Well, well, well. What a week on Extreme Couponing! Everything from a self proclaimed shelf clearer to a 20 year old college student. I learned some interesting facts during the episode – too bad they weren’t Canadian stats. But just for informational sake
Did You Know?
Approximately 26% off the coupons circulated in the US require that you buy 2 or more of a produt to receive the discount.
25% of coupons available in the US are for food with NONE being for fresh food.
The majority of coupon users in the States are between the ages of 55 -64.
But lets get right down to business shall we….
1. Michelle “North Carolina Coupon Queen”
Oh Michelle. What can we say about Michelle that she hasn’t said for herself? A self proclaimed multiple store shelf clearing couponer. Frist a bit of a run down of the segment. Michelle’s big trip was to stock up her son’s football team and the school’s before & after school programs. Atleast its a good cause. Because of the stores coupon policy, she had divided her trip up into 32 seperate transactions! :-O She spent 5 hours shopping in the store before heading to checkout. It wasn’t really explained why but her entire purchase wound up being 40 seperate transaction and lasted another 5 hours. Her final numbers:
Total Retail: $1156.43
OOP: $34.66 – a 97% savings
So, I’ve never in my life seen some one so proud to be a shelf clearer! She even said that if she cleared the shelf at one store she would move onto the next. This is really giving couponers a bad name. We aren’t all extreme. We aren’t all selfish. But to play devils advocate for just a second, she does make an interesting point – “Your just mad because (she) cleared the shelf before you could”. Is this true? We all know the stigma around being a shelf clearer but are we all secretly guilty? I’ll admit, I’ve cleared shelves. I don’t do it routinely nor do I set out with that objective in mind. But I’ve seen it on other blog site, in brags and on other FB pages just no one admits it. I love to know what store you shop at that has 40 bottles of shave gel or body wash and you leave enough on the shelf for the next person! Is this practice frowned upon because some one else beat us to the deal? I personally like to wait until the sale has already been on for a few days before I even go out shopping. This has a dual purpose, I avoid alot of crowds and it gives others seeking the deal a chance to grab it up. What are your thoughts?
2. Kelly “Young Mom”
I liked Kelly 
Kelly was a young mom support her husband, baby, mom, dad and brother the the combined income of $25,000 a year. This is quite the feat but she makes it work! She lives in California and no stores there double but there was no mention of stacking. Like most on the show, she hit a speed bump at checkout and was surprise by a new policy that meant she had to split her transaction into 2. But of course, it all worked out in the end. Her segment wasn’t overdramatic I found and I spoke more to me than most others. Her days total:
Total Retail: $839.08
OOP: $25.07 – the show didn’t announce a savings but I worked it out to be 97%
For the most part, I liked Kelly’s segment but the only thing that bothered me (and it wasn’t just her doing this, I’ve seen it lots), why did she dump all the product out of the boxes?? She purchase 260 packs of Tic-Tacs – a little beyond extreme – but instead of leaving them all nicely piled in their boxes she dumped them all out into the cart! Does this not seem like it would be more work? If you are freaking out that bad while shopping, wouldn’t it make more sense to leave make as little work as possible for yourself? It may be different there so I should say to much, but I know here if you have multiples of the same item they just need 1 bar code and can imput the number of that product your buying.
3. Michelle “Shoot a buck, Save a buck”
Michelle did the best thing that a saveaholic can do. She has fresh meat, eggs and produce available at home. If you truly want to save money, these are the things there are rarely (if ever) coupons for. By planting your own garden at home you can save a ton on fresh produce. She also had chickens for meat and eggs and her family also hunt for meat. This again can translate into big savings. But something she said/did was the complete opposite but I’ll talk about that in a bit. Michelle’s shopping trip definately had its ups and downs. She had planned her trip into 3 transactions to maxamize her coupons – side note I found interesting is that she also got Tic Tacs! She had a budge of $10 for all 3 transactions but by the first she had spent more than half her budget and blown it completely with the second. She was concerned by her miscalculation so review the reciepts and noticed she had miscalculated the tax. She did what any couponer would do and asked the manager who confirmed the receipt was correct. So with her budge blown and the biggest transaction yet it was interesting to see how it turned out. When all was said and done she wound up spending just under $26 for about $860 in groceries – not a bad day for the average couponer! But then the manager arrived to save the day! There did turn out to be a miscalculation on the receipt and they had to owe her another $20.68 back making her final numbers:
Total Retail: $857.79
OOP: $4.84 – Savings of 99.4%
I don’t have much to say about this one. But it did make me think. If she was being taxed incorrectly, are you? Am I? How do we know? How many people has that store taxed incorrectly and profited from. I recently read an article about a women in the States who has repeatedly sued Walmart due to overcharing. I don’t know if a $0.02 overcharge is worth a lawsuit but the principle is there. If ever one of us is being incorrectly charged or taxed imagine the profit these stores are making from us.
4. Tyler “The College Student”
Tyler is a 20 year old College Student living on an allowance of $100 a month from his parents and doesn’t have a job. So he coupons to be able to afford his other social activities. His mom didn’t know he was an Extreme Couponer so the premise of his shopping trip was to fill the empty shelves of his stock pile so it will be full and impress his mom when she comes to visit. I have a slight issue with this put that’ll come later. Tyler and his roommate planned their trip and headed out. They made a point of saying that this store does not have restrictions on doubling or the number of coupons per transaction so he had planned one large one. So after filling his carts and arriving at checkout SURPRISE! a new coupon policy that causes a melt down and complete restructuring, jeopardizing the entire outcome. Blah. But after 4 seperate transactions and rearrangement of products, Tyler’s final numbers are:
Total Retail: $293.23
OOP: $53.11 – Savings of 82%
A definate positive is this is the kind of results that we are more likely to see here in Canada. But to be honest, it kind of makes the final numbers less astonishing. We are used to seeing these people with 97, 98, 99% savings. Also, really not a fan of the fact he went couponing with the sole purpose of stocking up to impress his mom. I coupon to save money for my family and friends. I coupon because it makes sense, why pay full price if you don’t have to. I don’t coupon to impress anyone. It seems awfully selfish to go out and buy 60 TV dinner’s just so you can impress someone or spend $1.39 a bottle on laundry detergent when you already have 11 years worth at home and we all know you can get it for free! This seems like reckless couponing and had very little entertainment value. I’m starting to wonder if they have exhausted the truly EXTREME couponers. That is until I saw the preview for next week!
I’m torn. I watch not because I want to learn to be more extreme but more for the shock value. Not much of that here, just dramatics. And I’m bored of the dramatics. It seems contradictory because its the dramatics that are suppose to make it entertaining. But really? I’ve already watched a whole season of every single person having some huge upset while shopping or at checkout. Show me something else. Teach me something. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!! I will continue to watch because I really find the most interesting part to be hearing the stories of why they coupon and would actually like to see more about where they get there coupons (and how you get 260 of them!), how they organize them, how they plan their shopping trips, how long does it take them to plan a major haul, how often do they shop? These are all things I like to see in the future, would make the show seem more aimed to actual couponers than people who want to have an opinion on it.
What are your thoughts on this weeks episodes?
