Extreme couponing show: Saving in theory vs. saving in reality

[brerrabbit]

I agree with much of what you said, but not this. To me (and I realize this is my own opinion) if I was going to buy it either way, and I managed to buy it for less, then I saved money. It doesn't matter whether that $1 I didn't spend on mustard goes into savings or goes toward a new pair of shoes, I still saved money.

On the other hand, if I wasn't going to buy it, but I did because of the "savings," I didn't save any money at all. If I have no intention of buying mustard and I'm not sure I'll ever use it, but I see I can get a $2 bottle of mustard for $1 so I buy it, I didn't save $1 on mustard. I spent $1 that I didn't need to spend.

I understand what you are saying and can agree to a point. What I was really trying to illustrate was that what it really means is you have additional money in your discretionary spending account. The money left after bills and savings is what I determine discretionary. DW and I don't tend to really keep up with how that money is budgeted and spent. It's really our kinda fun money so if we save at the grocery store then we might get to eat out a couple of times a month more than we already do, or buy something for the fun of it as opposed to actually banking the money in savings for trips, or specific purposes.

 

[bartleby1]

I have a lot of problems with the people on this show, and what they consider "saving", but my biggest issue is probably the time they spend on it. They spend all week preparing for a trip , and then up to 6 hours in the store, 2 hours at the check-out etc. Some spend time dumpster diving for coupon circulars, or driving around town (using gas) to steal papers off of driveways of foreclosed homes .Then big-whoop - they save $400. If they did the math , they are probably making less than $10 an hour. And that would be if it were all on items they will actually use or buy anyway. I watch all the time going into getting 500 bags of croutons they don't need or enough deodorant to last 500 years (it will be dry and no good by the time they get to it) and I think, "gee, why not get a job at McDonalds and make $10 an hour - it would be easier". My time is worth money to me. I figure how much I could be making at work per hour, and pretty much, all of my time is worth that much to me. If I am not making that much an hour selling on ebay, or clipping coupons, then it's just not worth it to me. I rather walk in a store, pay full price, and still have time to get to a real job and make $30 an hour.

I haven't worked at a fast food place in many years, but do they really make $10 an hour now??? That sounds kind of high to me. Maybe I'm just out of touch.

As for the second statement I bolded, I know I'm not that out of touch with current salaries. You do realize that not everyone can find a job making $30 an hour ($60,000 a year).

I'm certainly not saying that buying 500 of anything is the answer, but to just say "go get a job" really isn't the answer either. Many couponers do put in a lot of hours but it fits into their schedule of managing their home and children which a regular job would not. For many people, even if they could work in Mcdonalds for $10 per hour, it would not be beneficial if they have to pay $10 or more per hour for childcare.

 

[Nayan]

I'm certainly not saying that buying 500 of anything is the answer, but to just say "go get a job" really isn't the answer either. Many couponers do put in a lot of hours but it fits into their schedule of managing their home and children which a regular job would not. For many people, even if they could work in Mcdonalds for $10 per hour, it would not be beneficial if they have to pay $10 or more per hour for childcare.

McDonalds in my area only pay $8/hr. $320 a week (lets just say they work 40 hours for simple math) before taxes and SS then toss in childcare that runs almost $300/week, certainly not worth it.

 

[2girls4me]

Yeah, if it starts taking up actual living space, that is a problem for me!

Also, I will not buy things I KNOW I won't use.....I have no babies in my house anymore, so I have no need for diapers/wipes/baby items that will just take up space and not be useful.

I am all about savings, but I want to be practical in all of that too!

Dawn

. Ita with this. I have 2 children, but we don't have boxes and boxes of wipes, diapers, etc. We cut out the coupons, but we use it for one or two packages. I hate when I see the women with no children sticking up on diapers. I don't care if they are a penny a piece, its a waste when you have no children. And IMO, they are boarders, who the hell needs 30 bottles of salad dressing?

