We will now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming of talking about what color v-neck Emily is wearing on Pretty Little Liarsand/or whether Obama is wearing a purple tie today and therefore maybe more into the gays than he was yesterday to talk about something really important, namely Extreme Couponing.
I only watch two TV shows, and one of them is The X Files on Netflix and is way off the air so only barely counts as a TV show and so basically I just watch one TV show and it'sExtreme Couponing.
Extreme Couponers are people who spend between six and infinity hours a week clipping and organizing coupons, and then taking them to buy bulk amounts of foods at a 50-90% discount, usually developing huge stockpiles in the basement or closed-off rooms. (Some donate a percentage of their goods to charity, although it's really amazing that not ALL of them do, because they should.) They often bring their entire families to the store to carry the 6-7 shopping carts they accumulate, along with several binders full of coupons.
I have a lot of feelings about it. Riese also has a lot of feelings. Let me share.
Riese: i have some feelings about extreme couponing
mainly i can’t stop thinking about it
but it’s not like i want to watch all the episodes, i just want the show to ask these people the questions i desire answers to
like about their psychology
Rachel: I just want everything for free
I want to know how to do it
Riese: what are they gonna do with all the paper towels though
like they keep acquiring more things
do they use the things?
Rachel: The paper towels I get
Riese: the mustard though
Rachel: but not like the mustard
Riese: right
Rachel: exactly
Riese: i just kept thinking they could sell me the mustard
for like 10 cents
cause i feel like they have too much mustard
Rachel: Yeah, and the guy with all the toothpaste
he will die before he uses it all
Riese: right and then what
Rachel: but I would buy it!
Riese: and also do they have to get like 50 things of mustard in order to get them for free?
also do they only eat processed foods? i’m worried for their children
Rachel: I don’t think so! I think its just like hoarding
Riese: free hoarding
Rachel: very organized hoarding
There are a lot of issues surrounding Extreme Couponing. Is it actually just hoarding? Do they ever eat vegetables? Why do I feel like I am a completely and in fact hyper-functional adult when watching Hoarders, but feel somehow pathetic for paying full price for frozen broccoli when watching Extreme Couponing? Why do they always seem to end up buying hot sauce? Is it me or do people like coupon for dog food when they don't even have pets or diapers when they don't have babies? Why is it not on Netflix, for the love of God? And most pressingly - what if it all had to stop?
According to The Star Phoenix, which is actually based out of Canada, has some bad news for the world of Extreme Couponing. Namely, major chains like Target, Walgreens and RiteAid are looking closely at their coupon policies, and trying to close some of the loopholes that allow extreme couponers to buy 60 sticks of deodorant for fifty cents.
In part because of the show and probably in part because of the seemingly endless economic depression, the numbers of "extreme couponers" are rising, enough so that companies have to take notice. The Star Phoenix credits those people with 70% of all couponing in the country in the last year.
Are companies feeling the economic crunch too? Enough so that they're going to "restrict, clarify or create rules to guard against potential abuse of the system?" Since the entire extreme couponing phenomenon is one step behind in Canada, the Canadian version of the show won't begin until next month, and Canadian retailers aren't quite as concerned (yet) with the issue of locking down coupon policies. Which just means that in this instance as in every other instance, Canada remains the unspoiled utopia of American values like "freedom from oppression," "peace and civility," and "getting stuff for free or very cheap." If you move there now, you can secure access to discounted diapers and also beat the (potential) rush after the election! Or you can just watch the show, it's not on Netflix but it's on On Demand and probably free online, and also you could spend every episode looking up couponing blogs and keeping track of how many Extra Care Bucks you have on your CVS loyalty card, or maybe that's just me, hahaha! Really though. It might not last much longer. Don't let this magical moment in our cultural history pass you by.
My buddy in med school told me that the military did research on the effectiveness of medications and found that they are like 90% effective for up to ten years after expiration.
I could have gotten that wrong, but I think its going to be mostly alright.
Sidenote: My girlfriend and I are actually a Nielsen Family this week where they pay us to chronicle everything our eyeballs witness on the television. All we watch is reruns of Law and Order SVU and Extreme Couponing. Their research is gonna be f-ed up.
My boss’s wife extreme coupons. When I moved into my last apartment she gave my roommates and I shopping bags full of toothpaste, laundry detergent, ceral, mac n cheese, some other assorted stuff.
