extreme couponing

I miss couponing. I really do. I wasn't aware of just how much until recently when we had to decrease our food budget because of financial reasons and the amount of groceries we get barely gets us by. I have a growing teenager for crying out loud! It's also about to be Summer vacation! He's out but their particular school doesn't officially let out until Friday. Still, Summer vacation means more time at home, more bored lazy days and so much more eating, simply because he's bored and thinks he's hungry! Once upon a time I was a hard core coupon clipper and I would stockpile during sales while using those coupons. I would plan our meals around our stockpile. Then I quit stockpiling and I would just plan meals around what was on sale and along with coupons would provide the most cost efficient meals.

Eventually I just starting shopping sales and quit with coupons because I burned out on couponing. Then it got to a point where we just shopped for what we had a craving for. Maybe that's why we started having financial troubles! Back when we didn't have to be so "frugal," we were. Lately, we haven't been quite so frugal and it's become quite difficult just making sure we have the money to get food for the whole month. So yes, I miss discounts and actually having money. Living paycheck to paycheck, just barely, is killing me!

I've noticed lately, people don't discuss couponing like they used to. When I first got into it myself, it was incredibly popular and while nothing new, it was more prominent because people were either trying to save money to support their families, or in the case of the TV show, there were some real weird people out there. As stated before, we didn't really have to be frugal during my time of couponing but I loved being able to fill up our house with stuff we would use and possibly not have to shop for a couple months if I didn't want to. I have to admit I was also addicted to watching the price fall on the register as coupons were scanned and knowing I could get stuff way cheaper than most people. When Extreme Couponing premiered on TV, it became a sort of sport or fad, if you will. People would literally compete with each other to see who could save the most money or have the biggest coupon collection. I noticed people on the show were incredibly proud of their huge coupon collections but the problem in my eyes was, what's the point in having such a large collection when you'll never use that many or in some cases, they didn't use half of them. They would merely clip every coupon from a circular simply because it was there and it made their coupon collection bigger. I personally only clipped coupons for things we would need and possibly things I could get for other people. I had a few people I would share circulars with. I would clip the ones I needed and pass the rest along and usually I found people that could use them so they didn't go to waste. I never took pride in the size of my coupon collection but I did pride my stockpile.

After a while, this "fad" wore down. My personal reasons were because I just got tired of doing it all day on Sunday when the coupons came out and then spending another day of the week planning out a shopping trip when new sale papers came out and then yet another full day meal planning, matching coupons with sales and such and lastly, another full day doing the actual shopping, unloading at home, putting everything away and separating into meal size portions for us. I felt like it was all I was doing, like a full time volunteer position or something. For others, I can only guess why they slowed down or stopped. Many stores began issuing their own store coupons or rewards programs. Stores also began changing their policies to keep people from overdoing it and cleaning out their shelves. Coupons have always had limitations on them but stores could decide whether to follow them or go another way such as allowing cashiers to key in the coupon discounts. This was costing stores time, some money and again, people were clearing shelves. Articles I later read regarding some of the stores featured on the show, stated that many stores were in on the shops and that it wasn't normal for people to shop like that there. This caused a lot of issues because every-day regular shoppers weren't allowed to get the amazing discounts or use the amount of coupons the people on the shows did so they would get angry with store owners and managers. I feel like this is probably one of the main reasons so many stores changed their policies.

I was watching old episodes (obviously since it's no longer being filmed) recently and while there were a few people on the show that reminded me of myself, there were others that STILL had me wondering to myself, "what the hell is wrong with some people?" It further solidified my opinion of humanity. I found myself wondering if the people on that show still shopped like that or if they possibly underwent "Coupon-aholics Anonymous." There were literally people on the show who would dumpster dive or even send their friends in to dumpsters to retrieve coupons. The people who continued to add to their stockpile when they had more than enough to share with another country, probably baffled me the most. I mean, these peoples houses looked like they belonged on episode of hoarders but with new stuff versus trash. There was literally no room to move in their homes but yet they continued to buy stuff. There were people literally adding on to their houses and buying storage sheds to pack their stockpiles in. What's the point? Seriously. Much of that stuff, the food items and personal care items, would expire LONG before they would ever be needed so essentially they'd go to waste. Whatever people saved or even sometimes made on those items was a waste as well because they would end up having to replace it later and with all the new restrictions, it's unlikely they would make a profit on it now. Some places actually charge you a few cents per coupon you use!

One lady in particular held my heart in the palm of her hand as I could relate to her, until the end of the episode that is. She herself was a big couponer but she was getting tired of it. She not only shopped for her own home and family but also for her parents. When she told her parents that she was taking a break, she taught them what to do and took them to the store to show them personally how it worked. They were literally riding their scooters around the store collecting their items and generally berating her if she didn't grab an item or she grabbed the wrong one. I felt bad for her all through this. The moment she broke my heart though, was at the register. I felt like she was a victim of bossy over-controlling parents but oh my word, when they got to the register, she herself began barking at her parents about watching the register for EVERY item and EVERY coupon and if they turned away for a split second she would yell at them that they may be missing a crucial discount. I sure hope her attitude turned out better once she finally took a break from couponing. 

Part of the reason I personally became burned out on it, wasn't just from all the clipping, sorting, and filing but my boyfriend and I at that time would have some nasty arguments because he would fail to use certain coupons, get a raincheck for sale items that the store was out of, or if some coupons that should have doubled didn't. I went through every single line of every single receipt. It was literally ruining our relationship because I was obsessed. I actually did end up buying a bunch of stuff that we didn't need or would never use before it went bad. By the time I'm burned out on couponing, I realized I had actually ended up losing out on some money in certain areas. We ended up with a lot of stuff that we would never use beyond expiration dates. I could've tried to sell stuff but honestly, I was so sick of seeing all the stuff that I ended up giving away items we would never use or I had to throw stuff out because it was well passed its expiration date. Trust me when I say, when toothpaste expires, toss it. Please! I also didn't feel right making money off of other people, especially if I got most or all of that stuff free. I see people now posting items on Facebook for sale and while they are charging people less than full price in the store, they are still making a profit because they got it all for free. I know because while I don't coupon right now, I do still follow sales as well as my favorite bloggers who list what coupons are available and when and I know for a fact that all of those items were completely free for those people. People could clip coupons and get all this stuff for free themselves but they're paying someone else for them on Facebook to get them a mere dollar cheaper. 

After watching the show and going through our financial woes recently, I do plan on getting back into it. Desperate times call for desperate measures but this time I will be sensible, reasonable, and responsible. Lack of space in our house and more common sense have made me see I only need to stock up on what we NEED and what we'll use in a timely fashion!