<p>This week my service told me about a national brand of dental floss at CVS, normally priced at $3.49. This week it’s on sale for $2.00 with my Extra Care card. When I checked out, I got $2.00 in Extra Bucks to use next week. I also had a coupon for $1.00. I made money on the deal. </p>
<p>The reason more people don’t do it is that it’s time-consuming to figure all this stuff out. I would never in a million years spend time and effort to ferret out this kind of stuff on my own. But I’m willing to pay someone else $1.25 a week to do it for me.</p>
<p>I didn’t watch the show but saw a blog claiming possible coupon fraud on the show to get the savings. Coupons for one product (Fiber One) were used on another product (Cheerios) that was on sale. Several other examples. Google coupon fraud TLC</p>
<p>I watched maybe 15 minutes of one show, and it made me stomach sick. The people who engage in this activity are hoarders with potentially serious mental problems; however, unlike the Buried Alive, this show portrays its subjects as savvy money savers, which sends a wrong message to some folks and could even trigger their descent into the dark world of hoarding. I’m not even talking about the poor children on the show who have to eat all that horrible crap!</p>
<p>So, this show is on now. The woman just bought 62 bottles of mustard. She had 77 coupons for this item, but her husband talked her into limiting the number bottles to 62. She gets all of the coupons by having the extra inserts that would have been thrown out delivered to her home! The people are all clapping for this woman. She is being recognized for her savings. She bought a bit over $1900 for less than $104.</p>
<p>She also bought 27 of one item, which cleaned out the store’s stock on this item. She asked her husband to shop with her before he went to work. This allowed him to ask for a rain check for an item that was no longer in stock since it was now in wife’s shopping cart! This means that they can purchase more at the same price at a later date. My guess is that the raincheck has a LIMIT to the number of items one can buy, but this was not discussed.</p>
<p>^^ I saw that episode and just could not understand why anyone would need 62 bottles of mustard! Didn’t her husband say he didn’t even like mustard?! How long is that going to take to use up unless you put mustard on EVERYTHING you eat! lol</p>
<p>I totally get doing what you can to save money but some of these people are way overboard!</p>
<p>Yes, it’s Organized Couponing Hoarders. That one lady had shelving in every room of the house! The other one devoted an entire shower stall to toilet paper and paper towels.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly! I guess if you get your tp and paper towels for free, you can spend more on fresh food? </p>
<p>My husband is not an extreme couponer, but if an item is on sale and he has a coupon for it, he buys it and thinks he’s hit the jackpot. And it’s always somethiing like Ding Dongs or Lays Potato chips. The asparagus or raspberries are never “on sale with a coupon.”</p>
<p>BTW, my son works at a major grocery store chain and they have a 20 coupon per person limit. The last big couponer they had had him void a bunch of stuff when he toldher about the limit, then went to another aisle to complete the checkout. No one wanted to alienate her so they let her.</p>
<p>I saw the one last night with the 62 bottles of mustard. Unless she’s going to sell it to her friends and neighbors, why bother??? So what if she gets it for basically free? The only things I would really go to town on are tp, tissues, etc., which never go bad. </p>
<p>I agree that this is hoarding behavior. Unless you use up your stock from time to time, you’re just hoarding.</p>
<p>That might actually be a good long term NHS or scout troop community service project. Find out what type of products a shelter or food pantry needs, then “extreme coupon” for them.</p>
<p>It’s called “The Grocery Game.” Each week they publish lists for leading stores. I only have one list, and it’s $10 for 8 weeks. I don’t know if they give a price break for multiple lists.</p>
<p>It’s definitely worth it. When I went shopping this week I paid $26; it would have been $69 at regular price without coupons. That’s a little better than usual. I generally pay about 40-50% of shelf price.</p>
<p>“The only things I would really go to town on are tp, tissues, etc., which never go bad.”</p>
