I use coupons. I use coupons for almost everything I buy. But if being an “extreme couponer” is what TLC portrayed it to be in tonight’s special, I say, “No thank you.”
One thing I can be glad about is that this will spark some people’s desire to save their family some money!
Remember, I am buying for a household of 2 and donating to family and church.
- I don’t dumpster dive, but if I did, I wouldn’t take a child with me. (I don’t have anything against dumpster diving, so no offense to the Krazy Coupon Lady.)
- I don’t have a cutting board to clip my coupons. (I use scissors.)
- I don’t have a room the size of my entire house full of my stockpile.
- I don’t spend more than 5 hours per week coupon clipping and shopping (unless you include all the blogging I do for you guys.)
- I don’t tell people in the store what they should buy.
- I didn’t save over 90% this year.
Here is what I think of as my non-extreme couponing:
- I buy two papers per week and occasionally order a few extra coupons.
- I file coupons by insert, and only clip the ones I am using.
- I have a small, messy stockpile that is hard to tame.
- I shop when I have time, the sale is a rock bottom price, and it is something I don’t have 15 of already.
- I follow what I consider to be my own Coupon Ethics.
- I do occasionally give out business cards or coupons in the store, but I try to be very unobtrusive.
- I saved just over 80% on my groceries this year.
In my opinion, the difference between 80% savings and 90% savings is just a bit too “extreme” for me.
Didn’t catch the Extreme Couponing show tonight? You can watch it Thursday at 8 eastern on TLC.
How do you feel about “Extreme Couponing”?
I don’t mind if your opinions differ from mine. Just remember to be positive and kind!
I disclose : There may be affiliate links in this post.
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can I get an Amen? I broke down and blogged about it too http://www.consumerqueen.com/mom-thoughts/tlc-extreme-couponing-show-extremecouponing-coupons
For the time difference of 5 hrs/wk vs. 70hrs/wk at minimum wage you’d probably beat these so-called ‘extreme couponers’. If you used your actual salary calculated to an hourly wage you’d probably be saving more. AND you have 65 hours a week to enjoy life!
I already spend enough time blogging and teaching. You are right, I can’t afford to spend any more time than I already do!
I didn’t have an issue with the program. You need to show that kind of extreme to generate viewers. Me, well the only time I’d get 100+ candy bars is to give out a Halloween, but I wouldn’t mind having a bigger stash of laundry soap and other non food items. I have no issue with the dumpster diving and would not have a problem with my son helping out. Picking paper from a recycle bin is a lot different then pulling stuff out of a trash can. I bet the clipping services are deluged with orders the next few weeks……
I wouldn’t say I had a problem with it either. I just don’t want to be as consumed by it as the show portrayed those people.
Hey, it will bring lots of people to sites like mine to find out about coupons.
It portrayed the extremes of couponing. I’m happy that they did mention that Nathan was donating most of what he got that day.
The company is after ratings.
I am glad the mentioned the donating too, and I wish they had mentioned that he pre-ordered items.
I will say that even with his donations that his stockpile was a bit extreme for me. But each family has different needs.
Thanks to our HD channels being on EST while we live in PST, I just watched it. Wow! While in some ways it makes me want to stretch things further, at the same time I cannot imagine being that extreme. I’m still fairly new to serious couponing and while I love the feeling of getting something for free or having my savings being larger than my out of pocket, I could not take it that far. 300 toothbrushes? If you changed your toothbrush every three months (dentist recommended), it would take a family of four 25 years to use them!
It certainly will make an impact and while I think it will spur on some people trying to save, I think TLC portrayed it much more like another crazy obsession than a valuable tool to help your family, friends and community.
Well said Jacqui. To me it is a skill. A skill to help pay off debt and splurge in other areas of my life.
I have to admit I did enjoy watching the show but during the show I called my husband and said, you are never allowed to tease me about my one box of coupons and my one closet stockpile because these people certainly are extreme!
