TLC's Extreme Couponing is the absolutely saddest show on TV. It's not supposed to be sad. It's supposed to be uplifting and inspirational. But, really, it's just depressing.
Extreme Couponing is about people, well mostly women, who are incredibly adept at cutting coupons and are able to turn a $600 grocery bill to $50. The show profiles one or two women who arrive at the supermarket with binders and bins of coupons and print outs of their shopping plans. Some women actually make a profit through their coupon clipping. What's depressing about that?
Well, the show begins with an explanation of how the person got into extreme couponing. Inevitably, the woman began couponing after her husband, a contractor, lost his job. They have mounting bills and she needs to take desperate meassures to keep their house, while caring for their four children. It's that lovely new economy at work.
These women are BRILLIANT. They spend sixty hours a week locating the best coupons. Some surf the web. Some dumpster dive. They learn how to rig the system to get maximum power for their buck. It's too bad that these women couldn't put those organization skills to work at an office, where they could get paid more than their savings on the supermarket shopping.
And then they go and buy all sorts of shit. Processed food. Canned food. It is piled high on shelves in the garage. You never get coupons for a fresh head of lettuce.
Extreme Couponing makes me long for the house flipping shows. Remember those?
Apt. 11d 
My neighbor’s house is being flipped. I see the pictures and it looks very nice. They even put in one of those sinks that’s a bowl on the top of a table-like counter. Two of the exterior pictures have our crappy car in them. I suppose they couldn’t ask us to move the car because they don’t know us because they are flippers.
LikeLike
“You never get coupons for a fresh head of lettuce.”
But produce does vary a lot in price. I just paid less than $2 for a pineapple, which is great.
LikeLike
The problem with this “reality” show is that couponing doesn’t work that way. I do coupon, I started last year to help with “stuff” like tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc. which was outrageously expensive. And some food for the shelter. I still do it on occasion because it can save me 10-40 bucks on a cvs transaction and get me 3 free boxes of hamburger helper for the shelter. I do like getting free things for little effort.
The way this show is done is in violation of all coupon policies at the stores. No store will let you do what they are portraying happens. 15 transactions, NO WAY. 100 of the same coupon, NOPE.
This is a show about hoarders who get high on a deal. Plain and simple.
LikeLike
Here’s a video primer on couponing, done as a parody of Keisha’s Tic Tok:
The singing is a little rough, but it’s informative. That video did very well in Get Rich Slowly’s video contest.
LikeLike
It’s too bad that these women couldn’t put those organization skills to work at an office, where they could get paid more than their savings on the supermarket shopping.
If they can turn a $600 grocery bill into $50, that means they’re saving 97.4%. The first link I found online for “average food bill for family of 6” gave a figure of $1,600. If they turn that into $132, over a year, they turn a bill of $17,616 into $1,468. Tax free. And, they don’t have to pay for child care.
I tried couponing briefly, but once I had bought all the paper towels and cleaning supplies I’d need for the next six months, I didn’t find enough food items worth continuing. It all seemed to be high fat, high salt, high sugar processed stuff. Do we NEED a reason to buy more potato chips? No. Plus, if we tried to store things in the garage, the mice would get into it.
I prefer keeping an eye on grocers’ advertised specials, and planning the weekly menu in advance.
LikeLike
91.6%
Sorry. Can’t read my own handwriting.
LikeLike
MH, your car in the flipper-house-photos reminded me of what I used to do in my younger days when skiing. At the time Japanese tourists were the only ones with the mini-cams on the hill. I’d annoyingly (course I thought it.was.so.amusing) ski into their home movies whenever I could.
I may have actually gotten a life since then…
LikeLike
Sandra,
You may have been the highlight of their home movies. Back in my farm girl days, I was once chasing some cows down the road while waving a stick (standard operating procedure) when a tourist approached by car, slowed down, and started filming my activities with a camcorder.
LikeLike
I had never heard of this show until a few weeks ago when I saw several episodes and was hooked. Extreme couponing is the the acceptable way to hoard. Even if they are saving almost their entire food bill the food is absolutely terrible. 200 packets of frozen mashed potatoes? 100 bottles of soda? At least some of them are donating a lot of their extra loot, which is great. It was clear from watching that some of them were in control of their couponing habit and othere where it was threatening to take over their lives’.
LikeLike
I guess I might think that if they are being paid a good deal of money by the show (or have a good idea of how to turn being on the show into money) they might be brilliant, but otherwise they seem fairly foolish. Even if they are “saving” a good deal of money (buying stuff they probably don’t want otherwise), they are making unpleasant displays of themselves and their families. Panhandling might well be better (and might pay better.)
LikeLike
200 packets of frozen mashed potatoes?
Frozen mashed potatoes are at least technically food.
LikeLike
good timing. If you’d posted this last Friday, I would have no idea whatsoever of what you were talking about, but this weekend we visited my brother-in-law and on Saturday night, after the NBA game my BIL was watching, I mentioned that one of the reasons we didn’t have cable or satellite was that I would spend all day watching TLC. My SIl switched to TLC and that was the show that they were showing. I couldn’t believe it. Beyond depressing. I kept hoping that those people would donate that food and not eat all that crap. There was one in which the mom let all her son’s teenaged friends come and help themselves to whatever they wanted. I thought that was pretty cool.
LikeLike
Amy, my city-born-and-raised husband “spotted” some wild animal tracks on a hike in the Navajo Nation a few years back. The deadpan guide told him they were cattle tracks…
LikeLike
Here’s my problem with that show. It is all about the people at the store and the coupons that they have clipped. They really do not get into the other ways that the talk about getting coupons from the internet. There is a lot of “internet” My husband has been unemployed and we need to save but I really can’t find a way to save as much as they save. If you know how please share the information. I would love ya forever.
LikeLike
One of the best honest and ethical couponing websites is hotcouponworld.com and they are hosting a contest: NOT Extreme Couponing Video. I’m a contestant, and I’d appreciate the vote! http://www.hotcouponworld.com/2011/07/greenfrog57-hcw-not-extreme-couponing-video-contest-entry/ Click “You have my vote!” and “Submit” 2 clicks! Send your link for voting!
LikeLike