What I didn't understand while watching the show was how were all 100 boxes free. Unless she had $1 off coupons and the pasta was on sale for $1....I just didn't get it.
Its possible. Last week I was paid $1.04 for 52 boxes of pasta. The combination of sales and cantinas and coupons made it happen. I was able to take about 10 bosex each to inlaws and brother in law. Now we have about 30 boxes that should last my family about 4-5 months. My boys love pasta, so its really nice.
I got into it a few months ago when the show aired. I like how couponmom.com sets it up. I just buy about 6-8 Sunday papers. Then I dont cut any coupons, just date the inserts and file them. Then I have a few websites that will, each week, show my the deals I can get that combine the sales and coupons. The sites will even tell me what week and insert to look. They will also have the links to any online coupons. (Those are limited. I can print 2 of any online coupon.) I spend about 30 minutes a week planning the shopping.
In the end I save about a consistent 40-50% of my groceries. I know that this is not the 90% they show on tv. However, I have a staple of needed foods like fruits and vegtables and items the family loves that I buy. The Couponing of many items combined with buying the items we want gives me the 40-50% average.
I also try to operate with a few rules. I try to stick with a few rules. I really only need a 4-5 month supply at the most. I don't need beyond that. If I can get a lot for free, like toothpaste (I have been able to get about 40 tubes free in the last few months), I just pass them around to family and my food pantry. Second, I dont get things just for the sake of getting deals. I have my family's shopping list on excel that spells out the items needed for the month and stick with that. So, if there is a great sale on cherrios, Ill buy 6 bosex. Kids love it, and its better then most cereal. If ready made meals are on sale for a quarter, I skip it, because we dont eat that stuff, even if its 90% off and a fanastic deal.
I remember that show, and the final 3 people seemed to coupon out of lifestyle. However the first woman (whose register broke on her shopping trip) just seem to show multiple signs of addiction in her shopping. She was spending 40-50 hours a week on it, driving everywhere, looking for any deal just to feel that 'high' and feeling anxiety when not extreme couponing. Also, our extreme couponing did appear to be leading to hoarding tendencies.
I was examinging how she got like $1000 in grocerys for like $50. The reason was not that she got a well balanced assortment of needed items, but got a huge bulk of a few items for free. Who needs 400 butterfinger bars?
All in all, extreme couponing should be used as a wonderful tool to really save a family money, but not at the cost of overtaking one's life, one's home, or a well balanced diet.