AMANDA APRIL BARRY CARLA CASHIER CHILD COUPON_DISTRIBUTOR FRANK JIM LORRAINE NARRATOR PAPER_PURCHASER PASTOR SUPERMARKET_EMPLOYEE NARRATOR In the world of extreme couponing, supermarkets are the battlefield… APRIL Barge, barge, barge. NARRATOR …and full prices the enemy. CARLA So basically it’s free. Free! APRIL Move it, move it. NARRATOR Meet a militant mom whose stockpile is so valuable, it’s kept behind locked doors. APRIL People seeing the basement, usually the first words are “oh my gosh”. NARRATOR And a small town couponer who isn't just clipping inserts – she’s controlling all the coupons in her city. CARLA That is like an awesome coupon. Yeah, we’re taking 20. NARRATOR When checkouts go awry… APRIL Oh. NARRATOR …and a friendly rivalry becomes fierce competition… CARLA You keep throwing stuff in my cart. Would you knock it off? NARRATOR ...even these couponers can crumble. CARLA I’m pretty nervous about this. APRIL Anybody got liquor? Wine? Anything? NARRATOR This is extreme couponing. PASTOR Blessed be god. That’s the greatest thing. CHILD Mama, get extra [unsure of word]. APRIL Do you have a coupon? CHILD No, but they’re two for three. APRIL No coupon, it doesn’t go in the basket. NARRATOR Manufacturers distribute over 300 billion coupons each year and more than 75 per cent of shoppers cash in on those savings with at least some regularity, but to erie, pennsylvania’s extreme couponer april, sometimes isn't enough. APRIL My name is april and people call me the coupon general because i basically take care of a small troop of people. APRIL Boys to your carts. APRIL And i tend to be a little militant. APRIL Move it, move it, move it. APRIL Keep moving, keep moving. APRIL Barge, barge. NARRATOR With her husband rick, this stay-at-home mom is raising seven teenagers and that means couponing isn't just a hobby for april, it’s a way of life. NARRATOR In less than a year and a half of couponing, she’s amassed a stockpile of supplies worth more than $30,000. APRIL People who have not been in the basement before, usually the first words are “oh my gosh”. APRIL Welcome to the bunker. APRIL I have everything set up just like a grocery store so that i am familiar to them there all the time. APRIL So you have breakfast, condiments, canned goods, baked goods and then my freezer here, totally full. For breakfast, if i’m a little busy, here it is, i don’t have to worry about it. These were all pennies on the dollar, if not totally and completely free. Over here, i have body wash and shampoo so everybody can smell good. But my best favourite, favourite deal over here is my hand soap. Not only were the soaps free but i also made money. Each one of these was on sale, ten for ten, and for every six i bought, i made $3. Each one of my coupons were 60 cents a piece. Doubled up, covered the entire cost, so for every six i made $3. Totally great. APRIL People who think that i am a hoarder, let me just be very clear. Hoarders have dust on their stockpile. I do not have dust on my stockpile. I am a couponer, there is a fine line. Dust is the dividing factor. NARRATOR Even though she has 200 bottles of barbecue sauce, 500 bottles of pasta sauce and a two year supply of laundry soap, april’s most proud of a different section of the stockpile, one so coveted she keeps it under lock and key – the cookie jar. APRIL My cookie jar is too large to fit on a shelf, too large to fit on a counter. My cookie jar is an entire room. CHILD [inaudible]. APRIL Anything that you could possibly want for that sweet midnight snack – candies and chocolates, potato chips, lots of pop – is found in this room. CHILD Thank you so much, i love you so much, thank you. APRIL i bet you do. CHILD [inaudible]. NARRATOR Though april now has any snack her kids might want, just a few years ago financial distress made it hard to put even a meal on the dinner table. APRIL I remember, we would have like $23 and we would go to the store and have to figure out what we’re gonna do, but when you have to feed nine people, it really does not go very far. We didn’t have a choice. We had to go to the food pantry. It’s very humiliating to be in that situation as a parent. Couponing in general has allowed me to not be there and i won’t ever be there again. Never, ever, ever. Ever. NARRATOR April spends 16 hours every week first targeting sales and store circulars and then using regional clipping services to maximise her savings. APRIL I geographically choose where i get my coupons from. In california, prices there are higher, so coupons are gonna be higher. NARRATOR Today, april needs all the savings she can get her hands on, because she’s not just shopping for a family of nine. APRIL Every sunday, we feed the people at our mass, which is about 200. I’m not talking doughnuts and coffee. I mean, chicken tetrazzine, french toast casserole. NARRATOR To feed