I think people that don’t coupon currently at all that see the show will see that couponing is profitable.
I told my hubby the same thing. When telling him about the show, I said, “Tonight you will see people crazier than me.” He only believed me after he watched the show.
Great post! Too bad you weren’t profiled for the show. I think people need to see that those of us who use coupons are “extreme.”
I would hate for someone to be discouraged after watching that show and not even want to try to use coupons.
Toni
I agree. Or more people trying to misuse coupons. None of my stores will accept more than 20 doubled coupons per day.
I have couponed for almost 5 years, shortly after becoming a SAHM. What they are doing is CRAZY!! They will NEVER use that much food for their families. And although they were donating some it surely wasn’t enough to justify getting that much stuff. Any good couponer knows that you DO NOT CLEAR the shelf. That is just rude, imo. I enjoy getting a good deal but to me that is just going way overboard.
ALSO, what store is going to allow you to match 40 store coupons with 40 man. coupons??? NONE here in NC. And since when do they double that many??
What stores were they shopping at?
A very, very coupon friendly Kroger. We certainly wouldn’t get by with that at our stores.
Amanda (first couponer) seemed obsessive about saving! I was like that (not to that extreme!) two years ago. I was losing time with my family in order to shop and find the best deals! Eventually, I realized that I don’t need to shop at 3 grocery stores and three drug stores in order to save money! Now, I just shop at 2 grocery stores and 2 drug stores from there I compare which ones has to best deals for the week.
I thought the show was great from the stand-point of showing how you can save your own money by using coupons! But, I didn’t like using 3 registers because your order is too large for one and using a STACK of coupons. 100 toothbrushes, 80 hand soaps, 40 jars of pasta, etc. is waaaayyyyy to much!
To the people on the show – more power to you! I’m happy with 4 toothbrushes, 4 hand soaps, and 5 jars of pasta!
“To the people on the show – more power to you! I’m happy with 4 toothbrushes, 4 hand soaps, and 5 jars of pasta!”
I love it!!
I made my boyfriend watch the show with me last night and he said told me before watching the show he felt my couponing was extreme but he realized its NOTHING compared to what others are doing.
I couldn’t understand why they were buying 150 years worth of deodorant (unless you were truly going to donate it all). I only buy what we need. I have a enough shampoo, conditioner and body wash to last us a while and I don’t plan on buying anymore until we are almost out.
Sounds like we are very similar Shawna.
Kind of reminded me of the “hoarding” reality show….coupon-style!……I love the feeling of saving $$ but don’t want to be that OCD about it!! it could rule your life!
Glad they were donating some!! love your blog…..with a Christian influence!
Thanks Dy! I still get the coupon high, and I don’t buy that much.
We all know how it feels to get to the store and find an item cleared out bc of extreme couponing, bummer! It’s terrible at our local cvs stores, so bad I quit going.
I used to enjoy double coupons but now I live in florida and no one doubles so deals are hard to find.
I know, my sister in law lives in FL. No doubles makes the deals a lot harder.
I thought the extreme couponers were quite excessive. I have 2 main complaints: 1–clearing the shelves like that is just ridiculous and 2–which stores allow that many coupons in 1 transaction? I have been couponing for just 3 months now. I have found that I am spending just as much if not more now than before coupons. I’m sure it’s because everything seems like such a good deal! Did you have the same trouble at the beginning? If so, how long did it take to learn how to control your couponing?
thanks, and love your website and that you’re a fellow NCian
Rhonda, I have been doing this a long time and sometimes it is still hard to stop. That is why I wrote this article a few weeks ago. http://www.mycouponteacher.com/2010/12/knowing-when-enough-is-enough/
Just keep in mind to not buy more than your family can use or reasonably donate before items expire. Waste is not a good thing.
i think my problem is that i buy stuff (that i wouldn’t normally) just because i have a cpn. I guess i should change my thinking to buying what we normally bought, just w/ cpns. W/ the occassional splurge on something if i have a terrific cpns
Rhonda: yes, don’t just buy it because you have a coupon, but also, the stockpile does take money to form. Once you form one, then you will begin to see savings. I am not a major couponer and I found it took me a year to really start saving.
