4 Secrets of an Extreme Couponer You Can Steal to Save

Extreme couponers are the kinds of people you don't want to get in line behind at a cashier. These are the people with handfuls of coupons who end up paying almost entirely with these pieces of paper and putting just a few dollars on their credit cards.

I used to be an extreme couponer before giving up the habit a few years ago, and I know that while I was able to save a lot of money by doing it, it wasn't always the best use of my time. The good news is, you can keep more money in your bank account by using coupons wisely without becoming extreme about it.

And you can even steal some of the tactics of extreme couponers to do it, including these four techniques.

1. Buy coupons online instead of cutting them from the paper

The Sunday paper is chock full of coupons, but it can take time to sort through them and pick out the ones you'll actually use. And you'll have to buy the entire paper just to get a few coupons for the items you really want.

The good news is, there's a better option out there. When I was extreme couponing, I used to use online websites to buy extra coupons that I needed to put together deals. You can use these same coupon-buying websites to purchase coupons for products that you buy and use regularly.

For example, rather than getting the Sunday paper to get a coupon for $0.50 off a pasta sauce or toothpaste your family uses, just buy coupons for those specific items from places like eBay or Klip2Save. That way, you can get multiple coupons for items that you want without having to pay for the paper and take the time to find them.

2. Collect multiple coupons for things you'll buy often

As mentioned above, you can bulk buy coupons for products that you use regularly. You can also ask family and friends who get the paper to save specific coupons for you, or print out multiple manufacturer coupons when they put them on their websites.

If you get multiple coupons for items you buy often, you can make sure you're never purchasing without a coupon. This will save you a lot of money over time.

3. Stack store and manufacturer coupons

The best way to get great deals is to combine a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon or store sale. For example, if you have those $0.50 off pasta sauce coupons from the manufacturer, wait until the store puts the pasta sauce on sale for $1 and then use a bunch of coupons to buy enough pasta sauces to last you until the next time they go on sale.

By combining store and manufacturer coupons and sales, you can often get items for free or for mere pennies. It doesn't take a lot of effort to do this. Just take a quick glance at the sales flyers, compare them to the coupons you have, and see what items you can purchase at a deep discount.

4. Shop a variety of stores

Finally, as an extreme couponer, I went to many different stores to buy items that offered the best prices. I went to multiple stores every week, but you don't need to do that to benefit from this technique.

If you check out the sale flyers, you can decide which store offers the best deal on the most items you'll buy that week and do your weekly shopping there. Or you may notice that places like drugstores often offer great deals on things like toothpaste or shampoo when you combine their sales with coupons, so you may decide to buy those items there instead of at your grocery store.

With a little bit of effort, you can easily implement these techniques of extreme couponers and save a fortune without dedicating a lot of time to the cause.