AUTUMN CASHIER HOME_EMPLOYEE MISSY NARRATOR NICOLE TAMMY

NICOLE
Guess what time it is? 

AUTUMN
What time?

NICOLE
It’s free stuff time!

NARRATOR
When it comes to spending, extreme couponers only do it one way. 

MISSY
If it’s free i’m not leaving it at the store.  

MISSY
I don’t like to spend money. 

NICOLE
I just have one question.  Are you dts?  Down to save.  

NARRATOR
In the next half hour, meet the former marine whose training turned her into a money saving machine. 

NICOLE
I will be zoned in, making sure i hear a beep and a number, a beep and a number.  

NARRATOR
And a florida coupon queen is back and ready to reveal her extreme couponing secrets.  

MISSY
Since i was on the show last time the biggest question is still where did the inserts come from?

MISSY
I simply have one answer and that’s from god.  

MISSY
I wanna clear the air on that. 

NARRATOR
They’re hitting the stores with stacks of coupons. 

NICOLE
So the coupon fairy loves to sprinkle savings throughout the store. 

NARRATOR
And good intentions. 

MISSY
This buggy is going to touch 600 separate lives. 

NARRATOR
But even the best laid plans can’t guarantee success at the register.  

CASHIER
These aren’t scanning; i’ll put these to the side.  

NICOLE
I’m red in the face, my hands are clammy. 

NARRATOR
In the world of extreme couponing.  

NICOLE
Yeah.   (clapping)


MISSY
This is our tower of pasta. It’s ten crates high, almost twice as tall as i am and inside it there are 180 boxes of pasta.  The best part is we got paid $18 to bring them all home. 

NARRATOR
Nearly 30% of consumers report that once they start using coupons they continue to do so, not just for the savings but because they like the way it makes them feel and florida extreme Couponer, missy, is no exception.








MISSY
Hi, i’m missy and i’m still the coupon queen of central florida. 

MISSY
It’s gonna be ten cents for two boxes, this is exciting.  

MISSY
Not only am i adhd, i’m also ocd and i’m on a mission and so until i get these coupons used then, you know, i’ve got a task undone, i’ve got to get it done. 

MISSY
Isn’t this phenomenal?  I’m so excited.  

MISSY
I spend probably 35 to 40 hours; it is a fulltime job what i do with the couponing.  If i had to break down dollar for dollar the retail value of what i bring home on a yearly basis i would make over six figures. 

NARRATOR
Couponers missy and, close friend, tammy became small town celebrities after her last haul on extreme couponing.  

MISSY
We spent $4.53 and we saved $1,161.22.  

TAMMY
Pease tell me you [inaudible].  

MISSY
Since i was last on the show i’ve even had my groceries held hostage until i autographed my receipt for the bag boy. 

NARRATOR
But long before her supermarket stardom missy’s been bringing in hauls that have resulted in a stockpile worth over $100,000.  

MISSY
Welcome back to my stockpile.  As you see, it’s grown quite a bit since the last time we were here.  One of my favourite additions is the dishwashing tablets and there are about 600 packets of ‘em and that’s about 1800 loads of dishes that i can do.  That’ll Last me for over five years. 

NARRATOR
In addition to the dishwashing tablets missy has accumulated 60 bottles of stain remover, 72 cake mixes, 100 boxes of cereal, 200 cans of ice coffee and 10,000 bottles of flavoured water.  This means she could drink a bottle a day for the next 27 years. 

MISSY
We have all kinds of beauty products.  The best part was all of these were free and we actually made a little bit of money off of each one. 

NARRATOR
Maintaining a stockpile as massive as missy’s means she must collect and cut up to 5,000 coupon inserts a week.  But keeping a collection this gigantic requires extreme organisation. 

MISSY
And this is my coupon closet.  I have over 30 crates here.  I can store my inserts.  I can easily see what i need when a good deal comes up.  

NARRATOR
Missy’s coupon supply has become so enormous she actually had to create a second storage unit to house her overflow.  

