Extreme Couponing is sweeping the nation and Midwestern housewives haven't gone this crazy for something like this since Zumba came out. The TLC hit show is pulling in major viewers in the multi-millions each week, and success can also be measured by the fact that I have at least 4 friends on facebook that post their deals and pictures of loot each week. Hell, I am actually enjoying the coupon process more and sit in wait for the paper boy on coupon day so I too can get deodorant for $.25 and a box of Kotex for half price. Nothing rocks my world more than frugality. Nothing.
However, I've noticed a small glitch in the system, and the fact is that the show is really starting to piss me off.
#1- It may be obvious, but some of these people are greedy arseholes. Sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm watching Extreme Couponing or if the channel is mistakenly running an episode of Hoarders. The other night, a man studying to join the ministry paid $0.00 for a butt load of stuff and then promptly gave his whole stockpile away. That is the true spirit of the show if you ask me. Even norml couponers in the heartland give their stuff away that they score for free. For the love of Christ, the post office runs food drives and I donated a boatload of cheapo scores because I just don't have the room for it. Don't get me wrong. I understand stocking up on your child's favorite baby food when it's on sale and when you have a corresponding coupon. That is a success. But when you have a year's worth of diapers and you don't even have a child, you are just greedy. Donate it and free up the space for free cereal.
#2- Stores are actually starting to change their coupon policies because of this show. I live outside of St. Louis, MO and no store here doubles coupons except for Schuncks and they only double to $.40 now. People are emptying out stores and stores are adapting. For the woman that has consistently used coupons for years before it was "cool" to save money at the register, I am a little peeved that I now have to have the lenient coupon policies bent to accomodate some crazy sow who wants to buy 75 packages of bacon for $.45.
#3- It's not realistic. I have a husband, baby, and two cats. I also write freelance and title edit. I don't have time to do more than cut out my coupons, grab a few web coupons, and make a list using the store sale ads. I just don't. All of these people out there get so impressed with a guy buying 400 bottles of Powerade. Great! But you know what? There are deals like that every day of the week all around the world. So what? He spends $.50 for the whole trip. However, I'd be much more impressed if he purchased his whole family's two week grocery list complete with pork chops, beer, and baby formula. (Which brings up another point! I'd be mad impressed with an episode where a mom buys 18 cans of formula and 12 boxes of Huggies for $.88, but you just aren't going to see it because it's so much easier to just get the obligatory 800 bottles of Powerade.) Man cannot live by Powerade alone. I understand that the idea is to build up a stockpile so you eventually have variety. However, if the shit comes down during some type of nuclear event, anthropologists hundreds of years from now will scratch their heads regarding why the family in one house needed 4000 disposable razors that did them no good.
I've cut my family budget in half just by purchasing items on sale combined with coupons. That, to me, is much more impressive than going in and getting 400 packages of dental floss that will sit in my basement at the price of $.20.
#4- My biggest beef is also the fact that the stock isn't there anymore. Go to Walgreens on a Sunday afternoon and you will find empty shelves for any item that had a coupon in the paper. I even saw two ladies fighting over the last bottle of Old Spice body wash. I get that they want their husbands to smell like the hot guy in the commercials, but is it really worth knocking someone's glasses off their face to save $.80? Not only that, but I have serious guilt if I'm the first one on the scene. For example, there was a coupon for free pantyliners in the paper last week. So I went to get my free pantyliners and there was nothing on the shelf at one store. Cleaned out. I went to Target and there were 2 boxes left. I took one. Only one when I could have easily cleaned out the stock and taken both. Why did I leave the other? A- Who needs pantyliners that bad? B- What if somebody was in desperate need of pantyliners (a pregnant woman comes to mind) and she goes to the only store she can get to before some kind of deadline where she has to be at her kid's school parent teacher conference. What happens? There is not a box on the shelf.
There's a certain place in hell for the person that takes the last box of pantyliners, folks. I'm sticking to that!
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