Coupons...has It Gone Too Far???

I coupon. ONLY for things I need, or for something I've been dying to try, but don't want to try at full price. I never coupon for food, it's always for toiletries, paper and cleaning products. The coupons for food, it seems is mostly for junk. I'm not sure I've seen many episodes where the family couponing aren't mostly obese. (Maybe a few haven't been)

Hey, I'd love to spend $7 for $900 worth of stuff. I just don't need 80 bottle of mustard and a 20 year supply of tic tacs. And, I don't need to cheat a business, to get what I do need. These woman don't NEED 1/4 of what they buy, but I could think of food pantries all over their communities who do. It's another type of addiction and hoarding, if you ask me. I've seen maybe two times, people who use coupons for charity...and they STILL have a stockpile at home they will never go through.

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I think being frugal and using coupons is smart. I think there should be some guidelines base on ethics and courtesy.

Don't take more than you need.
Don't take everything off the shelf, allow for others (courtesy to shoppers)
If you are going to buy in bulk, call ahead and order in bulk (courtesy to store)
Don't get something you don't use just because you can (wasteful)
Have legal means of getting the coupons, don't use loopholes when we castigate our congress and corporations for doing the same (honesty)

I use coupons, but I only get as much as we will need. The only things I buy extra of are laundry soap, bath soap, toothepaste, razors. And when I say extra I mean, at the most, 10 all together of any of them, not brand, just 10 toothepastes. We are a large family and use a TON of these things, so I buy a lot of them.

I do think it can cross a line into hoarding and I do believe people can get carried away. We are not beyond Thunderdome, we don't need to hoard candy bars.

ETA - Just a quick note...things you don't need to buy as an extreme couponer
1. Diapers and formula when you don't have a baby
2. Dog treats when you don't have a dog
3. 87 boxes of dry cereal (PERISHABLE) for a family of 4

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To me, it's kind of like a sickness. Yes, hoarding. Who in their right mind needs 200 mustards, etc? I don't coupon much because 95% of the items that have coupons associated with them are items that I don't and won't buy. Let's call it for what it is: gaming the system. Just as there are people who game the welfare system. And I agree with you: this new trend will only lead to supermarkets discontinuing coupons. So, in essence, it's ruining it for those people who don't take advantage and game it. That's my opinion.

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What I don't understand is why people buy things they don't need or want or things they will not use. They'll be like..."oh, I got 412 bottles of mustard for $3.00, but no one in our family eats mustard..." That would be like me buying a size small shirt (which maybe one of my boobs could fit into) just because it was on sale for $1.00. Makes no sense.

I don't know where these people find the coupons. I sometimes pick up the Sunday paper and of the few coupons in it, there is maybe one that I would use. I've looked online as well and, again, only find one or two that I would use.

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I am not a couponer. I have seen this show and I think it is sick.

These people have no need for all the things they are "buying". It is glorified hoarding and a game to them. I would like to see them at least man up and donate the products from their "game" to those in need.

I think it is dishonest when you cross the lines using the coupons.. example, running 4 separate transactions so you can get certain perks. They are stealing and it runs prices up for everyone of us who are honest shoppers.

There is a woman in our area who was arrested for stealing coupons out of papers. Really?? Yes, I do think she should face the fines and time assiciated with stealing.

Plus, think of all the time involved to make this happen... For me time=money and my time is more valuable that sitting on my rear clipping coupons for hours on end then shopping hours on end.

PLUS... look at the time they spend away from their children and family. Look at who really loses out........ the poor children whose parents are more concerned with a coupon game that being an active stable family. These are the kids perched in fron of the tv eating junk, getting fat and costing us AGAIN in Health care.

Thanks for letting me vent!!

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My issue isn't really with the counterfeit coupons but that the people have so much stuff. For real if you can get diapers for free or L. and you have no kids then you should be donating them to a shelter or someone that could use them. Who really need 100 boxes of the same cereal. I say if you are going to go extreme with the couponing then do some good with it and donate to food banks or shelter.

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I don't get it, and agree with those who think it crosses the line into hoarding. Yes, it is organized, but it is still a hoarde.

I just recently started getting the Sunday paper, because I need to have some coupons (I am paying $14 for the Chicago Trib weekend edition, they gave me a $5 gift card to my grocery store, and a Chicago Bears t-shirt), so really I spent $9 to get a year's worth of the Sun paper. In 1 week, out of about 100 coupons, I clipped about 10, for toothbrush heads, razors, Excedrin, eggs, chicken stock, candy (Halloween) - will save me about $20. That's great, but it is really all I could have used. Sure, I could get other items, but we don't use most of the junk that we get coupons for. I stick mostly to the perimeter of the grocery store, and I've yet to see a coupon for bananas, cucumbers, etc.