 

[GinnyEmma]

McDonalds in my area only pay $8/hr. $320 a week (lets just say they work 40 hours for simple math) before taxes and SS then toss in childcare that runs almost $300/week, certainly not worth it.

Because dad can't watch his kids?

 

[MrsPete]

Yes, I do this often. Another way is earning register rewards for buying certain items. I average about four large hauls per year with the RR's. Here is an example of one of the deals from last year. There was a deal that if you bought 10 cans of Healthy Choice soup you received a 10.00 register reward. There were "blinkie" coupons right there by the soup. After coupons the soup cost 7.00. Therefore I was "making" 3.00 on every ten cans of soup that I "bought". After my inintial investment of 7.00, I would get 3.00 worth of produce or whatever I wanted, along with another ten cans of soup and kept "rolling" the register reward. Needless to say at the end of that week, we had A LOT of soup and tons of other food for free. (It got to the point that I couldnt use all the soup, so I would drop it off in the donation bin at the exit.) it was a lot of work doing all the transactions, but for me it was time well spent and we had a fridge/freezer that was quite well stocked. I wont even say how much fruit/produce/meat/staples that I got that week, but it was A LOT!!!!!

I think the key phrase here is "deal from last year". Yes, these deals come along, but not every day.

I agree with everything you have said!!! Your exactly right when you said that "stockpiling is a way of thinking that some people get and others dont"

I understand the concept, and I think it's smart to buy a couple tubes of toothpaste when they're very inexpensive -- it means that later you don't have to buy when they're full-price.

What I don't understand is lying to yourself to make it look like you've saved money. That's what the "We spent $40 on $500 of groceries" couple was doing. They were high-fiving and saying, "Now we've saved $500 and can go on our cruise". That wasn't true. They'd added some random items to their stockpile and had spent $40. A more sensible approach, a more honest approach would've been, "We can save $500 by eating from our existing stockpile and saving the grocery money."

I think this is an excellent post that brings up a very valid point. It's also worded in a way that makes perfect sense. We have done food storage for at least 20 years (not the same food saved for that time of course ) and we have it for that exact purpose. When my husband's job was in jeopardy, we ate more out of our food storage and didn't replenish it very much. We stockpiled $$ instead of food. Then when that crunch eased, we replenished our food storage and continued to shop as we did before the crunch.

When we had our first child and my husband was still in graduate school, I was the breadwinner. The problem was that she was an 11 inch long 1 pound preemie and there was NO way she would be put in daycare. I took 12 weeks off with no pay when she came home. We ate mostly out of food storage during that time. Again, it was a financial life saver for us.

Thanks for posting this! It's lots of "food for thought".

That makes sense. You "saved for a rainy day", and then you used your stockpile. That's not what the couple on this show did.

I don't know, its in a way the same thing as listening to a person who just got back from Vegas saying they won $900. Dig in to the story deeper and what you usually find is they hit a jackpot of $900 at some point during their trip but they fail to mention the $1,000 they lost up to that point. So the question is did they really win $900 or did they just lose $100. The same goes for extreme couponing, did you really save/ make $900 or did you just lose $100 because you have to store stuff for 10 years to use it all and spend money to make money? Money you might not have spent to begin with.

Good analogy.

I haven't worked at a fast food place in many years, but do they really make $10 an hour now??? That sounds kind of high to me. Maybe I'm just out of touch.

Yes, they do make that much -- and they get paid extra for the last hour of the day. Why? Because we have a shortage of people willing to do that type of work, and the fast food joints are anxious to hang onto even their mediocre employees. They pay extra for the last hour because otherwise some of the employees will leave saying that they just aren't going to do the final, nasty clean-up portion of the job. But when paid extra, the employees will stay.

As for day care, I did see one woman on the show who hired a babysitter to watch her kids so she could put her full attention into her coupon-shopping.

 

[DawnM]

I saw that too!

CRAZY!

Dawn

As for day care, I did see one woman on the show who hired a babysitter to watch her kids so she could put her full attention into her coupon-shopping.

 

[amylynne01]

Because dad can't watch his kids?

