<p>Just watched this show for the first time. The lady got $600+ worth of groceries for $7 and was saying by saving the $600 she could afford to roof her house. OK, except I don’t see how saving $600 on stuff she doesn’t even need and won’t use in the near future (150 bottles of Gatorade, 100 boxes of sweetener, a gazillion packets of kitchen rolls, 100 boxes of toothpaste etc - more stuff than you could use in a year ) is saving money. It’s money she doesn’t need to spend anyway. I don’t get it, what am I missing?</p>
<p>How did she get a roof for $600?
That sort of behavior is hoarding. Calling it couponing, just makes it sound slightly more acceptable.</p>
<p>
Maybe she had a coupon?</p>
<p>(Now that’s a coupon I could use!!)</p>
<p>The only way i could understand this sort of thing is if you were going to donate the stuff to charity or what have you (places that could actually use the goods).</p>
<p>What they do is they store those goods in a room or something. That supply will last them a year or several years, during which time they will never need to buy toothpaste, etc.</p>
<p>I use coupons, but not to that extent. I went through a phase where I was really into coupons, but I found that a lot of the “stuff” was just being stored, not used. I donated a bunch to the local women’s shelter, and cut back on the couponing. I just don’t need more than 3 or 4 unopened boxes of toothpaste.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to note that several stores who have participated in the Extreme Couponing show suspend their coupon policies for the show. I know that our local grocery stores do not allow that many duplicate coupons for the same items. There were several online articles about at least one store wishing they had not participated.</p>
<p>For some of the couponers it makes sense, at least one donated the purchases to local charities. Some just seem out of control. I can’t imaging storing that much “stuff”…it can’t stay fresh forever.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom: Excellent! I laughed outloud!!</p>
<p>Some couponing is fun, but when its excessive and someone has to have a huge storage area for all the stuff, thats over the top, especially if there is any shelf life issue. I would like to have just enough extra stuff that when people need cans donated for a food drive, I have enough on hand to give them. </p>
<p>That said, I still smile about the item I was able to get for my son (a blender) that, with the coupons, store “bucks” and a rebate, they ultimately paid ME a few dollars to purchase. SCORE!</p>
<p>I feel better already - I had been wondering this myself. The newspaper insert coupons are usually for things like air freshener, salad dressing and jello temptations - all nonessentials if you use them at all (we don’t). At one point I felt a bit guilty for not using more coupons but they are hardly ever for real food items that my family would want to eat. Now and then I manage to use one for toiletries or something but I just shop on sale within the several brands that I’m willing to buy and my family will use. e.g. (NYers cover your ears!) I have 2 brands of bagels that I will buy and one is pretty much always on sale. They are too expensive full price and the super cheap ones are bad so I"ll buy 2-3 bags of the ones that are on sale that week.</p>
<p>I use coupons for BJs religiously. I get a coupon book in the mail, clip coupons for what we use, make a list, and usually save upwards of $20 on a $200 bill. My all-time record was a savings of $69!!! I was pretty darn proud.</p>
<p>What is BJs?</p>
<p>It’s like Costcos. Unique to the East Coast – from Maine through Virginia.</p>
<p>Edit: I just went to the website. They’re also in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.</p>
<p>BJ’s is like Sam’s Club or Costco.</p>
<p>Also meant to give kudos to swimcatsmom for post #3. Too funny!!</p>
<p>Many of them donate what they bought. Other than that, it is simply addiction and nothing else. You cannot buy real food (like beef, apples,…) with coupons. It is adiciton and time killing activity. I have to stay busy all the time. I have a hobby. type of art that does not make much sense either. I have no idea why I absolutely have to do it almost every day after work, but I do. So, I understand these people.</p>
<p>When we were first married, I used more coupons. But then I/we were also probably more willing to eat the type of food that coupons support - frozen meals, random cereal brands, juices, snack items. It seemed like we were saving alot but also we were probably not always buying the “good” kinds of food.</p>
<p>I still will use some on occasion, but really, I just don’t/won’t take the time to go through the flyers to see what’s there. You get out of the habit, you know? I had the coupon box and everything, divided into sections and every couple of months I would spend a hour in the evening “cleaning” out the box of expired coupons. </p>
<p>I also remember how WONDERFUL it was when they introduced double coupons and how SHOCKING it was when some stores stopped doing it!!!</p>
<p>Happened to see part of a show last night - best line ever was this extreme couponer who took her message to the pulpit and integrated into her sermons. She said “Jesus saves, so we should too!”</p>
<p>^couponning is not a saving by any means. it is just “cleanning shelfves” of products that most peole do not care to have. They are willing to live on primarily junk food also. It is their way of life, nothing is wrong with it, except promoting it as something good. Any addicition is just that - addiction, even if it involves creating peices of art. I look at it from “grounded” non-glorified prospective. If one wants to spend time doing it, it is very fine. To say that it is good for somebody else, I am not sure about it. The person could have been engaged in some more meanningful activity, I tell that to mysleft all the time, I do not have any false pretends about it.</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t use coupons for food items (just don’t buy many that have coupons). I do use them for cleaning products, toothpaste, razors, bandaids, etc. But there is a limit to how many I need on hand. </p>
<p>Love Coupon Mom dot com. Does all the matching up for me, so it’s easy to just buy what we need. Apparently coupons reoccur in about 12 week cycles, so no need to have a lifetime supply. It works for us, partly because it’s not much work.</p>
<p>Bizarre, indeed.</p>
<p>I used to clip coupons for diapers, baby formula, toiletries and cleaning products, but found most of what was in the newspaper circulars was for stuff I wouldn’t normally use or shouldn’t purchase (unhealthy, processed crap).</p>