Is "Extreme Couponing" Even Worth It?

On last night’s episode of TLC’s Extreme Couponing, one woman, named Desirae, demonstrated how she dumpster-dives in order to get her coupons for free. The stay-at-home mom also spends 60 hours a week on couponing, which is more than most full time jobs.

While Desirae does seem to save a considerable amount of money—in this particular episode she bought $1077.66 worth of groceries for just $21.26—it’s all on shit that she literally does not need. She already has rooms full of stockpiles of basically everything, from food to cleaning supplies to $4000 worth of disposable razors, so why does she need more?

With the time she spends on finding, organizing, and using coupons (BTW, is it pronounced cue-pons or coo-pons?) Desirae could actually live off her stockpile for over a year and go out and get a part-time job and bring some money, instead of liters of orange soda, in to her household. It’s just that TLC edits this show to make these people seem like they’re amazing deal-finders when really, it’s quite obvious that they have an addiction that’s just a cleaner, more organized version of hoarding. Is spending 60 hours a week and saving a $100 here and there really worth the diabetes she and her husband will probably get if they actually end up drinking their soda supply?