The Basics to Extreme Couponing!

Last updated: 1/14/2021

Hello! I want to first say that the majority of this article will be referring to Shoprite since this is the BEST grocery store to coupon at within NJ (refer to Ending Note #7). So not everything will apply to other stores in NJ. If you’re not from NJ but you have Shoprites in your state, then a lot of this still applies. And a lot of couponing techniques can be applied nationwide. I am always researching other stores to see if I can learn of good deals and I’ll post when I find them... I have a list of stores including Walgreens, CVS, Dollar General and Target that I’m working on couponing at on a regular weekly basis. Also, please read this article to its entirety to understand as much as possible about Extreme Couponing before you hit the store!

So most extreme couponing deals (when items are dirt cheap, free or when you get paid to buy them) are a combination of 3 things.

Manufacturer’s Coupon + Store Sale + Cash Back/Store Points

The Breakdown

1.) Manufacturer’s Coupons. As the name implies these are coupons made by the companies of the products themselves! There are 2 distinctive types: physical and digital coupons. Let’s go over physical coupons first. They are redeemable at ANY store that accepts coupons. Some people obtain these in the physical weekly circular porch throw or Sunday Newspaper. Below I have an image of just a bunch of random manufacturer’s coupons and below that is the circular porch throw I receive in my neighborhood and below that is a Sunday newspaper that I bought at my local Shoprite. Not everyone receives porch throws, so some may opt for a Sunday newspaper subscription or may just buy one at their local store or even ask for a friend’s porch throw that they don’t use.

Weekly Circular Packet next to My Personal Coupon Binder

Inside the weekly circular porch throw or newspaper there’s 3 types of inserts (packets of manufacturer’s coupons) you can find. The names of the inserts are RetailMeNot, Smart Source, and P&G Brand Saver As shown in the image below. Sometimes there’s only 1 type or 2 or all 3. For example you can have 2 Smart Source inserts, 1 P&G Brand Saver and 0 RetailMeNot. And sometimes your circular porch throw may not have all the inserts that are available. Manufacterers have a say as to what towns and neighborhoods can receive their coupons/inserts in their circular porch throw. For example my small apartment complex does not receive P&G Brand Saver but in the same town, my friend’s neighborhood does. So to make sure I have all available inserts, I have friends who don’t use their circular throw that give me theirs or I buy the Sunday newspaper. Beware that sometimes during holiday weeks there are no inserts! Here’s a link to the insert schedule to know if you’re missing any inserts. https://www.sundaycouponinserts.com/coupon-schedule/

But wait there’s more! You can also easily print some manufacturer’s coupons online from their respective websites (retailmenot.com, smartsource.com, pgeveryday.com) and/or coupons.com. I actually only use coupons.com. These require you to have a printer and there are security systems put in place to avoid you printing more than the designated limit of each coupon. These usually are good for at least a week. Some don’t expires for months. I have found that not all coupons in inserts can be found online, but some coupons can only be found online. For example, I couldn’t find a 25 cents off Special K cereal coupon in the inserts but I could find it on coupons.com. I could find a Centrum Multigummies coupon both in the inserts and online. And I can’t find a chobani coupon online. Below is an image displaying these examples.

You may also obtain coupons from peelies, coupons that stickers on products, coupons that you cut off the product box itself, coupon machines that print in the aisles of stores or even the product website may have their own coupons. The point is there’s various ways of obtaining coupons but the most common is by obtaining inserts via circular porch throw or newspaper. Two more things to note. Most coupons under $1 will double unless they explicitedly say do not double. So if I have 75 off of Ragu pasta, it will actually be $1.50 off. And it’s important to hold unto these coupons until they expire so I personally have a coupon binder as shown below. Please do not be intimidated as I do this intensely and you will not need to be anywhere near as hard core as I am while also saving just as much as me!

