Puzzled over Extreme Couponing

[2girls4me]

I saw one episode where she had coupons for cous-cous. She bought over 100 boxes, then said, " we'll try it, I'm sure it's good.". They never had it and they bought over 100 boxes!!!! I don't care if they are free, I wouldn't buy over 100 boxes of anything I never had before. Its ridiculous, they stock up on mustard, sports drinks and hot sauce. And hygiene products. Not real food whatsoever.

 

[Carol17]

Again, for me, it all comes down to the fact that here(in Canada...well, where I live at least) we don't get coupons doubled, we can only use one coupon per item, and most of the time, each individual store sets limits on the number of products you can buy that are on sale(such as limit of 6 on toothpaste).

What annoys me the most, is that this stuff EXPIRES!!! I haven't watched every show, but have they ever mentioned expiry dates, or showed them looking for the date as they pile all 50 in their cart?

I am annoyed when people hoard sale items. I used to work in a drug store, and people would stockpile stuff as if the the world was coming to an end. Taking 5 or 6 is one thing, but taking the whole stock from the store is so self centered. I would be embarrassed to do that. What about everyone else who made a trip to get the sale items and the store was wiped out by one person!

There, I said my peace. LOL! I feel better now!

 

[disneychrista]

What I don't get is the lady who said that she had enough "feminine products" to last until menipause but still bought more because of the sale/coupons.

 

[Marionnette]

No, not conjecture. I have been a refunder and couponer fo 35 years. I read couponing blogs daily. Many couponers report on selling their stashs once or twice a year. Many items are bought from Walgreens, CVS,and Riteaid for free. They don't let most items sit and go bad.

Okay, just so that we're clear on this. You're talking about people you know from couponing forums and blogs. I thought we were discussing the couponers featured on the television show. None of the people on the show admit to re-selling anything that they buy. Each of them maintains that they donate anything that they cannot use.

I saw one episode where she had coupons for cous-cous. She bought over 100 boxes, then said, " we'll try it, I'm sure it's good.". They never had it and they bought over 100 boxes!!!! I don't care if they are free, I wouldn't buy over 100 boxes of anything I never had before. Its ridiculous, they stock up on mustard, sports drinks and hot sauce. And hygiene products. Not real food whatsoever.

Same woman also donates whatever her family cannot use or doesn't like to eat. While I don't condone shelf-clearing, I can understand her reasoning. I also watched the finale last night (a week late) and the guy from NYC was buying a lot of fruits, veggies and dairy products.

Again, for me, it all comes down to the fact that here(in Canada...well, where I live at least) we don't get coupons doubled, we can only use one coupon per item, and most of the time, each individual store sets limits on the number of products you can buy that are on sale(such as limit of 6 on toothpaste).

What annoys me the most, is that this stuff EXPIRES!!! I haven't watched every show, but have they ever mentioned expiry dates, or showed them looking for the date as they pile all 50 in their cart?

I am annoyed when people hoard sale items. I used to work in a drug store, and people would stockpile stuff as if the the world was coming to an end. Taking 5 or 6 is one thing, but taking the whole stock from the store is so self centered. I would be embarrassed to do that. What about everyone else who made a trip to get the sale items and the store was wiped out by one person!

There, I said my peace. LOL! I feel better now!

Again, I don't know of ANY store that permits two coupons to be used on the same individual item unless it is a cents-off coupon and a BOGO coupon where the cent-off coupon attaches to the paid-for item and the BOGO attaches to the free item.

Doubling is only a small portion of my actual savings. The real savings comes from matching sales with coupons or Catalina offers with coupons. In my last shopping trip, doubling only accounted for $1.98 in savings yet my total savings was obout $100.

And the shelf-clearing was encouraged by the producers. At least two extreme couponers mentioned notifying the store of their purchase intentions and asked them to order additional product so that the shelves were not empty for other shoppers.

What I don't get is the lady who said that she had enough "feminine products" to last until menipause but still bought more because of the sale/coupons.

I skeeve at the thought of using 20-year-old tampons but I don't think that she intended to keep them all for herself. Women's shelters are always grateful to get these since they are expensive and many of those women leave their homes with nothing more than the shirt on their backs.

 

[DawnM]

Well, if she would purchase a diva cup she wouldn't need to bother clipping at all! Shall we start that thread again?

Dawn

What I don't get is the lady who said that she had enough "feminine products" to last until menipause but still bought more because of the sale/coupons.

 

[disneyofcourse]

All I know is I've stopped going to CVS to grab one thing since the shelves are constantly cleared out. It's just annoying!! It's happened three times already in just a short time period.

-Needed a pack of razors that I usually get....Nothing on the shelves
-Toothpaste....Nothing I liked left
-Almonds ...Nothing again because a good coupon was out and it was on sale

 

[LovesTimone]

I have been couponing for along time. I had to do mostly because I was a single mom and had to make every dollar spent count. It really just is a part of what I do every week. Even though now it really isn't necessary.

