Does ‘extreme couponing’ give savvy shoppers a bad name?

I've seen the show. Stores are different in Canada and have signs that limit quantities that one person can purchase. I've personally gone around these by calling up the stores and talked with the department manager to put in a special order if they have limiting quantites.

My wife and I blog about our coupon savings and post grocery deals and coupons for Canadians.

Since tracking how much we have saved with coupons - we have saved over $1,700 since June 2010.

We are excited to save that much - after tax dollars.

If you can use the product before it expires - no problem but if not then it is a complete waste of food and the person might have an addiction or hoarding issue.

They know sales run in cycles the goal of the extreme couponer as they have mentioned on the show is to get enough food free or at a really low price to get the family through till the next time they can get it on sale again. I watch the show and I wonder the same thing how will you use 200 sticks of deoderant before it expires? Chances are you wont I think some of these people only but the item just because its on sale and its a mentality of if I can get it for free why not have 200 sticks of deoderant they were free!

What I want to know is they limit coupons in Canda to one per person per transaction right? So we cant extreme coupon here because the coupons are limited.

yeah i like to save money who doesnt, and really lets be honest who would eat all of that mustard not me, paper goods, such as loo roll and kleenex and the like, i suppose, i would like a couple of packets extra, but to have that much no, and you are really putting everyone else out who also would like to buy just one of that particular product. I wonder what would happen if canada did start it, and can someone let me in on the cycles of sales please and thankyou, it would be much appreciated.

I wish we had more coupon offers here in Canada as they do in the states. I am glad that a lot of companies are going to the email type of coupons that can be printed, but there are stores here in Canada that will not accept a printed coupon.........and I haven't heard of any stores here in Edmonton offering a doubling amount on a coupon for years. We just don't have the same participation from businesses as they do down in the states.

I too have watched this show. The couponer on the one I watched was single and this was his hobby. He kept what he could use and donated the rest to his local food bank. Keep on clipping !

The point of the extreme couponing show is how American Families have started to do this to get them through a tough time in their life (ie. Spouse loses there job, death to spouse etc.) As far as I'm concerned, why not have as many essentials as possible. I bulk up on Deodarant, shampoo, soap and toilet paper. To me, this makes sense, why not spend the money on items I will always use and will not go bad. Couponing in Canada is different, but if you have the time to look for deals, then all the power to you. For those people who think this is hoarding, maybe you need to watch Hoarding and then Extreme Couponing. Stocking up on products is completely different than having 40 cats and living in filth.

as a child i recall my parents getting around this limitation by handing me money and having me buy the maximum amount as well as each of them

I am disgusted by these extreme couponers. I use coupons too, reasonably for items I need in the quantities I need them in. I save money on essentials so I can do extras for my kids. Extreme couponers make the reasonable folks look bad. Since this show has aired I get dirty looks and the clerks examine every coupon to the point where I am embarrassed. No-one needs that much stock pile of anything....its greedy and shows lack of sensibility.

Well, ladies think about it this way: Last year in November I bought 12 Kg of peanut butter at Shoppre's Drug Mart for peanuts. I gave away 11 of them before christmas for the needy through my church and the local grocery store's bin. I kept one which i shared with the hungry birds. Did I do something wrong? I don't think so, however sometimes I do see a lots of sale items on flee markets and garage sales.

For items we use a fair bit if they go on sale we usually buy what alot of people would call excessive (cheese at $4 a bar, toilet paper at half price ect ect) it makes sense to buy in bulk when you can because the savings are significant.
When cheese hits $4 a bar I will buy 10-20 at once, saves me about $40-50 as opposed to normal prices, freeze them and use them over time and I will buy enough toilet paper when it's on sale to fill the bottom of my sink (max 3 24 packs).
I do not consider that excessive and when it comes to items with an expiry date and cannot be frozen like fruit and vegetables I will buy a normal amount or a bit extra and make a treat like a strawberry pie or salads for my meals through the week.
Now on the other hand if your having to fill storage rooms full of stuff and you have enough to stock 2 grocery stores or half a costco you may want to cut back a bit and take stock of how much you need, seriously.
Just use common sense and on a personal note I believe a 6 month supply of anything is more then sufficient.

I consider the time involved for clipping coupons. Would I waste 5 min of my time to look for and clip a coupon that would save me $10? No way. That 5 min would cost me more than double that in lost billable time in income. These people that claim to have saved up $1700 over a period of 10 months, how much time do you spend on getting these coupons? I will bet much, much more than you think. How much is your time worth? Focus your energy on a way to make $1700 per day (heck, even half of that), then you will be never look at another coupon again.

My ex-husband and I lived near the U.S. border, so he took advantage of extreme couponing, and I mean took advantage! We had so much stick deodorant, lotion, etc. etc., that we could never use it. I would donate it when I could, however, in order to do that I had to sneak it out of the house. Most of it did go to waste, what a shame! That type of behaviour is definitely sick and wastefull!

Jack - I would not consider a $10 savings in just 5 minutes a waste of time. There are 12 - 5 minutes in an hour - do you make $120 an hour? Maybe a better way to spend your time would be to think of how much you could have saved in the time it took you to read and respond to this article.

@JonnyJoeJoe, I make $265 per hour, sometimes up to $495.