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Extreme couponing?
Any AFFers into extreme couponing?
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No. Too much work. I'd rather pay the extra .50 than go to the trouble to clip the coupon and find a place where the item is on sale. The only coupons I use on a regular basis are the Target coupons because they're usually discounts on Starbuck's or items that I already buy all the time. (I think they're printed in a way that's tailor-made to the customer and their purchase history.)
However, I am into watching the show on TLC and being amazed/horrified. :thumbsup I don't like to buy things that I don't need, and it would actually annoy me to see 10 bottles of bleach on my laundry room shelf or 15 boxes of toothpaste in the bathroom cabinet. That gives some people the warm fuzzies, though, and I understand that. :) |
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My wife just this week has embarked on the adventure of extreme couponing. Not to the "extreme" as on the show, though I wouldn't be against it. But she has made two shopping trips since she started a week ago. The first trip she saved $40, yesterday she got $180.00 worth of stuff for $109.00 ! With three daughters who eat like boys, I have no complaints.
I also think its great how some of these people buy tons of stuff they dont use for only pennies just to give it to charity. |
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My wife trys..She has a big binder full of coupons.. but i have never seen those extreme couponers on tv but lots of everyday foods like milk,eggs,bread,sugar...etc,etc,etc..they always by 3 buggy loads of candy bars or enough gaterade to give to a football team....lol.
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I'm fairly extreme. I've done it for 25 years though so it's pretty honed to my lifestyle and I do it automatically without much thought.
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The show drives me bonkers! They show people buying 7 carts of groceries, taking up some cashiers time for hours, only to add it to their garage sized pantry (which IS usually their garage). Who cares if they are "giving most away" -they are still buying out whole product categories so people who only need ONE of something can't find it because they bought the "last 80 bottles".
Coincidentally, the show immediately following Extreme Couponing is/was Hoarding: Buried Alive. Oh yes, THANKFULLY the closest grocery store and Target have really clamped down on this. Now they are actually carrying Gatorade again!!! |
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Yeah, in one of those episodes the computer shut down.
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This is a major pet peeve for me. Extreme couponers are making it difficult for those of us who just want to save on the items that we actually use in our day to day life. Coupons in the Sunday paper have been reduced drastically, most brand websites now require you to register to be able to download a coupon (which then results in being bombarded with spam), sometimes you even have to like their FB page or wait for the coupon in the mail. OR worse yet, join their store club so that you can save on that one item that is credited to a savings card. But then you if you don't run back to the store by a certain date to buy something else with the credit on the card then you lose the savings. Geez, it's too much work. As much as I'd like to save a few dollars it's just not worth the effort and planning that it now requires.
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I saved over $21 at the grocery store this week with coupons, so I do use them. But the extreme stuff??? No way - I don't have time. We have a couple ladies in our church who do it though, and it's amazing what they get for nothing!!
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If I had lots of extra time on my hand, I think it would be fun to try doing this just to see if I could win the game. But I don't. Sometimes I clip coupons. But usually they expire before I get around to using them. My sister has me signing up for all kinds of free samples right now on FB, but I'm not convinced that's such a great idea either. Think I'm gonna opt out of that real soon.
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If someone could find me coupons for bullets, that would be awesome!
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I've done it a few times, but it's just way too much work. I have friends who do. They can get $150 worth of groceries for $20.
I didn't feel good about doing it, though. It's not the way stores and manufacturers intended coupons to be used - stores can't afford to continually lose money like that. Many stores are now halting or cutting back on their coupon acceptance, and it's because of people doing this. |
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I have some friends who are extreme couponers, and they have at times walked out of the store with a completely loaded cart, and the entire thing was free. They used the triple coupon thing, and only bought the products that ended up being free. I know that sounds awesome and really thrifty (and the few times I did it, it really does feel exhilarating) but in the long run it's not a smart practice. Because, as has happened in my area, the stores will stop offering the triple coupons, or limiting them to the 25 cent coupons. So you end up completely losing the program. |
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I do not have the time or patience. I have used a few coupons before and got things really cheap because of the triple amt taken off, but only once or twice. I only use a coupon if it is a name brand that I use and it is almost handed to me. I only buy for 2 weeks at a time and never stock pile anything. I shop Aldi's, Walmart and Kroger and I know exactly where all the products I use are the cheapest and trust me, I have raised a family on a shoestring. If it works for some that is great. I think for some it is entertainment..so whatever floats their boat. :) I don't have cable, so haven't ever watched the TV show.
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It's kewl but I don't have the patience. Same way I felt about being a Landlord.
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I don't know how people have time to do the extreme couponing. I do good just getting the coupons from the Sunday paper. I like to use coupons when I have them if it is for something we already buy. But it seems like this extreme couponing is a little dishonest.
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Sometimes I work for people who poor mouth and complain until I do some little free stuff add-ons. I have heard some people say they would never want to do business with the company they themselves own - because they know how to extract the maximum amount of $$ from the consumer. I don't share that view. I would very much want to do business with myself/my company if I were in need of goods and services. In fact I use that as a measuring stick to keep value in perspective. |
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I started doing couponing and other frugal stuff as a way to help me stay home with my kids when my husband was making $7.00 an hour back in the '80's.
