Extreme Couponing’s Charity Hauke to teach free cost-cutting seminar

KAILUA-KONA — It sounds like a method of attack, an offensive game plan.

And in some ways, it is.

But the biggest misconception about extreme couponing — what Charity Hauke calls “The System” — is that for its discipline-inspiring name, saving strategically is really quite easy.

“It’s very simple,” said Hauke, who started using coupons in 2008 as the economy took a dive and eventually parlayed her success at savings into the TV show, “Extreme Couponing,” that airs Thursdays on the Discovery Family channel. “It doesn’t have to be time consuming.”

But it does take knack and know-how and Hauke will be at the West Hawaii Today office on Tuesday to teach people just that. It’s not to say it doesn’t take any work.

“You do have to be committed,” Hauke said, estimating people can knock 50-60 percent off their grocery bill by dedicating two hours a week, using two different stores. “That’s probably not much more than people are already.”

More than 100 people have RSVP’d for free 90-minute presentation at the newspaper, located at 75-5580 Kuakini Highway, that will start at 6:30 p.m. with Hauke getting the crowd pumped.

“We get everyone warmed,” she said. “We just kind of set the tone it’s a fun, interactive class and not some boring class you have to sit though.”

Some of the pointers will be how to buy in quantities that match families. A family of four with two young daughters doesn’t take the same volume as the family of four with two teenage boys. Know, too, that most stores set their sale cycles every five months, so getting in sync with those cycles is a good chunk of the battle. And buy in bulk when it comes to the Sunday paper. The amount of coupon savings packed in five copies is that much more than one.

“You can save so much money,” said Hauke, whose show first aired in 2010. “As a woman with a family of five, I can tell you, everything is expensive.”

RSVP: www.westhawaiitoday.com/smartshopper