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A highly-necessary study conducted by University of Arizona researchers confirms what you probably suspected if you've ever stood in line at the grocery store behind a woman buying 42 cans of cat food because she has coupons and they're on sale: Most of the people who use coupons are in it for the sport, not because they're experiencing financial problems. MSNBC reports: More »
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Last night's episode of Extreme Couponing introduced us to Joel, a 16-year-old high school student who loves saving money. "Other teenagers like to play football," he says. "I like to coupon." He calls his elaborately organized coupon file box his "baby." Joel's stockpile is meager compared to some of the folks on this show — it's only worth about $1200, and includes some stuff he definitely doesn't need: Bikini-line razors, maxi pads and baby formula. But unlike some of the ladies TLC features — unlikeable, slightly insane, super-huffy shelf-clearers — Joel was pretty damn charming. He had so much fun while shopping! And at the register, he was very polite to the cashier and the store manager. Plus, when Joel's coupons took his purchase total from $652.20 to $50.35 — he did a gleeful little dance. Then he went home to have a glass of apple cider while sitting in a Jacuzzi and sleep on his 408 rolls of toilet paper. More »
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TLC's Extreme Couponing returned last night with a new episode in which we met Callie, or as she likes to be called, "The Cajun Couponer." Callie is a 28-year-old stay-at-home Mom from Louisiana with a husband, two sons, and (surprise!) an addiction to coupons. How do I know it's an addiction? Well, when drag your children along with you as you go dumpster-diving for coupons, it sets off a red flag. And seriously, when your son asks for "The Coupon Story," at bedtime, there may be a problem. But we followed Callie and her family through the process of hunting down coupons and then shopping for the biggest meal she's ever made (gumbo, of course). It was a major success: She walked out of the grocery store with $1,164.91 of stuff, and made $138.22 off of the transaction. More »
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The most ridiculous thing to come out of TLC's Extreme Couponing is not the fact that we are quite literally watching people dumpster dive for coupons, but that there's some real truth to what we're watching. As you are no doubt aware, the economy is in the shitter, and as such people are going to extremes to gather up as many coupons as they can — saving a buck or two does indeed make a difference. But some people are going to far and committing actual crimes. In Georgia people have been stealing 100-lb. newspaper distribution machines off the street, a "coupon ring" has opened up in Alabama. Meanwhile, an Arkansas woman swiped 200 newspapers outside of a store but "didn't know it was a crime." Not a single one of these people actually wanted the news, just the coupons. Which, from the media point of view, is just another sad development in the dying newspaper industry. More »
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Add "inspiring a national crime wave" to your list of offenses committed by TLC. Thanks to the show Extreme Couponing, there's been an increase in newspaper-related crimes of late. Poynter reports that a woman in California was caught trying to return a stack of newspapers for being incomplete after pulling out the inserts in her car, and there have been similar incidents in Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, and Florida. Apparently TLC needs to run a disclaimer warning viewers that saving 50¢ on a 12-pack of Charmin isn't worth risking jail time. More »
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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. More »
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Last night TLC aired new series Extreme Couponing, which is just what it sounds like: Ladies going to extremes to save on their grocery shopping. J'amie — seen in the clip above — is a self-proclaimed Coupon Diva, which means she shops wearing lipstick, eyeshadow and heels. It's a bizarre experience to watch her buy sixty-two bottles of yellow mustard: Sure, it doesn't spoil, but why would you buy that much mustard? When are you going to have a chance to use that much mustard? Where the hell are you storing all that mustard? I was both impressed and vaguely nauseated by her exploits, especially when her husband noted, "I don't even eat mustard." Still, it is a tough economy, and J'aime is an inspiration of sorts. It's not easy to spend hours and hours clipping coupons, organizing files and checking on deals, and J'aime's checkout process at the register took two hours. It paid off, of course: Of her $1,902.63 grocery bill, J'aime paid a mere $103.72 in cash. Still, 62 bottles of mustard? You've definitely crossed over into "eccentric" territory. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times calls the show "a revenge fantasy and a heist flick all in one," but at times it felt like a pseudo-porn-y niche fetish film. The money shot is the receipt! J'aime even did a little dance of ecstasy after she paid a mere 5% of the retail value of her purchases. More »
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Coupon wonk Ashley Nuzzo, creator of Frugal Coupon Mom, saves around $1,500 a month by clipping. With these savings, Nuzzo, a stay-at-home mom, is able to donate much of what she buys. [US News] More »
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Not shockingly, coupon clipping is on the rise. While the popularity of coupons had declined steadily since a peak in 1992, when nearly 8 billion were redeemed for nearly $5 billion in savings, high food prices and a tough economy have helped them stage a comeback. What's more, you don't even need to snip: a battery of new websites will email and even text you coupons for only those things you want - eliminating those "but it was a bargain!" family-size Fruit Rollup justifications to which we've all fallen prey. [Washington Post] More »
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