OT: Extreme Couponing

Have you seen this show? Holy crap! I need to learn how to coupon the way these ladies do. One woman got something like 1,100 dollars worth of groceries for about 51 dollars!

Of course, I always say, if you don't pay in money you will pay in time. And these women spend a LOT of time doing what they do.

Lynda

 I watched it once and it left me scratching my head. I think it's great if you can feed your family for a few dollars a week, but these people just reminded me of organized hoarders. There's no way all of that food could be eaten by one family before it reaches its expiration date. One lady took home 72 bottles of mustard. It's shelf life is not all that long. I have been married for 21 years and I don't think I've bought 20 bottles of mustard in that time...LOL  It just made me think of some of these people as just being greedy and like I said earlier...organized hoarding.

They save on groceries, but I wonder what they pay for all of the newspapers and the ink used to print online coupons.

I also didn't understand the lady with a stockpile of diapers that didn't have a baby.

Or the man with a stockpile of pads and tampons...

Just cause it's free doesn't mean they need to take it home with them.

Organized hoarding? Lol, I thought that too. And they do definitely spend money on printer ink, multiple newspaper subscriptions, and coupon services.

Mostly it seemed like they spent A LOT of time. One woman spends 70 hours a week??? I wonder how that would translate to an hourly wage?

I too couldn't understand some of the "purchases." One man on tonight's episode has enough deodorant to last him 150 years! This man did say that what he didn't feel he needed, he donated to charity. That's good. I fully support that.

The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that some of these people had almost no debt. Now THAT would be cool. No freakin' mortgage or credit card payment. Could you imagine?

Seriously, I'm thinking there's got to be a way to do something similar to what these people are doing, but without the whole OCD aspect of it. Some modified version of what they do.

But where to start...

I address this in part in my (long-assed) post below.  Sometimes, you buy things in tremendous quantity because they are money-makers.  I have a stack of oriental noodles at home right now that haven't made their way to the food bank yet that I picked up as a money maker last year - no one in my house will or can eat them, because of how we react to pasta.

I used to do that type of couponing long ago after watching an informerical called "Refunding Makes Cents"   Its the only informercial that I have run across that has paid for itself a thousand times over.  Its a hobby just like anything else.    It becomes a high to be able to get things for nearly free.   It is very time consuming.    But I have done the stockpiling in the years.   Matter of fact, I have a ton of toothpaste in my basement that cost me .03 a tube right now!!   I have given away alot of it to friends and family who are less fortunate.    I used to make gift boxes of my extras to help out others.   It can be fun, addictive and makes you feel good that you can help others for pennies!!!

I work with a lady that does extreme couponing and uses it for her donations, she gives to the Women's Shelter and to gets the free item every week from all those places like Walgreens and CVS and gives it to charity. She tells me its her "sport." 

All the hoarding and extra shelving, that doesn't make sense to me at all.

I watched the very first show TLC did on Extreme Couponing last year and I was amazed at what these people can do. It takes ALOT of time - time I don't have nor do I have the patience.

What I couldn't understand is why they would buy such huge amounts - like one woman bought 150 boxes of mac and cheese...how can you possibly eat that much (with no kids mind u!) before it goes bad? And ALL of them are like that - hundreds of toothbrushes, deoderants, etc...

However, the very last man on that show bought a TON of cereal - I want to say like 500+ boxes and brought it home on a palet in his driveway...in which he had a food bank come and pick it up...now THAT made me cry!

Giving to others who need it is the best part...but I agree with the poster who said alot of the time it is just organized hoarding.

Addressing some of the items that I've seen in this post so far:

1. It's possible to do this just a few hours a week instead of hours per day - I used to do this and spent no more than 5 hours a week, including the shopping aspect of it (sometime****ting multiple store locations in one day).

2. In 2009 when I started this, I estimate that I picked up about 2 grand in merchandise from September through December for a total of $200 (including buying newspapers) - it would have been MUCH closer to $25-50 if NC didn't charge tax BEFORE coupon discounts.  For those people who coupon in states that assess sales tax on the final price only, they routinely walk out paying for bags of crap with a quarter or less.

3. "Organized Hoarder" - this is me, actually.  I'm working on that, and it's a primary reason why I stopped couponing.  Next to my desk at home, I have one huge box filled with shampoos, "ethnic" hair treatments, air fresheners, bandaids, etc.  In our storage room, more boxes filled with tons of HBAs.  On the plus side, however, we hadn't had to pay for Kleenex for 18 months because of my couponing, and neither my husband nor I will have to pay for deodorant, shampoo/conditioner or body wash/soap in the next 12 months, minimum.  Also, if we're sick, I have Theraflu on tap along with a myriad of other little cold and flu items to help us get by.  Finally, I made AWESOME Christmas bags for everyone that both of us work with using these items and only spent money on the decorated bags to put them in.

4. "Only Processed Foods, no good for the DS" - what smart couponers do will find sales where you not only get an item for free, but you essentially get PAID to buy the item, and yes this happens regularly.  Take, for example, a drug store like Rite Aid.  Rite Aid has a sale where they will give you a $2 coupon on your next order for every bottle of Maybelline nail polish you buy.  I have $2 coupons for Maybelline nail polish.  Maybelline nail polish TYPICALLY costs $5 per bottle, so after both discounts (one before purchase, one after purchase) you would spend $1, right?  It's a good deal, however, if you do your research you may find that Rite Aid is actually phasing out a bunch of the old season's nail colors and they have been clearanced to move at $1.25 apiece but haven't been marked as such.  As a result, your coupon takes you into the negative (you now have an extra $0.75 to spend on THIS order), and you get a $2 coupon off of your next order for free.  Not including tax, each bottle of nail polish earns you $2.75.  Now, multiply this by 10 bottles of polish.  You have just earned 27.50(minus tax) to spend on things you actually NEED - cans of tuna, bottles of G2, shampoo, deodorant, laundry detergent.  By the way, the Rite Aid situation was one I took advantage of last year.

5. "OMG what are they spending on newspapers?" - Some of us spend nothing.  I personally prefer to buy my inserts, because I am shy and lazy.  However, many serious Qers will indeed walk their neighborhoods every trash night and comb through recycling bins for inserts (most people throw them out), will set up arrangements with paper delivery people to buy inserts for pennies on the dollar, will go to recycling centers to comb through the papers there, will make arrangements with people in their churches, workplace and with friends and family to get their inserts, etc.  I prefer buying my papers (typically $1.50) from the dollar store to give myself a small discount, or buying them in bulk online.  In 2009, I still came out WAY ahead, even when buying 10-20 papers a week.

If ANYONE has any questions about couponing, lemme know.  It can be very exciting, but it is also easy for me to get bored/burned out.