haha actually the ones i wanted to make copies of I have the original VHS tapes that we bought when I was a kid so I dont really feel guilty about asking him to make a copy of it.
To them, it isn't about the acquisition of stuff, but rather the satisfaction of outsmarting the system. Personally, I don't think it's worth all the time and effort, but if that's what they want to do, then more power to them. In this case, the only ones getting hurt are the grocery stores who issued the coupons in the first place. I doubt even the grocery stores are hurting that much, since there's probably only a very small number of people who take couponing to this extreme.
Yeah, one woman I saw on the episode I watched spent 60 hours planning for one trip to the grocery store. She had planned to get $600 worth of items for $55 or less. She and her husband split up and were going to each check out separately to stay within the store's policy. An associate at the store told her it is per household and not shopping so her plan didn't work but she was still able to get $150 worth of items for 1 cent. That works out to about $2.50 per hour of time spent. Even if she were able to get the full $600 it comes out to less than $10 per hour. Not that great in my book but oh well.
I love this thread- it really underscores the difference between 'cheap' and 'frugal' More boobies online. Unless you're shopping in a high milf-cougar area. Right. It's all about logistics. If you know your store like the back of your hand and can coordinate the couponing in with the regular shopping with minimal time spent, the free/heavily discounted stuff is all gravy.
Time spent doing something you enjoy isn't time wasted, I wonder if they enjoy couponing or feel that it is necessary? Just guessing, but I bet when you get down to the motivations, they would rather be doing something else, particularly if you showed them the amount of money they're saving per hour.
My guess is that a lot of these folks enjoy the 'hunt' and the challenge to get something as cheaply as possible.
This is exactly what it is. When I bought a house in the burbs in the midst of "mom-ville" back in 2004, I heard about a "game" a lot of these ladies play called "The Grocery Game" : http://www.thegrocerygame.com/. There were women posting that they were buying $150 of groceries for $30-$40 back then using this. As frugal as I tend to be, I have no patience to find/cut/use coupons at grocery stores. I have no idea why since I'll stand there and calculate the per ounce cost of various manufacturer's product to see which is the better deal. But coupons? Unless it's an online coupon code or something, I never use them.
My wife has become a stay at mom and has taken up couponing and it has made our food budget stretch much farther. I am eating better then when we had 2 incomes. The trick is she buys 3 sunday news papers and clips the coupons that are of value to us. Then she goes through all of the instore adds and uses here coupons with things that are all ready on sale. It takes some work but she would rather spend time helping the fam save money then working at a job she hates and not being able to spend time with our son while he is still a toddler.
agreed...those people are nuts...I'm like everyone else, in that I love the hunt for a good deal...I never pay full price but its a trade-off...time vs. savings... I need to do a little of that, but not to the extreme...I can't imagine storing 1000 toliet paper rolls or diapers in my house...
Most of them have said they do it for the thrill and it helps that they save money. imagine never having to spend a dime on detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, deodorant etc. if you have time on your hands, just think of all the savings. i think it's pretty cool as long as it's not getting in the way of you real life. one of the guys on the show donates everything to charity. it was amazing all the stuff he got for practically nothing and then he just gave it all away. i thought that was nice.
I managed to catch this show a few times.... Something just didn't seem right after watching it. Turns out they have already caught and called out one person on the show for doing massive FRAUD. No telling how many more are committing fraud as well. http://jillcataldo.com/node/16258 "Earlier this week, I posted an article about Jaime Kirlew, one of the shoppers featured in TLC's new season of "Extreme Couponing." Jaime made a name for herself last year when she posted YouTube videos showing her shopping at Target and fraudulently using coupons for one product on another (coupons for Crest Whitestrips on Tide, coupons for Olay Body Wash on Secret deodorant, and so on.) When commercials for the new show began airing, many members of well-read messageboards among the couponing community recognized Jaime from her YouTube videos and raised concerns about whether she would use coupons in a fraudulent manner on TLC's Extreme Couponing...." Check this site out... it's a lengthy read, but details the fraud one person on the show was doing...
I saw a story on TV about a family of 5 living on a 35K income - the wife stayed at home by choice and they had a nice middle class home and a great life - the trick - they didn't buy crap they didnt need, they rarely ate out and they bought in bulk and only things on sale and used coupons. They ate well..steaks and ham etc. They Bought meat when it was on sale and stored it in a freezer until they needed it. Because the wife didn't work, she was able to spend quality time with her kids and cook nutritious meals. Kids were all very healthy because they never fast food or the processed foods that many restaurants use.
