By SABRINA BERNDT

Washington Daily News

 

The show, “Extreme Couponing,” makes it seem impossible: people running around with books of coupons, filling several carts and paying less than a dollar for a month’s worth of groceries. But couponing doesn’t have to be extreme, and a few tricks can help an average family save hundreds of dollars.

Hosted by BHM Library, Jenny Martin of SouthernSavers.com will be visiting the N.C. Cooperative Extension Beaufort County Center on Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., to provide residents with valuable tips that will help them save money.

“We have been couponing and saving for almost 14 years now,” Martin said. “When we first started, we were able to cut our budget in half, just by changing the way that we approached the grocery store. And that’s what I try to teach in the workshops that we do now.”

A mother of five, Martin started couponing when she had her first child. After successfully saving more than $400 a month for several years, she decided to create SouthernSavers.com, a coupon database, in 2008 and share her tips through workshops across the South.

According to Martin, the three-hour workshop will go over a few different money-saving tricks to save attendees at least 50% when shopping, including switching from a need-based shopping mindset to a sale-based mindset and discussing the different types of coupons available.

It may not be the 99% savings that “Extreme Couponing” promotes with each episode, but to Martin, it’s a more realistic approach to saving money.

“I mean, what you see on the show is some of the tricks to it all, but they’re not really buying all of their food,” Martin said. “So they’re getting the top deals, but they’re still going to have to come back at another point and buy their meat and produce and things that you don’t see on TV.”

Through SouthernSavers.com and her workshops, Martin has successfully spread her love of couponing over the years, making the activity more approachable for those who simply want to find methods of saving money, including the residents of Beaufort County.

“Changing the way that you’re shopping and picking up those mobile apps and cutting a few coupons really will pay off in the end,” Martin said. “You know, for us, it meant an extra $350 in real money that we were spending and then we were no longer spending. And just the peace of mind behind that extra money is huge for every single person.”