her church as well as her family, april’s made a shopping list that retails over $1,000 but she’s heading to the local supermarket with just $100 in her budget and six of her teenagers to help with the haul. APRIL Line up, guys. Youngest to oldest, let’s go. Move it, move it, move it. All right, come on. APRIL I definitely have to keep them in line and that’s very helpful, to be a little militant. APRIL Girls to move forward; boys, grab those baskets, both of you. All right guys. Billy, where is my list? NARRATOR First on that list is pasta, the staple of april’s weekly church efforts. APRIL Everybody see how the name brand products are here and the store product are right next to you? People read from the left to right, so when your eye moves this way, it encourages you to buy the store product rather than buying the name brand products, but they don’t have coupon on store brand products, but they do on this, so free always tastes better. APRIL Let’s go. To the left. Turn down that aisle. NARRATOR Next on her list is snack mix. APRIL All right, this is a great deal. Snack mix is regularly $3 a pack, but right now it’s on sale for five for five and i have a coupon that gives me a dollar off of two, so each one of these is 50 cents. CHILD 27, 28… APRIL Ok. Time out. CHILD 29. APRIL Stop. Ok, i need another basket. NARRATOR With an empty cart primed for savings, april then reaches a deal on bags of fresh salad. APRIL Haha, look what i found! NARRATOR She spots a peely sticker with even more potential savings. APRIL Oh my gosh! NARRATOR But her excitement fades when april catches a hidden detail in the coupon. APRIL This nine at the very beginning means it does not double. A five means that it does double, but for right now we’re gonna keep using the coupons that we have. NARRATOR After 2½ hours of shopping and with coupons to match all 400 items, april and her troops head to checkout. APRIL And i have six full carts, so you’re gonna get your workout, ok? CASHIER All right. APRIL All right, let’s go, next one. APRIL So where is my total right now? CASHIER Your total’s at 339.76. APRIL All right, last cart. Let’s see how i go. APRIL Certainly have a little bit of anxiety, my stomach is really nauseous. I might have to borrow your trash can. CASHIER Your grand total before coupons is 594.33. NARRATOR With a retail total of over $1140, instant savings have drastically reduced april’s total. CASHIER It tells you what the suggested retail is and then what you’ve saved already. APRIL I’ve saved $500 already. CASHIER Yeah. APRIL Excellent. APRIL I’m gonna get all my coupons together. CASHIER Ok. APRIL Nervous. Nervous. Anybody got liquor? Wine? Anything? CASHIER And we still have a lot more to do. APRIL Yes we do. NARRATOR April’s total continues to drop until the system hits a snag. CASHIER Oh, maximum capacity reached. CASHIER I’m gonna try scanning this one more time, just see if it… no. APRIL Could you call a manager? CASHIER Yeah. JIM I’m gonna have to go to the office and try and get it to work, ok? APRIL Ok. All right, i’ll wait here. JIM I’ll be one minute. NARRATOR Manager jim discovers the combination of products and coupons has surpassed the system’s 500 scan limit, but changing the capacity isn't so simple. SUPERMARKET EMPLOYEE It has to be one of these restrictions right here. I don’t have the security clearance to get into them. APRIL I was getting nervous 'cause he was gone for quite a while and, let me tell you, waiting for a minute is like an hour. JIM We’ll have to do it manually. We’ll have to hand key in the rest of the coupons that are left on the order. SUPERMARKET EMPLOYEE Yeah. JIM It’s a lotta work, take a long time. CASHIER …two… NARRATOR After closing out the frozen transaction, the cashier begins manually entering each coupon. CASHIER It’s going in. APRIL Kinda feels like i wanna pass out. NARRATOR Two hours gone and over 300 coupons entered by hand. The cashier reaches the last of april’s coupons. CASHIER So that took off $55. Your total coupon savings… APRIL Drum roll. CASHIER …was 556.41… APRIL Right. CASHIER ...which means your final total comes to $33.61. APRIL Whoo-hoo-hoo! All right! APRIL I feel like brad pitt has just walked up to the register and said he’d broke up with angelina jolie and he’s into big women. All right! Yeah, all right. NARRATOR April’s haul includes 32 bottles of sports drinks, 60 bags of salad and 200 boxes of assorted pastas. APRIL All right. NARRATOR The retail value totals $1,146.13. Using coupons, april paid just $33.61, a 97 per cent saving that will cover meals at her church fellowship for nearly two months. PASTOR April, what we gonna have today for fellowship? APRIL Well, today we are having rigatoni and meatballs. PASTOR Oh my, that’s the greatest thing. APRIL Mary, i need you to start opening up the salad bags. Jacob, i need you to grab