My Mom is an extreme CVS coupon person. She gets tons of stuff at other stores for ridiculously good deals but somehow everyone time she goes to CVS the bill goes from $400.00 to $2.34.
She’s tried to explain it to me so many times but I think she’s just magical.
I have the same questions about their diet. Many of them say this is how they buy groceries or “if there’s not a coupon we don’t buy it.” And that sort of implies what you see them buying is basically all they eat. So all I can think watching it is all their kids are likely going to end up with vitamin deficiencies and never poop.
I 100% completely agree and the lack of nutrition in prepacked/processed food is A Really Big Problem I Care About. However, a lot of the people explain that they get coupons that make their items worth negative amounts and they use the negative amounts to pay for the produce/meat.
i feel like they could make a ton of money by selling this to a) me at a discount price and b) mormons who need a year’s worth of food in their basement.
Tapatio and Texas Champagne FTW. But maybe they don’t have those outside Texas, maybe hot sauce changes from region to region because idk what Red Hot is.
Tabasco is like pure essence of hot pepper. I only find it useful as a cooking ingredient. Like vanilla extract. If I’m making a gumbo a drop a dash. No sustainable enjoyable flavor. It’s just hot and burns your face and mouth.
Translation: You can’t drown shit in tabasco. And really. Where’s the fun in that.
Yeah, cause it’s crazy how much money you can save with your onecard or ‘automatic coupons’ that give you a whole 10cents off, and limit you to six items per purchase.
You can buy this stuff with coupons but when you donate the product it counts as full price. Say I get 100 boxes of cereal that cost 4 dollars each but it’s free with a coupon. If I donated the cereal to charity it would be a $400 donation that I can that write off my taxes as charity. Except I didn’t pay for it. That’s a free $400.
Is this real? I’m amazed. I mean, it’s not really a free $400 dollars, it’s $400 you get to take off your taxable income. Plus it seems that most people who extreme coupon don’t have a ton of money to begin with. But still.
It sounds awesome to get a bunch of shit for free, but it’s work and not the shit you really really want anyway. One time I worked at a grocery store (I was 15) and this lady came through and bought $100+ worth of groceries. After I did all her coupons, it went down to $20. I looked surprise when I got to the final total and she smiled, looking satisfied and proud. Everyone has skill sets, I guess.
Thanks so much for covering this, Rachel. I have to say, I knew absolutely nothing about extreme couponing before reading this piece (neither the phenomenon itself, nor the show).
That said, I feel it is important to note something here. I believe I detected some sarcasm in your reference to purchasing diapers in Canada. As if you were “having a joke” at the expense of the woman who bought a room full of diapers when she didn’t have children.
Not only children use diapers!!! Maybe you should think a little harder, do more research BEFORE making such “jokes”?
i think i just want to be friends with an extreme couponer. especially in an area like here, where people seem to be very generous. THINK OF THE DINNERS.
also, i would help organize their coupons if they gave me free shit. or sold it to me cheap.
maybe we should start a lesbian commune with extreme couponers so that the products don’t all go to waste.
but i mean – unless there are a ton of coupons for trader joe’s & whole foods, we would probably have the worst stocked pantry in the history of all communes.
As someone who has hoarding tendencies and has grandparents who live in a fire hazard of a house due to the fact that it’s so full of crap, watching stuff like this is very disturbing to me.
My main reaction to all this is how annoyed I would be if I was stuck behind them waiting for the cashier. When I go to the grocery store my goal is to get in and get out as quickly as possible.
There are a few episodes where midway through the coupon scanning the computer freezes or it comes up with the wrong deduction…those tend to be the more “entertaining” times of the show.
after i watched this show, i bought the sunday’s paper (with the coupons), forgot, and used it later to wipe up juice i spilled. i think i’m doing it wrong.
Secondly… I know an extreme couponer and he is c-r-a-z-y. Constantly bragging (about everything), so condescending, proud that his wife does nothing but clip coupons all day so he can have a closet full of plastic spoons… They’re only in their 20′s. It’s too much.
[...] very much TV, and I REALLY don’t watch much reality TV. Hoarders is a stretch for me. (Except for Extreme Couponing, DUH.) But recently a friend started watching Circus, which is conveniently streaming on Netflix, [...]
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