Extreme Couponing for Charity and a Challenge

Yesterday I watched this week's "Extreme Couponing." They had a man named Chris. He bought almost $900 in groceries completely free. While that is incredible and I was very impressed, what impressed me even more, was that every last product he bought from that trip (along with another $19,000 worth of items he got for free with coupons) were given away to make care packages for the military and his local homeless mission. I kid you not, he and his wife had a full basement of stuff and TLC actually showed them giving ALL of it away. Every last item. I was completely floored. I could only dream of doing something like that!

Which leads to today, next week and the challenge.

Today, I made a trip to 3 stores and 95% of it was for donation purposes. I bought all of the stuff above at Rite Aid, Target and Ralph's. There are 14 boxes of pasta, 2 packages of pantiliners, 1 package of cough drops, 2 boxes of pain patches, 2 bottles of body wash, 1 package of floss and 1 package of deodorant. My total, after tax, was $3.26, since tax is charged on the price before coupons. The only items I didn't get free after coupons were the body wash ($0.04 each after coupons) and deodorant ($0.34 after both manufacturer and Target coupon.)

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I saved $69.96 pre-tax.

Next week is Couponing for Community, a week that focuses on using the coupons we've got to help those who have little or nothing. These people need so many basic items and we have the ability to help them out. So I am proposing a challenge to myself and all my fellow couponers. Next week, take $20 and your coupons. See just how much you can get with what you have. You do need to count tax in your total, but you do not need to count the cost of the coupons (AKA if you buy the paper or buy coupons off EBay or a clipping service, don't count that in your total. Also don't count the cost of paper/ink for Internet coupons).

As the week progresses, I'll share my totals with you. I'd love to see yours too, so please share! You can also post it onto the Couponing for Community Facebook Page. They have a goal to donate 10,000 items next week and they are well on their way! Help out and see how far you can stretch your dollar!