the meatballs. APRIL For me, couponing is the ability to help others and to do it in a way that i can financially. APRIL 'Cause i wouldn't be able to help others at all if i didn’t coupon. CARLA That is like an awesome coupon. NARRATOR A small town couponer hatches a plan for big time savings. CARLA I am the biggest coupon distributor in this town. I get the best inserts, the only inserts. CARLA Oh, i just got super excited, you guys. They have the pies on sale for save a dollar on one. That is like an awesome coupon. Yeah, we’re taking 20. NARRATOR While many shoppers embrace digital coupons available on the internet, newspaper circulars still account for nearly 90 per cent of all coupon distribution. And, with big savings in those inserts, wahpeton, north dakota’s extreme couponer carla keeps an eye on every paper in her town. CARLA I am carla and i am the queen of the coupon mafia. CARLA Cleared them out, they’re all gone. CARLA I find it very hard to pay full value for anything. Even if it’s on sale, i still have to have a coupon for it. CARLA Almost like a dime a sausage. That’s great. Great deal. NARRATOR For over five years, this savvy shopping mother of two has run a small framing business, but two years ago she re-shaped her product line to include weekly newspapers. CARLA I sell over 600 papers a week. PAPER PURCHASER We’re here for our papers. CARLA Yay! They’re really good ones this week, too, you’re gonna be… PAPER PURCHASER Awesome. CARLA …super excited. CARLA I am the biggest coupon distributor in this town. I get the best inserts, the only inserts. NARRATOR Carla buys 20 newspapers for herself each week, packed with inserts that have helped her build a stockpile of household goods worth nearly $30,000. CARLA My candles right now, i would have to say, maybe i bought a hundred. The barbecue sauces, i got 50 bottles of them. We have over 200 body washes. Between three girls, there’s no way any girl in this house should ever smell bad. NARRATOR With her daughters’ help, carla spends 35 hours each week scouring newspaper inserts and matching those deals to online coupon databases. NARRATOR But today, it’s her boyfriend frank crafting the list for a special shopping trip, feeding 20 weekend guests at the family’s lakeside cabin. FRANK We’re gonna need chicken and barbecue sauce for sure, tacos. We’re gonna need taco seasoning. NARRATOR Carla’s shopping list could easily cost over $500, but she’s set a strict $55 limit for her trip and, to keep her focus, she’s bringing in her best friend and coupon mentor amanda. AMANDA So what you got on your list? CARLA I have candy bars, soda, sausages. AMANDA You do have a nice list, you do, but… CARLA Thank you. AMANDA …we’ve never gone shopping together and i do have my own list. CARLA What? AMANDA Yeah, yeah. CARLA But this was to help me shop. NARRATOR Amanda’s willing to help carla shop, but now she’ll also be tackling her own grocery list with her own set of coupons and, at the end of the day, amanda hopes her savings percentage will be higher than carla’s. CARLA All right, looks like we’re going head to head today. Let’s go. Bring it on. NARRATOR They start the competition with a deal on flavoured water. CARLA Originally, these cost $1.49 retail and they are on sale ten for ten and we have a coupon for 55 cents off, so that’ll double up to a dollar, so basically it’s free. Free! NARRATOR A coupon novice might assume the deal applies only to purchases made in multiples of ten, but carla knows to read the fine print, which doesn’t specify quantity, so she’ll combine the in-store sale with each of her 39 coupons. CARLA 34, 36, 38… 39. All of this free. All 39, free! NARRATOR They continue shopping in the beverage aisle, until an unexpected item leaves both couponers breathless. AMANDA Oh! CARLA Oh! AMANDA Oh, the coupons, oh! Thank you so much. CARLA Awesome! CARLA The company is one of the local cheese manufacturers. COUPON DISTRIBUTOR All right. AMANDA For them to come and give us these coupons today, thank you so much. CARLA It’s awesome. NARRATOR Coupons on nationally distributed brands are widely available, but saving on locally made products is a rare opportunity. AMANDA I’m just too excited about them. I can’t even start, i’m too excited about these ones… CARLA [inaudible]. AMANDA …i wanna go see, i wanna go see. CARLA Ok. AMANDA Well we’ve got the shredded parmesan here, which is usually 3.09. The store’s got it on sale for 2.69 and so we’ve got these 55 centers from this man right here and they’re gonna bump up to a dollar, so i’m gonna pick these up for $1.69. CARLA And i’m gonna pick up a few as well. NARRATOR Carla and amanda cross items off their separate lists and will do whatever it takes to out-coupon their opponent. CARLA You keep throwing stuff in my cart. Would you knock it off? AMANDA Coupon sabotage, like, mixing up