By Tabby Hardman

David Lieu calls himself a coupon king.

Although he’s not as crazy as the TLC Extreme Couponers who stock their garage with mountains of diapers and deodorant the 24-year-old Mason Graduate student doesn’t buy anything without a coupon.

“I was raised to know that every cent counts, my parents and their parents were first generation Americans so they came from a place of no money—eventually that mentality just stuck,” said Lieu.

He spends hours — sometimes weeks — researching a product, tracking and matching prices before he goes to a store.

“I typically like to use multiple coupons at one time, or stack them, but you have to know the best order to use them otherwise you won’t get the most for your money,” said Lieu.

And it’s not just groceries he scores deals on.

“I always go and look for coupons when I go clothes shopping because I refuse to buy clothes online—Kohl’s are great because you can stack coupons and they are notorious for always having sales,” said Lieu. “Sometimes they try to say you can’t stack and I will stand my ground by asking where it says that in the fine print and if they are difficult I have no problem getting back in line for separate transactions.”

Instead of old school coupon clipping from the Sunday paper, he pulls up a lot of coupons on his phone.

“You can go to the store, pull up a coupon on printablecoupons.com and scan the bar code—you don’t even need a piece of paper,” said Lieu.

Getting good deals is addictive, he says.

“Because you love the high of finding a good deal, even if you don’t need something—it’s just the excitement of it,” said Lieu.  “I don’t enjoy couponing, but I can’t help it—it’s an obsession.”