Anybody seen extreme couponing on TLC?

Hi- I was wondering if anybody else has seen the show extreme couponing on TLC? What do you think of it? They have two different coupon fanatics each week on the show, and they get like $600 worth of groceries for $30. It is disgusting. Most of the people on the program live in areas of the country that have double couponing, which Chicago does not have. They had somebody on the program a few weeks ago who bought $500 worth of groceries to give to the local Ronald McDonald House, but because of double coupons, she only had to pay $30. Included in her haul that she donated to the house though was 107 bottles of hot sauce. What they could possible do with all that hot sauce was beyond me. Thanks, Nancy

NFriday wrote:It is disgusting.

Why do you think it is disgusting? I also watch the show (not religiously) but on the episodes I have seen, the participants admit that this is their biggest haul and often they end up donating to soup kitchens or other charities. I actually started collecting the coupons in my Sunday paper and been paying attention to circulars as well. And while I have not gone overboard, I did save a bunch of money at Dominicks the other day.

I think the charities are happy to get what they can, especially with the economy the way it is... just my two cents.

Hi- The thing is that since the show has started airing, stores have been tightening their coupon policies because of this program, and the program makes people think that they can go into Dominick's and get $100 worth of groceries every week for $5, when very few people do that well.

There was one person who was on the show last season, that has gotten a lot of bad publicity, because it has been discovered that she was using coupons for items which did not match with the coupon. For example, she would use a dollar coupon doubled, which was supposed to be used to buy a quart of yogurt, on a 6 oz. container of the same brand. They have fixed the computer system at the grocery stores now, so most people can't pull that trick anymore.

I visit Jill Cataldo's blog quite a bit, and she hates this show. She was asked originally to be a consultant to the program when it was originally going to teach people how to save money at the store. Jill just posted a link on her blog to a segment on a Cincinnati TV station, where this woman has a garage sale almost every weekend, to sell her stockpiles from her shopping trips, and she takes in $300 a week from this. No, she does not donate her stuff to charity. I try to save money at the store, but why does anybody need 3oo rolls of paper towels sitting in their basement. Thanks, Nancy

I saw the episode where the person bought like 90 packages of TicTacs or something. Another person had stockpiled aspirins and other otc medication. I can't see them using it all before it expires.

Anyway, most coupons seem to be on heavily packaged and processed foods, which I rarely buy.

We watch this sometimes as a bit of a guilty pleasure. Not sure I find it "disgusting" but it's certainly not something I'd want to spend my time doing. If anything it's inspired my wife to clip more coupons and I can't really complain about saving a little extra money.

NFriday wrote:Hi- The thing is that since the show has started airing, stores have been tightening their coupon policies because of this program,...

Are they tightening their policies or just enforcing their existing policies?

What a timely thread - I happened to watch half an episode at the gym the other day. The lady was doing extreme couponing so she could use the saved money to get another tattoo I don't know if this is typical, but I hope she realizes she's not really "saving" anything. The whole show leaves me rather bemused. What is someone going to do with 100 tubes of toothpaste or 50 bottles of dishwashing liquid?

One of the problems with Extreme Couponing, Hoarders, etc. is that the audience seems to crave stories that are off the charts. I'm not going to learn how to clean out my closets based on what I see on Hoarders, and I won't learn much about couponing from EC. (In all fairness, I watched just a few episodes of each when they first came on, then gave up.)

I'd agree with Nancy: I did find aspects of EC to be disgusting. While some were giving their hauls to charity, many seemed to celebrate their at-home stockpiles. What family needs 100 tubes of toothpaste? A family of 4 might go through 1/4 of that in a year. Or 100 2-liter bottles of soda? Seriously...I get diabetes just thinking about the sugar in there. You don't see a lot of people celebrating how many fresh fruits & veggies they scored. Instead, it seemed that most people were buying a lot of processed food that can be eaten periodically as a treat/reward but shouldn't be a cornerstone of any diet.

Just the idea of this whole process tires me out—watching the show, trying to plan it in real life, anything. It's an ordeal just to clip the coupons that come in the Sunday paper. I've stopped doing that for the most part, just clipping ones for brands that I've become loyal to, like Scot Towels, because I found that after all the work of clipping every possible coupon that I might use someday, I realized that store/generic brands are still cheaper. CVS gives some great deals, like if you spend a certain dollar amount on anything you get a $5 coupon off your next trip, etc. I don't cherry pick either; I buy all my produce/meat/etc at Fresh Farms or Marketplace, then all my housewares/toiletries/etc at CVS or Walgreens, or Jewel if I also need a lot of canned/boxed stuff that I can get cheaper there than at a produce market. I figure that going from store to store to store to glean a couple of sale items at each place takes up too much time, energy, and gas that the slight savings aren't worth it. These folks that hyper-coupon are spending so much time that it becomes a part-time job, and I'd frankly rather spend the extra money and go to a movie with all my free time.

