"Extreme couponing" show is ridiculous

[Galatea]

I caught this show late last night and thought it was ridiculous... sure, this woman got $1900 of groceries for $44, but it was all crap.  She got 400 (!) bottles of Gatorade, 44 cases of juice boxes, 30 bottles of hot sauce, etc.  The other woman profiled had a stack 5 feet high of canned soup and hundreds of boxes of Lucky Charms, etc.   I'm all for saving money, but they are "saving" on junk food that no one really needs and is often actually really bad for you, wasteful, or both.  It was like consumerism run amok: do we actually NEED Gatorade to get through the summer?  How about having a garden and buying staples like flour, vinegar, etc?  I am not a couponer, b/c if we ever buy the paper, the coupons are all for processed crap that we never eat anyway.

[Ldavis24]

I have a few friends who LOVE this show and I hate it. I look at the crap they buy and think well thats nice too bad I don't feed my family pretty much any of that junk so I guess I will continue not getting coupons for veggies and fruit..

It's all well and good if you could care less what your family eats but give me a show where you save hundreds of bucks on good quality meat/dairy/veggies/fruit and then I will be slightly interested in it...

I have lots of FB friends who are always bragging and posting pics about how much they saved at the grocery store...whoopee my kid doesn't eat chef boyardee so excuse me for not being so impressed with you scoring 30 cans for a buck

ok rant over....

yes I totally and completely agree with you OP.

We don't coupon here either. Once in a while I will get one for something truly useful to us...Like cat litter or diapers (we don't cloth) and I'm happy about saving my 2 dollars at that time.

[hopefulfaith]

I have a hard time with it.  I appreciate frugality and saving money and using coupons for the things I would buy anyway .... but if you are hoarding 879 bottles of ketchup in your basement -- well, frankly, I'd rather pay full price for a bottle as I need it than have to store/rotate/clean around/mind the mini-grocery store in my house.

[Caneel]

There has to be a hoarding element that goes along with some of this extreme couponing stuff.

Originally Posted by hopefulfaith 

I have a hard time with it.  I appreciate frugality and saving money and using coupons for the things I would buy anyway .... but if you are hoarding 879 bottles of ketchup in your basement -- well, frankly, I'd rather pay full price for a bottle as I need it than have to store/rotate/clean around/mind the mini-grocery store in my house.

This was my house growing up, but it was shampoo, tampons, trash bags and cleaning products......Both my parents would do sort of wacky stuff like buy cases of shampoo for 10 cents a bottle.  Every nook and crany of our rather large house was stuffed with couponed stuff, more than we could ever use.  10 years after I moved out, my mom was still trying to push Sauve shampoo from 1986 on me.    They never ran across a coupon they didn't use.

My dad scored cases and cases of Scrubbing Bubbles sometime in the mid 80s and the stuff sat in the garage for at least 10 years.  When someone finally got around to using it in the mid 90s (I was married by this point) the aerosol element was shot and he couldn't get the stuff out of the can.  He returned it to the store and they replaced every single can. 
 

[SundayCrepes]

Originally Posted by Caneel 

My dad scored cases and cases of Scrubbing Bubbles sometime in the mid 80s and the stuff sat in the garage for at least 10 years.  When someone finally got around to using it in the mid 90s (I was married by this point) the aerosol element was shot and he couldn't get the stuff out of the can.  He returned it to the store and they replaced every single can. 

That seems so unethical to me. So focused on saving a buck at someone else's expense. All the money couponers like that are saving is just passed on to other consumers.
 

[youngspiritmom]

I've never seen this show, but I do look for coupons in the papers and online. I too have noticed that it is rare to find a coupon for something that is real food that we actually eat. I think coupons are less about savings and more about marketing. The time I spent looking at the ad, cutting out the coupon, putting it in a file, and then realizing it has expired seems just like a way to get the product in my mind. And usually coupons make you think, "Well, I have a coupon, so now I should buy this product!" even though you weren't planning on buying it.

I try to cut coupons only for the things I use. I recently cut one out for a tub of plain yogurt that I always buy. I do find coupons from online coupon website for products like Organic Valley milk and eggs. I have found coupons for tangerines, frozen veggies, and tea. These ones are good, and I am happy when I find them.