I didn’t get to watch the show, but I agree with your post and most of these commentrs–I thought I was extreme when I first started couponing, but not like this sounds! I was so excited at my savings and most of all my FREE stuff, that I tried to do every deal I could find, even if it was something we didn’t use. Once I got my stockpile built up, and did my frugal shopping enough to realize that yes, those bargains will come back around again, I was able to take a deep breath and step back and let some deals go by if I didn’t need the items.
And to Rhonda–at first I wasn’t spending less, just getting more for my money. Once I got a stockpile going, I was able to decrease spending, as well.
Each one of them used over 500 coupons but they only showed where two of them got the qs – how much did the others have to pay for theirs? I also think its misleading that the show didn’t point out how they encouraged the shoppers to go for numbers and that these weren’t even typical shopping trips for them. Where were the eggs and milk? They all only bought things they could get for ‘free’ and ended up essentially just paying tax.
They did state where everyone gets their coupons. Amanda (the first one) bought them online. They stated she spent $70 that week on coupons, but they didn’t add that back in to give you a true total of her spending. Joanie got newspapers, including the paper dumpster. The third lady (name I can’t remember) walked around and asked everyone for theirs. Nathan stated he also bought his online, although they didn’t state how much.
Sounds like there might be more going on with the poor woman on the show, like maybe an obsessive/compulsive disorder. Actually, I only shop once a month and most of it from Aldi, so personally, I don’t use coupons a lot unless it’s a really good deal. I very much admire people who use them and save. As long as it works and makes things better for your family, that’s always a good thing.
Very true!
I have mixed feelings about the show and the posts above. While I would never condone depleting an entire store supply (which is why Joannie and others often pre-order their stocks) I don’t think any of these women deserve to be judged or accused of a disorder because of their shopping habits. Remember, this is tv and much of what was shown had a slant. Television also involves a TON of editing and who really knows what was said that was taken out of the show or taken out of context. Technically, buying coupons can be considered unethical as they are not to be sold and paying a “service fee” for the clipping is walking a very fine line. All this is to say, who are we to judge?
My husband was out of work for a while and we used our stockpile to support our family and others in need. We also support the local food bank and use our stockpile as donations when we travel to Africa on missions trips. I have gotten coupons from the recycling bin at my kids school and then used those very coupons to donate items to the school that are in need.
We all clip for different reasons. My motto is to clip and let others clip as they will ;0)
I understand completely. When I made my list above, I was talking about what is best for myself. I can’t start to judge what is best for others!
Please help me to know how to save more money on the products I puchase at the grocery store without spending 5,000,000 hours a week doing it. I clip some coupons from my local newspaper and some from the grocery store’s wesite. My husband and I are, as quite a few people are now, very limited with income. I watched the show but I’m not aware of the coupon matching websites or the coupon clipping sites they mentioned. What are some tips I should know or start doing and spend a reasonable amount of time doing it? Is there a list or outline some where or that you have that I may obtain? Please help me. Thank you very much!
You should probably start with my savvy shopper course. I try to help you get started from the beginning.
http://www.mycouponteacher.com/savvy-shopper-course/
If you have questions, leave a comment, and I will try my best to help.
hello there. My husband and I are parents of a 3 year old and 2 year old twins. So I am sure that you know we do a ton of shopping. It is impossible for both of us to work and pay for daycare so it has come down to choosing between bills and groceries. I use coupons that come in the weekly mail but that is all. I would love to start to be great at using coupons. Do you know of anyone actually would sit with me and teach me how to save?
I don’t know where you are located, but I have an online coupon class for free. http://www.mycouponteacher.com/savvy-shopper-course/
I have also done a phone consultation at the rate of $20 per hour.
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