Now let’s go over Digital Coupons. The world is evolving and so are coupons. Most department stores, grocery stores, and drug stores now offer digital coupons on their store’s mobile app’s in place of physical coupons. There are pro’s and cons to this. The pro’s are that you don’t have to clip coupons, it’s so easy to scroll through these, you can see the list of eligible items that the coupon can be used on and you can scan items at the store to see if the product currently has any digital coupons available. Another pro to note is some digital coupons can be redeemed for multiple items ShopRite (these are noted with a Limit #) while paper coupons can only be used once. The con’s are any coupon under $1 will not double in value at the register. Another thing to note is you can only use either a physical manufacturer‘s coupon or a digital manufacturer‘s coupon on an item. You cannot stack them. Sometimes weekly circular inserts have a better coupon than the digital coupon offered for the same product. Or vice versa. Just be aware that digital coupons get redeemed before physical coupons so if your intention is to use a physical coupon because it’s simply better, make sure you don’t have a digital coupons clipped for that item. Specifically at ShopRite, digitally coupons are released on Sunday’s. ShopRite like some other stores can have limitations as to how many coupons can be downloaded by all shoppers so don’t wait too long in the week to coupon as the coupons can disappear. Below is a photo of digital coupons from ShopRite:

2.) Store sale. Sales change every week. Know your store and when sales start and end. (Ex: Shoprite starts Sunday ends Saturday). You can either check your store mobile app/website, obtain the weekly circular physically (if you get it in your weekly porch throw or newspaper, or grab one at the store) . I like to flip through and pay special attention to what’s items there are not only manufacterer’s coupons for but are also on sale.

3.) Cashback/Store Points. This is the money you don’t get to see discounted or redeemed at the register, it’s like redeeming coupons after the fact. This means you’ll be paying more upfront and out of pocket first before you get the rest of your “savings”. Examples of this are cashback apps like Ibotta (the best one to use! And if you will be making an Ibotta account for the first time, please use my referral code: stixuvw), Catalinas that print for a discount off your next purchase, or store rewards points (this applies more so to drugstores like Walgreens or CVS). I will note that Ibotta like most cashback apps require that you reach $20 in your cashback account before redeeming the money as either a direct deposit to your bank account or a gift card it’s very similar to the system used by credit card cash back rewards. But trust me, if you coupon enough you reach that amount easily. I can reach it after 2 weeks of grocery shopping easily. Ibotta was founded in Colorado and has cashback offers for a wide variety of stores! Each store has different Ibotta cashback offers so a cashback offer can be offered only at specific stores. Here are some photos of each type:

Ibotta

Catalina Coupon for your next purchase

Walgreens Points

3.1.) BONUS COUPON: Store Physical/Paper Coupon. These are coupons that created by the store not the manufacturer. These can be physical coupons that are included in the weekly circular porch throw (like ShopRite super coupons shown below) or a Catalina coupon that prints at the register for a specific product (note it must say store coupon not manufacturers coupon on top see photos below). They can also come in digital form which is more popular with stores like Dollar General. These are bonus coupons simply because they typically can be stacked on top of a manufacturer coupon at the register.

ShopRite Store Coupon Catalina

(ShopRite) Manufacturers Coupon Catalina

So there you have it the 3 main components of an extreme couponing deal:

1. Manufacturer’s Coupon

2. Store Sale

3. Cashback

And the additional bonus component of store coupons.

Sometimes to get an extreme deal you only need 2 components or very rarely just 1 component. The majority need 2 to 3 components. Once you have the components identified for a product you can do the math and figure out how low you can go!

So all you need to do is head to the store, grab the items and before heading to the register, make sure you’re equipped with all your paper coupons in hand, your phone has the digital coupons clipped and you have the right products at the register. For Shoprite, make sure to scan your Shoprite plus card or plug in your phone number to receive your sale discounts and digital coupon discounts, and make sure to hand your paper coupons in the end. And watch after all items are scanned your grand total will appear and then digitals will then apply drop it REAL LOW and then your paper coupons will drop it even LOWER. And then you wait for the cashback to hit and IT’S THRILLING.

Let’s Look at an Example!