I feel like the people who buy so many Tic Tacs or meds or whatever that will expire before they can use them are a bit like the people on the hoarder shows. It's a great deal and they can obtain it, so why not? It doesn't matter if they need or want it, because look at the great deal they're getting. But I'm all for the paper towels and dish soap; they don't expire, and if you have storage space, it doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Hi- I am surprised that their is that much interest in this topic here. To answer somebody's question concerning coupon policy, the stores have tightened the policy on coupons, and a lot of stores now only let you use four like coupons in each shopping trip. You can only buy four tubes of a particular toothpaste using a coupon in each shopping order. That does not mean that you cannot go through the line more than once while you are in the store. It would be really hard to go through the line 25 times though. I thought that besides the 107 bottles of hot sauce being given to the Ronald McDonald House, the tactic that the woman from Detroit used was equally crazy. They had an extreme couponer from Detroit on this season, who was couponing to saving enough money to move to Hawaii. She wanted to get out of Detroit, to escape the violence. I can understand wanting to move out of Detroit proper. I have a sister who used to live in Detroit, and she is never moving back there. The crazy thing about this woman, is that she wants to take her stockpile of stuff with her when she moves to Hawaii. Imagine how much it would cost to transport 100 rolls of paper towels to Hawaii.

Here is the link to the woman in Cincinnati, who has the weekly stockup sales almost every week, and makes approximately $300 each weekend.

http://www.jillcataldo.com/node/19375

Jill said she spoke recently to a group of marketing executives, and somebody showed this tape to them, and their jaw just dropped when they saw how much this woman was selling every weekend.

I do cut out a few coupons, but I have been using a lot of the online coupons on Dominick's website. You can load them on to your fresh values card, and it only takes you a few minutes. I love their J4U and deal match programs you can sign up for on their website.

BTW- I also watch the hoarding shows too. I admit I am messy, but after watching all those programs I don't look so bad. Hope this helps, Nancy

There is only so much of a product that one can realistically use, store and keep track of before the money that you save by buying in bulk, using the 2 for 1 or other coupons is offset by the waste when a product goes un-used.

For years and years my father lived alone and due to physical hadicaps could not drive. I would take him shopping, monthly on average, and he would always have his stack of coupons that he clipped from the papers, magazines, etc. He mostly ate prepackaged stuff like you see on these shows and frozen dinners. Rarely did he buy any type of fresh vegetable, meat, etc. I would dutifully take him to jewel/dominicks to get his shopping done but I would never pay close attention to exactly what he was purchasing, although I did note that most items like toiletries, dish soap, etc. he had coupons for. After bringing him home, I would carry all the bags up to his apartment, but he would insist on putting everything away himself. Fast forward 10 years of doing this and it came time to move him into an assisted living facility. When cleaning his apartment out I came upon some shocking discoveries. Things like, 40 cans of shaving cream, 20 large containers of laundry detergent, enough toothbrushes and toothpaste to go thru 1 a week for the rest of his life (he had full dentures), a closet full of kleenex and toliet paper, etc. etc. etc.

I have no doubt that somewhere in his mind the thought of the "savings" made the coupon to good to pass up, but the reality was that there was thousands of dollars of merchandise (even at sale prices) theat he could have never used up in his lifetime. While I fully appreciate that I have not purchased a can of shaving cream in 10+ years, these shows remind me of that and even worse.


Shows like EC are a curiosity. While the thought of getting hundreds of dollars of merchandise for next to nothing is intriguing, the reality is that 1) I don't eat much of that pre-packaged stuff. 2) I find the required quantities you have to purchase at a Sams or Costco to be more than sufficiently large enough. I just can't imagine that a palet of toliet paper and a 55 gallon drum of maple syrup justifies the savings.

Hi- I did noy know that shaving cream lasted for ten years. I know that toothpaste is only good for about two years, and there is no way that a family can go through 100 tubes of toothpaste before it expires. From what I understand most of the stores that are featured on EC, have bent the rules just for the show, because of all the free publicity they get. Most stores that double coupon have a limit on how many of each coupon they will allow you to double. Normally they will not let you double 100 of the same coupons, but they do allow it just for this show. Not all, but most of the people featured on the show, live in a region of the U.S. that has double coupons, which Chicago does not have except for KMart on occasion. There have been several people from the Chicago area that have been featured on the show though, and you wonder how they get their groceries so cheap without double coupons.

I can't remember who it is, but one of the shoppers filmed for the show, has supposedly been banned from most of the grocery stores in his hometown. Most of the people filmed for this show, spend 20 hours or more a week on this, and I cannot see spending that much time.

