I’m a money-savvy mum & have a HUGE stash of toys for birthday parties – they cover my garage but barely cost anything
A MUM has opened up about feeling stressed when her kids hit school party age due to having to frequently buy expensive gifts.
Torok uploaded a video explaining how she discovered how to pick up toys for as little as £3 thanks to couponing.
On her @torok.coupon.hunter account, she said: “When my kids first started getting invited to birthday parties I PANICKED!
“So much extra money being spent that wasn’t in our budget.
“UNTIL I learned how to coupon and clearance shop!
“Now, I have a stash of clearance toys and gifts that my kids can pull from whenever they get invited to a party.”
She explained that she mainly gets discounts from “Clearance shopping and coupon deals”, and added: “They’re all digital now! Store apps have all the coupons you’ll need.”
In the clip she toured around her vast present storage area that was stocked up with numerous gifts ready for school parties.
She added: “When your kids get invited to a birthday party but you are an extreme couponer.
“Step 1: Go to your stash of 70-90 per cent off toys.”
Torok showed how she had stashed Barbie toys for $4 (£3.15), Disney sets for $8 (£6.30) and shelves upon shelves of bargain finds.
She continued: “Step 2: Get 90 per cent off holiday wrapping paper that doesn’t look holiday-ish at all.”
The mum added she had picked up the Disney-themed rolls – which had been for Christmas but wasn’t strictly festive – for around 7p.
She then wrapped up the gifts for the party.
Torok concluded: “Send that baby off with a $60 (£47) gift that only cost you $16 (£12.60).”
Many people were impressed at her couponing finds, and her video has racked up over 54,000 likes.
One wrote: “Everyone looks forward to my kids because I’m able to give more because I coupon.”
A second chimed in: “definitely want to make it to this level.”
How to do couponing to save money in the UK
MUM-of-four Holly Smith, who is an expert on The Sun’s Squeeze Team, helping families get more from their money, says: “I use a range of digital coupon apps to get money off my shop.
“Shopmium is great for all-round savings, Smash is a newer one that I like the look of.
“CheckoutSmart is good for saving on drinks, while GreenJinn is good for getting money back on healthier foods.”
You can often get a freebie just for signing up.
Other freebies are given away by brands launching a new product — for example, if they are keen to get people to try it.
Holly says: “Some months using apps I can get £200 of free stuff.”
The apps often work in a similar way.
On Shopmium, for example, you select your chosen store and it shows a list of items you can get discounts on or even get for free.
Holly says: “It’s a bit like a shopping list as you can see all the items, then add them to your trolley.”
After you have bought the items, you scan the barcodes and upload a picture of your receipt to the app, and within 48 hours the cashback is in your bank account.
The apps may also let each adult in a household have an account so you can use them to snap up even more offers.
Holly says: “You should also have the supermarket loyalty apps, so you can get an extra layer of deals. The Lidl Plus app is one of the best and gives you different coupons which it suggests, based on what you buy. You can also get a free bakery treat on your birthday.”
She adds: “This is the best time of year to get savings from digital apps.
“There are a lot of limited- edition products that companies want people to try then come back as a repeat customer.”
However, some people didn’t agree with her present stack, with one commenting: “That’s excessive to bring to one party. The parents and children at the party think you spent $60.”
Holly Smith, who runs Couponing Queen, gave her top tips to Fabulous on how to enter the “genius digital age of couponing”.
Holly advised that to get started you need to download the top couponing apps, such as Shopmium, Smash, CheckoutSmart and ClickSnack.
Then you need to visit your supermarket to find free or discounted products.
She explained: “Because of Coronavirus, paper coupons have kind of gone out of use, although they are coming back a little bit more.
The way digital coupons work is you load up the app when you are in a store – like Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsburys.
“You select which store you are at and it’ll bring up a list of items you can get for free that week and also items that you can get discounts on, like 50p off each purchase, just like paper coupons.
“It’s a little bit like a shopping list because you can see all the items you can get in that store, and add them to your trolley.”
Holly said you then buy the items and “check out like normal.”