Hey readers,

You properly have heard of the American show called Extreme Couponing and the craze is here in the UK. Sadly though there are less coupons available here in the UK.

I love saving money, so I researched online about what all this fuzz of extreme couponing is  about. Since 2008 couponing and finding ways to save money has been a big interest in a lot of peoples life. At the time recession hit hard and people wanted to save money as there was less disposable cash available, especially through loans etc from the bank.

Now there are loads of different ways to save money. A common one is searching and printing coupons, from magazines such as the Tesco Magazine which comes out monthly. The other way is to  go on to the companies own website and if you sign up to a newsletter it gives you free coupons to print at home, such as Coca Cola or Covent Garden Soup.Next thing you have to do is go on mysupermarket.com which allows you to find the cheapest product at the time and in most cases you can get it for free.

An alternative way to save money is through top cash back sites and SwagBucks.

Then there is the good old yellow sticker hunting where if you go closer to the time the supermarket  closes you can be lucky to grab some fab bargains with up to 75% of the original price of the item.

Now I do use some of these methods such as yellow stickers, SwagBucks, Receipt Hog which are fab and fairly straight forward to get. Though the only downside with these apps is they take time to build up the reward.

The thing that I can’t manage is extreme couponing, where you do the whole signing up to the company and also get a a lot of people such as  friends or relatives to sign up. Therefore instead of getting one bottle of Coca Cola you can get four.

Now I am a mum of two young children so don’t have a lot of time to faff about and get the permission of others to sign up, hunting for coupons or  money back from items etc. Most of the stuff I tend not to use so I ask myself do I really need this, nine times out of ten the answer is no. I would much prefer to spend my time doing something a bit more exciting to be honest with you. I think the key thing to be a successful extreme couponer is time to do the research of looking around for the best deal, printing out and travelling.

Now I do use coupons casually for the odd thing  here and there but I don’t buy multiple items as I do not have the space to stock pile (where you buy large amounts of the same product and store them typically in a cupboard). Fair play if you do, but if I did have the space I can’t really be bothered to have say 15 bottles of strawberry shampoo, 6 bottles of washing up liquid and so forth.

My other problem is that the products tend to be store cupboard or junk food most of the time. You may get the odd offer for yogurt or Nakd bars but they are few and between. As someone on low income I need food to feed my family that is reasonably healthy and that I would definitely use.

I believe that nothing is free, there is a cost somewhere down he line. Yes you can get a coupon but you need paper and ink to print it. If you are skint and you can’t afford travel, I mean for me to get on the bus it would cost me £3.10 for my 5 yo, and £4.00 for me to travel anywhere.

Not to mention the fact that different offers are on at different stores, you have to travel here there and everywhere. Which I don’t mind but with two young kids, going on the bus and then shopping is a depressing state of affairs.

I also want to point out that it is better to shop less frequently then go to loads of different places as it saves you in the long run. If you don’t shop you will find a solution. Whereas if you are constantly in the supermarket the temptation is there and you just waste money just for the sake of couponing.

A lot of the time the supermarket’s own brand is just as good (if not better) then the actual branded stuff, instantly you save a small fortune just by swapping.

Therefore, extreme coponing is not suited for me. I  don’t knock people for doing it, it is there choice but for me personally I don’t have the time/money/need to warrant the item. That doesn’t mean I don’t use coupons and they can be beneficial but you have to weigh it up do I really need this and if so go forth and buy.

Cheers for reading X