Recap: TLC's Extreme Couponing Episode 4 Missy and Amy

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Did you tune in for TLC's "Extreme Couponing" last night? It was episode 4, "Missy and Amy". I became interested when this series first aired, and talked about it with some friends. I've decided to do a recap post here every week after the show airs to discuss some of the highlights. Being a couponer myself, this show definitely interests me, the amounts that these people save is pretty..extreme.

Missy Eby, from Florida is a mother and has a family of 10. If she doesn't have a coupon, she doesn't buy it. She bought cat treats that paid  her 60 cents a bag, thing is, she doesn't even have a cat! She has to collect 5,000 coupon inserts a week to sustain her weekly shopping trips. She knocked down a wall in her house and created a "coupon storage room". When she's asked where she receives all her coupon inserts, she tells people she gets them from God. She has a stockpile worth $75,000. She has over 300 bottles of her daughter-in-law's favourite soda in a closet. The inventory also includes 800 bottles of baby food, over 200 canisters of cleaning wipes, and 1200 packs of batteries. Her daughter-in-law benefits greatly from Missy's stockpile and comes to her house to shop, Missy has helped her to start her stockpile too. Before she started couponing, she was in credit card debt and was spending more than she had. She devotes 35 hours a week to couponing.

She goes to the store with an accordian full of coupons and shopping list ready. Night-time pain reliever is on sale for $1.99 she buys 114 ($5.29 retail, on sale for $1.99, she has coupons for $2.50, each one she buys makes her $0.51). Next laundry detergent ($6.49 each, Buy 1 Get 1 Free offer, - $3 off on each coupon, so $0.49 for two bottles), she buys 54. She picks out other items to even out her overage. In the checkout she is logical and methodical, putting all her 'like' items together. Manager has to over-ride it because she bought so many of the same item. She puts some into a second transaction. She ends up walking with $1106.22 worth of groceries and pays $4.53.

Amy Woodall from Missouri is a family of deer hunters. She thinks couponing can consume your life, you can get anything for free if you really work at it. She feels accomplishment when she looks at her stockpile, it takes talent and a gift and that God helps her. Her stockpile is over 4000 products, of which she paid 20% for. She never pays for hot sauce, bbq sauce, ketchup, or juice. She puts smaller items in a shoe organizer so they don't get lost. And a pegboard so she can see all her items in a grocery store fashion. Her husband became ill and lost his job, she went through a hard time, and asked God what to do, she saw a woman on tv using coupons and it was like a lightbulb going off. Her budget is $80 a month for 6 people, they can't pay full price for anything. Hunting deer and growing vegetables is a part of her life too. She spends 30 hours a week cutting coupons. For Valentine's Day, her husband bought her a new binder for her coupons.

She goes shopping, she emailed a company and got coupons for free bananas. She gets 93 bags of croutons, ($1 each, her store doubles coupons, she has 0.50 off coupons so she gets them for free) she cleared the shelf. She grabs 15 Welch's grape juice ($1.49 each on sale - $1 off coupons). Store has a limit of 250 coupons per order, she has over 300. She breaks up her transactions. Her one coupon doesn't double up like it's supposed to, they fix the mistake. Her total ends up being $9.10 for $393.21 of groceries.

My thoughts: I think it's funny how in the states they call coupons, 'q-pons'. And I love the way that their coupons all scan at the checkout, it makes things a lot simpler! Personally I wouldn't buy 93 bags of croutons, I don't even like croutons, and I am not sure what you would do with that many, they seem like the type of product that would go bad quickly. Also, the first woman had coupons that were over the value of the price the store was selling the item for. From personal experience, a store has never applied the full coupon value for me if the item was being sold for less, if a coupon was for $2 off and the item was selling for $1.50, they rung it in for $1.50, so no making money for me. I understand that the store gets reimbursed the full value, so I am not sure why they do it this way. Even with a free product coupon, they rarely add the tax to the coupon value (unless it's at Shoppers Drug Mart). The amount of time that these women devote to clipping coupons and organizing is something that most of us do not have, if it makes them happy I say why not.

Did you watch the episode? What did you think?