Last evening a new show aired on TLC called Extreme Couponing. It was about four savors who as TLC stated are obsessed with saving.
These savors do all they can do to get as much as they can for as little as they can. Now I am all about that concept….but this was taken to the extreme, read on.
As you know, I am all about living a debt free lifestyle. I agree with the concept of saving money where ever you can and using coupons is one of those avenues as well as sites like Moolala. I do believe however there is a big difference between saving and hoarding. Yes, I know the show as called “extreme” and the reason they put it on the air is to get people to watch it, but I just don’t know if it represented a good picture of saving. To me it was a better example of obsession, addition and hoarding.
These savors spend hours, no make that days tracking down coupons and deals. They don’t go to the store to buy two jars of spaghetti sauce with a coupon for $3.00. They buy 40 jars, with 40 coupons that sometimes the store offers double coupons on and they get 40 jars for maybe a few dollars if that. The concept is good, but what does one family need with 40 jars of spaghetti sauce? This same concept holds true with everything they purchase. Be it deodorant, cereal, toothbrushes, you name it they are buying it in bulk.
One example on the show showed a savor with nine shopping carts full of supplies (I can’t even call it groceries in the quantities they were buying). They showed how they could buy almost $6000 worth of products for around $250. Yes, great example of saving, and if you are feeding an army…but at most these savors were feeding a normal family.
Some may say they are stocking up for a raining day or an apocalyptic disaster, if that was their intent maybe, huge maybe, I could see it. However, that is isn’t their intent. The intent is see how much they can get with spending very little…one savor even referred to it as a “chess game, you have to know to play in order to win.” Another referred to it as an addiction, she would cancel plans with family or leave the house suddenly just to go shopping to get her “deal” fix.
The point of being a frugal shopper is buying what you need and ONLY what you need and use with coupons. Having $35,000 of “stock” that you have insured, in your home is not buying what you need, I consider that hoarding. One savor has three rooms in her house dedicated to housing all the stock, these rooms are setup like warehouses with shelves and all items are neatly placed. She even rotates the stock to insure freshness. Some have enough toilet paper to last the family for a full lifetime.
This to me is not being frugal; it is taking advantage of the system. It is costing the stores they shop addition time and money in resources. One segment of the show, showed three cashiers checking out all the good purchased, As well as store employees pushing around the nine shopping carts full of items both in the store and out to the car. It took away 2 ½ hours of store staff time to check out the order….that is two hours away from the normal shoppers that come in. Chances are the store had to call in extra staff to handle the load, costing the store extra money. Then there is the additional time to re-stock shelves that went bare in a matter of minutes from one shopper…if the stock is even available in the store without having to wait for new supply trucks.
Think about the fact that these savors clear out some store shelves, where does that leave you who just came in to buy one jar of spaghetti sauce for your family only to find a bare shelf? Stores are not configured to handle that type of buying at one time….even the registers locked down due too many coupons being used at once.
To be fair, one savor did mention that he was going to donate the 1,100 boxes of cereal he got to a food bank. Now if the savors were doing all this buying to save as well as give, I can see that to an extent….baring the load put on the grocery store, but if that was the intent I am sure arrangements could be made ahead of time with the store. But from the looks of the stock that is being stored in these homes, I don’t think “giving” is the first thought that comes to mind, if it was, there wouldn’t be rooms setup to look like grocery stores.
In my humble opinion these people and this show was not represented well as couponing to save money, but rather just another show about obsessive behavior, similar to other reality shows such as Addiction or Hoarding, all this show did was try to make the obsession into something good which was saving money. Even though this show is classified as reality TV it isn’t really reality for most. Most people don’t have 70 hours a week to spend looking for deals or cutting coupons. Saving money is important but not at the cost of family time.
These couponers obviously have a talent. They know how the systems work. I think it would be more beneficial if the show showed how the average working mom or dad could do couponing on their own. To purchase the goods they need and use, not to stock pile. So many people need help in saving on their food bill, couponing can do that. Stock piling with no other intend other than “winning” doesn’t really help anyone except the individual with the obsession.
I have already talked to several people about this topic and received mixed responses. Yes, what these savors are doing is all legal and falls within the “rules” set by the merchants and product manufactures. However, there is also a small saying that because some abuse the system, the system can be changed which could hurt everyone.