I saw one lady on Extreme Couponing that had over 250 bottles of body wash in her hoarde! GOOD LORD! I barely go through 4 a YEAR. How long does she expect to live. And yes, why buy hundreds of bottles of pain reliever if they will be expiring in a year?? Unreal.

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Well...if someone is knowingly "ripping off" a store, I don't know how they could look at themselves in the mirror.
Sometimes I use coupons, my stores generally double them to .99.
Which tells me...their prices are WAY too high to begin with!

I look at the Extreme Couponers and think..."what do they EAT?" You can't live on Powerade, paper towels and yogurt, nor would you want to, right? lol

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I have a friend who extreme coupons. She has actually gotten cash back on free items.. even though they are not supposed to be redeemable for cash, she knows the loopholes and exploits them. There is a point it goes into the realm of dishonesty.

For me, the hassle of studying papers and online ads, driving my kids to 4 or 5 different stores, then bringing groceries home to unload then going back out... just feels like a huge headache.

I do coupons on things I need, and can probably do more... but most of the stuff I see coupons for are for things I don't even buy.

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Honestly I didnt read the whole post but I can tell you it has gone too far when I am behind them in the check out lane and they have all the time in the world and thier L. books and holy Cow I just need the three things in my cart so I can finish dinner and feed the dogs! Do us all a favor and shop late at night so I am stuck behind you.
PS if I had the time I would do the coupon thing but I dont have the time or the patience and I really do not need 10 cans of tomato juice ever.

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I do what Bug does. I do have my coupons organized and in a book, but I just like things organized. I only buy what I have room for and I think I have an extra thing of toothpaste at home, but by no way am I hoarding anything. Not to mention that most of the coupons I use are for cleaning supplies, baby items, health and beauty items or pet supplies, because it seems that most (not all) of food coupons are for food that we do not use in our house.

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I coupon, extreme to some people, nothing compared to the show. This show highlights and glamorizes the fraud that happens. Coupons are meant to save a L. some times....no always. I have gotten lucky a few times and had a sale price match with a coupon that gets doubled or whatever and get something for free. Maybe 5 times in the past year though, not always. There are some online coupons that are valid and from the manufacturer site directly. i do not pay a dime for amything online, no coupon sites nada. i do however pay $1.25 a week for the Wednesday and Sunday paper to get the coupons...not even mulitple papers, just one.

Couponing really helped us while my hubby was out of work for a year, now I enjoy but also allow myself to buy without if needed as it really does take a lot of time to clip, sort & plan.

Additionally, If I found items that I could get for free and it was more than my family would use in a 2-3 month time I donated them. When my BIL was going through a divorce and had to start up his own place again we helped him with some staple easy to make meals, kitchen soap, tp etc that i got for free or pennies. No one needs a room full of soap or 100 bottles of mustard....you could never use that!

I really wish someone would stop glorifying these "extreme" hoarders (that is what they are) and put pressure on them to donate. They have taken their time to do this & there are so MANY families out there who do not have the time nor resources to coupon but need supplies desperately. We need to get back to giving and helping our neighbor rather than hoarding for ourselves in case we run out of a condiment!

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I have watched this show once or twice. It looked like to me that they were frantic. Almost like a gambling addiction. Not that they were risking real money but like they had to do it or they would waste money.

I find that the stores in my area will not allow coupons to be used when they already have the items on sale, so if I took a Dr. Pepper coupon to the store and they had it on sale for $4 a 24 pack I would not be able to use the coupon anyway. They won't even let me use the peel off coupons that came on the item if it is on sale...that's just wrong to me, the company is doing the coupon.

I believe in being prepared and having a good food storage in place. I believe in shopping sales and getting really good buys. I will often buy meat at Food Pyramid when they have it on sale for a really good price and buy everything they have, and go back for more when they have more out and I have more money. For example, whey they have pork roast for just over $1 a pound I am going to have all that roast in my freezer. That's the only way we get to buy meat very often, we can't afford it otherwise.

Back to extreme couponing. Just because something is cheap does not mean I need it. The ladies on the show dumped a whole barrel of some pain med in their cart. It will all be out of date before they use it up, why waste time and effort in storing that? I think the one man had a good idea of giving what he got that would be extra to the needy and others like service men and women.

Yes, getting things free and for cheap prices is a good thing but when it becomes an obsession that's too much.

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When has it gone too far? You know you have gone too far when your goal is to end up on Extreme Couponing...and you actually make it on the show!

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There are a couple of people I know who do extreme couponing. They do it right though. They only buy what their families would use anyway, and if they buy items their families wouldn't use, then they give away the extra. Our church has a clothes closet and food bank, so when my friend can get diapers and wipes for super cheap, she gets them, even though her children are older. She donates them to the church. I think it can be done well and done honestly. The people on that show, however, have a problem. They are WAY past shopping smartly and are into hoarding and dysfunction. Yikes.