MISSY
So we have 24 crates up here.  This’ll give me about eight weeks worth of insert room.  The organisation in having them all labelled so i can go right to the inserts makes it really nice for me.  

MISSY
Since i was on the show last time, the biggest question is still “where did the inserts come from?”

MISSY
I simply have one answer and that’s from god. 

MISSY
I wanna clear the air on that.  

MISSY
People drop them at my home.

MISSY
Hi. 

MISSY
I get them from my parents, i get them from churches, i get them from all over.  

NARRATOR
Today, missy is putting those coupons to good use.  She is joining forces with her friend tammy to shop for items that will be donated to an organisation that supports adolescents Struggling with issues like teen pregnancy, it’s a cause near to missy’s heart. 

MISSY
I was a teen mom myself.  I was very fortunate to have the support and the love and the backing of my mom and dad.  There are so many that don’t have that.  Today’s trip’s gonna be extra special cos we’re shopping for our girls. 

NARRATOR
With their mission on their minds, missy and tammy begin to organise their list and pull coupons for the trip.  

MISSY
I don’t like to spend money and so therefore, you know, i like to save as much as possible and so if i have to spend too much on anything then that’s not a good thing. 

MISSY
Ok, so let’s see, we’ve got the coffee, we’ve got the toothbrushes, dental floss, the tooth cleaner, the nail products, all the nail products are gonna be free, the ones we’re getting. 

TAMMY
Oh, that’s awesome.  

MISSY
Isn’t that fun?

TAMMY
That’s awesome. 

MISSY
I do believe our teen challenge girls are going to love these gift baskets.  

TAMMY
Me too, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. 

NARRATOR
So, they head to the store with their binders loaded and organised and a goal to spend $35 or less on around $900 worth of products.  

MISSY
Got it?

TAMMY
Yeah.

MISSY
Alright, let’s see what we need to get today.  We’re gonna get some coffee, all of the makeup stuff.

TAMMY
Oh those girls’ll love that. 

MISSY
I know, it’s gonna be so much fun. 

NARRATOR
As missy and tammy begin to shop they immediately stumble upon an unexpected deal on paper towels when they spot a stack of coupons attached to the shelf, which is known 
As a tear pad.  

TAMMY
Tear pad. 

MISSY
Ooh a tear pad, let’s see what it says.  Oh right.  It’s a dollar offer any package of the bath tissue or the towels of this brand.  Let’s see.  

NARRATOR
The retail price of the paper towels is $3.25.  With the tear pad coupon taking a dollar off the final price is $2.25 for three rolls. 

MISSY
We know the girls go through a lot of these.  Tell me, what do we wanna get?

TAMMY
Yeah.  Um...

MISSY
I say let’s go ahead and get like five packs of ‘em. 

TAMMY
Here’s the coffee missy. 

MISSY
Ok, great.  

NARRATOR
The coffee retails for $1.00 each but the store has it on sale for 70 cents.  So, with missy’s 65 cents off coupon she will pay just five cents a box.  

MISSY
Isn’t that fun?

NARRATOR
After an hour of shopping they approach their biggest purchase of the day, toothbrushes and dental floss for the girls. 

MISSY
These toothbrushes and the dental floss they’re a dollar each and then i have all of these coupons, 783 of them to be exact, and we’re gonna be able to get all of these at no cost.

MISSY
Now this is amazing.  

MISSY
I just cannot get over looking at this cart, i mean knowing that this right here in this little basket equates to all of this is just beyond me.  This buggy is going to touch 600 separate lives.  That’s amazing. 

MISSY
This’ll be the prettiest cart in extreme couponing history. 

MISSY
Ready for us to check out?

TAMMY
Let’s go, let’s head to the check out. 

MISSY
Hi, how are you?
 
CASHIER
I’m doing great.  How are you ma’am?  

MISSY
Doing very well.  

MISSY
When i go shopping i have everything already planned out.  I know how many of what i’m gonna purchase and i generally have ordered it all from the store.  So there’s no fuss or muss when i get to the register, it’s all right there for me.

MISSY
This is the fun part, being able to come up here and knowing that i have the coupons that are gonna offset the balance is just amazing. 

