Crissy Thompson acknowledges her money-saving techniques take time and planning, but she says when she gets things for free, or a cart full of stuff for pocket change, it’s worth it. “Oh I love it,” Thompson says. “I saved $36.22, about two-thirds of my bill,” Crissy says about a videotaped visit to a grocery store that doubled the face value on each of her coupons. Even with the double coupons, she only purchased items that were both on sale and on her pre-planned list organized around the week’s store flyers. She says on one trip, where she stacked the store’s weekly specials with manufacturer’s coupons and added in the store’s own internet coupons, she walked out with a cartload for one penny. “That was fresh meat, fresh produce, everything,” Crissy says. “It was actually two-and-a-half weeks of food that I got for a penny.”
Coupon Crissy is Born
Crissy has been making headlines for her uncanny ability to coordinate so many incentives that in many cases, she walks away getting items for free. They’re calling her “Coupon Crissy” the “Coupon Queen.” “Some weeks, it's 10 dollars or less,” Crissy says about what it costs to feed her family of five. “I still consider $50 a good week.” We flew her from her home in Atlanta to Kansas City to show an NBC Action News producer who is also a mom, how she does it.
NBC Action News Employee Tries Coupon Clipping
Brooke Givens is married with three children and had not been a coupon user before Crissy’s intervention. “First thing that you want to do is go through the sale ad,” Crissy said sorting through a week’s worth of store ads with Givens. In one afternoon, she taught Givens how she finds the coupons in papers and online and matches them to items already on sale. “This is one I use a lot,” she said pointing to hotcouponworld.com, but also encourages checking out your store’s own Web site along with other sites including coupons.com and smartsource.com. There have been reports of some stores refusing to honor certain coupons.
Learning the System
Crissy tells Brooke you have to learn each store’s system. She demonstrated how one of her favorite store’s system works. At CVS, she stacked the sale price on top of the coupon on top of the store's “extra care bucks” loyalty program. “The best deals at CVS are using coupons with extra care bucks,” Crissy said. The rebates, which come printed on your receipt, aren't valid until your next transaction. So, Crissy makes that next transaction as soon as the previous transaction is complete. “I split them into several different transactions.” Crissy says. “I can use the extra care bucks I get from one and use it to pay for the next.” So, in one visit to the drug store, she makes five transactions, getting immediate rebates for each previous purchase. She bagged about $140 in total purchases, but paid under $5 for everything.
Compare, Contrast and Save
She also advises comparing discounts to stores that will double coupons, saying you never know who will have the best deal. “The mustard is normally $1.87,” she says about a store that offers double coupons. “Using the sale and coupon, you're paying 49 cents for this bottle of mustard.” She told Brooke there’s seldom a reason to consider store brands or generics. “With coupons, you can usually get the name brand item for less,” Crissy says. She admits she does get some looks at the checkout. “I get a wide range of reactions,” Crissy says. Crissy says it boils down to saving a couple hundred dollars a week. “Once you get a system down, it just come naturally,” Crissy says. “Anyone can do it.”
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