'Extreme Couponing' on TLC: Plans for a Series is in the Works

'Extreme Couponing,' which aired on TLC in late December, caught the interest of many viewers, and according to Entertainment Weekly, the program garnered so much interest, TLC plans to make it a series. But not all viewers were impressed by the four individuals featured on the show or their couponing methods, which allowed them to get grocery items cheap or for free.

Tara McAlister, who writes the "Deal Diva" column for The Charlotte Observer, uses coupons herself, but says the people on the show go to, well, extremes with their coupon usage. In her January 9th, 2011 column, McAlister wrote that the show was more about addiction to things tnan using coupons.

Indeed, one shopper spends 70 hours a week on couponing, while another goes "dumpster diving" to find discarded coupons.As a result, these shoppers rack up, getting hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of items for chicken change. One man paid just $241 for almost $5800 worth of groceries, while a woman took home over $600 worth for less than 3 bucks. Another shopper paid under $52 for almost $1200 worth of items, while yet another spent a grand total of $6.32 on what would have cost over $230.

McAlister wants non-coupon users to know that the shoppers on the show do not represent the typical couponer--and she's not alone. Jenny, of Southern Savers, a website devoted to couponing, touts coupon use as a lifestyle, not a "crazy hobby." While she sees nothing wrong with stocking up on a few items, she says a six week stockpile is more than enough, mainly because sales run in cycles and the same item will most likely be on sale again in six weeks.

But the shoppers featured on the program take pride in their huge stockpiles of toilet paper, pasta, pasta sauce, toothbrushes,deodorant, soap, candy bars, and even cheese. They store the items neatly in their garages and spare rooms; Joyce Ostrowski, whose order of over 1000 items caused the cash register to crash, has insurance on her stash. "I take great pride in my stockpile," she said during the December 29th show. "So the bigger it is the better I feel."

Terry Real, relationship therapist for Good Morning America, has mixed feelings about extreme couponing. "Clearly this is very close to hoarding, which is part of compulsive obsessive disorder," he said on GMA in December. Real said each situation is different, adding that if the spouses of the extreme couponers go along with the couponing, then it was no different from any other hobby, such as civil war reenactment or square dancing.

Real described the couponers' actions as heroic, including the shopper who got 1100 boxes of cereal for free. "The guy who got all that cereal donated it to a food bank. He's kind of a Robin Hood in a way," Real said. "They are taking what is clearly a tendency toward obsessive compulsive behavior and turning it into something that could be useful."

Sources:

www.abcnews.com
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/01/06/tlc-extreme-couponing-series/
www.charlotteobserver.com
www.southernsavers.com