Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Completely agree Darcie. When I retired I thought I should try to be more frugal and start to take advantage of coupons....I looked at all of the circulars (very time consuming) and other than paper goods and toothpaste,could not find anything that I would use, since I don't used processed foods. Since I get my papergoods and most staples at Costco, couponing was not going to help and besides, I just don't have the patience.
ilene

Some of these people are just plain selfish (yeah, I watched, too)
Remember the lady who insisted on buying ALL of the jars of yellow mustard... something like 70 of them? Her husband wanted to leave some for other people, so she finally left ONE jar! Now, how is she going to eat 70 jars of mustard?!? PLUS, how is she going to fit it in her very sq. ft. challenged home already?!? I don't like yellow mustard anyway, so I wouldn't even get it with a free coupon, but sheesh -- it's not about providing for her family -- for her it was greed and stockpiling, and she bought just about all junk -- nothing good for her family. She bought about $1500 of crapola and ended up paying less than $10. Crazy

Now, the lady from Texas who started couponing because she was a stay at home Mom when her husband's contractor job was in a crisis -- I liked her, and she was couponing to help her family. She bought about $600+ groceries for the month, including meat and fresh produce, and she paid about $25, but she was meticulous and planned a whole month's worth of menus and only bought what she needed.

Sometimes I uses coupons, but I rarely bother to look at them because like most of you already said -- it's usually processed food that I wouldn't use. I do look at the sales and shop W/D for meat when they have buy 1 get 1 free. That, I like!

P.S. The greedy woman also bought 35 bottles of Maalox for $5.87 because she could get it free. Now, that one I give her because she probably *can* use the antacid to settle her stomach after all of the crapola she puts in it.

I've noticed around here that when the grocery store offers buy 1 get 1 free on meat they raise the single item price to make it less of a bargain than it appears. Typically it's something like a pound of bacon that normally sells for $4 or so per pound being sold as BOGO with a single item price around $6. I sent the store an email pointing it out and they claimed not to understand what I was driving at.

Well, I guess it was inevitable that this show would change store policy.....

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-publix-coupon-policy-20110511,0,6572148.story

For a while I'd go through the coupon section and cut out all the ones I thought I might use. