So, as a SAHM to two preschoolers and a hard working husband, I've always been a coupon clipper. Now I'm going a little more intense with it since getting into Extreme Couponing on TLC. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this in the realm of baking supplies. Mixes, crisco, butter, flour, sugar, chocolate, paper goods, ect... I'm still new to the whole searching coupons as opposed to just scouring the Sunday circulars, so any veterans in this field would be greatly appreciated (:

I am right there with you!!! but i'm not that good yet . as far as my couponing skills the best so far is my joanns or michels %50 for the fondant, paper goods and other items they carry there. last week i got a %60 but that was as good as it got. After seeing Extreme Couponing i've been inspired.

I do use coupons for pretty much everything that I buy except for caking items, sure occassionally you can find a coupon for cake mix but most of the time you have to buy the canned frosting with it and I have no use for canned frosting... around the holidays is when coupons for baking items come out just in time thanksgiving and such but for the rest of the year its hardly anything in the papers. HTH. I say just find a good deal when the items go on sale and stock up then... HTH

I wish we were allowed to extreme coupon here...but in Canada most of the coupons have a limit of one item etc so you can't use 50 coupons for one item to essentially get it free.I have never seen a cashier give back anyone money after a huge grocery trip..I wish!!

TotallyBaked, I'm right there with ya fellow SAHM. Best I can do is the 40% off at Hobby Lobby, Micheal's, and JoAnn's for things like pre-made fondant and gum paste mix and colorings...but I'd love to know if I could do more.

To get the extreme deals like those crazies do, you have to put a lot of time into it and have a production company behind you to give you extras. If you manage to get 50% off on a regular basis without all that, you're doing great.

To get the best deals find a store that doubles or triples coupons up to $1 if possible. If you don't have any of those in your area there's no way that you'll get your bill down as much as those people on tv do. I used to live in Boston and there were stores that doubled up to $1, but not where I live now.

You can go to www.couponmom.com for lists of store sales in your area. Also try redplum.com and smartsource.com to print more coupons. They limit you to two coupons printed per computer, so if you have three computers with printers in your house you can print 6 of them

Around here(the east side of KC metro area) they have pretty much done away with double couponing and a lot of the stores do not accept computer generated coupons so I pretty much do not have a need for them. I don't even bother most the time.

The other reason is, is that here we have Aldi's stores and they are great on saving money and I get most of my baking goods from them. If they don't have it I go to the reg. grocery store and get it, but I only buy brand name items when I don't have a choice on what I need. Brand name items are not all they are cracked up to be. The Aldi's brands are good quality food and I have no problem using them.

Also the stores that most of the people mentioned here do not let you use coupons on items that are already on sale unless they state that on the coupon (Joann's does this, occasionally I know, but Hobby Lobby, never, Michaels maybe (we haven't had one close enough till recently so I am not sure about them), but there is no chance to extreme coupon out here.

Also I do not know about other areas, but here the Hobby Lobby stores will not let you use more than one coupon per day. It doesn't matter that you have 10 items in your cart and 4 coupons. You can only use one. So tell me how you can extreme coupon here? That would be a great trick.

Hate to say it, but the people on those shows are redeeming coupons in ways that are illegal - you'll never be able to get the same kinds of deals shown on that show.

I've done some couponing in Canada... nothing quite like the people on extreme couponing but close. It's a matter of getting the coupons , saving them until a sale and buying tons. London Drugs lets you "STACK" which means letting you use multiple coupons on the same item assuming they have different upc's and look different. Superstore allows you to use one of their coupons with a manufacters coupon. - I once bought Dole juice in the tetra packs for 4 cents each ( I bought about 50 and ended up donating a lot of them to the food bank) It can be done here. I trade coupons - and participate in "coupon trains" by mail ( you take the coupons you like out of an envelope add your own coupons and then mail to the next person. )It takes a lot of work but you can save a ton of money. I've walked out of London Drugs with 150 bucks worth of stuff and have only paid $30 ( mostly taxes)

Plus lots of deals like the pepsi/tostados one... buy 20 bucks of specific products ( pepsi, doritos , granola bars) and get 30 bucks in gift cards back by rebate at superstore (cool to get paid to buy products )

It's A LOT of work to do extreme couponing like that show... A lot of brain work goes into it! It works really well when the coupon doesnt limit the size of the item or the number of items you can purchase. Then you have to pay attention to the days when the stores are doing DOUBLE coupons, like Vons, and I also heard that Ralphs will do doing TRIPLE coupons in the future. So let's say a coupon for 50 cents off Crisco with no size or quantity limitations. A tub of crisco is $5.00, but, the little buttersize stick of crisco is only $1.00. And I came on a double coupon day with my 50 cent coupon so, BAM, my crisco is FREE! And, there's no quantity limitations, so I can stock up on 5,000 sticks of Crisco for free.

