Adventures in Couponing

Recently, Noemi, Steffany, and I had the chance to join our good friend on a couponing trip.
At around 9 PM, we embarked on a journey to the nearest CVS-- an hour before their closing time.
If you coupon, or have ever watched Extreme Couponing on TLC, you know it is somewhat time-consuming and very delicate.
We all helped her grab things and put some back. In return, she let us each pick a Pantene shampoo and conditioner and 2 Wet N Wild products.
At closing time, and after double-checking every product was covered by her coupons, Lynda headed to the register with plans to make two transactions. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short by a manager who was "not going to lose her job because of coupon fraud." (I still believe Lynda was right, and I just watched 3 people do it on TV)
After attempting to state her reasoning, Lynda politely asked them to cancel the transaction and we travelled to another CVS opened 24 hours.
The drive gave her time to reorganize and the second trip was successful.
Ultimately, Lynda only had to pay out of pocket the sales tax.

We asked Lynda some questions about her couponing, and this is what she had to say:

"I began couponing at the beginning of the year but didn't dedicate much effort to it because it was so difficult to understand and to start. I started couponing heavily in March. I began couponing because I needed to replace my horrible spending habits with something I could possible make money off of. I get the majority of my coupons from the newspaper and the Internet. I have gotten some coupons from Facebook and off of products I buy. My favorite place to shop/coupon is CVS. The majority of them have excellent staff and are really friendly. Target and Walgreens are the worse. Horrible staff with horrible attitudes. I only use coupons when I have my plans/outline ready. Other than that, I do not coupon. I don't like to carry my coupons because I lose everything. But once I have my binder, I will. I usually use coupons on drugstore items such as cosmetics/beauty products. I do have a few coupons for clothing that I am dying to use. I do not know anyone else who coupons nor exchange coupons with other couponers. I wish I knew other people who couponed to exchange tips and couponing scenarios. "

*Please excuse the low cell phone photo quality!