There is a reality TV show in America called Extreme Couponing, which makes for fairly addictive viewing.

In it, “couponers” spend hours searching for, and clipping out, money-saving coupons and then compete to save as much money as possible while accumulating as many groceries as possible. It works. Check out past episodes on the internet and you get to watch the truly dedicated leaving supermarkets having paid $50 for $500- worth of food. It is also proving to be a pretty popular concept as real wages continue to stagnate in the US - not only does the show have millions of viewers but its theme has been picked up by scores of websites that purport to be able to teach people super-couponing skills.

You might think couponing sounds awful. If so, you won’t want to read on. Why? Because the extreme money-saving craze has crossed the Atlantic. Visit Motivatingmum.co.uk and you will find a section written by Debbie O’Connor, an accountant and coupon user who attended a talk on extreme couponing in America. Since then she has, she says, used her new knowledge to cut her grocery bill by 35%. She reckons that, should we want to, the rest of us can do the same. How? First you need to know where to find the deals. In America, newspapers and magazines print hundreds of coupons every week. Couponers then cut them out and use them as needed.

That doesn’t work here - we don’t have much of a tradition of printed coupons. So while you can pick up a few, if you want real deals you need the internet. O’Connor recommends regular visits to top voucher sites, including the likes of Savoo.co.uk, where participants both find deals and list ones they have used for others to use, too.

She also encourages subscribing to all the retailers’ online newsletters. These look like spam, but are teeming with money- saving offers. So open a special email account for them and check it before every shop. If you shop at Tesco, you should also use Tescopricecheck.com.
Pop the details of your receipt into the site and if your shopping wasn’t cheaper at Tesco than Asda, the supermarket will make up the difference. Mysupermarket.co.uk is also good for comparing costs and offering voucher codes that cut your bill (£15 off at Sainsbury’s, for example).

Extreme couponing will never be quite as lucrative in Britain as in America, but it’s catching on fast.

Good Auction-Hunting Credit Card

YourPoints World MasterCard is now available to anyone, having previously only been available to NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers. It offers a tempting rate of 0% on purchases and bank transfers for a period of 13 months, and a rewards system for flights, holidays and shopping at Harvey Nichols, M&S, Boots and Amazon. However, there are catches. Balance transfers from other NatWest or RBS cards are prohibited and after the initial period of 13 months watch out for the APR of 17.9% (ouch!).

Avoid Payday Loans

Debt-counselling charities warn borrowers not to be lured into interest-free short-term loans. At Instant Loans Direct, for example, loans are charged at 0% interest for the first eight days, then 50p a day for every £100 borrowed until the loan is repaid, equating to an interest rate (APR) of 448.3%! The best defence Instant Loans Direct could muster is that “most payday loan lenders charge an APR of over 1,000%”. So, that’s all right, then!