I Tried Couponing Like GregThatDude. Here’s How I Did.

My niece Melissa’s couponing exploits at Dollar General are insane—last time she saved a whopping 81%. But it’s a lot of work to clip, organize and plan a giant haul like that. One thing she persuaded me to try that’s super easy to do? I signed up for the DG app and digital coupons from Dollar General.

Then I discovered GregThatDude, a couponing enthusiast who reveals the best deals each week from DG, CVS and Target—three of my favorite stores! Greg breaks down the weekly sales with different couponing scenarios, including digital-coupon-only ones that are available to anyone with the DG store app. Here’s how I did my first time couponing at Dollar General.

Taste of Home

For the weekend I shopped, Greg listed three different all-digital couponing scenarios to help readers save as much as 64%. Instead of following one scenario to a T, though, I picked and chose from among the scenarios to buy items that were already on my shopping list. (This brings the savings down a bit.)

I used digital coupons for five products totaling $3.75, plus a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more (you can get these almost every weekend with the DG app). Total savings on this trip was $8.75, or 29%—not bad for a couple minutes’ work!

Taste of Home

Not everything went as I’d planned, though. I had to add a second 12-pack of Angel Soft in order to hit the threshold that activated the big $5 coupon—and I hadn’t planned on doing that. I only had one 75-cent coupon for Angel Soft, so I bought the second package without a coupon. That’s not ideal when you’re trying to maximize your savings everywhere you can.

Still, I got eight items for $22.90, or a price each of $2.86. And that’s pretty awesome when you consider that most of my items usually cost much more than that.

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