I have to agree with alot of the poster why would you want all the toothpaste, or whatever. Really 100 tubes? I have had people say to me in line and a cashier or two ask why do you do it? Do you really save that much?

I enjoy couponing and it helps me help my family. For me Yes I do save, I have 2 grown DD who live with there BF and a my 1st grandchild on the way. They are both working and are helping themselves. So this way I can help them without blowing my budget.

Just for instance today I went shopping at Publix, and they had Crest ( we use the sensitive and gum protection) on sale 2 for 7.00 which is a good buy normally they are 5.19 even if I get them at walmart. I had six .75 off coupons, ( I bought 6 tubes - 2 for each DD and 2 for us).

They would have been 6 x 5.19 = 33.00 ( without sale and coupons)
I bought them at 21.00 - 4.50 = 16.50 is what I paid ( around 2.80 per tube).

As far as spending 60 hrs a week on coupons. I would never do that. I work on them on my lunch hour a couple of times a week. I AD surf probably 2 to 3 hours weekly.

I use my saving for vacations. I saved enough to surprise my DHwith a trip to see Mickey at christmas for us the 2 of us...

 

[LizZ]

Im so happy people feel the same way as I do!!! I think this show is so fake it makes me sick how much food these people waste. I work in a grocery store called Acme, owned by Supervalu who also owns many other stores around the country. Now at our store we double coupons, acme doubles the coupon not the manufacture up til 99 cents...example give me a 75 cent off coupon at my store youll get 150 off, give me a $1 coupon you only get that $1 off. What I never understood was how these people on the show get X gallons of milk or deli meats and cheese and still say they got there order for 3 dollars, come on. MOST not all stores do offer deals once and awhile but 5 boxes of cereal get a gallon of milk free, but the catch is you cant get the gallon of milk until your next trip. So now you have to buy the milk for the 5 boxes of cereal you just bought. And as far as buying bogo items, you can only use 1 coupon for those 2 items even though you are getting 2 items because you are not paying for the other one. Again not sure on all policies but this is how it is where I work. So Im just glad people are seeing this for the crap it is, because if you can get deli meats and other meats completely free, Im there!! Hope this helps

 

[daughtersrus]

I'm surprised at how many of the stores with limits on how many coupons a customer can use or that they will double will allow the customers to do multiple transactions. Isn't the purpose of the limit to stop people from using or doubling that many coupons? I only remember one episode where someone from the store told the lady that their policy is per family, not per person so her DH wouldn't be able to do a second order.

 

[Marionnette]

Im so happy people feel the same way as I do!!! I think this show is so fake it makes me sick how much food these people waste. I work in a grocery store called Acme, owned by Supervalu who also owns many other stores around the country. Now at our store we double coupons, acme doubles the coupon not the manufacture up til 99 cents...example give me a 75 cent off coupon at my store youll get 150 off, give me a $1 coupon you only get that $1 off. What I never understood was how these people on the show get X gallons of milk or deli meats and cheese and still say they got there order for 3 dollars, come on. MOST not all stores do offer deals once and awhile but 5 boxes of cereal get a gallon of milk free, but the catch is you cant get the gallon of milk until your next trip. So now you have to buy the milk for the 5 boxes of cereal you just bought. And as far as buying bogo items, you can only use 1 coupon for those 2 items even though you are getting 2 items because you are not paying for the other one. Again not sure on all policies but this is how it is where I work. So Im just glad people are seeing this for the crap it is, because if you can get deli meats and other meats completely free, Im there!! Hope this helps

Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulders with regard to couponers. I'm glad that I don't make my way down to New Castle often.

Let's see, deli meats and cheeses...frequent insert coupons for Land O Lakes, Cooper, Lorraine and Jarlesberg cheeses. Tear-off coupon pads at the deli for Boarshead and Dietz & Watson. Combine with in-store sales and you can knock that price down considerably. Not free but definitely discounted.

No one says that you have to eat those 5 boxes of cereal with cow's milk. I get lots of coupons for soy and almond milks. When combined with a good sale, they are just a few cents for a half gallon. They have a longer shelf life than cow's milk too. Oh, and your store had a recent milk promotion that was coupled with cookies and not cereal. With two $1 off one package coupons for Oreos, I paid a couple dollars for the cookies and got a free milk coupon for this week.

You can look down your nose and call it crap all that you want to. I just know that my refrigerator and shelves are never empty. And I spend nowhere near the amount that I used to spend on groceries now that I'm stockpiling and paying strict attention to the sales. I don't serve up overprocessed high-sodium food and I don't have 100 bottles of mustard.

When I walk out of Acme with 6 bags of groceries that cost me a total of $9 out of pocket, I'll think of you and smile.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm surprised at how many of the stores with limits on how many coupons a customer can use or that they will double will allow the customers to do multiple transactions. Isn't the purpose of the limit to stop people from using or doubling that many coupons? I only remember one episode where someone from the store told the lady that their policy is per family, not per person so her DH wouldn't be able to do a second order.