the amounts in her box… is totally legit. CARLA Watch your cart. AMANDA Frenemies. NARRATOR Landing massive savings on nearly every item, carla can afford to pay full price on fresh bread. CARLA They usually stick the bakery section in the front of the store so that you buy more 'cause you’re hungry 'cause you can smell it. No, i don’t fall for that trick. I come to this section last. I stick to my plan and i go through the store and i don’t get enticed by the good smells. NARRATOR With two full carts, carla has everything she needs for a weekend at the lake house, but she wants to do more than just stick to her $55 budget. Carla’s aiming to out-coupon her best friend. CARLA I’m gonna so kick your butt in this. AMANDA I really don’t think so. There’s just no way. CARLA I don't know. Well, let’s go see. Let’s do it. AMANDA What are you at over there? CARLA I’m 240. 61 and it’s climbing. AMANDA I’m at 160.60 and i am ready for coupon action. CARLA Ok. Oh boy, where am i at? CASHIER Your total before coupons – 437.63. NARRATOR Store sales have already lowered both totals, but it’s up to each couponer’s stash to bring the final cost within their budget. AMANDA I really only wanna spend under $20. AMANDA I’ve only got $30 in my pocket, so it better at least get down to that. CASHIER Your total today comes to 27.06. AMANDA Whoo! NARRATOR The actual retail cost of amanda’s entire purchase was $238.60, but after store sales and nearly 320 coupons, she paid just $27.06 – a 90 per cent savings. AMANDA 90 per cent off… CARLA Awesome! AMANDA …nice. CARLA That’s nice. AMANDA That’s nice. CARLA That’s great. That’s great. I can do better though. CARLA Got a lotta coupons. NARRATOR Carla’s groceries retail nearly $700, but in-store savings have already slashed that price to just $437 and now she’s hoping her coupons will drop it even lower. CARLA I’ve never done this many coupons in my life. CARLA It’s not even about how much it costs any more, it’s the fact that i get to beat her. I have to win. AMANDA It’s all about bragging rights. CARLA Big dollars off. We’re down to 247. NARRATOR Every coupon lowers the bill until carla’s savings reach an unexpected hurdle. CARLA They’re not doubling. The last two… AMANDA Uh-oh. CARLA …didn’t double. Last three didn’t double. What’s going on? LORRAINE I don't know, it was working fine up until the last three coupons. I’ll need a manager over here, please. LORRAINE For these last three coupons, she only got 55 cents off instead of a full dollar. BARRY We’ve never had this quantity before so… LORRAINE No. BARRY …i need to go look on the computer and see if there’s an adjustment i can make. NARRATOR Carla’s massive stack of coupons overwhelms the register, sending the manager into the back room for investigation. BARRY The regular coupons still work, it’s just the doubling part that’s hanging us up here. CARLA I have quite a few coupons that still need to be doubled. Mandy, do you see barry? AMANDA No, i don’t see him coming back. BARRY We may have to re-scan the whole transaction. AMANDA This is great. This is great. I mean, yeah, it’s… so horrible. BARRY Oh yeah. CARLA Here he comes! Yay! BARRY We made an adjustment. The change i made… CARLA Oh. AMANDA Oh. BARRY …won’t take effect because we’re in the middle of a transaction. AMANDA You’d have to start over. That’s too bad. BARRY The other way round is basically keep track of what we need to double, 'cause we can override the system enough to do that. NARRATOR Carla chooses to resume the transaction and let the manager keep track of the savings adjustment he’ll need to add when all the remaining coupons are scanned. CARLA Hey, you’d better make sure you get this right for me, barry. I already got one over here standing next to me that’s trying to botch me up. BARRY It’s a lot of pressure, carla. NARRATOR After reaching the final coupon, the cashier inputs the additional discounts on the manager’s list… BARRY Now we have to take $39.25 off, lorraine. NARRATOR …and reveals carla’s final total cost. LORRAINE Carla, your total due after in-store discounts, after double coupons, is $43.87. CARLA Whoo! CARLA The total retail value was 697.96. I spent a total of 43.87, which was a 95 per cent saving. Whoo! I kicked your butt! AMANDA You did, you did kick my butt. NARRATOR Carla’s haul includes 20 bags of pasta, 49 meat products, 100 candy bars and 195 assorted beverages. The retail value totals $697.96. Using coupons, carla paid just $43.87, an overall savings of nearly 95 per cent. FRANK Holy [schnite]! I wondered why you were gone so long. CARLA Those long hours i spend on it, totally 100 per cent worth it. FRANK Man, this is the most we’ve ever had. CARLA It’s changed my life. It’s made things so much better for my family, for my chequebook, for everything. It’s something everybody should be doing. CARLA We did good! Woo!