"Extreme Couponing" or Ho"arders- Grocery Edition"

[sk!mom]

I'm all for saving money but some of this seems like hoarding. When the couple that spent 6 hours in the store got home and I saw the groceries everywhere, it looked like an episode of Hoarders. Granted some of the others seemed organized but really could you use most of that before it went bad. "150 years worth of deodorant" Really!?!

Honestly, I wonder how long before these extreme people change coupon policies.

 

[momtoce&j]

I agree! That first couple....it's just the two of them. HOW can they ever use up some of their stash before it expires??? At least the last guy donates some of his deals to the food bank.

It seems like in other parts of the country, grocery stores allows any one customer to 'buy out' the store on whatever is on sale. By me, in our Shoprite, you can only buy 4 of any one product/variety that is on sale.

 

[sau418]

Seriously, hoarding of food.

 

[MELSMICE]

I agree. It seems just a touch excessive.

 

[heartsy77]

My DH just said these people are headed for horders!

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

I'm watching it now - the woman who bought 62 things of mustard when her husband doesn't even use it threw me for a loop. I mean why? We couldn't use 62 mustards in our entire life!

 

[marie1203]

I was just telling DH that. The lady with the seven kids that has groceries all over the house I could never life like that I hate clutter. Even if it was free I wouldn't take things I won't use. Like PP said about the mustard it was way too much. I think we use maybe 2 bottles of mustard a year!

 

[sydneysmom]

I'm watching it now - the woman who bought 62 things of mustard when her husband doesn't even use it threw me for a loop. I mean why? We couldn't use 62 mustards in our entire life!

OMG, my DH and I just said the exact same thing!!! it's absurd! they have like 600 toothbrushes and 500 deoderant. ( we get a toothbrush free each time we go to the dentist....that seems to work okay for us!)

honestly, what are these people going to do w/ 75 jars of Maalox ??? I can see stocking up on items YOU USE. I admit, I do it. No where to the extreme that these people do though. But CVS is one of my favorite places for bargains.

I will say though, it's going to ruin couponing for the average person....stores are going to wind up making it impossible to use them.

 

[GJM]

When we lived in NJ I use to have a pretty good stock pile on items, no where near this show. I love Shop Rite!

Living here in SC - the coupons aren't as good, and the sales and coupon policy's aren't the same. Now I really don't have any stock pile.

Honestly these people can't go thru all the food they have. I would hope they donate items instead of throwing out. I would have have food in my bedroom closet!

 

[PudgetteD]

I thought it was great that the guy got all that cereal for free and donated it to a local food bank. I don't understand why a family of 3 would need 40 jars of pasta sauce and 40 boxes of pasta.. DH says I'm just as bad as I have an entire cabinet dedicated to free ramen noodles. . .

 

[charming23]

I am just floored at some of these couponers. I mean I get excited to save $5 on a shopping trip. I also do not see how they are going to use up all that food. 62 bottles of mustard, 35 bottles of malox, it is just crazy.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I thought it was great that the guy got all that cereal for free and donated it to a local food bank. I don't understand why a family of 3 would need 40 jars of pasta sauce and 40 boxes of pasta.. DH says I'm just as bad as I have an entire cabinet dedicated to free ramen noodles. . .

My mom buys pasta, macaroni and cheese, tuna, tuna helper, and soup by the case. She is from a large family and they tend to come over. Feeding 20 for dinner with little notice isn't uncommon here.

She is getting better at only buying what she can use before it expires.

 

[ilovejack02]

I am all for couponing , but I can't stand the clutter . 5 or 6 boxes of cereal is all I want in the house at once. Free to me, still isn't a deal if I have to clean around it. I only have what we can use in about 3 months as far as beauty products. I do try to keep 10- 15 toothbrushes in the house at a time but that is because we live in the country and sometimes have unexpected house guests if we have a get together that ends late. They might not have clean clothes, but they have clean teeth : ) . I also change my toothbrush every 3 weeks or so , waiting for my free toothbrush at 6 month visit doesn't work for me.

 

[pezheadmeg]

I watched for 2 hours and I'm still shocked. I can see a stockpile of pasta and sauce for the mom with 7 kids. But the mustard? The 60 things of hand soap? If I got to the store and needed one of those items I would be annoyed.

But I did get the woman in Philly who couponed for only the groceries she needed.

 

[Celidh]

OMG, my DH and I just said the exact same thing!!! it's absurd! they have like 600 toothbrushes and 500 deoderant. ( we get a toothbrush free each time we go to the dentist....that seems to work okay for us!)

honestly, what are these people going to do w/ 75 jars of Maalox ??? I can see stocking up on items YOU USE. I admit, I do it. No where to the extreme that these people do though. But CVS is one of my favorite places for bargains.

