I love watching the show, and seeing the deals they walk away with, but at the same time, thanks to this show, companies are paying attention. They are lowering the face value of their coupons, making it harder to get better deals. I have also noticed double the amount of ladies with binders in the stores. I am one of those binder toting ladies, but I do not clear the shelf just because it is free. Do I find the best deal? Most of the time. Do I have shelves put up just to contain my stockpile? NO. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my husband and son. We have no room to hold a huge stockpile. Instead, we get enough from one store during their doubles week. We keep one stockpile box for each of us for non-food items, and only buy enough to get us through to the next month's double coupon week. Even still we end up giving food and grocery items to friends/family who may need it. The show is a decent example of how to save money, but needs to find a balance. I realize this is about taking it to the extreme, but tone it back!
If I have the coupons for the items that are free after coupon, I make sure I leave some on the shelf. Then, I go back in a day or 2 to get a few more. I have been to the store too many times to get something, to find them completely out of everything I had a coupon for.
The show, Extreme Couponing, on TLC is interesting to watch, and I do enjoy trying to guess what they spent or made on some of the items they got. However, I have noticed more and more coupon values being lowered to the point I wonder if the coupon is even worth it! I have also noticed Walmart not seeming to carry as many items in their travel section because of this. More companies are also putting "excluding trial size" on their coupons.
Since I started couponing a year ago, I have been going to a store's Double Coupon Week to save even more money. Since the show started, and has been on for about 6 weeks, I have been to 2 Double Coupon Weeks. Last time it was a little bit more crowded. Yesterday, it was an absolute madhouse! Everyone and their neighbors were there wanting to use coupons and try and save money. The sad part (to me anyways) is that they were getting items just because they had coupons to use, whether it was a good deal after the double coupon or not. I was like this my first trip, but learned very quickly that some items are still cheaper elsewhere after a coupon is used at face value. That is a rookie mistake that most new couponers make, unless they have done their homework!
Speaking of homework... Are you ready to get started? Go read my next post, titled Homework!
Those are my thoughts on Extreme Couponing, plain and simple!
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