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SO I GET home from work Wednesday night and I’m surfing the television channels for something to watch when I come across Extreme Couponing on TLC.
Now I love coupons and I know how to use them to get plenty of items at a fraction of what those who don’t take the few minutes a week to cut coupons wind up paying. Some people laugh at me for going to one grocery store for some items and to another store for another item because I’ll save a few bucks.
The people featured on the first episodes of this show take what many coupon clippers do to a new – and yes, scary -—level.
I mean they’ve built specialized shelving components to store their items, and have packed toilet paper, cereal boxes and soup under their children’s beds or in their bedroom closets.
When I get a free item thanks to coupons I feel pretty good about it, but these people were having heart palpitations because they might have to spend $100 for the $1,800 worth of products in their shopping carts. Yes, I said carts, plural. The show has the word extreme in its title for a reason.
I have no idea why anyone would need 35 bottles of Maalox, even if they were free. I mean donate them to a shelter or a clinic. And mustard, even though it has an expiration date stamped on every jar I’ve ever seen, apparently does not go bad. I mean why else would some of these shoppers have dozens of them on their shelves?
The show is highly entertaining and at times I even found myself fascinated by the lengths these people go to save some money. At one point, because of a store policy that prohibited doubling more than one of the same coupon, the couple had to sort their groceries into 18 separate purchases.
There’s no denying what these people do is an art. But there’s also no denying that having 100 bags of snack foods in your house, even if you paid next to nothing for them, seems senseless and kind of like extreme hoarding to me.
If you want to learn more about extreme couponing, I recommend logging on to: www.commonsensewithmoney.com/2011/04/free-extreme-couponing-101-ebook.
Mercedes Levy runs the website commonsensewithmoney.com and it’s one of my must reads every day. Check it out when you have the time. Here are this week’s best uses of coupons found in today’s Times Leader at area retailers:
• Take the $3 off Bic razors coupon to Price Chopper where Bic Flex or Soleil three or four counts packs are on sale for $4.29. Use the coupon and pay just $1.29.
• Plymouth’s Home Town Market has Arm & Hammer laundry detergent buy-one, get-one free. Use the $1 off two bottles to get a better deal.