topic Re: ""Extreme Couponing"" in Community Chat

Extreme Couponing

Cats3000 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:12:15 GMT

Just happened to "surf" through it. Saw people buying car loads of food.

It looked as though there was enough food for a family of 100. Does anyone know what they do with all that food after they buy it? Do they offer it to shelters or similar places? Do they just throw the food away when the dates expire?

Just wondering.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

deepwaterdotter — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:13:21 GMT

It sounds like they make tv shows about it.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

Peaches McPhee — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:16:13 GMT

Sometimes they make a point out of saying they will donate it to their favorite charity. Usually they buy nonperishables, or shelf stable things that last awhile.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

DoneTryin — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:24:52 GMT

I watched that show a few times. Some families donated a large quantity to charity, another family contributed a lot of food to their church's weekly dinners for church members. One program was all about a woman getting all the refreshments & decorations for her daughter's birthday or some similar type of celebration.

If you watch closely, though, you'll note that an awful lot of the stuff they buy is non-food, like cleaning products, personal hygiene items, etc. There was even a guy who had a stash of tampons - why, I don't know. For some of those people, it's an obsession, for others it's like some kind of challenge to see how much stuff they can get for the least amount of money.

Even if I had the room to store all that stuff, I wouldn't be an extreme couponer. They spend way too much time finding & sorting. Easier for me to use the electronic coupons at my King Soopers & Walgreen's.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

BeckiWV — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:08:39 GMT

I like to coupon but only for things I want, need and will use. I don't stockpile but I do like to save when I can.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

CouponQueen — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:10:28 GMT

The thing is with the TV shows I have seen..who wants 30 bottles of hot sauce or VO5 shampoo etc.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

chickenbutt — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:21:15 GMT

I watched this show for a while and it was a VERY small percentage of them who donated anything. The vast majority of them seemed to just be hoarders. It was the 'thrill of the kill', so to speak, for them and they reveled in seeing the rows and rows of merchandise/food.

They usually seemed to have so much more than anybody could ever use that it just seemed so piggish to me.

Plus, it became a full time job doing this. What do you save when you cannot work, you have to purchase all those newspapers and memberships online, etc? Not to mention that you don't save anything when a large percentage of your hoard will go bad and/or not be used in a reasonable amount of time that would justify the purchase. How much can I save when I purchase 50 years worth of deodorant? A) I won't be alive in 50 years; and 2) that money is better spent on something that will be used during the time that the money is worth what it is worth now, not all those years from now.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

kittymomNC — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:58:16 GMT

One of my least favorite things to do is grocery shop. So the last thing I want in my home is a "grocery store"! I do use coupons, and certain things I only buy when I have coupons or it's on sale, or both. But as another poster said, this must be an obsession for a lot of these people. If I had to look at all that stuff in every nook and cranny of my house, I would hope someone would take me out and hang me up by my thumbs until I got some sense!

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

hyacinth003 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:02:55 GMT

Some of the people DO donate things to their churches, food pantries, or other charities.

I have wondered if some know that even "non perishables" will go bad at some point!

Hyacinth

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

DoneTryin — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:14:46 GMT

On 4/14/2014 CouponQueen said:
The thing is with the TV shows I have seen..who wants 30 bottles of hot sauce or VO5 shampoo etc.

Well, they can be washing their hair while spending a lot of time in the bathroom after consuming all that food soaked in hot sauce

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

RedHeadedWench — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:23:24 GMT

I have watched this show a few times, and I would like to know where the stores are that allow you to use 30 coupons for the same item. No stores I know of do this.

A few of these hoarders/couponers do donate to churches and food banks..but most I think keep their bounty for themselves. Who knows, maybe they resell stuff on eBay. LOL

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

151949 — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:35:17 GMT

Most grocery stores do have a limit on how many coupons they will allow - especially since this show went on TV. I think sometimes the stores allow it for the TV show just for the publicity, but would never allow it for anyone else. They don't put out that much stock of any one item at a time on the shelves. For instance , at my grocery store they may have 10 boxes of cheerios on the shelf - never 30 or 50 like these people buy so I'm convinced this whole show is a huge fake.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

Anniecamp — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 20:19:18 GMT

I guess some people stuff their closets with clothes, and other people stuff their closets or shelves with food. Same thing. Hoarding.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

Lipstickdiva — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:01:58 GMT

My SIL got into this after the show first aired. I don't know how she thinks she's saving because she ends up giving stuff away to family and friends because she overbought, she's had to toss things that expired and she had to buy shelving units for her basement to store all this stuff!

These people act like there will never be another coupon for this item again. It's silly to me.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

Pqfan — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 16:41:43 GMT

My store would throw us out on our ""you know whats"" if we tried to extreme coupon.

They barely take the regular coupons!

Edited because of sticking keys.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

Witchy Woman — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 21:37:50 GMT

I watched one time and there was something stomach churning about the whole process. The folks that night showed how they stored their stash and there was no mention of donating...only glee at how much "stuff" they were amassing. Maybe some do donate, and that's fine. But these particular people just wanted it for themselves.

One person had expanded her storage to accommodate all the things she got.

I'm all for people saving a few dollars, but this behavior seems one step away from hoarders and the things they couponed a lot of processed foods and junk foods, candy and soda.

The whole thing made me cringe.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

aprilskies — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 23:38:32 GMT

I think I watched part of an episode a long time ago. Shelves of stuff, I got overwhelmed just looking at it all. I hope they at least donate or share with others. There is no way they can eat all that food before it expires. You would need a family of 20. I would hate to be the cashier that has to deal with all those coupons.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

sometimesQVCaddict — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:17:59 GMT

On 4/17/2014 aprilskies said: I think I watched part of an episode a long time ago. Shelves of stuff, I got overwhelmed just looking at it all. I hope they at least donate or share with others. There is no way they can eat all that food before it expires. You would need a family of 20. I would hate to be the cashier that has to deal with all those coupons.

Agreed. EVERYTHING has a shelf life/expiration date, and when you have 400 hot sauces, there is NO ONE who could pass a lie detector test-lol-and say they'll use it in their lifetime! Unless you are running a restaurant that caters to hot sauce!! Even those with all those health and beauty items...those expire too after a certain point!!

It's sad to see all that food go to waste JUST so someone can say they saved money...really, how much money are you saving when you are taking up storage space in your house or having to SPEND MONEY to buy shelving for items that will expire before you use them anyway??

I have MUCH more respect for those on the show who donate their coupon savings! When you buy 1000 cereals and donate them, that's a GOOD THING & I'm sure won't go to waste! So KUDOS to those people.

On a smaller scale, however, couponing can be GREAT! I actually just had a good score...got about $51 worth of groceries for $26-27 with coupons!! I was proud of myself for that and they are items I'll definitely use before they expire! HA!

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

RainCityGirl — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 02:55:18 GMT

Guess I was still caught up in the Paltrow/Martin ""news."" I read this as Extreme Coupling. My mistake.

Re: ""Extreme Couponing""

gazelle77 — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 03:21:08 GMT

Many of the coupon people are also hoarders....they just like to have A house full of more than they could ever need. It is a sickness.