Maybe Dad is working too.

I semi-extreme coupon. I only buy what I need, but if I need pasta sauce, I'll buy 10-15 at a time. Last year, I had such a stockpile of diapers that I didn't buy any for 9 months, and I had two in diapers for half that time! I do buy things I don't need but can donate or share with family if I can get overage. For example, Similac formula RTF bottles were 3.86, and a couponing friend gave me a few $5/1 any Similac product. At Walmart, I got 1.14 to spend on other stuff. I stockpile what I can reasonably use in 6-12 months - anything above that is waste. Because I coupon, I don't feel bad spending money on things like produce, milk, eggs, meat, etc.

I choose not to work full time because in my field (education), it is not worth it for me to work full time, put my kids in daycare full time (hubby works FT and goes to school FT), and see them for 3 hrs a day. I do not put the money I saved couponing in another account because that money is not there. I coupon to meet my monthly budget, not because I have extra money lying around.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

However, the arguement that they should just work at McDonald's is a bit flawed. If they have children they would need childcare. Couponing allows them to stay home if they wish to do so. Also, working at McDonald's may be $10/hr but does have taxes, SS, and some other items deducted, so it isn't a true $10/hr. Saving $10/hr for their time is a true $10, not taxable.

Yes, but by "saving" money by spending hours clipping coupons and shopping when you could be at a paying job, you are not paying into things like social security or a job related retirement fund so you're actually loosing money in the long run.

 

[Piglet4Ever]

I sooo agree. I've only watched the show twice and that is it for me. When I see the stockpiles of things like toothpaste.... How much toothpaste can you use in a year? Have they checked the expiration dates on things? Will they actually be able to use these items? And if not do they have them marked some how so they can donate them before they go bad?

I have watched this show a few times ( and never will again) and this is always my thought. How much of all that stuff they stockpile actually goes to waste in the end. This show makes me sad and angry all at the same time.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Maybe Dad is working too.
.

Then work a different shift or weekends. ( talking of the mcd's example).

 

[DawnM]

Not if you planned on being home anyway. Not every mom wants to go to work, even if their kids are school age.

I could have continued to work and made a decent salary, but I am staying home now and with that comes some change in lifestyle.

One of those things is not spending as much on groceries. I cut where I can.

Not sure how much retirement fast food companies offer, if any.

Unfortunately, many of us will have to fund our own retirement accounts. DH's firm keeps cutting back more and more each year.

Dawn

Yes, but by "saving" money by spending hours clipping coupons and shopping when you could be at a paying job, you are not paying into things like social security or a job related retirement fund so you're actually loosing money in the long run.

 

[DawnM]

Did anyone else think it was really odd that the mom who was on the last episode had her ex-husband store her surplus and go shopping with her?

Dawn

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I watched the show a couple of times and couldn't believe it. I was hoping to learn a few things which I didn't think I did.

And then I have begun keeping track of all the things we use on a regular basis and how much I think we use of each item over 3 months.

Then when my grocery store has bogo of any item, I would buy up to the limit of what they allowed (usually 2 deals) and if I had any coupons, I would use them. My store doesn't double.

Then later in the week before the flyer expired, if I drove by the store, I'd stop in and buy more of the bogo item limit. (I keep my little coupon book in my car except the day I'm clipping coupons and figuring everything out. Usually take an hour or two.)

So basically I saved a minimum of 50% on items we use and won't have to buy ketchup or spagetti sauce till the end of summer.
I will probably have to buy our taco mix which I'd hoped to get enough to last through the whole summer when it was BOGO but I think I underestimated how much we'd use. Rats.

I've also started looking at the Walgreens flyer, and using their coupons and mine was able to get hand dishwashing soap really cheap and have enough for a few months now so I don't need to buy that. I also have gotten free toothpaste which I never thought I'd be able to do between my coupons, their coupons and register rewards.

So I figure I did learn a few things but it's all about being careful and buy only what we can use.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Not if you planned on being home anyway. Not every mom wants to go to work, even if their kids are school age.

