These Were My Favorite Stores as an Extreme Couponer

For many years, I was an extreme coupon shopper.

This meant I was one of those people at the register with a handful of coupons who paid pennies on the dollar to buy carts full of stuff. While I was in school, this habit was great for my bank account because I got a ton of stuff for free. It helped me avoid giving my credit cards a workout so I could use my money for other things.

There were certain stores that were far better for couponing than others. Here are three of my favorites that I used to frequent all the time during my extreme couponing days.

1. CVS

CVS was my absolute favorite store as an extreme couponer, and I generally purchased multiple items there every week.

It was a great store because I could combine manufacturer coupons with CVS savings opportunities. CVS allows multiple coupons to be used on items, and it was often possible to get things for free by combining a manufacturer and store coupon.

Plus, CVS used to regularly provide deals like $5 off a $25 purchase. I would "buy" $25 worth of items that ended up costing almost nothing with the manufacturer and store coupons, and then purchase something I wanted -- like milk or other groceries -- with that $5 so I would end up spending a dollar or two for $25 worth of products.

CVS ExtraBucks could also be earned on transactions and reused week after week, so by making sure I put together deals that allowed me to earn ExtraBucks, I could spend those instead of money and get carts full of items with literally no cash required.

2. Walmart

Walmart has a very favorable couponing policy that's really great for extreme couponing. The store accepts manufacturer coupons as well as internet coupons that you can print at home, as long as those coupons scan on the store's registers and are not for free products with no purchase required.

One of the best things about Walmart's coupon policy is that it allows for overages. That means if I have a coupon for an item that costs less than the coupon is for, the remaining value of the coupon will be applied to my transaction.

Say, for example, I had a coupon for $1.50 off a particular brand of toothpaste that cost $2 and that Walmart put it on sale to buy one, get one free. If I bought two toothpastes and used two coupons, the two toothpastes would cost $2 but I would have $3 in coupons. Under Walmart's policies, I could get an extra $1 off my transaction so I could reduce the cost of other items I was buying.

3. Walgreens

Walgreens was another great store for extreme couponing because it allows coupons to be used on clearance items, and it allows you to combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons, including Register Rewards. Being able to stack coupons often made it possible to get deep discounts on items that Walgreens put on sale at the same time as a manufacturer offered a discount.

Walgreens also allowed up to four identical coupons per day, which made it possible to score multiple deals and stockpile free items if I had a bunch of different manufacturer coupons during a good sale.

While Walgreens doesn't accept coupons for items that are greater than the value of the item being purchased, it was still possible to get many items for free or close to it by being strategic about pairing bargains from the store and the product manufacturers.

Whether you want to get into extreme couponing or you simply want to use coupons to save a few bucks, you should consider looking at the deals these stores offer as they present great opportunities to save if you can use coupons wisely in accordance with their favorable policies.