Most store cards track the total number of items per day if they have a limit on them. This prevents customers from doing multiple transactions for the same item in a single shopping trip. But that doesn't prevent the shopper from returning later in the week to do the deal again. CVS is the only one that I know of around here that tracks limited sale items for the entire week. They actually print it out on the bottom of your receipt.

The only way that I can imagine that any shopper gets around the daily limit would be if they had multiple loyalty cards.

 

[daughtersrus]

Most store cards track the total number of items per day if they have a limit on them. This prevents customers from doing multiple transactions for the same item in a single shopping trip. But that doesn't prevent the shopper from returning later in the week to do the deal again. CVS is the only one that I know of around here that tracks limited sale items for the entire week. They actually print it out on the bottom of your receipt.

The only way that I can imagine that any shopper gets around the daily limit would be if they had multiple loyalty cards.

The question that I have isn't so much related to how many sale items that can be purchased but how many coupons can be used. Some of the shows that I watched had shoppers splitting the order because they were only allowed to double/triple X# of coupons. Because they had more than the allowed coupons that would be doubled/tripled, they split the order so that they could get all of their coupons doubled/tripled instead of getting the rest at only face value. It just seems to me that the store put a limit for a reason and by allowing the customers to do multiple orders, defeats the purpose of them having a limit.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

I have couponed for years and can't say I have ever seen a coupon for "fresh" produce, fruit, or meat. I have seen store specials, but never a coupon for something like that in the Sunday paper.

Not many in the Sunday paper, but in the past 2 weeks I printed & used 1 $1.00 off Earthbound Farms item & 2 $1.00 off 1 Olivia's Organics salad mixes.

I have a coupon in my binder now for dole salad kits. I have definately gotten cherry tomato & little cuties clemetines coupons as well.

I had coupons from Shoprite that made blueberries $0.99 and cantaloupe $0.49.

Of course I use my catalinas for meat & produce as well.

 

[Marionnette]

The question that I have isn't so much related to how many sale items that can be purchased but how many coupons can be used. Some of the shows that I watched had shoppers splitting the order because they were only allowed to double/triple X# of coupons. Because they had more than the allowed coupons that would be doubled/tripled, they split the order so that they could get all of their coupons doubled/tripled instead of getting the rest at only face value. It just seems to me that the store put a limit for a reason and by allowing the customers to do multiple orders, defeats the purpose of them having a limit.

It's my belief (and therefore not necessarily fact) that the stores bent their own rules to accommodate the show. However, I will repeat that doubling is not where my greatest savings comes from. In fact, it accounts for only a few dollars per trip on most occasions.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

It's my belief (and therefore not necessarily fact) that the stores bent their own rules to accommodate the show. However, I will repeat that doubling is not where my greatest savings comes from. In fact, it accounts for only a few dollars per trip on most occasions.

I understand what you're saying. None of my local stores double so I pay attention to the sales flyers and always bring my binders with me when I go shopping incase I see a great deal on an item and I know I have a coupon to match.

An example of this:

I went to my local store yesterday and bought a couple of things. Then I went and bought my Sunday paper. Last night I went thru the flyers and matched my coupons to good sales.

One thing I noticed by looking at the Target flyer was that they had 150oz Tide detergent on sale for $17.99. Well my local store had $10 off coupons stuck to their 150oz bottles yesterday.

Today I went in and price matched and got 3 150oz bottles of Tide for $7.99 each.

While there I noticed they had a sale going where Gillette Fusion shaving cream was on sale for $1.65...I had $1 off coupons...making them ..65c each

I look up and they had the Gillette Fusion razors marked down to $4.95....I had coupons for $4 off making each razor .95c

And on the clearance shelf they had John Frieda Root Awakening shampoo and conditioner for $2.77...I had a coupon for $2 off making each one only 77cents.


I bought:

3 150oz bottles of Tide laundry detergent

4 cans of Gillette Fusion shaving cream

4 Gillette Fusion razors

7 John Frieda shampoos

My total before the sales and coupons was $163.30---I only paid $35.76.

That's a savings of $127.54


I will admit to having a stockpile. But the bulk of it isn't for me. I use the coupons I get for razors and deodorant, shampoo, bodywash and shaving cream etc to make care packages for the Soldiers we currently have deployed.

So if anyone here has coupons that they won't use please feel free to send me a PM--They will be put to good use!

 

[scrapquitler]

I saw one episode where she had coupons for cous-cous. She bought over 100 boxes, then said, " we'll try it, I'm sure it's good.". They never had it and they bought over 100 boxes!!!! I don't care if they are free, I wouldn't buy over 100 boxes of anything I never had before. Its ridiculous, they stock up on mustard, sports drinks and hot sauce. And hygiene products. Not real food whatsoever.

Well Cous-cous certainly is real food. I guess if she tried it and didn't like it, she could donate it to a food bank or something. I've only seen a few episodes, but it seems like a lot of these people donate items to food banks. If I could get 100 boxes of spaghetti free, sure, I'd never use it, but the local food pantry wouldn't have any trouble with it.