Is Extreme Couponing "Worth" It? A Trial Run.

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OK.  So I have my own blog on saving money, yet I have never attempted "extreme couponing."  That's a problem.  Sure, I use coupons whenever I think about it and I've seen portions of the television show, but I've never actually tried the real deal.  Yesterday, I decided to start.  Now, I will not be able to be a full fledged extreme couponer, as I essentially live alone and will never have space for 25 bottles of Gatorade just because they are 10 cents each.  However, I am going to do a scaled back version.  The Goal?  To determine if extreme couponing is really "worth" it.

The Trial Run.  I decided to first do a trial run.  This way I can figure out what sort of things I need to keep track of in order to assess the worth of extreme couponing.  The first step was finding coupons.  I opened up the Chicago Tribune and pulled out all of goodies inside.  I spent approximately 15 minutes going through all of the booklets, tearing out coupons that seemed like really good deals and for items that were already on my shopping list.  This leads to the first 2 things to assess:

• Time spent gathering and organizing coupons.

• Whether to buy something just because you have a coupon even though it's not something you need and/or the brand you prefer.

Next, I gathered my coupons and decided to go to Walmart because it is usually the cheapest, but not always.  This lead to my realization of what else needs to be assessed. 

• Time spent determining which store has the each item for the least amount before you add the coupon in order to get the best deal.  
• Time spent going to multiple stores in order to get the best deal on each item.
• Cost of gas spent going from store to store.

My head started spinning at that point.  For this trial run, I decided to just stick with Walmart.  Later on I can decide whether to spend all the time necessary to find out which store has each individual item for the least amount of money.  Off to the store.  As I was shopping, I took note on each coupon of what the limit was on number of items you can use the coupon for. There's another factor to think about.

• Whether to buy the maximum number of items allowed just because it's so cheap.  In other words, do I really want to store all this crap?

Then I was off to the check-out.  I present all my coupons and one of them won't work.  Oh great, here we go.  I didn't want to waste everyone's time that was behind me, so I just skipped using the coupon.  That meant I had to then go to Customer Service and wait for them to fix the issue.  This all for one dollar. That leads us to the last factors to consider. 

• Time spent and frustration created dealing with all the issues using coupons creates.
• Finally, how much you end up saving versus all the time and effort put into it.

I don't have the space for this.  (Photo: newzofday.com)

Cost/Benefit alaysis:  In order to determine whether extreme couponing is really worth it, I will attempt extreme couponing for two months and keep track of all the above listed factors.  Then I will report back as to whether I think becoming an extreme couponer is really a good idea.  I'm exhausted already. 

Trial Run Outcome:  In my trial run yesterday, I spent 15 minutes organizing coupons, only drove to one store, which was 3.5 miles each way.  I had to wait in two lines and ended up spending $16.66 after saving $5.65 in coupons.  Therefore, 15 minutes of work saved me $5.65.  Clearly, this does not put me at extreme couponing status quite yet.