The seminar was held in the conference room of a local hotel. We got there 30 minutes before it started ... and couldn't find a parking spot. Anywhere. We drove around the lot twice -- no open spots. We ended up parking next door, at the hospital, and walking over. When we got to the conference room, it was 85% full -- and this was still 15, 20 minutes before it started! We found two seats together, and watched as a steady stream of people kept pouring into the room. The hosts called for more chairs to be brought in -- and the facilities maintenance guy had to make three trips to bring in enough chairs! People kept coming in (I'd *love* to know where they parked!!) even after the seminar started.
I had no idea Extreme Couponing was such a popular topic. The crowd was a diverse group -- mainly female, but there were all ages, all races, all manners and styles of dress, all manners and styles of behaviors. We sat next to a lady who thought she was in church service: she gave a constant verbal commentary going. The host would hold up a jar of peanut butter and would say, "Now, this is a staple in most houses ..." and from next to me, I'd hear, "Yes! Peanut butter! Uh-huh!" then if the host mentioned asking for a rain check on a sold out item, I'd hear, "Oh yes! Gotta get them rain checks!" When the host said how she wasn't brand loyal, and if you opened her closet, you'd find Crest and Colgate and Aim, I'd hear, "Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about, uh-huh, sure is!" Her chatter continued the entire seminar. I have to give the host credit for not being distracted, for I know I sure was.
I wanted secrets, insights, plans. I wanted to know how I could cut my grocery bill in half and simultaneously have a six-month reserve of cereal and toilet paper in my garage. I was ready to learn, I was ready to embrace this couponing lifestyle. The ad had mentioned door prizes and drawings, so when the host said she was going to start the seminar by drawing a name, I got excited! The prize? A $10 gift card to the grocery store. Eh. But I figured it was better to have lots of low-value prizes rather than a few high-value ones. She drew one name, then another ... and that was it. That was the door prizes / drawings? Two $10 gift cards? Still -- I wasn't there for the door prizes, I was there for the knowledge.
I realize those trips featured on TV aren't typical, our host said that her trip featured on the show ($800 worth of groceries for less than $25) took her three weeks to plan and took over seven hours in the store! Yeah, no. But she also said that cutting your budget by 50% wasn't unusual. When she began couponing, she spent about $1,000 a month. Now she's spending $300 a month. That $300 is for things you don't typically find coupons for: fresh meat, fresh veggies, etc. I thought, "Yes! That's what I want ... teach me, Oh Wise One!"
She was a very good speaker, very comfortable, very humorous, could tell a story and could get a laugh -- but we were halfway thru the seminar and I still hadn't learned anything practical. She was regaling us with tales of making her husband play, "Guess how much this cost me?" and telling us how couponing changed her life, but there was precious little actual information presented.
Still, we waited ... maybe they would give out some more gift cards. They were only $10 cards, and they'd only given away two, and the flyer mentioned (in all caps, and with excessive exclamation points) there would be gift cards and door prizes, so surely they were going to give away lots of these $10 gift cards, right?
Finally, host says, "I'm going to give you the one most important secret to successful couponing." Boy, my ears perked up and I sat forward. Just then, the lady sitting on the other side of my mother in law got a phone call. Her ring tone was a rooster crowing. She apparently decided to just ignore it, so we all were serenaded by rooster crows. Unlike Chatty Church Lady, the host was unable to ignore this, so we all paused while she decided to root around in her suitcase-sized purse, looking for her cell phone. Once the phone call went to voice mail, the host resumed. Her big, life-changing secret?
You need a lot of coupons. She recommends a minimum of five Sunday papers each week, to start with. Oh, and as a convenience to us, the Houston Chronicle had a special "right now, only in this room, only this moment" couponers rate where we could get five Sunday papers delivered to our house for only $100.00. She spent a LOT of time on the various inserts in the paper, and how wonderful they were, and how one insert might have $1,000 worth of coupons and how in just one Sunday we could make back our subscription costs, etc.
That was it. Buy 5 newspapers each week. She also showed us a website where someone (I'm still not sure who this "someone" is) would compile a list of the items on sale at four Houston stores and match them to the in-paper coupons. Except that the four stores were two wildly overpriced grocery stores and two drug stores. That was it. No HEB, no WalMart. I do almost all of my shopping at HEB or WalMart, so this website didn't get my heart fluttering.
She then launched into another sales pitch for the "right now, this instant, only available this second" subscription special while giving us horror stories of people who DIDN'T subscribe and had to dumpster dive for inserts, or who had to buy the papers at the store and didn't get the inserts or ... or ... or ...
I looked around and was stunned at how many people were filling out the order form and were whipping out their check books. My mother in law and I were certainly in the minority by not lining up, checkbook in hand, order form filled out.
I wasn't going to be pressured into subscribing to $100 worth of newspapers, I figured if this was something I wanted to persue, I'd ask my friends if they'd save me their inserts. Or I'd try it with the one set of inserts I already get and see if it works.
My mother in law agreed with me, we both thought the seminar was weak on actual information and was heavy on sales pitch.
This morning, I logged on to the website they assured me would make this couponing a piece of cake ... "Just pick your store (unless it's HEB or WalMart, because even though most people shop at those two stores, our website only includes two overpriced grocery stores and two drug stores), click on Start and then highlight the sale items you want. Print your list, and start saving!"
The website didn't work. I clicked on Randalls, clicked start, and was told no matches were found. Same for Kroger and the two drug stores.
Yeah, that was useful.
And I didn't even get a $10 gift card.
I did get to spend some time with my mother in law without a lot of other people around, and that was nice -- she and I rarely spend time just the two of us and I miss that. We did decide we need to get together for lunch more often, just us ... no husbands, no kids, no cousins / aunts / uncles / nieces / nephews, just us.
But I think my fantasy of slashing my grocery budget by 50% and having a six-month stockpile of soup and toilet paper, all purchased for less than $5.00 is going to be deferred for a while.
Back to my own method: HEB and WalMart and the coupons I get in my own Sunday paper. I had high expectations, but didn't feel like buying $100 worth of newspapers and using a semi-functioning website to see what was on sale.