Edited by youngspiritmom - 5/16/11 at 9:03am

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by youngspiritmom 

I've never seen this show, but I do look for coupons in the papers and online. I too have noticed that it is rare to find a coupon for something that is real food that we actually eat. I think coupons are less about savings and more about marketing. The time I spent looking at the ad, cutting out the coupon, putting it in a file, and then realizing it has expired seems just like a way to get the product in my mind. And usually coupons make you think, "Well, I have a coupon, so now I should buy this product!" even though you weren't planning on buying it.

I try to cut coupons only for the things I use. I recently cut one out for a tub of plain yogurt that I always buy. I do find coupons from online coupon website for products like Organic Valley milk and eggs. I have found coupons for tangerines, frozen veggies, and tea. These ones are good, and I am happy when I find them.

These are good coupons, and I have no issue with them, but you rarely find them in the Sunday paper.  The one thing I do to get coupons is to call a company and ask them a question about their product and/or praise it - I can often get coupons this way, and it is not a scam.  One time I called Amy's Organic to ask if they had discontinued my favorite pizza, and they had and they apologized and sent me coupons.  Another time I called Vaska to ask a question and they sent me free product and coupons.  Very cool and good customer service!

[hopefulfaith]

Originally Posted by Caneel 

There has to be a hoarding element that goes along with some of this extreme couponing stuff.

This was my house growing up, but it was shampoo, tampons, trash bags and cleaning products......Both my parents would do sort of wacky stuff like buy cases of shampoo for 10 cents a bottle.  Every nook and crany of our rather large house was stuffed with couponed stuff, more than we could ever use.  10 years after I moved out, my mom was still trying to push Sauve shampoo from 1986 on me.    They never ran across a coupon they didn't use.

My dad scored cases and cases of Scrubbing Bubbles sometime in the mid 80s and the stuff sat in the garage for at least 10 years.  When someone finally got around to using it in the mid 90s (I was married by this point) the aerosol element was shot and he couldn't get the stuff out of the can.  He returned it to the store and they replaced every single can. 
 

I absolutely think there is a hoarding element to this.  The night I watched TLC and saw the couponing show, it came on right before Hoarders.  I was really struck by the similarities between the shows:  both parties seemed to feel safer and happier when they were surrounded by stuff.  I really think it does go over the top when every small space in your house is crammed full of consumer goods.

I have a pantry downstairs.  I stock up on things when they're on sale - that isn't the element of this that strikes me as odd - but I think it would cross the line if I told my kids to not touch the toilet paper I had stashed under their beds and stuff.  I was sad when I saw that one lady who had a huge storage shelf full of canned goods in her bedroom.  She had a humungous house (to me), but everyone's bedrooms were full of STUFF.  :(

I am anxious about money - a lot - but I think I would be more off the deep end if I were surrounded by 1000 containers of something I bought and knew my family would never use.

[journeymom]

Thanks for this thread.

I think coupons are less about savings and more about marketing.

Occasionally I feel kind of bad for not cutting, saving and using coupons more often.  I did once use a bunch of coupons from the paper and came home with a bunch of products I had never bought before, like 2 bags of Tyson frozen chicken stuff.  The thing is I ended up spending more than I would have because even with a coupon this stuff is more expensive than it needs to be. And now I know we really don't like the product, either.

I've got a friend on another forum who lives in New Zealand.  She mentioned in passing that they don't use coupons like Americans do.  I don't know if she meant they don't have coupons at all or they aren't as prevalent.  But I completely agree, I think coupons are all about getting consumers to try something they wouldn't have otherwise tried. 

I did recently use a coupon for an expensive bottle of mouth wash.  That worked out great as I needed to buy it anyway. 

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by Galatea 

These are good coupons, and I have no issue with them, but you rarely find them in the Sunday paper. 

I very often see coupons for Cuties clementines, organic milk or eggs, butter, yogurt, tea, coffee, frozen vegetables, and Kashi items in the coupon inserts mailed to my house, that come free and are not in the Sunday paper (RedPlum).  I don't often get the paper, but I wouldn't think the coupons within would be very different.  Yes, most of them are for processed foods like hot dogs and lunch meats, and convenience items, but on the whole I wouldn't deem the inserts worthless.

That said, I don't extreme coupon or stockpile, though if I can get toothpaste for free at CVS, I will get one every time I go.  I just had to buy toothpaste yesterday for the first time in about a year, LOL.