The person that I gave the link too, Jill Cataldo, she does super couponing workshops mostly at public libraries in the Chicago area. Most of her workshops are free, and she teaches you how to do this honestly, and still save 60% or more every week on your groceries. I know she just did one in Northfield, and I am going to try to get the Evanston library to schedule her. She schedules workshops in at least four libraries in the Chicago area every month.

There are coupons for really healthy stuff. Right now you can get organic flour for free at Whole Foods using coupons. I also recently got some Eating Right frozen dinners at Dominick's recently for really cheap. They are healthy, and they taste really good for frozen. They are not as good as homemade, but they are good if you don't have time to cook from scratch. I think through Dominick's J4U, I got them one week for $1.49 a piece, and then I had a 25% coupon off any frozen food at Dominick's, and so I think I paid $1.12 for each one. Right now I have a few checkout coupons good at Dominick's for $1 off any bag of organic produce in the store. Hope this helps, Nancy

chgoeditor wrote:I'd agree with Nancy: I did find aspects of EC to be disgusting. While some were giving their hauls to charity, many seemed to celebrate their at-home stockpiles. What family needs 100 tubes of toothpaste? A family of 4 might go through 1/4 of that in a year. Or 100 2-liter bottles of soda? Seriously...I get diabetes just thinking about the sugar in there. You don't see a lot of people celebrating how many fresh fruits & veggies they scored. Instead, it seemed that most people were buying a lot of processed food that can be eaten periodically as a treat/reward but shouldn't be a cornerstone of any diet.

I personally knew someone that stockpiled like this. She donated a ton of stuff to food pantries and similar entities. As far as 100 tubes of toothpaste goes,she would have a garage sale once a year that was legendary,and would take in over $10,000 over a 2 day period. It was like a job to her.

Hi- I wonder if any of the money she collected at the yard sale was declared to the IRS. Something tells me it was not. I assume that she did not live around here, because due to the lack of double coupons here, it is hard to stockpile that much here. Thanks, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I wonder if any of the money she collected at the yard sale was declared to the IRS. Something tells me it was not. I assume that she did not live around here, because due to the lack of double coupons here, it is hard to stockpile that much here. Thanks, Nancy

Actually she lived in Algonquin. Despite no double coupons,she was a genius at putting deals together

To clarify as to how that woman was able to

Artie wrote:

NFriday wrote:Hi- I wonder if any of the money she collected at the yard sale was declared to the IRS. Something tells me it was not. I assume that she did not live around here, because due to the lack of double coupons here, it is hard to stockpile that much here. Thanks, Nancy

Actually she lived in Algonquin. Despite no double coupons,she was a genius at putting deals together

She was able to stockpile crazy amounts by using "avenu" deals at Jewel (she had dozens of preferred card numbers) and by using expired coupons. This was several years ago before stores cracked down on using expireds.

Hi- I used to love Avenu, but the last few years, every time I log on to there, all the deals are junk. It seems like I get the same deals now almost every time. I used to use a lot more coupons when Dominick's and Jewel let you use expired coupons. Dominick's probably quit accepting expired coupons 6 months ago. They had to because they don't scan anymore. All the grocery stores in this country had to start using this software that does not allow expired coupons to scan. I have heard that Ultra still takes expired up to 30 days, but I don't know how they get the expired coupons to scan. Thanks, Nancy

Hi- I watched the latest extreme couponing segment last night. They showed a woman shopping at K Msrt, where they happened to have double coupons that week. There was a limit of four of the same coupons per transaction, and so she made 20 separate transactions.
I am sure the store looked the other way for her, just because of all the free PR she was generating for the store. She lives in a 900 square foot condo with her husband and child, and she is expecting another child. She is using part of her garage, which she shares with another person for storage. She talked the other person into letting her put up another storage shelf in the garage, buy offering to supply her with a three months supply of free cat food. Thanks, Nancy

NFriday wrote:She is using part of her garage, which she shares with another person for storage. She talked the other person into letting her put up another storage shelf in the garage, buy offering to supply her with a three months supply of free cat food.

This is one of the (unintentionally?) funniest things I've read recently. If someone came to me and asked to use part of my home to store their *&^% in exchange for free cat food I would laugh at them.

chgoeditor wrote:

NFriday wrote:She is using part of her garage, which she shares with another person for storage. She talked the other person into letting her put up another storage shelf in the garage, buy offering to supply her with a three months supply of free cat food.

This is one of the (unintentionally?) funniest things I've read recently. If someone came to me and asked to use part of my home to store their *&^% in exchange for free cat food I would laugh at them.

Agreed. But our perspective might be skewed by the fact that rent on a garage space 'round these parts is worth a hell of a lot more than three months' worth of cat food (even the fancy, gourmet stuff sold by slightly-creepy former TV stars).

