Exteme Couponing Season 2 is slated to start on September 28th.
I have such mixed feelings about Extreme Couponing. Part of me wants to cry when I watch this Extreme Couponing premier video. This is not what couponing should be about. The other part of me loves the fact that many new people are exploring the world of couponing.
I am sure that it will be just as sensationalized as last year. Anyway, I am restarting the learn to coupon series on Monday with all the updated policies, coupon barcodes. I am hoping that you will continue to use couponing for good – donating to others and cutting your families budgets.
If you are curious if Extreme Couponing is realistic, I would say no. You won’t save 99% at the store every week unless you can live off things like mustard and gatorade.
I know there are very mixed thoughts on this show. I know some people think we should just ignore the show. Unfortunately, I do believe that the show has affected all coupons and we should be aware of what is going on. For many of us, couponing is not a hobby or for fun, it is how we are able to keep our family budgets in check. For some, it is the ONLY way they can make it financially.
If you have any questions about things you see on the show, please always feel free to ask.
smdelay says
I feel this show is just causing us problems. It could not be for real. Stores around here would not ever accept that many coupons is one visit. Nor would they ever bring out all their stock for a couponing person. Since that show began the stores around here are getting more and more stricter and limiting coupons.
Linda says
Why would anyone need 250 bottles of bath wash? OCD.
Martha says
I started using coupons in the 80’s, but as my lifestyle changed so did my couponing skills. My life became hectic and my couponing became non-existent. Oh, I’d use a coupon now and then, or start off with an overzealous revival of couponing. Only to always disappoint myself and be left with carefully clipped coupons being left at home and later in the recycle bin.
This crazy show rekindled my interest in couponing. However, what I took away from the episodes that I watched was the need for me to learn how to prepare. Hence, I found this website and a few other blogs. I have learned smart and POLITE couponing! I clip what I need, and send my unwanted or expired to military families. I don’t stockpile, but I have donated some unused items to my local foodbank. I shop with a list and prepare for my trip with the help of my couponing “friends” on the web.
I no longer watch the show, and the preview truly raised my ire, as the woman so coldly left others without.
Here’s to courteous and intelligent couponing! Thank you friends.
Pamela says
Hi,
I am an avid couponer who has found in this economy it is imperative to use these coupons to stretch my food dollar. It is all about the “Golden Rule”….treat others the way you want to be treated….This lady on this preview is selfish and makes the rest of us who abide by ethics look bad. The problem I see with this show is that they are not being truthful. The producers do not tell us how much these people have spent on ‘clipping’ services or how they get their coupons. So when they say ‘She bought $1.236.98 but only paid 56 cents out of pocket….how real do you think that is? Someone said ‘now that this new show is going to air again we will get some more crazy things happening’ and the stores will crack down on those of us who have been in this from the beginning. I say we should keep doing as we have all been doing because the truth always WINS!!!
Laura says
I’ve tried, really hard, to watch that show. I’ve made it through most of an episode once…I usually have to turn it off after about 10 minutes. It makes me sick. I grew up in a household where I would sit down with my Mom before she did every shopping trip and would match the week’s sales to her coupon stash. I remember being about 8 years old and sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday afternoon clipping coupons with her and organizing them into her categorized envelopes. It’s been a part of my life for as long as I’ve known. When I went to college, and I was living on a tight college student’s budget, I started doing the same for myself. Why not save money on things I was going to buy anyway? I’ve lived with a stockpile, but to my family, and now me, that means maybe 5 or 8 boxes of pasta in the pantry – not 500. Ooh. It makes me angry thinking about it.
So many people I know have started using coupons in the past year. I think it’s a good thing. Why not save money where you can? I’ve also seen many of those people get incredibly frustrated when they can’t save 80% off their bill every time they shop. They refer to it as “extreme couponing.” The word “extreme” irks me. Why does it have be “extreme”? Why can’t people just save smartly on items they would buy and use anyway?
