by Catherine Woods

Created on: July 20, 2011   Last Updated: July 21, 2011

You walk up to the register with three carts full of food, your items are scanned and your total is in the hundreds of dollars. Then you slyly hand over a stack of perfectly matched coupons and watch in excitement as your total shrinks to only a few cents. This is the dream that many grocery shoppers have since watching the show “Extreme Couponers”. However, for most it is only a dream as they have no clue how to replicate what they see done on this show. Luckily, getting started saving money with couponing isn't difficult, and with some practice, it is possible to graduate to the extreme couponing group. You have to start somewhere though, and here is how.

Face Reality

The fact is that most “reality shows” are not truly reality and “Extreme Couponers” is no exception. In this show, grocery stores frequently disregard their own coupon policies, so they can get the publicity the show offers. There is most likely not a single store in your area that will allow you to purchase 200 of the same product, with 200 identical coupons. Not only that, but many stores are putting even stricter limitations on couponing practices because of the show, making saving that much money every week next to impossible. So keep this in mind before starting your own extreme couponing adventures.

Also, the majority of couponers typcially only save around 50%-75% every week on their groceries, not 99%. Though these 1 cent out-of-pocket transactions for $100 worth of items do happen occasionally, it is the exception rather than the rule. Does that mean you shouldn't try to save money with coupons? Absolutely not! Save as much as you can, but be responsible with your coupon usage and have reasonable expectations for your shopping trips.

Collect Coupons:

The key to saving money with coupons is to have a large selection of coupons available to you and to have at least 3-5 of each coupon. This means you need to have several ways of getting the coupons you need. Here are a few ways to start building your coupon collection so when a sale on an item come around you will have a coupon to pair with that item.

-Subscribe to Newspapers

Newspapers are a great way to start building your coupon stash. Start looking into discount subscriptions to newspapers in your area that include the Sunday paper that contains the coupons you are looking for. Doing a subscription benefits you in two ways. First, subscriptions almost always cost less than going out and purchasing

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