Khaopaat wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:

NFriday wrote:She is using part of her garage, which she shares with another person for storage. She talked the other person into letting her put up another storage shelf in the garage, buy offering to supply her with a three months supply of free cat food.

This is one of the (unintentionally?) funniest things I've read recently. If someone came to me and asked to use part of my home to store their *&^% in exchange for free cat food I would laugh at them.

Agreed. But our perspective might be skewed by the fact that rent on a garage space 'round these parts is worth a hell of a lot more than three months' worth of cat food (even the fancy, gourmet stuff sold by slightly-creepy former TV stars).

So true. I have a friend who lives in Arkansas. A 10x10 storage unit there costs around $35/month. Same one here is $100+

Hi- One of the persons that recently appeared on extreme couponing was on Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show today. This was the 16 year old high school student that they featured a few weeks ago. He did not do as well when he was shopping with Anderson, but he lives in California, and he and Anderson were shopping in NYC, which is an expensive place to grocery shop. On Anderson's show he was able to buy $177 worth of groceries for $100, and Anderson only saved 82 cents. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- TLC is bringing back Extreme Couponing as Extreme Couponing Allstars next season. Some ofo the extreme couponers are going to come back and compete against one another. They are all going to be given 30 minutes to grocery shop, and the person who saves the most money that week moves on in the competition. There are going to be eight weekly segments. They are also going to have a black Friday version of extreme couponing. It would be interesting to see how the extreme couponers do, if they only have 30 minutes to shop in the store. Some of the extreme couponers that have been shown so far, have spent 8 hours in the store. I can't see anybody spending 8 hours in a grocery store. Hope this helps, Nancy

Hi- Ebay has decided to limit the number of coupons that can be sold on their site. Each seller will only be allowed to sell either $100 worth of coupons total per month, or 25 coupons total, which ever is worth the least. They will not be allowed to sell coupons for free items anymore, or B1G1F coupons either. Ebay did this to try to stem the flow of counterfeit coupons out there. Many of the free coupons used on Extreme Couponing were purchased on ebay, and there has been serious speculation that alot of those coupons were counterfeit. All the coupon sellers on ebay are in a tizzy about this now. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:The person that I gave the link too, Jill Cataldo, she does super couponing workshops mostly at public libraries in the Chicago area. Most of her workshops are free, and she teaches you how to do this honestly, and still save 60% or more every week on your groceries. I know she just did one in Northfield, and I am going to try to get the Evanston library to schedule her. She schedules workshops in at least four libraries in the Chicago area every month.

I attended Jill's class in Woodstock this evening. I figured that for the $5 admission price, I could pick up a number of tips that would have some value down the road.

The class was interesting and certainly not "extreme" couponing. Her presentation is very Chicago-centric. She is pretty up to date on all the local programs.

As for me, I buy little that does not fall into the produce and meat categories. Also, most of the places I prefer to shop do not take coupons.

Hi- Actually there are some coupons for meat and produce, although not a lot. I used some coupons that I printed off the internet a few months ago, that netted me free frozen organic peas at Jewel, They were on clearance at Jewel for a dollar a bag, and I had two $1 coupons I printed. There have also been some coupons for pork online, and I use coupons for chicken sausage when they are on sale, and I usually don't spend over $1.50. Jill recently had a contest on her site where she gave away a $25 gift certificate for Aldi's. She had somewhere around 340 people that wanted the gift certificate. It was the first time in years that she had shopped at Aldi's.

I just used a coupon at CVS today for Dean's milk, and I got a gallon of milk for $1.51, and I went to Dominick's yesterday, and thanks to J4U and deal match I got 2 pounds of shredded cheese for $4.64. Unfortunately Dominick's is doing away with deal match though starting next week.

A lot of the coupons that I use and other people on her site use are for nonfood stuff. Detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, deodorants, and razors. You can get free razors at CVS all the time.

Jill hit the Sears outlet store in Woodstock after her presentation tonight, and scored 4 pairs of sandals for $8. I am sure she had a large crowd there at Woodstock. I am trying to get the Evanston library to book her. Thanks, Nancy

I am not saying that Jill's ideas will not work. I am certain that they will work.

Philosophically, I would prefer to spend my money at local independents and at EDLP stores as opposed to the large chains and their "3-card monty" game of promotions.

A few years back, I worked a weekend in Crystal Lake interviewing 40 shoppers on their grocery shopping habits. Most people shop ONE store for all their goods. The store with the best "screamer ads" score the customer for a week. The large chains give away a few items at a reduced price and clobber people on all the rest of the items on their list.

I am not sure what the "ultimate" plan for grocery shopping is but couponing is never going to be a significant portion of it. And I will probably be doing better than 90% of the people.