Our local newspaper just did an interview with me. They’re putting together an article about new craze of couponing. I sat and chatted with the reporter for over an hour. We talked about everything – my strategies, some good deals I hit recently, my average savings, my views of the new fad and what it’s done for those who have been using coupons forever. I’m very interested to read it when they publish it. I think they were going to talk to some other couponers as well. I’ll share the link when it makes it to their site.
I’ll step down from my soapbox, now.
Gloria says
Her attitude is terrible. I heard about Lowe’s food breaking their own 20 coupon a day limit and wrote them an email a few days after it filmed. They wrote me back that basically hindsight is 20/20 and they should not have done the piece. I think others should email these grocery stores to stop helping them put on the show because they are scanning the wrong coupons on occasion and over the limits etc, creating bad impressions of couponing.
If we tell them the grocery stores that we don’t want to see this, I think it will get back to normal. We can’t just sit here and say this is wrong. We need to do something about it.
Please write to any stores in your area telling them what you think and what it does for you as a couponer.
Sarah says
I very much have mixed feeling with it as well. But the whole clearing the shelf and donation thing bugs me to death. I am lucky if I get half of my shopping list each week becuase everything is always gone and I cannot be an early bird because I have 2 little kids that actualy like to sleep and a husband I have to drive to work everymorning. Good for them for donation 100 bottles of mustard they dont need. Yay they are helping people but are not helping the people who are trying to help themselves by using coupons.
Sarah says
I also do not like the 5+ computer/printer thing either. online coupons have limited prints and I dont know how many times I have went to print a coupon and there was a print limit reached or it was just gone. And it becuase of people who are printing 20 30 plus of those coupons that dont give other people a chance.
Jen says
I feel the same as some. I like to watch the show but I am also weary of it as well…I will admit that I started couponing after the show started. But I have always looked for the better deal. I shop for both my household and my mothers household and I have NEVER cleared a shelf. I think it’s rude! I have went plenty of places and the shelf was clear and it annoyed me to no end.
marlene says
I don’t watch it. I’m hopeing that people will get the point that the show (if thats what u call it) is a joke, it just doesn’t happen like that. They make it seam that you score like that every week. When what they are doing cann’t be don’t where I live. not on that scale. It sets up new couponers up for disapointment. I would lke to see the show boycoted.
Florence says
I’m with you, I don’t watch it either (or any other show for that matter since I choose not to have cable). However, from reading about it online and such, I can tell it’s getting worse.
Since the start of the show, I’ve been asked if I watch it/if I’m an extreme couponer/if I have a roomful of stockpile too, etc.etc. My answer has been no/no/no. I’ve been couponing for 10 years now but I doubt I’ll ever be on the show, :)
bob johnson says
This show seem to be more about “Extreme” than “Couponing”
I found the shelf clearing women so rude and offensive.
These folks make stores change their rules and question those of us with legitimate coupons. Lots of nice folks affected by the few idiots !
Lydia says
Well said!
Veronika says
Totally agree…
I started my couponing when my family had no other chance to live full life. We have two kids growing (2 and 4) and I know without me clipping coupons and finding deals they could never have all the clothes and snacks and toys, going out we can give them now. I am very thankful that there is way for us to have it all… I just hope all this couponing fame don`t s**** it all. Thank you guys for this site it helps us all a lot!!!
Mindy says
I have always used coupons. But now that I am a SAHM I use them more. I love that more people are using coupons. With that being said the show has created a mess. I went shopping this morning and was pretty much ran over from all the women who were there. I am a weekly sunday shopper and all 6 of these people were not there last week and were there today were just flat out rude. I was behind a woman getting shaving cream and she cleared the shelf in front me knowing I was standing there waiting to get some. There is so much to be said for first come first serve, but if I was in that same situation I would have taken them all. I just wanted 2 not 12 .I went into walmart and they refused some of my coupons because they said a woman came in the other day with like 40 of the same coupons and the were copied and now they wont get there money. I showed her that mine were not copied and how to tell. People treat me so awful when I shop with coupons and it never used to be that way. But I can tell this kind of situation is just gonna get worse. I am all about saving money. But I am not gonna step on people and break the law to do it. I want people to save money, but if this continues coupons are gonna get harder and harder to use in stores.
