Extreme Couponing on TLC

So did anyone watch the season premiere of Extreme Couponing on TLC? I had seen one episode around New Year's and was hooked! I couldn't wait for this season to start! These people are kind of crazy; tromping through dumpsters, spending 6 hours or more a day couponing, asking others for their coupons, "stockpiling" in every nook and cranny of their home, etc. Not all of the show is completely realistic, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.

There is a difference between stockpiling and hoarding. Stockpiling up to 3 months worth of something until it's on sale again seems acceptable since most stores run their sales on particular items every three months, hoarding 5 years or more worth of toilet paper for a family of 4 is just wrong. One guy bought 300 toothbrushes! If him and his wife used a new toothbrush every 3 months each, it would still take them 37.5 years to go through them all!!! Why would you ever need that many?! One woman on the premiere last night bought 62 bottles of mustard while her husband pointed out that he doesn't even eat mustard. She wanted to clear the shelf and buy them all but her husband made her leave two. Shelf clearing is wrong, it leaves nothing for anyone else to purchase. How mad would you be if you were hosting a barbecue that weekend and someone else bought every single bottle of mustard just because they had a coupon? Another woman had herself, her small son, and her pregnant friend dumpster diving for coupons and sales ads.

All of the people featured on the show have a stockpile to last them a year or more in all areas whether it's food, health and beauty products, or home cleaning supplies. Most have a supply that could last their family up to five years or more. And these supplies take over the house! One woman had 2 bedrooms already dedicated to her stockpile and was trying to take over her husband's man cave. Another woman had her stockpile in several rooms of the house, including her spare bathroom, a shelving unit in her bedroom, and underneath her children's beds. I can understand wanting to buy things at the cheapest price (or free) and get enough of it to last, or have that stockpile to fall back on in case of job loss or worse in these tough economic times, but what about expirations? All of these people sort their stockpiles by expiration date and rotate them frequently, but I would still be afraid that things would expire and that would be money lost and space wasted. If you bought 200 of something on the same day, wouldn't it all expire around the same time?

Now about the show not being entirely realistic: All stores have a coupon policy in place which makes it nearly impossible to do the amounts that the show portrays. Every store's coupon policy is different, but every one of them have limits as to what you can and can't do and how many coupons you can use. You can look up your stores coupon policy here. Some stores no longer double or triple their coupons and others will not let you stack coupons anymore or will only let you stack one manufacturer and one store coupon at a time. Many stores are making their coupon policies even more strict because of this show, so please check your store's coupon policy often if you plan on using coupons on a regular basis.