OMG...I am addicted...to the show. I might just start doing it. Come on, you get $1000 worth of food and you pay under $5.00 for it? Have you seen it and would you do it?
The whole basis of the show revolves around stores giving you double and even triple discounts on your coupons. I would totally do it, but no stores around here offer double or triple coupons.
I work for a store that has our own coupons and allows you to double up with manufacturer's coupons also. I hate extreme couponing, because it's a pain in my butt. Every night, we have to print off a checklist of each coupon that was brought in, and we need to check off each one by comparing the barcode of the coupon to the printout. This process takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.
OMG...I am addicted...to the show. I might just start doing it. Come on, you get $1000 worth of food and you pay under $5.00 for it? Have you seen it and would you do it?
The drawback is that it's a full time job. It takes a lot of time finding all those deals. I'm a pretty serious couponer but I can't devote the time to be an extreme.
The vast majority of people on this show have no life, they spend 40 hours a week clipping coupons, and in order to get their massive savings buy loads of useless crap that will likely expire before they can use it.
Who honestly needs 40 bottles of ketchup? Or 100 tubes of toothpaste? Granted you got it for free but do you need it? No, because the next time you can get free toothpaste that requires getting 50 cans of corn you're going to just buy it again, and add to your hoard. No you have 50 cans of corn and another 20 tubes of toothpaste to add to your stockpile of 100 tubes of toothpaste.
Considering most people don't save hundreds of dollars when they go shopping, their more realistic, and maybe take a 150 dollar order and buy it for 20. Great savings!
But these people spend hours and hours clipping/finding coupons, paying for subscription fees to newspapers, and online coupon sites, organizing their trip, and then end up with more food then they probably intended to get (granted it's free, or close). If you, instead, work a mininium wage job for 20 hours instead of couponing you get:
7.25 * 20 = $145
You save 150-20=$130 in savings (which is good), but considering you actually make more money by just working, and have a manageable pantry, it seems like a useless endeveour to me. What if you could be earning 10-15 dollars an hour instead? Boy, it just gets more useless!
For this you have to go big or go home. And if you go big you end up like these crazy hoarders with too much stuff in their house, and working full-time just to save money on their groceries. Saving 600 dollars a month, when you can earn 600 dollars+ a month working seems, to me, quite useless.
Grocery stores are starting to catch on, most don't advertise their coupon policies anymore, and many are restricting use, my store when I was hired had an unlimited double/triple ad, that was being advertised a lot. Now we've restricted it to the first coupon, and no longer advertise. It's only a matter of time before all stores, everywhere, just accept coupons at face value, and don't allow people to abuse the system. The more popular couponing gets the harder it'll get to actually do it.
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"I've always been a fan of reality by popular vote" - Stephen Colbert (in response to Don McLeroy)
Most of those people are actually scamming the store, by abusing coupon codes that are similar
i would not say most i would say some are.
That is up to the store to check and make sure that the coupons are correct.
The vast majority of people on this show have no life, they spend 40 hours a week clipping coupons, and in order to get their massive savings buy loads of useless crap that will likely expire before they can use it.
Most of the women on this show are stay at home mom's. so instead of having a working full time job and having a babysitter they do this instead.
If you, instead, work a mininium wage job for 20 hours instead of couponing you get:
7.25 * 20 = $145
You save 150-20=$130 in savings (which is good), but considering you actually make more money by just working, and have a manageable pantry, it seems like a useless endeveour to me. What if you could be earning 10-15 dollars an hour instead? Boy, it just gets more useless!
yes you get 145 - taxes + babysitting fees. what does that leave you with?
Or you take some time go to the store get 500 dollars worth of items that you are going to use and pay a penny. so that is essentually a 499.99 you just earned.
which is about 12.50 an hour, and you don't have to pay taxes.
Saving 600 dollars a month, when you can earn 600 dollars+ a month working seems, to me, quite useless.[quote]
technically they are the same. if i save 600 bucks that is 600 bucks i didn't have to spend. which means that is an earning it goes in the + column.
[quote]Grocery stores are starting to catch on, most don't advertise their coupon policies anymore, and many are restricting use, my store when I was hired had an unlimited double/triple ad, that was being advertised a lot. Now we've restricted it to the first coupon, and no longer advertise. It's only a matter of time before all stores, everywhere, just accept coupons at face value, and don't allow people to abuse the system. The more popular couponing gets the harder it'll get to actually do it.
The stores get paid for the coupons. it is stupid for them to cut back. it means a loss of business as people will go elsewhere to get better deals.
i live in florida so no store here double's or triples coupons. you can still pair them up with both store and manufacture coupons though.
last time my wife went shopping she saved about 75 bucks.
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as a side note after doing a bit of researching it appears that the stores on the show are allowing this type of non-sense to go on. it appears that the TV show is compensating the stores for any losses. in fact many of these stores are breaking their own coupon policy for this show. IE the store Fry's only allows doubling on the first 3 coupons yet on one show they let the person double all of them.
reality TV is a joke. it isn't real it is all scripted.
i think the only real one out there is pawn stars. it is kinda hard to fake some of the stuff that comes into his store.
