Johnston County teen is serious about saving with coupons

I recently met a local teenager who seriously loves to coupon.

Cody P. is 18 and a recent high school graduate who spends around 20 hours a week couponing. He has a stockpile and shares his deals with family.

I used to think couponing was kind of a waste of time when I was much much younger. My mom, nana and my grandma always told me how good they did using coupons dating back to when I was in diapers growing up in NJ. Where I'm from up north, we have a supermarket chain called ShopRite which is basically like the typical Harris Teeter, Lowes or Food Lion. But this store is all about really low prices so my mom and nana used to get tons of moneymakers! Their awesome stories made me want to coupon (especially when my nana told me all about her stockpile being so big that she had to give stuff away to family at her holiday Christmas party!)

I started couponing when I was in 11th grade at West Johnston High School. Most people thought I was crazy, but my attitude was that I was going to be determined to save my household some major money! I started couponing at two basic stores: Lowes Foods and CVS. Then I expanded my couponing to Harris Teeter, Walgreens and Target. At first, I thought I wasn't going to save a lot, but man I was wrong! I saved hundreds!

Now I work at WalMart full time as a cashier and know all of the coupon basics, price matching policies and get to help people save major money! I love when we get Super Doubles week at Harris Teeter. I get awesome savings! Also loving Target because of their policy to stack Target store coupons with manufacturers' coupons and Target cartwheel offers! My mom and I go couponing once every week or once every two weeks.

Last year, during my senior year in high school, a student-run media publication at the school called WildCat News got a story recommendation from my homeroom teacher to do a story on my couponing. The day they came to me with the idea, I just so happened to be planning a Harris Teeter Super Doubles Trip. I agreed to do the story so they bought their cameras with them to Harris Teeter and did a story on my couponing!

My thanks to Cody for sharing his story! I did not start couponing until I had kids, so he has a real head start on saving money. Keep up the great work!

When did you start couponing? Did anybody else start in their teens?