Because I do some of my couponing at work, and I share coupons with some of my co-workers…I’m getting asked a lot if I’m an extreme couponer. My answer? NO!!! Quite frankly I think that show is rigged. That’s just my opinon. Now, I’m not saying it’s not possible, just not around where I’m from. A while back, when I first started getting into the coupon game on this level, I have a girl Amber I watch on youtube. Her videos would be about hauls and how they got so much for free. I’ve been a subbie of hers since I started youtube because of her hair videos, but when I started seeing this about couponing, I was intrigued. She was recently featured on the show on TLC. But she lives in Arizona where apparently that grocery store will let you go crazy. Here in Eastern NC???Not so much!
I primarily shop at Harris Teeter. HT has some limits for sure! 20coupons can be used in one day. It’s tracked by your store card, so no going around that. You can only use 3 like coupons…so if I’m buying 4 shampoos, I will only get the coupon savings on the first 3…so that blows! They also have limits on printable coupons…I’m not at my computer to confirm (blogging from work) but I believe you can only use 2 printable coupons in a transaction. And no, there are no breaking it down into mulitple transactions to beat the system! Now I also shop at Food Lion, but that’s becoming less and less. They don’t have any good coupon policies (I’m all about doubling!) Walmart would be awesome if they doubled coupons. I know that’s asking too much! But they don’t have a limit on how many coupons you can use. But hey, we can’t have it all!!!
People often ask me, well do you watch the show? is that how you got started? Yes I watch the show. I like to see people get deals! I like to see their stockpiles. I like the rush. I don’t like the fact that the show is all about trying to top itself. Like let’s go bigger bigger bigger. The show participants are told to try to do the biggest shopping trip ever. And that’s just not how regular couponers do. I’m glad that it’s getting people out there and getting people to save their money, but I’m not appreciating how the show makes people do. I hate going to the store and having what I am looking for, completely wiped out. I blame the show for that. I hate going to get my papers on Sunday morning, and having to go to more than one place because the papers that I got from store A are void of all inserts, so I have to go to store B and hope they’re all there. It’s already bad enough that I have to get up early on Sunday mornings just to try to make sure I even can get the papers. It wasn’t like that before the show. They’re just coupons people. No need to get down and dirty. It’s highly frustrating. So all in all…I like to watch the show, but I’m hoping they take it off the air soon. It’s only causing stores to tighten their policies and it only does more harm than good for us consumers who are just trying to make our dollars stretch. I’m not trying to hoard away a bunch of items. Idon’t have the storage space as is. I’m just trying to get food and items for my family as cheap as I can. That’s what we should all be doing. I do like the shows where they person buying is doing it all for charity, but let’sface it…that’s not what most of the extremers are doing. And if it’s for charity, why should it be at other shopper’s expense? There’s enough for everybody!!! In my opinion an extreme couponer can also be a selfish one. It doesn’t need to be like that!
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