MISSY
Are you ready for this?

CASHIER
Yes ma'am.

MISSY
$131.00.  Wow.  

MISSY
By my calculations the total should be $969.75.  

MISSY
What is the total?

CASHIER
$966.25

MISSY
That’s awesome. 

CASHIER
Do you have any coupons ma’am?  

MISSY
Yes i do.  

NARRATOR
After scanning only eight of the 783 toothbrush coupons missy’s checkout comes to a halt. 

MISSY
She scanned the first one, no problem, it was the happy beep and she scanned them in, six more, seventh one fine.  She got to that eighth one... No.  The beeps were no longer happy and it was a nightmare. 

MISSY
The process has been delayed because the coupons are not scanning in so she’s gonna have to manually input each one of them.  We had 783 coupons so that means they’re gonna have to hand key 775 of them.  

NARRATOR
After manually entering each of the remaining 775 toothbrush and floss coupons...

MISSY
That poor girl’s fingers have to be ready to fall off. 

NARRATOR
The cashier finally resumes scanning the coupons for the remaining items.

MISSY
Yeah, a whole group came off at one time, that’s wonderful. 

NARRATOR
But just as missy thinks she’s in the clear the coupons again stop scanning. 

CASHIER
These aren’t scanning; i’ll put these to the side.  These aren’t scanning; i’ll put ‘em to the side.  

TAMMY
Their systems can handle the smaller amounts without a problem but when we have something this large then they’re just not equipped to it.  

CASHIER
These are all gonna have to be put in manually. 

MISSY
I am so sorry honey.  

MISSY
We’re ready to go home but we still have to get this done but it’s for a great cause.  

MISSY
Alright, yes, we’re down under $50, this is awesome.  

CASHIER
Your final total, after coupons, is $30.85.  

MISSY
Ooh, we did it. 

TAMMY
Ooh! 

MISSY
How much did i save today?  

CASHIER
You saved a total of $941.40.  

MISSY
Praise the lord. 

TAMMY
Wow.  

MISSY
That is amazing.  

TAMMY
That’s awesome.  Oh, look at the receipt.  

NARRATOR
Missy’s haul includes five gallons of milk, 26 boxes of coffee, 160 nail care products and 600 toothbrushes.  Retail value of her purchase totals $972.25.  Using coupons she paid $30.85, a 97% savings.  The next morning missy and tammy arrive at the home with a truckload of groceries for the girls.  

MISSY
Today was a very long and hard day to be honest, it was, but i am very proud of the haul that we brought home. 
 
HOME EMPLOYEE
You guys have really tremendously blessed the girls here.  

HOME EMPLOYEE
You have blessed us.

MISSY
And to know how many people that we’re going to be able to bless, it was a total success. 

HOME EMPLOYEE
Thank you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

HOME EMPLOYEE
Thank you. 






NICOLE
I love me some coupons. 

NARRATOR
Meet a military mom who’s always on a mission to save big. 

NICOLE
Couponing is absolutely a necessity.  As much as i live and breathe i coupon.  

NICOLE’S FRIEND
Coupons are here. 

NICOLE
(screaming)  yeah.    Hi. 

NICOLE’S FRIEND
Hello.

NICOLE
Yeah, we can bring them right in here. 

NICOLE’S FRIEND
Ok. 

NICOLE
My weekly delivery of presents.  

NARRATOR
In the past year the number of coupons available in newspaper inserts increased by 19 billion.  So florida mom and extreme couponer nicole uses all her resources to get her hands on as many as possible.  

NICOLE
I’m nicole and i just have one question.  Are you dts?  Down to save.  

NICOLE
Guess what time it is?  

AUTUMN
What time?  

NICOLE
It’s free stuff time. 

NICOLE
I definitely say i’m a coupon-a-holic.  I love me some coupons.  

NICOLE
I will be zoned in, making sure i hear a beep and a number, a beep and a number.  

NICOLE
When i find my boyfriend he’ll love me for my math couponing skills. 

