Before I met my husband and had a family of my own, I lived with one of my best childhood friends. L...

1. The Krazy Coupon Lady « Extreme Couponing
Before I met my husband and had a
family of my own, I lived with one of my best childhood friends. Like most roommates, we tried to
split bills as evenly as possible. The only problem we seemed to have was splitting our grocery bill. I
was a couponer who stockpiled and hunted for deals; she, on the other hand, would shop for
whatever she needed at the time and pay full price. Our 50/50 arrangement for groceries quickly
became lopsided, and I would never look forward to paying my half of the bill.
Fast forward five years...my friend and I are living in separate homes and have separate lives, but
there's one characteristic we share--we're both adept couponers! So how did I turn my spend-a-holic
friend into a KCL? With a little patience and some couponing ingenuity, it wasn't as hard as you
might think.
So if you are living with a couponing skeptic, here's what I suggest you do to help that individual
understand the world of grocery store savings opportunities:
1. Start small
Combining coupons, sales, price-matching, refunds and cash-back apps are great ways for KCLs to
get products on the cheap or even as moneymakers. But as enticing as getting $55 worth of products
for free is, this Ibotta combination trip might be too complicated for a first-time couponer. Instead of
expecting a skeptic to understand the world of couponing immediately, go at it a bit more slowly.
Introduce the skeptic to one deal or weekly store offering at a time. Simple, high-value transactions
with easy-to-understand savings percentages are one way to hook skeptics.
2. Give the skeptic the good coupons
All KCLs know when they've found a really good coupon: it might be for a high value, it might be a
BOGO offer, or it might result in the product becoming a moneymaker. While it can be fun to get
these deals ourselves, these are the deals that turn into golden teaching opportunities for skeptics.
When I took my friend to the grocery store with me, I let her choose the type of flavor for a four-pack
of yogurt I had a free coupon for (that I received directly from the manufacturer by making a
request). She couldn't believe we were walking out of the store with a free product! When it was her

2. turn to shop next, I casually asked if she could pick up a BOGO deal on disinfecting wipes at the
store but also handed her a 55-cent-off coupon, knowing she could use it on the first item while the
store automatically subtracted the $2.49 cost of the second item. Each canister then cost less than
$1, and she was thrilled to see this for herself. These good deals quickly converted her to a KCL way
of thinking.
3. Let the skeptic shop for fun products
A couponing skeptic is much more likely to turn into a believer when deals that are meaningful and
fun to them are available. For example, is your skeptic a cosmetics lover? Find deals that will help
her score great products at a killer price. For instance, this past week, my H-E-B store was selling
certain colors/styles of Sally Hansen Nail Effects at half price: they were marked from $8 to $4. H--
-B also displayed yellow store coupons for $3 off any Sally Hansen product in that particular line. So
an $8 product very easily turned into a $1 product! Even a shopper who is poor at math can
calculate this outstanding savings.
4. Empower the skeptic with matchups
Someone who is new to couponing and uncertain about the savings potential is not going to sit down
and map out a savings strategy for an upcoming shopping trip, so don't expect the skeptic in your
life to do so. Instead, you can handily print a shopping matchup from the "Find My Store" tab of the
KCL site or introduce her to the "Beginners" section of the site to zero in on a few important deals.
Armed with this information and guidance, the skeptic can begin shopping and seeing the savings
percentages for herself, with minimal preparation time and shopping effort.