[BetsyS]

I love my newspaper subscription, even though it's silly and a little wasteful.  Using a coupons from the Sunday paper helps me justify my subscription.  It's a win/win for me.

[Knittin' in the Shade]

I've never seen the show, but couldn't help but comment on the gatorade ;)  With a family of super athletic boys (including a husband who is a triathlete, and 5 baseball teams between my 4 boys) I admit that we go through a LOT of gatorade.  We eat very healthy, whole foods, cooke from scratch, etc...but when DH is on leg two of a three leg training day, or the boys are sweating buckets on a 90 degree field for the second 2-3 hour baseball game of the day, yes - the only thing they want is the electrolytes and sodium in a gatorade! I'd love to find a really good deal on 400 bottles of gatorade, lol - it probably wouldn't last through the summer in my house.

[swd12422]

Funny, we were just watching the show last night. DH is fascinated by how much money they save, but realizes that we don't have any hope for doing what these people do with their coupons b/c 1) we don't use much in the way of processed foods, etc. and 2) DH would never be able to handle that amount of stuff in the house. But it's interesting. Although I also commented to him last night that there is no way we could ever go through that much hot sauce and soy sauce in a lifetime, nevermind before it goes bad. And it does go bad, eventually.

[Ldavis24]

Originally Posted by Knittin' in the Shade 

I've never seen the show, but couldn't help but comment on the gatorade ;)  With a family of super athletic boys (including a husband who is a triathlete, and 5 baseball teams between my 4 boys) I admit that we go through a LOT of gatorade.  We eat very healthy, whole foods, cooke from scratch, etc...but when DH is on leg two of a three leg training day, or the boys are sweating buckets on a 90 degree field for the second 2-3 hour baseball game of the day, yes - the only thing they want is the electrolytes and sodium in a gatorade! I'd love to find a really good deal on 400 bottles of gatorade, lol - it probably wouldn't last through the summer in my house.

DH loves his gatorade so maybe I should be figuring out how to get 400 bottles for a buck!

[Dandelionkid]

I think this show is stupid too, but only because I would like the chance to use coupons that way! No extreme couponing in Canada :(

[Ldavis24]

well I watched a full episode last night with this thread in mind. I have to admit I was not impressed except with their hoarding ability.

The only difference between those people I see and the actual hoarders from the show is that the couponing women have what appears to be a little of OCD about organizing their "hoards"...I did feel bad for one woman, her husband was out of work and they were running out of money for food so she started couponing like crazy...In my head I was like "why can't you get a job then lady??" Ah well it's not for me.

The coupons for things like croutons or "noodles" just aren't things I would buy...Also I prefer to visit farmer's markets...where are the coupons for those!

[laura163]

I have been watching the show, more for the OMG factor then the coupon learning.  It does seem strange that the show is all about the shopping, stock piling and saving and very little about actually using all 100 bottles of ketchup.

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by laura163 

I have been watching the show, more for the OMG factor then the coupon learning.  It does seem strange that the show is all about the shopping, stock piling and saving and very little about actually using all 100 bottles of ketchup.

I think that's kind of the point.  It's extreme, just like hoarding, addictions, families with 20 children, etc.  That's the draw.  No one would watch a show about regular couponers.

[wildmonkeys]

Haven't been on MDC in awhile, but watched a few episodes of this show yesterday and was curious about the reaction on here.  I was also struck by the hoarding element as well as the large quantities of food collected that is really bad for you (the room full of Mountain Dew made me sick and the couple buying a hundred hot dogs freaked me out!!!) Several people bought stuff they couldn't use at all (cat food with no cat???) or couldn't use before it expired (cough syrup, lunch meat, etc.)

That being said - I used to coupon more and have sort of let it go - the show has left me inspired to up my couponing a bit.  I am thinking of setting a goal of $25 a week. There are things that we buy that I do see coupons for - yeast, clementines, hot sauce, toothpaste, decent quality cereals, shampoo, tp, etc.  If I devote a little bit of time to it (I don't have 6 hours a day to coupon) I could save $1200 this year... 

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by laura163 

I have been watching the show, more for the OMG factor then the coupon learning.  It does seem strange that the show is all about the shopping, stock piling and saving and very little about actually using all 100 bottles of ketchup.

Dh saw an episode where the wife was buying tons of mustard, and the husband was pleading, "But honey, neither of us likes mustard!" and she was looking at him like he was crazy for not wanting to buy it.