I'm sure that by now everyone has seen the TLC series, Extreme Couponing. Am I right? Well if you haven't, it's a show that follows families who use coupons to shop, and they save an enormous sum of money while doing it. There was a woman who went shopping and her total before coupons and store discounts was around $554. After she put in her store savings card and gave the cashier all of her coupons, her total was less than $6. Isn't that amazing?! Absolutely.
And coupons have taken over the US now. I see people posting wanted ads for sunday paper coupon inserts. There are tons of people printing coupons from home, all in hopes of saving hundreds of dollars. Now here's my opinion on the show. I think it's awesome that someone can buy hundreds of dollars worth of products and only pay a couple bucks. But pay attention to WHAT they are buying. Let's see: hundreds of bottles of mustard, sports drinks, paper towels, laundry soap, etc. All they are doing is buying goods in bulk. And that's great that they no longer have to buy those goods for a long time, but what i see it as is basically hoarding. They go to the stores and clear the shelves. Then when they bring it all home they have to find a spot for everything. There was a family who had toilet paper under a child's bed, soups in the parents' bedroom and closet. That's just crazy! And a lot of the time they will buy things that they will never use just because it's either free or they'll end up making money from buying it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using coupons while shopping to save some money, but Extreme Couponing is just that: EXTREME. The average person isn't going to see the same results as the bargain hunters on the show. I watched about a half dozen episodes and have come to the conclusion that "extreme couponing" is going to just be a fad. Honestly we, as a country, are going through tough times economically and saving money will definitely help out some people. I just think that people are going WILD!!