I agree that this is a hoarding case. I think the same things as everyone else: Why would I ever need 1000 rolls of aluminum foil? I just think that if I ever did start it, I would keep what I needed for the immediate future (no more than 2 weeks for perishable food, 2 months for nonperishable foods, and 6 months of non food related items). The rest, I would donate to local charities and send to the soldiers overseas. I don't know if I can dedicate a whole room/section of the house to my stockpile.
And yes, I know that it's a full time job looking for coupons. Also, I can't stand being in a store for more than an hour. I couldn't begin to imagine just checking out taking 2 hours like some of the people on the show.
I also love that a lot of these people on the show buy things like 100 2 liter bottles of soda along with 25 packages of 36 toilet paper and other large things and then drive away in a Civic. Seriously, just show us the moving van that they rented for the day to get all their crap back to the house.
I guess I should say that I would get into couponing, just not extreme couponing. I would get into couponing so that I could pay for my $200 biweekly grocery bill for $8.00. I wouldn't pick up unnecessary things.
No way I could ever do that. My time is far too valuable to me to spend it scouring for coupons. I'd much rather pay normal and have all that time in my life!
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"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love." --Carl Sagan
Here are the best type of deals that I have found since I got into couponing:
1. A supermarket advertises an item buy 1 get 1 free and I have a coupon to save $1.00 off 2.
2. I frequently get items for free at CVS and Rite aid. Here is an example: Schick Hydro Razors are on sale for $8.00. I have a $4.00 off coupon and CVS gives me $4.00 extra bucks for buying it. So I pay $4.00 and I get $4.00 off my next purchase. Sounds free to me.
I would take the time to do this, however there are a few things stopping me.
- Nowhere local or even in the next city doubles or triples coupons. The only one that does is super expensive and doubling or tripling there would be like using the coupon without doubling or tripling elsewhere.
- I can't find most of those coupons anywhere.
Quite frankly I think that the show is faked somehow.
My wife does this. The part most people don't see is that most of the extra stuff they get is donated. Awhile back, she got 30 shaving creams. I kept a few and gave them to our church that was collecting for thanksgiving.
Most of the time, it's less on amazing coupons and knowing to wait for a sale plus using a coupon. In the shave cream instance, it was 10 for $10 on Gillette shave gel. She had a coupon for $0.5 off that they double. Huh. Free shaving cream? Sure.
Some require you to buy large quantities to get that kind of deal.
I'm not saying there aren't people who buy in excess and let stuff go to waste, but most people are decent people.
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Honestly of I didn't work as much as I do I would be doing this. i always love the show and when I watch I get inspired to cut coupons and save mney but when I get to the store...I always forget to use them lol.
While I highly recommend making use of coupons if you can and making use of sales (Especially good ones) whenever you can, I wouldn't suggest trying for the whole extreme couponing thing. While I've had a few times over the years where I was able to get free stuff, or close to free stuff, its nearly impossible these days. None of the stores around here offer double or triple coupons anymore, they greatly restrict the use of coupons in general in that the items have to exactly match the coupon otherwise they reject it, and most good sales are now limited quantities that can be purchased. Oh, and no stores around here will allow you to use an $X off of 2 coupon when you get buy one get one free, because you have to actually be buying and paying for 2 items in order to get the amount off. Stores have gotten very smart over more recent years as they limit sales and while they are fine with manufacturer's coupons, the double or triple coupons which come out of their pocket they have stopped altogether. And I know some of the deals from the shows like that will allow people to get items for better than free to reduce the overall cost of the purchase, none of the stores around here allow that anymore, if the price of the item would end up being better than free it just reverts it to being free so no extra savings beyond your cost for the item.
I personally just set amounts that I am willing to buy certain things at. If the price gets low enough on a sale, and especially if I can combine a sale with a manufacturer's coupon or other deal, then I will go for those items, and usually stock up if its something that will last. A lot of it is being willing to shop at multiple places near you to be able to between them get the deals on most of the things you might want/need. Spending a half hour to an hour a week going through the local ads and checking out the coupons available from your sunday paper or otherwise is often well worth it, but otherwise I have better things to do with my time than some of the crazy stuff you see on the shows :p.
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However, I think if I had kids and needed to buy food for more than just me, I'd probably be all over finding ways to save money at the grocery store.
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Yeah, it pretty well defines not fun.
The drawback is that it's a full time job. It takes a lot of time finding all those deals. I'm a pretty serious couponer but I can't devote the time to be an extreme.
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/xtreme_coupon_scam_h6b8IUZBN2yXSANUx5CmNL
The vast majority of people on this show have no life, they spend 40 hours a week clipping coupons, and in order to get their massive savings buy loads of useless crap that will likely expire before they can use it.
Who honestly needs 40 bottles of ketchup? Or 100 tubes of toothpaste? Granted you got it for free but do you need it? No, because the next time you can get free toothpaste that requires getting 50 cans of corn you're going to just buy it again, and add to your hoard. No you have 50 cans of corn and another 20 tubes of toothpaste to add to your stockpile of 100 tubes of toothpaste.