3 moms found this helpful

I love coupons, however, I'm not an extreme couponer. I still cut out of the newspapers, very rarely will I go online. Sometimes, the coupon isn't worth it to me, by 3 of the same item to get $0.75, that means you get a quarter of each, really, plus the generic is so much cheaper to begin with. I'm a bargain hunter, but sometimes coupons aren't worth much.

Now, I must let you know, some manufacture coupons are really a good deal. Last Christmas, I had a coupon for Gillette razor for $4.00 maybe even more off. Well, you know those Christmas gift they sale, with the razor, shaving cream, and usually something else, well, at walmart it was only $8.00 to begin with, well after Christmas day, all of them went to 1/2 off, then a couple days later 75% off, and I only had one coupon left, but it worked. So I didn't cheat the system, or try to make a store go out of business, I was lucky!!! and honest!

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I use coupons as much as I can and I always have. I try to match what is on sale with what coupons I have. During football season I shop only at Albertsons on sundays ( they offer 10% off if you wear an NFL Jersey during the season on sundays)
That being said I would never even attempt being an extreme couponer.... Those people freak me out! Who has that kind of time and space????? And I agree it is way out of control, I have had to start getting up early on sundays and wait outside for the paper to be delivered, ours was being swiped every sunday... and I suspect it was for coupons since we never had an issue with the paper being stolen before that extreme coupon show aired.

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I didn't read your whole post, I'll go back and read it later after I do the chores I'm supposed to be doing ;-). So instead of waiting to answer I'll add some to your vent when I probably should wait to put my 2 cents in ;-). Anyway, the reasons above are probably why we can't do this here. Either the state and/or stores have enacted laws and rules that don't allow us to use more than one coupon per item (no doubling) a limit on how many items with coupons you can use, no getting more back on an item than it's worth , I probably missed a few....Also my impression is some of those people either give much of the items away for charity and some get a whole bunch of stuff they don't need or I don't buy. Tons of Candy, Soda, things like that. On a show I watched a lady had to get some things to bring the balance positive or up to a certain amount before they could checkout or continue. She told the people she was with to go grab 36 bags of candies. I was thinking, why didn't she tell them to get fruits and vegetables even canned. Maybe she was in a hurry but she bought $800 worth of stuff for $8 so already spent a good chunk of time there. I just don't get it. I have enough extra stuff around here I don't need and I sure don't need 36 bags of candy. Seriously, I would eat them in a shockingly short period of time!

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It's a MAJOR hint something is EXTREME is there's a tv show or SERIES made about it.

Willing to bet you could do 20 NEW shows EVERY DAY about hoarders, overweight people or chemical addictions. It's amazing how out of control this country has gotten and we wonder why the rest of the world hates the U.S.?!

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I coupon and I do print on-line coupons but only coupons directly from the manufacturer's site or from a reputable couponing site (coupons.com, redplum.com,etc). I don't do the extreme couponing and my stockpile is only about 2 months of food that we will actually use, at the most. I get frustrated by the extreme couponers that go buy every item off the shelf before I can get there to buy 2 or 3 of that item. I wish that stores would only allow people to buy a certain amount of sale items at a time so those of us who only want to feed our family cheaper can still have a crack at the sale items. I also only buy what I will use. I admit there is a high you get when you walk out of the store with $300 worth of food for $50 and it can be a L. addictive. I do have a friend who is an extreme couponer and she is definitely very addicted to the process. So much so that she drags her kids out at all hours of the day/night and feeds them whatever cookies she got for free during her shopping hours (which can be all day). I think she has gone too far and I wish for her kids sake that she would slow down. I think, as with anything, too much of anything in excess is too much. I do worry that the extreme couponers will ruin it for all of us who just want to save a buck or two.

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It's gone too far. None of the stores near me will allow for it. Like others said they will double up to .50 cents or something and have limits and don't allow you to combine offers. I rarely find a coupon I can really use, but we eat mostly fresh groceries. Occassional canned goods, pastas, breads, toiletries are the things we coupon for. Then again I can often get generics of things for cheaper. I have a friend who brags about her coupons, BUT they eat alot of things we don't and used to spend ridiculous amounts of money on drinks, and frozen pizza and such before coupons. Things I don't buy anyway.

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At wal-mart there is a limit on how much money you can save from coupons, and I don't think that we allow it to get to the point where we give money back to the customer (At least those are the rules at the specific wal-mart that I work at). The only way a customer can earn money on something is if the product they are using a coupon on is also on sale. An example: An item is regularly $6, but it's on sale for $3. The customer has a coupon for $4 dollars off. They earn $1 by buying the item.

And yes, some people take couponing WAY too far and are going to ruin it for every one else because pretty soon stores just aren't going to accept coupons.