Ugh, I'm exhausted already!!

I extreme coupon at Michaels. 40% off coupon and I'm there at lesat 4 times a week!! haha

its not all done illegally. there is no law that says you can't use a coupon on an item that is on sale. and the store don't actually give you the money back. but people use the overage to buy other things, such a fresh meat or produce. not all stores allow the overage tho. if you are looking to get results like the people on tv it takes a lot of time to match up the coupons to different stores during certain sales. most of these people go shopping twice a week. and lets face it. we don't all have the time to spend 40 hours a week planning our grocery trip but it is possible to get some good deals. i use the cake mix coupons all the time, i keep the canned frosting in the cabinets for rainy days

My 9-year old daughter was watching this show with me this morning. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, I don't think this is right to do. It seems like it is stealing."  I had been feeling the same way, so I googled 'couponing ethics'. There are many articles about this online, as well as a few blogs of people trying to promote ethical couponing.

The increase in popularity of extreme coupling is helping to raise prices of grocery items. The manufacturers are going to stop offering coupons altogether if this continues, and the people who use them the way they are intended will lose out.

When you watch that show, so many of the people are getting a high from their shopping activity, just as a gambler does. Listen to the things they say, "this is a trophy" (the receipt), comments about the beeping sound of the register (like a slot machine), etc. Then there is the poor husband that is being dragged along to push the carts, he looks embarrassed, and you know he is when he keeps asking the wife why they should buy 62 bottles of mustard, when he doesn't even like mustard!

The intent of a coupon is to entice a customer to buy that product instead of another. Yes, I use coupons, but I use them in the way the manufacturer or store has intended.

What I don't like is when they show the person's stash and say that they have enough deodorant to last someone something like 70 years and then they go to the store and buy more!?!? Just seems like they are buying to buy, not to provide a need.

Coupons are great, but there is a difference between wisely saving money for your family and getting a high off getting things you don't need or use for free.

The biggest thing I noticed like the mustard is "extreme coupon" things that are really cheap and buy large quantities of them so it SEEMS like they are getting a ton of stuff for a little money... I only buy enough items to make sure I dont run out until my next shopping trip. Currently I have 7 bottles of hair dye that I got for 2.50 a piece but I wont have to buy hair dye for thoes 7 months and with my husband not working at the moment we dont always have 3 dollars at any given moment when I need to dye my hair...Body wash and shampoo are the same I only buy them when they are on sale and buy a few bottles at a time so it will last a few months..I have a nice little stash but its contained in my hallway closet by the bathroom I dont stash tp under my daughters bed LOL..I buy enough to make it last for our family and if a friend is in dire need of tp and they dont have any money I give them a 4 pack..


I also only buy 2 papers a week, I dont go dumpster diving or stealing newspapers. Its well worth the 4 dollars to spend with the amount of money I save...

I do not extreme coupon, I think it's ridiculous to and those who do it like the show give us who do it ethically a bad name. The walmarts here in my county do double coupon tuesday, which has been nice and if you have 'money makers' they can either give you the cash or apply it toward the bill. I only buy the things I need or items I need to build up my food storage, and I will only use the coupons if it is cheaper than the brands I normally buy. I wait for things to come on sale and then use my coupons. I haven't been able to find many coupons that help in cake decorating other than the hobby lobby and michaels coupons.

So, I don't have cable so I have never heard about this before, I went onto TLC's website and watched a few clips and now I'm like really, really disturbed. I am the person all my friend's come to for coupon advise, I've always done coupons but MY FAMILY ACTUALLY USES THE STUFF I BUY. I don't have some room full of stuff that will go out of date. My biggest coupon day, I went to Target and saved $60 on one trip. For regular groceries and cleaning supplies check out their coupon policy, they will take one Target coupon (printed from their website) and one manufacturer's coupon for the same item. My big save for cake stuff is to get on the email list for Joann's and Michael's and to buy at the warehouse stores for staples like flour, sugar and butter. And yes SecretAgentCakeBaker it does sound like it's an addiction, poor husband's.

This is the show I like to make fun of (although it did motivate me to check the sunday fliers for coupons on stuff I actually use).

Things that made my mouth drop open:
- the woman who had like 4000 boxes of diapers and she didn't even have any children!!
- 100 boxes of cereal? And you'll eat all of that before it goes stale???
- The one who bought a sh*tload of kitty snacks and she has no pets.
- the couple who had enough potato chips to feed 800 people, but they were throwing a party for 30 so "had" to go to the store to buy things for the party. Uh ... there's a problem with taking it out of your stash?

