Extreme Couponing

Have you watched this show on TLC? At first I was very skeptical about people who could get their groceries for 10% of the original cost. But I decided before judging I needed to watch the show.

So I did. Well I dvr'd it since I was at work that night. But I watched it several days later.

And I was intrigued. So I watched it another week.

And that is when I noticed something. A few somethings.

First I will say that what these people are doing is amazing. The amount of food and other products they get for free just astounds me. The organization that they have with their coupons amazes me. I only wish I could be half as organized as they are.

But their stockpiles actually scare me a little. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a stockpile. I have one. It is NOTHING compared to what I saw on this show. But I am happy with that. I honestly don't want my grocery shopping to take over my house, and that is what is happening to some of these people. Some of their purchases make sense. But the woman who bought 63 bottles of mustard because it was 30 cents? That was beyond extreme. Or the wall of toothpaste? Can you even use that much toothpaste in one lifetime?

One comment that stuck with me was a woman commenting that she had 37 packages of a product at home (I think it was something like 1000 flushes) and wondering whether she should get more. I think she is safe not buying more packages at the moment. Unless of course she is making money on it.

Yes I said making money on coupons. I only wish my grocery stores did that. My stores have a policy that they will double coupons but only to the value of the product. If I could make money by using coupons I might buy more of certain products. But I don't believe I would buy quite as many as the people on this show do.

I also wonder where many of thes people get their coupons. They spend more time than I do at my job on their coupons. In some ways it pays off. But if they are buying their coupons, and some people do, shouldn't that factor into the grocery bill? The show doesn't say if anyone buys their coupons but I wonder if they do. I also cannot imagine spending the equivalant of a full work week on coupons. I know the title of the show is extreme couponing, but this seems beyond extreme.

The last thing I noticed is that the shoppers ring up their store's shopper card at the END of the order. This makes the savings seems like more than they are. By that I mean these shoppers are saving a great amount with coupons, but a lot of the savings is coming from their stores sales as well. This is not wrong, but I think it is a little misleading of the show. Others may disagree, but that is my opinion.

I will continue to watch the show, I think I can learn from it. And I will continue to coupon. However I will NEVER be like the people on the show. And I don't think I actually want to be!

What do you think of the show? Am I missing some great learning opportunity?