Extreme Couponing

I've seen several shows. I don't know how scripted it is. I see it as another form of hoarding. I have a tendency to be a hoarder (like one/see one).

I like the shows where people donate what they get with their coupons to say, servicemen and women or a homeless shelter, etc.

I hate it when they say things like, "We had to store the things in our previous living room", etc. That is called 'Hoarding' plain and simple.

Also, these things have an expiration date on them. What happens to them when the date expires because it's obvious they cannot use the product(s) before that date.

I watched it once. I saw someone with children buy 148 bags of candy. All I could think of was I hope she has a good dental plan! I do agree it is a form of hoarding.

On 10/12/2014 annabellethecat said:

I've seen several shows. I don't know how scripted it is. I see it as another form of hoarding. I have a tendency to be a hoarder (like one/see one).

I like the shows where people donate what they get with their coupons to say, servicemen and women or a homeless shelter, etc.

I hate it when they say things like, "We had to store the things in our previous living room", etc. That is called 'Hoarding' plain and simple.

Also, these things have an expiration date on them. What happens to them when the date expires because it's obvious they cannot use the product(s) before that date.

I like your concept maybe get in touch with local charities or even soap kitchens if they still are allowed.

I think the show takes a lot of liberties with the truth. I came to this conclusion after they featured a student at a local university who was using coupons to buy food for a frat party.

Although the show did not identify the university, I recognized the mascot on the t-shirt of one student as well as the buildings. Additionally, it had this student and his frat brothers going door to door, begging for coupons (in my neighborhood).

The show implies that the school is a private university. It is not. It implied that the tuition is much higher than it actually is. Additionally, when the students went on their shopping trip, they went to a supermarket that is not located in this city (the closest one is about 90 miles from here).

All-in-all, I think there is a lot of scripting with contrived situations to make these "deals" appear much better than they really are.

I agree with the hoarding part. I think it has to be scripted because they would have to arrange first with the store to film there and have enough product on hand for the coupons.

the stores where I shop seem to have a policy of no more than 4 coupons of the same kind and I've seen that printed on some coupons also.

I've seen people say they give the extra stuff to food banks but then I've seen the same people who say that have their entire basements converted to storage areas and they say anybody can just come to their house if they need something. I personally don't think anybody would.

I think you can eat some stuff past the expiration date but a lot of stuff goes stale or rancid especially things like crackers and cookies.

I've seen some people say they buy extra sunday papers for coupons. If you work someplace where they sell sunday papers you may be able to get extra coupons before they get rid of the leftover sunday papers. I've also seen people say they go to dumpsters where the papers are thrown away and I saw that on at least one show where they did that.

In so many cases you could kind of tell that it was an addiction because some of those people spent time and money that probably added up to about what they 'saved' and, yet, so much of what they purchased was profound excess that probably never got used.

I saw some episodes where the people were also going through recycle bins and one lady who was driving around town stealing peoples' papers from driveways on Sundays.

I guess many of them also pay to belong to certain websites that offer coupons. Then they, additionally, spend money on paper and ink, etc, to print them out.

I saw an episode where a woman was asked where she got so many coupons. She said from family, friends and strangers send and give them to her.

I've been in the grocery store and seen (mostly females) but I remember seeing one guy, with these huge notebooks filled with coupons.

Several times I've been 'unlucky' enough to go into the store after these hoarders have cleaned out the grocery isles.

Another time I hit upon a double whammy (but didn't find out until I went through the check out).

I was in Harris Teeter grocery store (chain) and I said, "I need rain checks for quite a few things that, for some weird reason you guys are out of".

The manager said, "Well, unlucky you. This is 'double coupon, up to $1 weekend', and we were hit with several extreme couponers.

Usually they come late at night (the stores are open all night) but for some reason they came here on Saturday morning. It looked like the store had been hit by something. There was almost nothing on the shelves. It was so surreal!

The manager apologized and said, "Normally, we try to stock the isles later in the evening, so as to not interfere with the shoppers. However, we couldn't refill the isles because of the time they came".

They have a right to grocery shop like everyone else, but come on!

I've even handed them some of my rain checks when I knew I wouldn't use them.

I remember it was so weird. You'd have thought I'd handed them a $100 bill! Their eyes flashed and they all but hugged him. It was a simple rain check for goodness sakes.

I buy the same thing every week, so i can't usually use coupons. If there is something I want, I just buy it. I've always been that way. When I lived with my sister, a single mother of 4 children, we didn't even have food sometimes. So now if I want it, I buy it.

I remember the Harris Teeter manager told me that the stupid government has made it so difficult for stores to donate food many times they aren't allowed to donate it to homeless shelters.

I asked him what he does with the left over bread at the end of the day (the one's they bake). He said they aren't allowed to donate it to the local shelters. They have to throw it away. That's really sad. One reason is because these days people sue them. So many stupid things these days.