<p>Not true! After my Nana died we were cleaning out her Florida house and there was a whole closet filled with tp. I don’t know how long she had them but the cardboard roll on the insides had completing disintegrated. My Nana and one of my aunts (the oldesst sister) weren’t couponers but if it was on sale they both bought copious amounts of the item. A few years back I was rummaging around my Aunts kitchen looking for something to eat and there were at least 100 boxes of lime jello in the pantry. They were $0.04/box so I figured they had to be at least 25 years old! </p>
<p>We don’t eat anything she brings to family holiday dinners.</p>
<p>I also wondered about the woman last week who bought 40+ bottles of Maalox. Doesn’t that have an expiration date? How much Maalox could a 24-year-old woman go through in a year? Very puzzling.</p>
<p>But wasn’t the mustard 39 cents each? (I can’t believe I’m quoting details from this show). If so, then its a whole other level of craziness. That would be what, $26 for a life time supply of mustard? </p>
<p>I kind of get the thrill of the game to get stuff for free (even if one didn’t use it, you’d think they’d donate it)…but I never understand buying something you’ll never use just because it’s an amazing bargain. </p>
<p>This reminds me a bit of my mother, the bargain hunter. She once bought some shoes that were such a good deal on sale…even though she knew they were not her size. After her amazing bargain purchase, she then went around trying to find someone with the right sized feet who would want these shoes.</p>
<p>Never underestimate the mental illness factor. I agree with other posters who discuss the hoarding issues that are at work, here.</p>
<p>If I can’t use it (or share it), what’s the point? </p>
<p>My hoarding in-laws have crapola, including food, from decades ago. God forbid you try to toss it. Last time I did, I got chewed out. I mean, someone is going to use the Slim-Fast powdered drink from 1984, right? “It’s still good!”, is the constant refrain from in-laws. </p>
<p>The joke in my house is that my H doesn’t understand when it’s time to throw away food because he never learned it when he was growing up. This generally results in eating that turkey that is out of date or something that is off. We all know stomach bugs aren’t fun. I guess that Maalox might come in handy in these situations!</p>
<p>I’ve just gotten to see bits and pieces of this, but I can relate to the ones who do this to economize. After the oil bust in the early eighties, husband and I were both unemployed. At the time, a chain grocer was offering stamps for purchases, and you filled up a card with stamps to redeem for bargains. I religiously saved my stamps and redeemed them for our meals. One sheet of filled stamps got us a box of fish sticks for ten cents, another sheet got a dozen eggs for a nickel, and another sheet got us a pack of hot dogs for a penny. I got out my old home ec recipe cards and created some bargain meals. </p>
<p>I wish the grocery stores would go back to some of those great promotions, in these trying economic times. I just went to Kmart last night, with my envelope of coupons, and was told there was only a five coupon limit. And when I used to do grocery coupons that doubled, there was a price limit of 60 cents. You could also only use one coupon for one type of item. In other words, no using 30 coupons for 30 boxes of cereal. I don’t know how these ladies, and gentlemen, get their items for free, but I’d sure like to find these stores with the lax coupon rules.</p>
<p>^^^ In one of the shows I watched, it showed the woman calling her local Kroger’s to check on their policy. Because of it, she realized she needed to bring her husband along so he could shop and use the coupons as well. </p>
<p>My local Bed Bath and Beyond only allows a customer to use five of those 20% off coupons at a time. A real PITA if you’re buying, say, all new towels – so perhaps there are 20 separate items.</p>
<p>6* boxes Special K
8* Air Wick motion kit
2* Gain dish soap
2* hand sanitizer
…2* Luster toothpaste
2* loofahs
8* Lifesaver jellybeans
Not pictured gallon milk + loaf bread
Total $142.32, paid $6.79</p>
<p>The thing I think about is where is the real FOOD? In the list above only the bread and milk seem like good food. I noticed this on the show also. They buy tons of mustard, toothpaste, hand soap etc., but where are the eggs, fruit, meat, dairy? The last show I watched had the twins on it. That was the only time I saw couponers buying food to compose a full meal.</p>