newspapers trying to find a couple coupons. I think that a lot of stores will accept coupons other than their own, just to keep a customer if for no other reason.
Sounds like a great idea, will check it out. The time commitment has always been my main reason not to coupon.
Yeah, extreme couponing is not really for everyone. Will check out Savings Angel and see what it can offer. Thanks.