So let's examine parts of this show that were good -
- Most of these people coupon for great reasons. Although the thought of referring to children as a "litter" really creeps me out - that lady seriously has SEVEN kids and she doesn't want them to have to take out loans to pay for college. A few of these people faced large amounts of debt and job loss - both excellent reasons to try and save as much money as possible.
- Some of them donate to food banks or churches. This in my opinion is one of the best reasons for couponing - I don't know a single shelter or church that couldn't benefit from someone donating a thousand boxes of cereal to them.
There were also some parts that were not so good -
- Some of the people should not have been buying certain products - Jamie Oliver needs to revolutionize America's weight issues starting with a few of them.
- Bedroom Closets are meant for clothes not cereal. In addition, if I had to physically run all over my house to locate something in my stockpile I would hate my life and expect someone to call Hoarders for me. lol
- There is never a good reason for over 60 bottles of mustard unless you are donating over 75% of it to charity.
Things to keep in mind when trying to Extreme Coupon yourself -
- Make sure you know the coupon policies of your store. There are several stores that give you money back if a coupon exceeds the amount and guess what - if the coupon amount exceeds the product price you don't pay tax on that item! However, with that being said there are also a lot of stores that will reduce the coupon amount to match the price product which means you don't get money back or a credit and you have to pay tax on the item. In addition keep checking policies to ensure that no changes have occurred and you may want to bring a copy of the policy with you to the store.
- Many stores have limits - for instance although I have purchased over 200 boxes of Pasta for free in the past few months (over half of which is being donated) I did not purchase all of this at once - I bought most of the pasta at Publix and they limit you to no more than 20 boxes per trip. If you plan to get extreme to the point of buying over 100 of one product it would be wise to speak to a store manager and make sure they can have enough product set aside for you in advance.
- Research which products you actually plan to stockpile and what type of shelf life they have - if you can get 1000 boxes of cereal for free that is wonderful, but to waste that much of a product because it was cheap or free is just ridiculous.
- Most stores rotate their sales every 6-10 weeks so a smart shopper will buy certain products around every 3 months to get the optimum amount of savings. Keeping a 3 month supply of products is planning well for saving money - just like most financial gurus say to keep at least 3 months of your salary saved up in case of an emergency - this is common sense people you don't have to buy enough for 5 years or you will end up on Buried Alive.
I hope this helps shed some light on the good, the bad, and the absolute madness of Extreme Couponing - obviously this lifestyle is not for everyone, however, using coupons is for everyone and can definitely change your life starting with saving money. For anyone thinking about couponing just think about this - if you could cut your monthly grocery bill in half you could do so many things - save for your kids college tuition, start or add to an emergency fund, plan a vacation, pay off your car, pay off your house, live debt free.... the possibilities are endless and by couponing - not even extreme couponing - all of these things are possible. Anyone that actually knows me would tell you that I am a firm believer in Dave Ramsey's financial methods and I don't believe that anyone has to be in debt - its simply a bad choice.
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