Extreme Couponing TV Show

[VS1976]

A coworker told me about a reality TV Show called Extreme Couponing on TLC.

One episode have a woman spend 10 hours at a supermarket getting over $1400 in food and paying only $20? Another episode have a girl spending 20 hours a week to organize coupons. Another episode have a woman with $30,000 of food in her home? Who needs 400 rolls of paper towels? There is an episode that a high school boy buying feminine products and he would never even use it? He does it because it's free.

It's actually quite funny watching the other shoppers rolling their eyes or mumbling WTF?

This is worst then hoarding? Is this what our neighbors South of the border does? How can u use duplicate coupons then use in store coupons and then are able to use double rewards coupons also? How on earth do they even get cash back?

It's funny yet IMO quite ridiculous. There should be no way a customer buying groceries can save 97-98% on any purchase. We will never get this in Canada. I also think this is a major problem that contributes to the recession that the USA is currently having.

 

[darthviper107]

When I worked at Albertson's we had a thing called Triple Coupon Weekends

Basically coupons for $.75 and less were trippled. People would get like 3 carts full of stuff and sometimes it'd get to the point where we actually owed them money. We would owe like $1 and they'd have to add a candy bar and then pay for the whole thing for 10 cents.

They were kind of _______s though, people would complain about other people taking so long going through the checkout and then they would do the same thing.

 

[Custo]

I've watched it a few times. Pretty ridiculous. Would definately not work in Canada. I still don't understand how a store would issue store credit for OWING them money for taking product out of the store. Surprised there's no fine print policy on those damn coupons

 

[cplhicks]

My mom watches that show.

I watched part of the one where this person had $30,000 in food in their basement. So they show you all there $30,000 of food and then promptly tell us that their are throwing a party for 20 people so they need to go out and buy another like $800 of food for like $34.00.

Seriously??? You have $30,000 in food and your ____ing basement and you can't find SOMETHING in there to feed 20 people????

What the ____ is wrong with you???

 

[sarakawa]

It's pretty much an addiction but let's look at it this way. I'm guessing since we are posting about this in this forum, we are all statue collectors. So, if someone I knew or possibly my wife wanted to create a hobby that costed me very little money, how can you really argue or say no? I buy statues for $300 a pop and they want free rolls of paper towels...I don't really see a problem with it. It's certainly not as bad as hoarding since there are no health or danger risks to it. Most extreme couponers are super ____ and have this stuff stored crazy organized in a garage. Though I am glad no one in my family does this, I don't really see it as a problem. Course, in a recession, it does seem ridiculous that stores allow it to happen. The one episode that was a bit outrageous was the kid in highschool doing it...shouldn't he be learning a skill that will actually get him a job in the future? And buying thousands of boxes of tampons when you have zero use for them is pretty effing lame and wasteful even if they are free! moron...

 

[VS1976]

It's pretty much an addiction but let's look at it this way. I'm guessing since we are posting about this in this forum, we are all statue collectors. So, if someone I knew or possibly my wife wanted to create a hobby that costed me very little money, how can you really argue or say no? I buy statues for $300 a pop and they want free rolls of paper towels...I don't really see a problem with it. It's certainly not as bad as hoarding since there are no health or danger risks to it. Most extreme couponers are super ____ and have this stuff stored crazy organized in a garage. Though I am glad no one in my family does this, I don't really see it as a problem. Course, in a recession, it does seem ridiculous that stores allow it to happen. The one episode that was a bit outrageous was the kid in highschool doing it...shouldn't he be learning a skill that will actually get him a job in the future? And buying thousands of boxes of tampons when you have zero use for them is pretty effing lame and wasteful even if they are free! moron...

Wish I can use multiple gift cards to buy statues from SSC and get it free Lol.

For someone to have $30k of groceries at there house is quite ludicrous. Why even bother with having cash. Imagine paying your mortgage with coupons?

 

[CTO15]

One day.....

And then there will be a triple coupon weekend so your mortgage will be a 1/3 of the price

Lol

 

[jonny88]

I've watched it a few times. Pretty ridiculous. Would definately not work in Canada. I still don't understand how a store would issue store credit for OWING them money for taking product out of the store. Surprised there's no fine print policy on those damn coupons

It does work here in Canada. I saw on the Edmonton news about a month ago of a woman in her 20s doing this. She got a few hundred bucks of groceries and only paid like $50 or something around there.

I watch the show once in a while and it is amazing, l go to the store and buy a thing of iced tee and a bag of chips and it costs almost $10, let alone getting a whole cart full for that price.

 

[The Ween]

I've come to the conclusion that most of this is put on for the cameras. Some are filmed at Kroger stores, which is our main store here. You cannot double a coupon over .50 and you can only use ONE coupon per item. Once ever few months they double coupons up to $1.00 but that's it.

What I hate is these shows are making it harder on those of us who coupon just to save a few dollars. Stores are becoming even more strict. Some will no longer take coupons printed off the computer for one thing and most are changing their rules. Also, it's getting harder and harder to find coupons that are under .50 so they can be doubled. A lot are .55 now.

