One teenager was able to reduce his £524 grocery bill to around the equivalent of £50 thanks to coupons. He appeared on TLC’s Extreme Couponing to break down his savings success.
Joel, 16, from Burbank, California is an extreme couponer and regularly visits the supermarket to take advantage of big savings deals.
He explained: “Other teenagers like to play football, soccer and do other sports, but I like to coupon.
“I can call it a hobby, but I guess it has turned into an obsession. I’ve been thinking about it every day for the last eight months.
“Every single day, (I look at) sales, ads; everything you can think of having to do with the coupons I’ve been thinking about it.”
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At the time of filming Extreme Couponing, the teenager was in high school and had a part-time job, as well as attended after-school clubs.
However, the 16-year-old spent the last nine months before the episode couponing and had amassed a massive stockpile in his parent’s garage.
Included in this supermarket shop collection are goods worth around $1,200 (£964.84), including laundry detergents and deodorants.
Many of these items have been bought for free thanks to his steadily growing collection of coupons.
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The extreme couponer added: “The times when I go shopping, people don’t take me seriously.
“They usually think I’m just trying to start trouble. But, I’m completely serious about my coupons. No one messes with me with my coupons.”
With help from his cousin Julie, Joel spends over 25 hours a week matching online deals with coupon fliers from newspapers.
After picking up these concessions, he compiles them in his “coupon tub” collection to be used at his supermarket on a later date.
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Inviting Extreme Couponing cameras into his home, Joel planned out his biggest shop to date at the time of filming.
He sought to purchase over $600 (£482.42) worth of vital groceries which he needs at home before the school year begins.
After his supermarket spree, Joel took his items to the cashier in order to tally the final total before coupons are added.
Once this was done, Joel’s supermarket shop came to an overall bill of $652.20 (£524.39) without discounts applied.
With coupons added to this total, the final bill came to a staggering $50.35 (£40.48) in a saving worth 93 percent.
In reaction to his success, Joel said: “My coupon high was at a new level. I feel when I’m that low in my total that it deserves a dance, so I danced.
“In the end, my total was $50.35 but I had $40.93 (£32.47) so it was really around $7 (£5.63) when I paid for retail.”
Those interested in learning more about saving money can watch Extreme Couponing on fuboTV or Discovery+.