NARRATOR
Nicole has put her skills to good use in the past seven months, building an 1800 item stockpile that could support herself and her 13 year old daughter, autumn, for years to come. 

NICOLE
My stockpile rocks.  

NICOLE
This is my spare room that i’ve turned into our grocery store.  It started off with one shelf and now it’s turned into an entire room.  So, sorry friends and family you’re gonna have to find somewhere else to stay.  

NARRATOR
While nicole’s stockpile is worth around $15,000 she’s spent less than $1,000 on the entire stash.  This collection includes 50 bottles of sauces and marinades, a two year supply of pasta and a surplus of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. 

NICOLE
My first taste of getting an item for free was body wash.  So i stocked up.  I have plenty of body wash to last anyone and their brother for several years. 

NICOLE
People’s first reactions to my stockpile is “oh my gosh!  You have a grocery store in your house.”  Yes i do.  It makes me so proud; it’s like my second child. 

NARRATOR
And nicole’s stockpile isn’t all she’s got going for her.  She actually has a stock up area to remind her what she’ll be needing soon. 

NICOLE
This is my stock up area where i keep things that i need to stock up on, whether it’s an upcoming sale or just to be on the lookout in the future.  I’ll either place the items up here if i have them or i’ll put a note up here under ‘it’s stock up time’. 

NARRATOR
For nicole, sustaining her huge stockpile involves spending up to 35 hours a week collecting and organising upwards of 90 inserts. 

NICOLE
My best friend delivers sunday newspapers and whenever she has extras she’s gracious enough to bring them over to me and i don’t mind digging through all those newspapers for gold and my gold is coupon inserts. 

NARRATOR
As much as nicole may enjoy couponing, her reason for starting was pure desperation.

NICOLE
A couple of months after graduating high school i joined the marine corps.  I got married, got pregnant, had my daughter autumn. 

NARRATOR
But just four years later nicole and her husband split, leaving nicole to raise autumn on her own.  Although money has always been tight, things became worse six months ago when nicole Lost her job.

NICOLE
I’m the sole provider.  I’m the mom, the dad, the husband and the wife in my household.  I just knew i had to figure out a way to stay on my feet.  As much as i live and breathe i coupon.  

NICOLE
Since i started couponing i have cut my grocery budget from $350 plus to $100 or less per month.  

NARRATOR
Not only has nicole been able to pay off multiple credit cards with the money she’s saved couponing, she’s also been able to fund her daughter’s passion for dance. 

NICOLE
She’s taken dance since she was three years old and loves it.  After everything’s totalled it’s about $2,000 for a ten month period.  

AUTUMN
If we didn’t coupon we probably wouldn’t have some of the things that we have today.  Like i wouldn’t be able to go to dance or i wouldn’t be able to go hang out with my friends or she couldn’t go hang out with her friends.  So it definitely helps us do these extra things that we wanna do because we save so much money with our couponing. 

NARRATOR
Today’s large haul is especially important because nicole and autumn are stocking up on expensive essentials.  Amongst other things, the savings from these items go towards autumn’s dance lessons.

NICOLE
The purpose of my shopping trip is to stock up on items that have a long shelf life, that can last six to ten months. 

NICOLE
Alrighty, this is the last of them.  

AUTUMN
Alrighty.

NARRATOR
So, with around 200 coupons clipped and neatly organised in her binder, nicole and autumn head to the store, hoping to spend under $50 on about $480 in product.  

NICOLE
I know i’m ready.  Are you ready?  

AUTUMN
I’m ready. 

NICOLE
You ready?

AUTUMN
Ready. 

NICOLE
Let’s, get, go. 

AUTUMN
Get go.  

NARRATOR
The first item on nicole’s list is pain relief cream.  

NICOLE
We are gonna get 40.  

AUTUMN
40.  

NARRATOR
The pain relief cream retails at $7.49.  The store has it on sale for $5.99 this week.  Nicole has a high value $5.00 off coupon on top of this.  So the creams will cost a mere 99 cents each.  

NICOLE
Autumn uses them for dance; sometimes she gets sore muscles, so this is great.  This will last us a for a very long time. 