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Extreme Couponers are ruining it for the rest of us. I use coupons, some online, but I've never printed hundreds of the same coupon. My problem is, that all my grocery stores have stopped doubling coupons, and some are starting to limit the amount of coupons you can use. My one store let me use my store coupons that are on my savings card, along with a paper coupon, but they stopped that as well. And while it's nice to get $1000 worth of stuff for $150, look at what they are getting. Everything is processed or sugar. Believe me, I have cookies, noodles, and sodas in my cabinet, but nothing to that extreme. I want to see someone extreme grocery shop and coupon and get fresh produce and meats. I'd also rather not store stuff I'll never use.

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I use coupons. However I stick within the stores guidelines and I think for the show, they don't...my stores only triple up to 20 coupons and only up to $.99cents...

I make sure my coupons are in order before I go to the store and I make sure I purchase the right item(s) so not to slow things down for other people.

I think it's rude when a couponer goes to the "express" line with a coupon for every item and has more than 15 items....It's also very rude for the couponers to bully the cashiers to take their coupons...I've seen that and stood up...one store only accepts up to 40 coupons...this woman had like 60...while I appreciate the time she took to clip, combine, etc. the store has policies and to make a scene to get a manager or someone else to "bend" is wrong.

In many ways it has gone too far. It's a shame too as now is the time to save money at the store...well, everywhere for that matter.

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Soon enough there will be an end to coupons

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I don't use coupons much because I don't really find coupons for the items I regularly buy. And I'm not going to buy something I don't truly want just because I have a coupon for it. I have watched the show myself and see that they may be spending over $1,000, but they only have a handful of different items. I just don't have the run for the stock piles, nor the time to find all these coupons, or the desire to spend hours sorting and then more hours planning my shopping trip and then 3 hours to spend at the store! I guess it's all in what you think your time is worth!

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The Extreme Couponing show is interesting but I agree, those people have gone too far. Of course it has to be outrageous though for it to hold people's attention enough for an entire TV show. That's just "the nature of the beast." If grocery stores decide to severely cut back on coupons because of the show....that would be a REAL shame, as others have pointed out.
I'm a Costco member and they send a coupon book about once a month, often with very good coupons on all sorts of things like tissues, food items, etc...I use those religiously and stock up on what we need. We have also been getting $5 off coupons in the mail from Publix on a regular basis and you'd better believe I use those. I'm also in the Publix Baby Club and they send awesome coupons about once a quarter....things like $1 off any dairy item or meat item, etc.
But that is the extent of my couponing. I don't bother with the newspaper/manufactuerer's coupons as much as i am tempted to....I don't want to pay for a paper subscription and I really don't have any extra time for any new hobby at this point.

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Everything has gone too far these days.

I do print coupons out & the store that I go to also have coupons you can put on your store card... which if you have a store coupon & a manufacture coupon they will stack the coupon but only to the actual value of the item. They also do double manufacure coupons up to .99 if you have their store card. But they will not accept free item coupons if they are printed coupons.

On a good trip I will save about $30-40 with coupons, but I still spend about $150... which is still good in my eyes. Sometimes I will get a free item because of a sale and the doubling of a coupon, but some of the time I pay something for what I get.

I did get a good deal on cereal the other day... the store had General Mills cereals 4/$10, but if you bought 4 you got $4 off, they had a store coupon for $3 off if you bought 3 boxes, and I had manufacture coupons for a $1 off coupon for Cookie Crip and $1 off Lucky Charms - so I ended up getting 4 boxes of cereal for $1.00 or $0.25 each. But eventhoug I got that deal... with everything else I bought I still had my weekly order come out to around $125. I just happened to get a great deal on breakfast for the week :)

I do agree that somepeople take it way to far... when you are buying diapers because you my have a kid someday and you have over 600 pack of diapers in your basement - I think that is a bit much. Don't get me wrong I do have a habit of stock piling... I can fit a case of each canned veggie in my cabinet & I do have a case of each stilling on the floor out of the cabinet, and to honest I could cut back on what is in my house food wise, but it is hard for me to since we went so many years with so L. to eat. I am always afraid I won't be able to feed my kids so I always make sure I have a bunch just incase something happens & we no longer have the ability to buy groceries... I know it is a bad habit, but it is one I just haven't been able to overcome.

To answer your question - yes some people take it over board... but I don't think they should get ride of online coupons. There are some sites that are good ones... just some people have to try to mess everything up for the people that are trying to survive, but yet do thing moraly.

I use coupons and have for years. My issue is that I will go to the store to use my coupon and the shelf is empty. I’m only looking to buy a couple of things and they are unavailable. I think everyone is entitled to saving a dollar, but can we please not be greedy about it.
Here in Chicago our stores do not honor double couponing. That being said, we will never be able to save the way they do on TV.
Also, why buy so many of one item if you’re not going to use it? That just seems wasteful to me.