<p>I know a Mormon family that stockpiles at least a year’s worth of non-perishables for each family member(and it’s a large family). I guess extreme couponing would be one way to accomplish that goal.</p>
<p>I often buy deeply discounted non-perishables (pasta & canned goods) for the local food pantry, however I usually buy these during our local supermarket’s Can-Can sale which are typically private label items. Our church keeps a shopping cart in the hallway for donations.</p>
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A lot if they are eating half the cr*p they buy ;)</p>
<p>Note to self - discover how to put a block on this program so my husband can’t see it. Don’t need to have this idea put in his head!!!</p>
<p>^LOL! </p>
<p>I guess whatever they save in grocery $$, they will spend 10 times over in medical copays, lost work time, health issues. How can one eat all of that junk for years and stay healthy?</p>
<p>I know someone who does this too. It’s bizarre. She even posts pictures of her haul on FB.</p>
<p>emilybee - I think that’s a big part of the experience for them - pride in their “haul” as you put it. I loved the first episode with the woman from my area of Maryland - adjusting her make-up several times before entering the store - dancing around in her high heeled black boots - she just loved the attention. (Most people in our area dress fairly conservatively. You really don’t see too many people wearing head to toe purple including purple eye shadow up to her eyebrows - that would be my first indication that she is a little “different”).</p>
<p>They all seemed just so proud of this accomplishment and so enthralled with organizing and admiring their stash. I don’t know how long my interest in this show will last - but I am somewhat fascinated momentarily.</p>
<p>My friend does seem very proud of her “finds.” Who, in their right mind, takes pictures of groceries - all arranged very neatly, too. This women doesn’t even have a big family - just 1 kid! </p>
<p>It’s mostly junk food, too. I don’t think there is ever anything I could even make a meal from.</p>
<p>I can see stockpiling the extra stuff for food pantries for the needy - that’s a cool idea.</p>
<p>I can’t see stockpiling my house with stuff we don’t need. </p>
<p>There are plenty of other things that we should stockpile in case of emergency - tp, water, non-perishable easy to eat foods, batteries, cat food.</p>
<p>Like all of these shows, you’re seeing the extreme; the title even says so. Then there are people like me, who coupon to save a little money, not to amass a hoard or to prepare for Armageddon. </p>
<p>Coupons by themselves are useless; name brand with a coupon is usually still more than the store brand. You have to know exactly when to use the coupon. But unlike the people on the show, I’m completely unwilling to do all the work to figure this out, so I subscribe to a service which does the work for me and tells me when to buy stuff.</p>
<p>I spend about 30 minutes a week plotting my shopping, not the 70 hours that one of the extreme couponers talked about. I don’t dumpster-dive, walk around the neighborhood asking for inserts, or have 3-ring notebooks stuffed to the gills with coupons. I don’t have a 2-year supply of anything, or even a one-year supply. I don’t have my stash all over the house, buy special shelving, or take out insurance on it. It takes up about 3 feet of shelf the the spare room closet.</p>
<p>I also don’t save 98% like the folks on the show, but I do save about 60%. With college costs, every little bit helps, and for me, spending a half hour and $1.25 a week is well worth it. If that makes me eccentric, so be it. :D</p>
<p>I totally agree with Samurai this would be a great thing for food banks. While I do clip coupons I am quite the slacker apparently compared to some of these extreme clippers! My questions is though what is the reasoning behind having so much stuff that it takes over every room in the house - do they actually go thru all the stuff they’ve bought before it goes on sale again? 30 boxes of dish soap? 62 bottles of mustard? I imagine a family of 7 goes thru way more than a young couple but still 50 bags of chips?</p>
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<p>I think the people featured on the show are actually hoarders. They buy stuff for the sake of buying it, regardless of whether there’s any real need for it. I was struck by how carefully they tend their stash; several of them talked about needing to have all the labels facing out, neatly lined up. It seemed beyond organization; it was like an emotional attachment to their stash, just like the hoarders.</p>
<p>^Exactly. These are people with a psychological disorder, not just ones who are trying to save a few bucks. I’ve never understood the appeal of these types of shows. It’s like a freak show at the circus. It’s almost painful to watch.</p>
<p>I think most of these people are organized hoarders. What’s the purpose of buying 62 jars of mustard or 100 boxes of cereal or 300 toothbrushes? I’d like to know if they actually use all of the things they buy. Why not buy 5 boxes of cereal or two jars of mustard? They would still be saving money and wouldn’t have to have an extra room to store their stash or have a shower stall stacked with paper products.</p>
<p>I just have to interject this. Recently saw a fairly overweight gentleman with two early elementary school-aged children who were extremely obese. His shopping cart contain nothing but high fat, high sodium, high calorie frozen dinners, soda, chips, sweet baked goods, white bread, cookies, and candy. I am not joking. The only thing green was the oregano on the pizza. Omigosh - I had to practically bite my tongue off!!!</p>
<p>The whole couponing thing has embedded in it a questionable distraction from healthy shopping. Pretty much the last thing many Americans need is a way to secure more quantity, or to buy less healthy food choices at a lower cost. </p>
<p>Want to really save money? Eat more of a vegan diet, exercise regularly so you don’t need much of “the pink stuff”, and buy store brands for nonperishables.</p>
<p>I save a lot of money buying the store brand, which is quite good with almost every item. Even with a coupon the “name brand” is often still more expensive than the store brand. I also have very little brand loyalty for things like spaghetti sauce, I just buy what’s on sale. </p>
<p>Back when PMKjr was a little guy and we were living on base, I did use coupons at the commissary because that really added up. However, the women in these shows put me to shame because I put about an hour or two a week going through the Sunday sales circulars, putting my coupons in order and planning my trip. And I thought that was a big investment of my time!</p>
<p>GTAlum wrote,
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<p>That is such a nice thing to hear. Thank you for sharing it.</p>
<p>Can anyone else imagine that these people get home with their bounty and say “Whats for dinner? Theres no food in the house” or “how come we never have anything to eat?” Becasue to me, it looked like they weren’t buying a lot of things that constituted “healthy meals”. The one lady bought about 20 steaks, and I want to know where/what kind of coupon she had for them!!! The other girl had three shelves full of “junk food”, chips, etc.,
more than any person/couple could eat in a year or more and that would be gorging…</p>
<p>Reminds me of when Mom used to grocery shop and would occasionally come home with an item that no one in the house would eat/use… when asked why she bought it she would say “the deal was too good to pass up”.</p>
<p>I certainly never see any coupons for steaks in my paper! I also can’t see my local stores doing the $3 off an item that is on sale for $2 and you getting the extra $1 back - you may get it for free but I can’t imagine they would pay you to take it…</p>
<p>^^ Typically, you’re buying a number of items. They charge you $2 for the item on sale plus all the other stuff, then they scan the $3 coupon against your total. So in effect, they’re paying you a dollar to carry the item out of the store. But if you’re only purchasing the one item, then yes, they’ll actually hand you a dollar bill along with your receipt.</p>
<p>I have never seen even one of these types of instances (where an item is on sale for $2, and there is a coupon for that same item worth $3). Granted, I am not up on the couponing thing, but it seems strange. Aren’t coupons designed with strategic expiration dates so that the discount does not coincide with store sales (which are planned and pushed by manufacturers cutting deals with the chains)? Also, doubling has a lot of restrictions (usually up to a max of a dollar). I still don’t get it.</p>
<p>If this show depicts something that is really possible on even a somewhat regular basis, why aren’t more people doing it? Why aren’t students everywhere conducting massive coupon collections in order to stock homeless shelters ?</p>