Here’s your most basic example of extreme couponing I did for the valid week of 1/10/21-1/16/21 at Shoprite

Dunkin’ Cereal is originally priced at $3.59. It was on sale for $2.49. There was a manufacturer’s coupon (in digital form) for $1.99 making it only 50 cents out of pocket at the register and before my purchase I downloaded the Ibotta cashback offer of 50 cents. So I paid 50 cents at the register and got back 50 cents on Ibotta there my real total is FREE. And since the digital coupon could be used 4 times and Ibotta had offers with a limit of 5, I chose to purchase 4 boxes which were all free.

And this is how I write that out in my breakdown:

Dunkin Cereal (4): 4 @ $2.49 ea sale = $9.96 - $1.99 DM 4x = $2 OOP - .50 IB 4x = FREE

See photos below.

And trust me it gets easier and easier to do!

Ending Notes

1.) Now that you know how to extreme coupon, you need to start figuring out your coupon/sale combinations which sounds overwhelming... BUT WAIT, actually, your workload is a lot less because I’m actually cutting down most of the work for you since I post weekly deal breakdowns. This however, is mainly specific to Shoprite at least on the regular as I continue learning how to coupon at more stores (the rules vary by the store). So every Sunday, I do the research and find MOST deals, go out and buy the products to verify the deals actually work and post the breakdowns so now ALL YOU NEED TO DO is find those coupons and recreate my deal combinations. 2.) There exist many more couponing deals outside this most common combination of manufacterer’s coupons+ sales+ cashback. And there exist other places to coupon other than Shoprite. This is just a good way to start. 3.) Good deals can cause products to go out of stock. In this case, ask for a rain check (a paper allowing you to the sale price of an item once it’s back in stock even if it’s after the sale has ended) and hopefully any manufacturer’s coupon you have hasn’t expired by then. 4.) Sometimes it’s a lot to look and search through to find your deals especially when I, Rosemary, don’t know every deal available out there. So I *highly recommend* you to join Facebook groups and follow other social media pages and websites like Krazy Koupon Lady and How to Shop for Free dedicated to extreme couponing deals outside of only Shoprite that I post about. There’s even a huge Dollar General couponing community that I’m still trying to get my head wrapped around.

5.) As I said before, I regularly be post VERIFIED Shoprite Deal Breakdowns (and occasionally other stores) for items I am interested in that are dirt cheap (usually these are for items under 75 cents in cost) or free/money makers. Please do your research as there are items that come out decently cheap that I won’t post about since I don’t use or am not interested. For example, I can get Tresemme Shampoo for $1 but since it isn’t dirt cheap enough for me, I actually don’t buy it! I have gotten Tresemme Shampoo for free all the time. That brings me to my next point, we as couponers begin to develop stocking up prices and maximum prices we are willing to pay for an item based on coupon deals that are repetitive. That usually is what stops me from buying something that’s a decently good deal but cheap little ol’ me wants it for EVEN CHEAPER if not FREE or even as a MONEY MAKER. Always feel free to comment or message me to ask if I know if ____ brand has potential couponing deals. It may not be EXTREME or dirt cheap but sometimes there’s just a GOOD deal. Again please remember I typically only post weekly breakdowns for EXTREME deals! If I had more money I would be willing to go out and purchase/verify decent deals of products I don’t use.

6.) Coupons do slightly vary even within inserts. Like you may specifically have a 50 cent off Colgate coupon in your Smart Source insert in the newspaper but not in your circular porch throw.

7.) All Shoprites are owned by different families with different couponing rules. They don’t vary by much with today‘s couponing system but be aware!

8.) I do not condone the following things: the making of multiple Shoprite accounts to obtain large quantities of items of extremely low prices/free/overage, stealing people’s circular porch throws or coupons... just ask if they’re not using them and giving cashiers a hard time. If you really can’t use a coupon, please be kind and don’t take it out on the cashier.

9.) TERMINOLOGY for deal breakdown posts from now on:

DM = Digital Manufacturer’s coupon

MC = Physical/paper Manufacterer’s Coupon

IB = Ibotta Cashback Offer

CAT = Catalina Coupon

SSC = Shoprite Super Coupon

PEELIE = Coupon Sticker on Product

FREE = You paid $0 for item

MONEY MAKER = You paid negative $ for item (THIS IS THE BEST KIND OF DEAL)