Considering most people don't save hundreds of dollars when they go shopping, their more realistic, and maybe take a 150 dollar order and buy it for 20. Great savings!
But these people spend hours and hours clipping/finding coupons, paying for subscription fees to newspapers, and online coupon sites, organizing their trip, and then end up with more food then they probably intended to get (granted it's free, or close). If you, instead, work a mininium wage job for 20 hours instead of couponing you get:
7.25 * 20 = $145
You save 150-20=$130 in savings (which is good), but considering you actually make more money by just working, and have a manageable pantry, it seems like a useless endeveour to me. What if you could be earning 10-15 dollars an hour instead? Boy, it just gets more useless!
For this you have to go big or go home. And if you go big you end up like these crazy hoarders with too much stuff in their house, and working full-time just to save money on their groceries. Saving 600 dollars a month, when you can earn 600 dollars+ a month working seems, to me, quite useless.
Grocery stores are starting to catch on, most don't advertise their coupon policies anymore, and many are restricting use, my store when I was hired had an unlimited double/triple ad, that was being advertised a lot. Now we've restricted it to the first coupon, and no longer advertise. It's only a matter of time before all stores, everywhere, just accept coupons at face value, and don't allow people to abuse the system. The more popular couponing gets the harder it'll get to actually do it.
"I've always been a fan of reality by popular vote" - Stephen Colbert (in response to Don McLeroy)
GPolukranos, Kill ALL the Things!G
i would not say most i would say some are.
That is up to the store to check and make sure that the coupons are correct.
Most of the women on this show are stay at home mom's. so instead of having a working full time job and having a babysitter they do this instead.
yes you get 145 - taxes + babysitting fees. what does that leave you with?
Or you take some time go to the store get 500 dollars worth of items that you are going to use and pay a penny. so that is essentually a 499.99 you just earned.
which is about 12.50 an hour, and you don't have to pay taxes.
The stores get paid for the coupons. it is stupid for them to cut back. it means a loss of business as people will go elsewhere to get better deals.
i live in florida so no store here double's or triples coupons. you can still pair them up with both store and manufacture coupons though.
last time my wife went shopping she saved about 75 bucks.
-----------------------------------------
as a side note after doing a bit of researching it appears that the stores on the show are allowing this type of non-sense to go on. it appears that the TV show is compensating the stores for any losses. in fact many of these stores are breaking their own coupon policy for this show. IE the store Fry's only allows doubling on the first 3 coupons yet on one show they let the person double all of them.
reality TV is a joke. it isn't real it is all scripted.
i think the only real one out there is pawn stars. it is kinda hard to fake some of the stuff that comes into his store.
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And yes, I know that it's a full time job looking for coupons. Also, I can't stand being in a store for more than an hour. I couldn't begin to imagine just checking out taking 2 hours like some of the people on the show.
I also love that a lot of these people on the show buy things like 100 2 liter bottles of soda along with 25 packages of 36 toilet paper and other large things and then drive away in a Civic. Seriously, just show us the moving van that they rented for the day to get all their crap back to the house.
I guess I should say that I would get into couponing, just not extreme couponing. I would get into couponing so that I could pay for my $200 biweekly grocery bill for $8.00. I wouldn't pick up unnecessary things.
1. A supermarket advertises an item buy 1 get 1 free and I have a coupon to save $1.00 off 2.
2. I frequently get items for free at CVS and Rite aid. Here is an example: Schick Hydro Razors are on sale for $8.00. I have a $4.00 off coupon and CVS gives me $4.00 extra bucks for buying it. So I pay $4.00 and I get $4.00 off my next purchase. Sounds free to me.
Unless you go thru a certain product two or three times a week, then i understand hoarding like 30 of one product.
- Nowhere local or even in the next city doubles or triples coupons. The only one that does is super expensive and doubling or tripling there would be like using the coupon without doubling or tripling elsewhere.
- I can't find most of those coupons anywhere.
Quite frankly I think that the show is faked somehow.
Most of the time, it's less on amazing coupons and knowing to wait for a sale plus using a coupon. In the shave cream instance, it was 10 for $10 on Gillette shave gel. She had a coupon for $0.5 off that they double. Huh. Free shaving cream? Sure.
Some require you to buy large quantities to get that kind of deal.
I'm not saying there aren't people who buy in excess and let stuff go to waste, but most people are decent people.
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I personally just set amounts that I am willing to buy certain things at. If the price gets low enough on a sale, and especially if I can combine a sale with a manufacturer's coupon or other deal, then I will go for those items, and usually stock up if its something that will last. A lot of it is being willing to shop at multiple places near you to be able to between them get the deals on most of the things you might want/need. Spending a half hour to an hour a week going through the local ads and checking out the coupons available from your sunday paper or otherwise is often well worth it, but otherwise I have better things to do with my time than some of the crazy stuff you see on the shows :p.