In Kernersville, North Carolina, homemaker Carmen Palmer shares some of her strategy when grocery shopping.

Palmer, who is also known as Coupon Carmen, can get grocery items to fill up a shopping cart for just $11. She has been able to save a significant amount of the household’s grocery budget because of her extreme couponing.

According to Coupon Carmen, the method of extreme couponing begins with organizing the coupons. Buy a 3-ring binder to store the coupons in an organized manner. Organize your coupons depending on how you shop, in Palmer’s case, she shops starting from the left aisle then towards the right.

Another tip Palmer shared is to organize the coupons according to your favorite grocery store’s lay out. That will help save time and effort when grocery shopping with coupons. As for where she gets her coupons, Palmer says she gets them from Sunday newspapers and she also gets them online.

When it comes to cereals, Palmer refuses to buy them for over a dollar. In fact, she does not buy the item unless it is on sale. She adds that one way to maximize coupons is to buy the smaller items.

According to her, sometimes grocery stores offer super double and even triple–coupon deals. Those kinds of deals have allowed her family to save more than $1800 in a year. In her last grocery shopping trip, Coupon Carmen only paid $11.79 for all the items that she bought.

Shoppers who are interested in learning how to become an extreme couponer can email her at couponshopperiam@gmail.com to sign up for a free class on couponing.