Extreme Couponing, a new show on TLC, profiles four shopaholics who use coupons to save thousands of dollars and amass huge stockpiles of goods.These shoppers go to the extremes, dumpster diving for coupons and spending hours a day searching the internet for great deals.
The preview I saw this morning kind of put couponers in a bad light, showing them as completely obsessive. In fact, they closed the segment with information on Obsession Compulsive Disorder, which made me chuckle a bit. What do you think? Will this new show give us a bad rap or shed light on how great coupon savings can really be?
Be sure to watch it with me tomorrow night. It airs Wednesday, December 29th at 8:00 PM (EST) on TLC.
Your thoughts?
To zzzkatzzzz – it’s not obsessive or wrong at all if you do it to provide for yourself or others. Thanks for helping your friends 🙂
I have to agree with Jennifer (#4) to a certain extent. My stockpile of pasta, body washes, toothbrushes, deodorants, razors, etc allowed me to bring happiness to many people in my life this Christmas. I got probably 20 or so free body washes (thanks to your emails Katarina <3 <3 <3) which I then gave as Christmas gifts and donated to the local food bank. How is that wrong? Yes I can understand it was slightly obsessive and yes, by the end of the year my closet was over flowing. However I could not have helped those people if I hadn't gotten them free. My best friend's boyfriend hadn't received a Christmas gift in about 15+yrs…not from his ex-wife nor his children. Well, he got LOTS of stuff from me this year. He was very overwhelmed. Another friend is a single mom of two. To her went 8 boxes of pasta, 2 boxes of brownies and some other stuff that I got for $1 or less. She too was the recipient of some of my "personal care" freebies. Having those freebies freed up my cash to be put to use buying Christmas gifts for her two little boys. All of this was possible because of Katarina's emails. Obsessive? Yes, a little but it did bring happiness to many of my friends and gave me pleasure to be able to give them gifts. It was great fun playing "Santa" this year. My best Christmas EVER as I felt very rich when in fact at least 50-70% of what I gave this year I received free. I also agree with Teresa (#2) I have a friend who berated me for all the time I spent couponing. It took me a while but I finally realized she was actually jealous of all the free stuff I got!
THANK YOU KATARINA…YOU ROCK WOMAN!!!!
I think the show will be interesting, and I’m sure most people will understand these are extreme cases and that not every coupon-clipper is obsessed like these people are.
It’s just not normal to spend all your time looking for coupons. I love saving money, but I don’t want to spend my every waking hour wondering where the next coupon is going to come from!
I’ll definitely be watching tonight!
I think couponing is great and can save you money BUT there can come a point when it gets extreme! If you are only feeding 2 people then you don’t need 300+ boxes of pasta. When your stockpile or your need to coupon takes over your life then you’ve lost the purpose for doing it. I think if your stockpile grows out of control its time to start helping others that need it and don’t have the resources to help themselves! I will be watching this show for sure!
Haha, I can’t wait to watch it!
If it is an addiction, at least it is one that SAVES money instead of wasting it! Call me crazy….but I don’t like to give my money away if I don’t have to! I think people are just jealous!
You have got to be kidding me! I am going to ask my Mom to set her DVR for me on that show! I have had my fair share of eye rolls as I used my coupons. But to make couponers out to be something bad, an addiction? Wow