Extreme Couponing - Are They Ruining It For The Rest of Us?
Extreme Couponing is controversial. The new TLC program has many people jumping in and relay racing to the checkout for not just their own piece of the pie, but the whole entire pie! It's left others asking, "WHERE are these extreme couponing people shopping?! How come the store doesn't limit their purchases? I wonder if advertisers paying for those newspaper inserts are happy to see them being used abused?"
Looking back, nearly 30 years ago when my kids were very small, my mother in law and I spent maybe an hour a week together clipping coupons, planning meals and shopping trips. Back then one of the attractions besides redeeming coupons for immediate savings was to cut bar codes from these same products and mail them in for free gifts and samples. Occasionally these might result in items such as a small stuffed animal, or perhaps a package of diapers, etc.
We even paid a very small fee for a Coupon Exchange Newsletter which enabled us to trade coupons with subscribers all over the United States via snail mail. Hey, it worked! We saved money on our groceries, sampled new products and received "free gifts" via redemption. I think our biggest week we may have saved $20 on our grocery bill (a big deal back then and this in a location where I've NEVER seen double coupons offered anywhere). However, we actually purchased items we needed, we didn't wipe out entire shelves and hoard 93 boxes of croutons or 142 bottles of cough medicine like some consumers recently showcased on TLC's Extreme Couponing.
This overzealous practice by some people shown on Extreme Couponing, makes me question whether coupons themselves will become extinct? To be fair, I applaud a couple of good Samaritans represented that have donated to food banks and charities, but on the show it appears they are vastly outnumbered by greedy basement-shelving-hoarders. (Which of course, makes for what is considered "good entertainment" in the cheap reality show genre.)
One things for sure, extreme couponing has got people talking. Don't take my word for it though. You may be interested to read a few comments on extreme couponing to see what others have to say. And just to stir the pot a little more, let me leave you with a few words attributed to the infamous, Donald Trump....."The point is that you can't be too greedy."
And my response to that is......................."huh?!"
Looking back, nearly 30 years ago when my kids were very small, my mother in law and I spent maybe an hour a week together clipping coupons, planning meals and shopping trips. Back then one of the attractions besides redeeming coupons for immediate savings was to cut bar codes from these same products and mail them in for free gifts and samples. Occasionally these might result in items such as a small stuffed animal, or perhaps a package of diapers, etc.
We even paid a very small fee for a Coupon Exchange Newsletter which enabled us to trade coupons with subscribers all over the United States via snail mail. Hey, it worked! We saved money on our groceries, sampled new products and received "free gifts" via redemption. I think our biggest week we may have saved $20 on our grocery bill (a big deal back then and this in a location where I've NEVER seen double coupons offered anywhere). However, we actually purchased items we needed, we didn't wipe out entire shelves and hoard 93 boxes of croutons or 142 bottles of cough medicine like some consumers recently showcased on TLC's Extreme Couponing.
This overzealous practice by some people shown on Extreme Couponing, makes me question whether coupons themselves will become extinct? To be fair, I applaud a couple of good Samaritans represented that have donated to food banks and charities, but on the show it appears they are vastly outnumbered by greedy basement-shelving-hoarders. (Which of course, makes for what is considered "good entertainment" in the cheap reality show genre.)
One things for sure, extreme couponing has got people talking. Don't take my word for it though. You may be interested to read a few comments on extreme couponing to see what others have to say. And just to stir the pot a little more, let me leave you with a few words attributed to the infamous, Donald Trump....."The point is that you can't be too greedy."
And my response to that is......................."huh?!"
I watched the marathon late last night. It was such a train wreck that I couldn't look away. I coupon and love getting free stuff, but many of the people on the show need help. Multiple people stated they had anxiety attacks when groceries were being rung up. One lady called a manager bc she got the wrong thing to redeem the coupon and wanted the manager to make an exception for her. Another said she spent 5 hours in the store buying groceries and had to call in 3 friends while going through the line bc the deal was limited to only one per person and she wanted more. I would hate being the person behind her in line! Or the lady who had 18 separate transactions....
ReplyDeleteI only purchase items with coupons if I use the item and then I only purchase 1 or 2 of them. I feel like I am wasting money or time if I buy something just because I have a coupon and I don't use the item.
ReplyDeleteBoy, that show does sound like it has some loo loos on there! I haven't seen it and doubt if I will watch. I used to cut coupons to save money and was pretty good at saving money that way but agree that the extreme part can get crazy.
ReplyDeleteSome VERY good points!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE COUPONS....in fact I have a blog about it. However yes these people on the show are extreme. I do feel that for the show they bend the rules for these people at checkout time. My husband and I watch the show and during viewing I find myself saying "really" alot. Look at what they buy last time I checked I couldn't survive on vitamin water and sleep meds!!
ReplyDeleteP.S. my blog is savesalotmom.blogspot.com I love new visitors and followers!!
My husband and I too have been talking about couponing not lasting long b/c of the extreme couponing show. It really ruins it for the ppl that are just trying to save. Yes, I do stock up some but not like them. I have a big family where so my savings is if I can stock up some and not have to buy that item for awhile it is going to save me on my grocery bill. Like toliet paper if you get a good deal stuff like that not like cough syrup and toothbrushes? Really who needs like 2000 toothbrushes? Plus I have noticed the value of the coupons going down. I don't know if you have but it is happening.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your response. Hopefully, those of us who coupon without extreme, can "wait it out" and come out unscathed. :)
ReplyDelete