I could have continued to work and made a decent salary, but I am staying home now and with that comes some change in lifestyle.

One of those things is not spending as much on groceries. I cut where I can.

Not sure how much retirement fast food companies offer, if any.

Unfortunately, many of us will have to fund our own retirement accounts. DH's firm keeps cutting back more and more each year.

Dawn

I agree. I wasn't saying that they should go to work. I was just thinking about the justification (when one isn't needed.) if that makes sense, lol?

 

[gina2000]

It's pretty obvious that these "extreme couponers" don't buy in the volume seen on the show. Half the time the cash registers are on overload because of the sheer number of items and/or coupons being used. So it's pretty obviously a "staged" shopping moment.... meant to create a wow factor in the audience's mind.

I have nothing against couponing...or even extreme couponing. Overage in some areas is a fact of life...and the overage pays for the meat and vegetables. My stores don't do overage....but I do get great deals if I use coupons in conjunction with sales. And it makes sense to buy enough to last until the next sale...which is cyclical...and if I'm correct about 12 weeks in duration.

Like everything else in this world, moderation is the key. My guess is that many of these couponers sells out of their homes or make large donations. It would be nice if the show provided that information....instead the show plays up their actions and makes them look like obsessed maniacs. And while many are obsessed with chasing the bargain, I suspect most are pretty realistic about how much they can use and what to do with the overflow.

 

[amylynne01]

Then work a different shift or weekends. ( talking of the mcd's example).

That is possible but not for all. I'm doing it now (DH works nights, and I work in the mornings when he gets home).

Did anyone else think it was really odd that the mom who was on the last episode had her ex-husband store her surplus and go shopping with her?

Dawn

Totally weird. However, I'm glad that they still have a good relationship even after getting divorced.

 

[talulabelle]

Yes, but by "saving" money by spending hours clipping coupons and shopping when you could be at a paying job, you are not paying into things like social security or a job related retirement fund so you're actually loosing money in the long run.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

I think the key phrase here is "deal from last year". Yes, these deals come along, but not every day. I understand the concept, and I think it's smart to buy a couple tubes of toothpaste when they're very inexpensive -- it means that later you don't have to buy when they're full-price.

What I don't understand is lying to yourself to make it look like you've saved money. That's what the "We spent $40 on $500 of groceries" couple was doing. They were high-fiving and saying, "Now we've saved $500 and can go on our cruise". That wasn't true. They'd added some random items to their stockpile and had spent $40. A more sensible approach, a more honest approach would've been, "We can save $500 by eating from our existing stockpile and saving the grocery money." That makes sense.

The "key phrase" that you quoted me from was not that it was from last year.....I gave that example from last year, because it was an easy one to explain.....I had already said that I do indeed get four large hauls a year. My last stockpiling adventure for food was in Feb. and I stocked up on pasta sauce, frozen vegetables, peanut butter, baking mixes, etc.

And I do think that people that stockpile do have a different frame of mind. When I can get something free and there is plenty of stock I will get as much as I can use before it expires. If I had kids in diapers and was able to get diapers for free (I have and given them to friends) I would get as many as I could, I wouldnt just get one or two packages.

I havent seen the show,but from what I hear about it, it does sound like hoarding and a bad example of what you can do with coupons. I also have no desire to store 72 mustards or whatever it was. I also agree with everybody that the couple that you mentioned in your original post, certainly did not save any money to go toward their cruise!!!!

I was just giving an example of how stockpiling works for us.....it is not for everybody and does require a fair amount of effort.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Lol, no kidding. A friend went to work for cold water creek and saved tons. But had no paycheck by the time she hit their outlet every month.

You can't save by spending.

I worked as a hairdresser years ago when their were salons in the Macy's stores. I made good money. I also watched when something I wanted/needed went on sale. Bottom line I purchased awesome clothes/bedding etc. Paycheck? noooo it all went back to Macy's. So IF I need clothes I had em a paycheck no way. lol