Ruth says
This is another show exploiting people with weak characters who want their 15 minutes of fame. That’s what reality shows do, they make money out of people’s desire to be on the spotlight. We all know that we can’t go to the store and get multiple carts full of stuff and have no issues. The show is not realistic, the rules are bent for the store to be on TV, everyone wins except people who need to use coupons to make ends meet. Store policies are getting stricter, coupon values are being reduced and couponers in general now have a bad reputation. I have been called a thief, hoarder but none of these issues are shown on the show.
Recently at a local Shell Station where a friend of mine works, a thief took all the coupon inserts out of the papers before the store even opened. It is just a shame what is going on and it was all started by Extreme Couponing, again TV executives are making money at the expense of others.
tabtha says
i agree its a shame!!!! i hate that show and what it has done to the people who use coupons the right way and that don’t clear shelf’s.
Andrea T. says
I have been couponing before couponing was “cool”. This show is horrible. It teaches the WRONG way to coupon. It has made it difficult for all NORMAL couponers. I really hate the fact that I can no longer go to my local grocery store to buy the things my family REALLY need (using coupons) without at least one person asking me if I am an EXTREME couponer. I politely tell them “No, I’m not an EXTREME couponer. I am just a mom with THREE teenage boys” No shelf clearing needed!
amy says
Andrea, I have three teenage boys too so I know what you mean! They eat alot! Without using coupons I would be in dire straits. I tell them “no gatorade/powerade/ chex mix, etc, unless I have coupons!” Then I do use as many coupons as I can get my hands on. Those boys will eat you out of house and home. I never wipe the shelves though, I will go to different stores or come back on another day to get more if I need it (and I usually do!). Laundry is another never ending event too, huh? Detergent is another biggie for me. It never ends. This show is strange, I thought the initial premise was to actually educate people on “how” to use coupons the right way to maximize savings. Instead it is allowing rule-breakers (and worse) to be rewarded! That is until they all have diabetes, heart disease or at least cavities from all the junk they fill their carts with!
Jessica says
I hate the fact that their are people out here stealing papers out of peoples driveway!!!! It is making it hard for the paper carriers and taking income from their pockets as well!!!!
Andrea T. says
Well put Jessica!
Lindsay says
People stealing newspapers makes me sick!! My younger sister and brother have been newspaper carriers for 6 years and it comes out of their own pocket every time this happens because they are the ones who have to replace it!
Cmat says
Holy cow, that preview video is something else. I also find the show fascinating, but can’t stand people like this lady in the preview.
I will say that I really liked the episode last season (I think it was last season anyway!) where one of the ladies on the show took her friend and they both had a cart of their own things.. only one cart each.. and the lady on the show didn’t pay anything for her order but she only had things she needed. Still not incredibly realistic, but at least not greedy.
Kimberly says
Oh my goodness. I just got done watching that video and almost puked. I’m all for stockpiling. In fact, I have a room of my own that I’m -very- proud of. But that woman’s energy is horrible. The I “I don’t care about anyone else” attitude is sickening. I, along with many other shoppers can’t be at the store at opening…or midnight just to avoid shelf clearers. I already have such a difficult time getting what my family needs that half the time I’m in a store I think it was a total waste of gas. It was just starting to get better and now it’s about to get a lot worse all over again. :( :( :(
Candi says
Watching that video made me cringe. I dislike that show for the problems that it causes for us. However, I’m strangely fascinated with it at the same time. I only wish that they could show more realistic couponing, but I guess that wouldn’t be entertaining enough.