couponing thoughts / the extreme couponing show

There is a really good article HERE posted by a friend on her blog that actually takes you to a different blog. It's an article about shelf clearing and ethics and thoughts about the couponing "craze" that has started recently. READ it. Read every word. I was nodding along the whole way.

I was at dinner with friends Tuesday night for a Moms Club event and I was really proud of my gift for the gift exchange. I had four items in there. The most I spent on any one item was 24 cents. The receiver of my gift was like "Oh my! This is way more than the cost we were supposed to use" and while the RETAIL value was higher than the price to spend, the cost I SPENT out of pocket wasn't, so I thought nothing of it. I hope she liked the gift--- not the point....

That started a conversation about the new couponing show, Extreme Couponing or Couponers or whatever it's called. I think I surprised a few of the gals around me (Sorry!!!!) be/c I was SOOO vocal about it. I can honestly say that I've watched each episode this season (I was oblivious to the existence of the show last season) and I am very vocal about how I think it's CRAP. That show is CRAP. NO ONE. I mean NO ONE needs 400 items of any one thing. ( I have 9 free waters in a bin) No one needs a room just for toothpaste. ( I have a bin in the bathroom closet) No one needs a room just for storing inserts. ( I use a storage tub under my desk) No one needs a WALL of toilet paper. (I think I have 3 or 4 packs currently) No one needs 1000 boxes of cereal. (I have 45 currently) No one needs 1000 deodorants (I have 6 I think) .... This show makes me so mad. They dump out containers and containers into their shopping carts, they completely clear shelves of one item at a time like that's normal. Each show shows the next person purchasing 100 of this item or 100 of that item or 300 or 500... and there are many watching this show that will think "oh that's how you do it." NO! no no no. ... I will say if you are SPENDING MONEY to get your coupons, besides just buying the paper, is it worth it? So what you bought 400 of something, just be/c you can! Some woman was talking about how she had nothing to feed her family of five. So she bought 93 bags of croutons. REALLY?! "Hey kids! Croutons are what's for dinner!" (I have 5 bags right now).

Another thing that makes me crazy about this show is aside from one girl (who had 18 transactions in her planning-- like that's realistic) aside from her... every other person on this show is OVERWEIGHT. And I am sorry, but COME. ON. When you're showing how you can buy cake mix (I have 4 boxes) and sports drinks and chips (one guy was counting his chips and had like 44 bags of chips ((I think I have 5 or 6)) and proud of his chip collection) and processed dinners and frozen pizza and and and... NO WONDER you are overweight! You're stockpiling JUNK! SURE! I think it's great to see a good deal, get a couple and have it. I really like stocking up on condiments like dressings and barbeque sauce be/c we'll use them in meal planning. I like stocking up on pasta and red sauce, be/c we'll eat pasta once a week. I like stocking up on fish sticks for the kids (one time I got 6 bags at once) but I don't agree with shopping like a hoarder. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I do have a stockpiling plan currently. I would like to have enough food to support my family 6 months to a year if we were without financial income. If the world collapses and Jamie's job is gone, I want to know that my family will survive for a time where we don't have to worry about making dinner tomorrow be/c we can go to the storage room, and prepare a meal from what's there. I think that this extreme couponers show focuses on the hoarding aspect. Sure, some donate. And that's wonderful, but really, it makes me nuts. These people talk about how they like to get more stuff to get more stuff...

Jamie said something that rings true... it's like a video game. They are wanting to see if they can beat the last score and be the best. I LOVE making deals, don't get me wrong. I get excited when I do awesome deals and get three bottles of juice normally priced at 3.58 each and get all three for 2.99 total. That's cool. I like getting things for free and am proud of the things I can get for free but I am not on mission to better my last "score" or to see just how much I can fill my newly built shelves with.

Those are my thoughts. If you are interested in couponing, please don't watch this show and think that is the only way to coupon. Be/c it isn't. I get four papers a week. So thta's four inserts. So at most I usually can buy four items at a time (hold that thought), not four hundred items at a time.

One thing I truly like about where my couponing is lately is my coupon group. I'm part of a small coupon group where we all share what coupons we're looking for and we swap. It's really neat. I think it's a great way to acquire more coupons without buying them. It allows me to buy more than just the four items I'd be able to do with my papers alone. I don't get coupons from them for everything I want but it's fun when I get any at all. And I love sending off the ones I don't use so that others can get more deals too. Again though, remember that we do this on a SMALL scale. Not a massive one. I do not think I want to be labeled as an extreme couponer, but I sure am proud of the deals I do make. I think about couponing like part of my job. I don't have any income coming in to this house. So it's my job to make dang sure I do the best with what goes out.


EDIT NOTE:::

I hadn't watched this week's episode before I posted this. I watched it last night. I will take back my comment about each featured person being overweight be/c the two gals on this week's episode were both definitely not overweight. This at least made me happy. The show however, still makes me nuts.