I am sad that some of you seem to think that extreme couponing is dishonest/bad. I think some people can be unethical about it but I also think there is a right way to do it that is not unethical. For example, Walgreens has register rewards where you can get free stuff. Some people go in repeatedly and clear the shelves so no one else can get any free stuff. That ticks me off. Get your free items and move on. Those of you that are worried about the stores......they set the rules in place. They are responsible for the rules. The CEO probably lives in an awfully nice place. As with anything, you can go too far. However, I live very frugally and use coupons and have bins organized with the overflow. You can get too much stuff sometimes but a reasonable amount of back-stock is not only a good deal but it is SMART! You don't have to run to the store for every little thing and if you ever have an emergency like a loss of a job you have a little to get you by. Those of you who are extremely annoyed need to consider there is some good to it. I also cringe when I see frothing at the mouth freebie collectors. But not everyone who does a lot of couponing/money saving is this way. Just use common sense and respect. |
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We hardly do it to the extreme they do on tv, but if I can get $200 worth of stuff for $20, Im there. If the stores are losing money then they should put forth policies that prevent that loss, however as you said, I dont see any store owners who are suffering when I drive by their homes up in the heights. A lot of the families on the shows are like mine, 5 to 8 person families that are struggling to make ends meet. We keep about enough to survive a month on if something were to happen. We don't buy a bunch of stuff we don't or won't use, yet at the same time, our church collects a different item each month for various charity's and if we can go in with coupons and buy that item in bulk for little of nothing then God bless us. Since we have started we are saving anywhere from $200 to $400 a month on our food/supplies bill. That is a huge savings that can be used for things that we otherwise could not afford to do for our girls. |
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In the past two weeks the Fry's supermarket (about 500 feet from out house) changed their coupon policies where they no longer accept competitors coupons as well as sharply reduced the number you can use on a single item. Now we can actually find some of the stuff we used to get regularly until the "couponers" started hitting it and clearing the shelves. |
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Extreme couponing is extremely greedy.
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We are not extreme couponers, but we do clip coupons religously. We very rarely dine out or grocery shop without coupons.
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my only question is, how much processed food are you eating/having to eat because of this? we try to stick with fresh/not processed....except for Mac-n-Cheese... which you cannot have enough of IMHO....shhh dont tell PO that! |
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I guess that is another reason why I don't use coupons very often, I don't know of any for milk/meat, eggs... I do try to hit sales where frozen vegi's are 10 for $10..and I get a lot then. I like to buy what the store puts on sale...knowing what I use the most, that is mainly why I stick to Kroger, I love their sales. They send me store coupons based on what I buy with them...and give me free items every couple months. That is always nice. |
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I don't think it's dishonest/bad. I think it is shooting yourself in the foot in the long run. When you do it the mega-extreme way. Because what happens in the long run? The stores stop tripling coupons, period. So what could have been a good thing for a long time, ends. Whether or not the stores make a profit is a valid point - because stores can't stay in business if they don't make a profit. And they know that. So if they start losing a lot of money on these coupon programs, they'll stop having them. The bolded part above - those are the ones who are hurting all of us, and ruining the programs for all of us. |
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Most of the savings are the expensive stuff, (mind you i have 3 girls) which top of that list is TOILET PAPER !!, and then there is body wash, shampoo, conditioner, deoderant, uummm, ~femine stuff~:covereyesblah blah blah... which is why we only have been saving about 30 to 50 % is because we do still have to buy the fresh stuff. |
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but I do thank the Sweet Clean Lord Jesus Himself that I have boys! LOL! |
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I try to avoid products with MSG and trans fats. I eat a lot of fresh fruit. The point is that there are extremes on both ends. Yes, I think it can be a sickness if people are just getting gobs of stuff for no purpose than the rush of getting stuff. That's kind of weird and I see no purpose in that.
However, blaming extreme couponers for what is going on in the supermarkets (them cutting back on allowing coupons etc.) is very short sighted IMO. What is happening is an overall inflation and recession in the larger economy that is causing the stores to have to revamp their systems. It's just a result of the housing bubble burst and the fed printing so much money. And it's not over yet, I fear. I would recommend that everybody get out those coupons and do whatever it takes to get at least a month's work of back stock. You might need it. If not, rotate it and use it up. |
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I don't know about extreme couponing but coupons I see have stock limit per customer like limit 3 or 5 per customer and also say something like not combined with other ads.
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When stores have planning meetings and decide to have a double/triple coupon program, there is something in it for them. Somehow they plan to benefit from it. They are there to make a profit. When it turns out that instead of it increasing their profits, it is costing them dearly, they have no incentive to continue doing it. So they stop. And that is exactly the reason they are giving for discontinuing the programs. |
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It's all ILG's fault!! Including the recent market swings.
It used to just be "Standards" when she was UPC then she left and started couponing - hence we have "Standards and Poors"! |
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Love it, as an executive for a grocery company, I'd be extremely annoyed for my cashiers time to be wsted like that, and would be tempted to fire any manager who would be getting all the stock out of the backroom and then carrying it to peoples cars so that real customers don't have any product to buy. We made the decision to change our coupon policy so that we no longer take any internet coupons. We don't get that much coupon business, but in reality we DON'T WANT that kind of business, we're better off having those people shop at the competition. Let them deal with that. :) I predict that if such couponing really gains steam (perhaps if the show becomes more popular) that alot of companies will adjust their coupon policies, as you mentioned about Target and your local grocery store doing. Basically these people who go way overboard will ruin it for the people who really need coupons and use them the right way. |
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