I will say though, it's going to ruin couponing for the average person....stores are going to wind up making it impossible to use them.

The Maalox is what you need after you eat 62 bottles of mustard!!

Seriously though, are the rules for coupons different in the US than here in Canada? Most coupons I see can only be used one at a time. I even had the girl at MacDonald's tell me one day I couldn't use two coupons for buy 2 combos at a special price when I brought my family of 5 in. I just said, well ring them in on separate orders if I can't put it all together. That was just stupid! I"m buying 5 meals and can't use coupons for 4 of them.

So how are these people allowed to use 100's of coupons at a time and where do they get them?

 

[figment3258]

Some of these people are crazy! I think they should be donating what they don't use. I got so excited this week when I saved 50$ and only spent 46$ I guess I have a lot to learn

 

[MELSMICE]

I thought it was great that the guy got all that cereal for free and donated it to a local food bank. I don't understand why a family of 3 would need 40 jars of pasta sauce and 40 boxes of pasta.. DH says I'm just as bad as I have an entire cabinet dedicated to free ramen noodles. . .

I said the same thing about the pasta. She said she buys about a 3 month supply when it goes on sale because everything seems to have a 3 month cycle of going on sale.

40 jars of pasta & sauce for 120-122 days? Really? Sauce & pasta 40 times in 12 weeks. That's almost 4X a week that you would have to eat it.

I'm all for couponing & getting a bargin. I go through the sale ads each week & do my "cherry picking" & match up coupons to sales, but I don't buy things that I won't use or don't need. To me it's a waste.

I didn't watch every episode but from what I did watch I only noticed the guy named Nathan that donated the cereal. Did anyone else even donate anything?

 

[NYCDiane]

I think these people started couponing to save and then it morphed into an addiction --- the thrill of getting $600 worth of stuff for $6 even if they have no real use for it.

Even the woman with the perfectly neat stockpile: a lot of that stuff is going to expire before she even uses it. Cereals will expire (or get bugs). Toothpaste expires, gatorade expires.

I love couponing and I love nothing more than hearing that "beep, beep, beep" as my coupons are scanned but you won't catch me buying 40 boxes of pasta or 62 containers of mustard "just because it's free". (if I were to do that, I would probably drive straight from the store to the food pantry to donate it)

 

[mrodgers]

All the coupon talk all over the internet disgusts me.

My wife decided to go to a real grocery store last week. Family of 4 and she paid $270 for the week. We ran out of food. (this includes all items, not just food.) Today she went to Walmart and spent $230. It will last us a week, but not more. She used 2 coupons.

I've been scouring the internet for coupons for several weeks for her. There is nothing out there to use for stuff we would eat. Plenty of cereal, but that is about it. We have nothing in the newspapers here in western PA.

I am currently looking at grocery ads from an area we don't shop in. Cereal that we would eat, 4 for $10 (General Mills), a coupon for $0.55 on 1 and coupon for $1.00 off 3. That takes it down to $8.45, or $2.11 each. Every internet coupon I've printed says "do not double or triple." That certainly isn't any help. The sale is for the smallest of sizes of cereal in which she would instead buy the big generic bags with 1.5 times the quantity at least in each for $2.

It is making me sick, the grocery prices and these coupon shows and all the talk on the internet. With groceries and gas prices going up, our expense in these 2 categories have increased about $500/month since we've started working with a budget. Currently, our groceries and gas expense is now twice our house payment! The real kicker is, we don't buy beef! We have our own raised beef. We don't eat beef all the time as it wouldn't be the healthiest to eat red meat all the time, but we do eat a lot and that grocery budget is without any beef.

I just wonder every time I read or see something about couponing, just what are you all eating? Our country is slated as the fattest country in the world. I can probably guess why from these internet forums. Either you are eating out all the time, which certainly isn't good for the waistline, or couponing, thus eating all that processed food that coupons are for.

All these extreme couponers shown in this show certainly has a lot of junk they paid very little for. But I haven't yet seen any actual food that one could eat for nutrition. Thus far I have seen on the show a crapload of pop, sugary juices, hotdogs, really crappy paper towels, toilet paper that I would never put down in my septic, toothpaste and deodorant. How much toothpaste and deodorant do people use in a month? We would save a whopping $2/month on toothpaste and $4/month on deodorant with these stockpiles that are being shown on TV.

 

[walkdmc]

I think pretty much everyone I've seen on TV who claims to be an extreme couponer looks like a hoarder.

I like the game of cutting coupons and matching them up with weekly sales ads but those people get things they don't even need just b/c they're "free". I think it's ridiculous.

Oh, I just read the post above mine and completely agree with the processed food comments. Everytime I see those couponers, they have a cart full of processed stuff. That's fine, but I've never seen them buy a fruit or fresh vegetable.