 

[The Ween]

I've watched it a few times. Pretty ridiculous. Would definately not work in Canada. I still don't understand how a store would issue store credit for OWING them money for taking product out of the store. Surprised there's no fine print policy on those damn coupons

They get around to changing it.

Our stores won't let you call ahead and hold stock and you have to take what's on the shelf. Some are now putting limits on the number of items PER PERSON, not per transaction.

What I find funny about the show is how happy and almost thrilled the cashiers are when the person hands them a ton of coupons. Believe me, if it weren't for the cameras, those girls wouldn't be happy at all. Especially when the registers crash.

 

[karamazov80]

Are people just buying food they don't want or need? Just whatever coupons are made for? I guess I'm sort of guilty of similar behavior, in that our Wal-greens has insane deals from time to time (75% off packaging tape, 80% off picture frames, 50% off Kleenex), and knowing this, I'll stroll through all the aisles periodically and end up buying more stuff than I need just because it is such a great deal. But at least these are non-perishable goods and I'll eventually have some use for them.

 

[toylion]

The show exaggerates Couponing for entertainment purposes, but my daughter in law watches and saves a lot with coupons. Nothing like the show shows and she doesn't have a huge inventory. But it helps in this economy.

 

[barryo]

yea the shows are pretty over the top but there is money to be saved thru coupons...........or as i like to call them coopuns..

my wife and her friends have their little coupon club where they trade & mix/match stuff...........me personally..........i don't have the patience.....

we used to have a thread around here somewhere on this.

 

[VS1976]

The show exaggerates Couponing for entertainment purposes, but my daughter in law watches and saves a lot with coupons. Nothing like the show shows and she doesn't have a huge inventory. But it helps in this economy.

How does Couponing help the economy especially when it's excessive Couponing? Coupons are made to bringing in people into an establishment so people spend more money. When you discount 95% of groceries, the stores don't generate revenue. Yah they get reimburse by the manufacture, but does the manufacture make money? IMO, this is making the economy worse.

 

[darthviper107]

Are people just buying food they don't want or need? Just whatever coupons are made for? I guess I'm sort of guilty of similar behavior, in that our Wal-greens has insane deals from time to time (75% off packaging tape, 80% off picture frames, 50% off Kleenex), and knowing this, I'll stroll through all the aisles periodically and end up buying more stuff than I need just because it is such a great deal. But at least these are non-perishable goods and I'll eventually have some use for them.

A lot of the stuff is stuff that people don't usually want or need--like buying 8 toothbrushes.


They don't do the triple coupon weekends anymore at Albertson's, probably because of all that crap.

Seriously, people would have like binders of coupons, really don't doubt how insane people are.

 

[toylion]

How does Couponing help the economy especially when it's excessive Couponing? Coupons are made to being people into an establishment so people spend more money. When you u discount 95% of groceries, the stores don't generate extra money. Yah they get reimburse by the manufacture, but does the manufacture make money? IMO, this is making the economy worse.

If you read my post correctly, you would have seen I was referring to the economic state my son and daughter in law are in, and that her use of coupons help them meet their budget. By the way she doesn't do 'excessive couponing' but tries to find way to stretch their household budget to make ends meet.

 

[VS1976]

If you read my post correctly, you would have seen I was referring to the economic state my son and daughter in law are in, and that her use of coupons help them meet their budget. By the way she doesn't do 'excessive couponing' but tries to find way to stretch their household budget to make ends meet.

Yes...I understand where u are coming from. On the people who uses coupons it helps then in the time where the economy are at an all time low.

I am however talking about Couponing were someone can spend $20 of groceries and get $1000 worth of products. This does not help the economy one bit. Excessive Couponing does not generate revenue to the people that is selling the products. Yah, it employs them temporary, however, if a company doesn't make any money, they layoff people.

I used to manage a restaurant and one of the owners wanted to use coupons to draw people in. I told them that the coupons need to be use sparingly. They did not use my suggestion, instead it was done almost every week. We did this for 6 plus months straight. You can say we increase revenue but when we stop using Couponing, people did not come. In reality we lost money. Shortly after I left, that restaurant closed.

IMHO, manufactures and retailers need to really look into how they use coupons in there campaign are used. You can't get out of the economic funk by giving away the products. The shoppers are clearly taking advantage of this in the USA. You will never see this in Canada.

 

[Buttmunch]

Oh, stop whining guys. If YOU could get $1,000 worth of ANYTHING for $20 I doubt you would be complaining about it. Hot Toys, electronics, food, or whatever. Sure, this show is an EXTREME. Not everyone that uses coupons is like this. My mom has gone to stores to coupon and they've ended up owing her a few bucks, but she didn't have more than a cart of stuff. And she only gets stuff we'd eventually us or that could be donated to the food bank or other food drives. Plus its always a good idea to have a food storage. You never know what the future holds and having extra food on hand is the thing you'd always want.

 

[Darth Cruel]

I have seen people do this kind of thing for real. The people at the grocery store told me that some of them are owners of mom-n-pop grocery stores and they put the stuff they get in stock at their own stores.

I was behind a woman who bought 370.00 worth of groceries and got change back from 40.00.

Edit - And you better believe I would do it in a heartbeat.

 

[The Ween]

I can't see the point of buying 200+ boxes of tic tacs just because you can.