I agree with one comment I saw on another forum: How ironic that this show follows the show "hoarders". It's just another form of addiction, but they are organized about it.

And no, I'm not going to spend 5 hours in the grocery store for any reason!

Many of my friends and I call it Organized Hoarding. I wish I could do it, I just don't have the 20 hours a week to devote to it. That is what bothers me with some of these ladies, they spend 20 hours a week sorting, clipping, organizging. The spreadsheets they have are crazy and all I think about is how if I have a kid or two or more at home I would rather spend that 20 hours with them, it is 20 hours I won't get back down the road. I think there is a responsible limit but after that it is crazy. Now I will say, if I could also pick up some cheaper things using a few coupons that I have and could donate it to a local food bank or charity that would be great. But seriously you need three lifetimes worth of toothpaste. 10,000 boxes of cereal. Now that guy did donate a HUGE amount of the stuff they had. There was also the 2 ladies who had stashes of diapers and NO children. SERIOUSLY!!! There are kids out there whose parents can not afford those diapers that you are now hoarding, why not do something even better with them and give them to a shelter or something. I refuse to have a room in my house that houses the stock piles many of these people have. Plus do you they REALLY get all that food eaten before it goes bad, you would have to be on top of the experation dates like crazy. I also notice that when they are doing it most the time they don't talk about purchasing meat and veggies, it is all can's, jars, processed and boxed. UGH!!!!

You don't have to be an "extreme couponer" to save bunches of money. I started couponing after we became a one income family with our first kid on the way a couple of years ago. I watch my local grocery store circulars every week, match the sale items with a coupon (I get 2 Sunday papers), and stock up on 3-6 weeks worth of that sale item. What most people don't realize is you can almost start to predict when items will go on sale because they run in cycles. So there's no need to stock up until the apocalypse, just a couple months. I spend less than 2 hours a week, including shopping, on my groceries, yet I have cut our spending in half. It's really not difficult once you learn the best organization for you.

As far as the OP was asking about couponing for cake supplies, well, it just depends on what you want. If you're a WASC recipe kind of person, usually about every 7-10 weeks DH cake mix goes on sale in my area. So I wait for the BOGO at Publix, and get enough to last me through that spell. I'm a hobby baker though, and no chance I would clear the shelves where no one else could take advantage of the sale. Good quality butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc. typically aren't sale items, but you can get coupons from time to time if you're not brand particular. Eggs just depend on the store.

If you're a business buying, you probably should be buying from a commercial vendor anyway and not stocking up at the local super market for 30+cakes. But if you're a small home baker or hobby baker just being patient and knowing what you need on average for a couple months can cut some of your spending down at least 30%.

Yeah, show me how to meat for that cheap and I may find a few hours to hunt down those deals. My boys can eat! I have started actually paying attention to coupons, and will print them out sometimes. But I find that unless it's on sale and I have a coupon, I am not likely to get it cheaper than just buying store brands.

I'm sorry, but I'm tired of all couponers being lumped together and treated like criminals. Yes there are people who take it to extremes. But there are others, my family included, who depend on the huge (LEGAL) savings. Thinking that everyone is like the people on Extreme Couponing is no different than cake customers lumping all bakers with Cake Boss or Ace of Cakes. It's a show and as much as they call it Reality Television... it lacks reality.

Well we do heavy couponing, but we use alot of what we buy....we also buy items we dont use BUT....we do heavy donations to out church pantry weekly that feeds sick or the elderly. Just two days ago we found out our neighbor with a wife and four boys had lost his job and hadn't worked in 2wks. We noticed that daily he left and found out that he goes fishing and every single day he has feed his family fish. So we put together enough groceries for roughly a month with snacks for his boys. And hygiene items, we also supply our 74yr old parents. Yes we have a single garage side room with groceries, but we dont let others go without, We are blessed to be able to have the time, knowledge and resources to do this. Life is to SHORT not to. Alot of items we get almost next to nothing. Today we bought 30 small 8oz bags of rice for .09cents each, that will help somemore. That is my High, HELPING others. And we buy all our newspapers or friends,family give them to us.

To the OP, Target is a great place to stock up on items with coupons. AS someone else said, they allow you to use both a target coupon and a manufacturer coupon. Sometimes they even offer gift cards back on certain items.

I love couponing! My biggest problem is remembering to bring them with me when I go shopping! LOL! God bless all you couponers, my hat is off to you!