AUTUMN
Mother hen looking down on her baby duckling.  

AUTUMN
37, 38, 39, 40.  Where to next mom?

NICOLE
Let’s go get the protein bars, they’re on clearance and i wanna get ‘em while we can. 

AUTUMN
Ok. 

NICOLE
Ok.  These protein bars retail for $1.99, i caught ‘em on a close out for 99 cents.  I’ve got a great coupon, good for $2.00 off two of them, making them free.  

NICOLE
I like to leave extra coupons for people on the shelves next to the product or, if there’s an empty space, i’ll put ‘em right where the product goes so whenever the store restocks there’s coupons there.  So the coupon fairy loves to sprinkle savings throughout the store.  

NICOLE
Free food and getting our exercise on, you’ve got to love it. 

NARRATOR
After a few hours of shopping, nicole and autumn finally get to their largest purchase of the day, an amazing deal on feminine hygiene products. 

NICOLE
Ok. 

AUTUMN
Mom, how many are we gonna get?

NICOLE
We’re gonna get 95.

AUTUMN
95, we’ll be good on panty liners forever. 

NARRATOR
The product retails for $1.09 and nicole has a 50 cent off coupon that will double at the register, making them only nine cents each.  

NICOLE
92, 93, 94, 95.  Good job. 

AUTUMN
Nice.  

NICOLE
Well kiddo, i think that’s a rap.  You ready to check out?

AUTUMN
Absolutely.

NICOLE
Alright, let’s go.

AUTUMN
Let’s go. 

CASHIER
How you doing today ma’am?  Did you find everything ok today?

NICOLE
I found everything fabulously today.  

NICOLE
Alright trent, you’re rocking and rolling buddy.  Oh my goodness.

AUTUMN
Are you nervous mom?

NICOLE
It’s a lot higher than i expected it to be but that’s alright.  

NICOLE
Right now we’re at $538, $540... 

CASHIER
Today your total’s $586.95.  

NICOLE
That’s alright cos i’ve got the currency choice.  

CASHIER
May i have your store card ma’am?

NICOLE
Absolutely.  

NICOLE
Ooh, ok, so that’s what we’re stuck with.  

NICOLE
Once he scanned my card i was still way over where i should have been at that point.  

NARRATOR
Nicole’s store loyalty card brings the total down to $418.75, a full $200 more than nicole had planned.  

NICOLE
I’m a former marine and i’m trained to stay cool under pressure but i got to tell you, i didn’t know what i was going to do, i just had to pray that my coupons were gonna bring me down to where i needed to be.

AUTUMN
I’m nervous because i don’t know; i don’t want to have us to pay $418.75 cos that’s a lot of money.

NICOLE
Let’s redeem some of those free items. 

NICOLE
I’m red in the face, my hands are clammy.  I’d like to take this little jacket off right now.  

NICOLE
It’s dropping fast, it’s dropping fast.  It’s going way down.  

CASHIER
These are your last five coupons ma’am and this is the moment of truth.  

AUTUMN
Let’s not watch mom.  

CASHIER
Your total [inaudible] today ma’am is $30.72.  

NICOLE
Yes, i did it.  $30.72.  Yeah.  (clapping)  

NICOLE
I was ecstatic that i pulled this off.  I had a set goal for a saving.  I beat that so it was incredible and i definitely will do it again.

NICOLE
Thank you so much.

NICOLE
I’m gonna go downstairs, see you all later.  

NARRATOR
Nicole’s haul includes 12 protein bars, 40 pain relief creams and 95 feminine hygiene products.  The retail value of her purchase totals $586.75.  Using coupons she paid just $30.72, a 99% savings.


NICOLE
The money that i saved today it is going to help me pay for autumn’s dance classes as well as pay off several credit cards.  This is why i coupon.  It’s the rush that you get from it, it’s the reactions from people because you meet friends, you can help 
People, you can share things.  I love it.  

NICOLE
We got a lot of stuff today.  That was a great job.

AUTUMN
Good job.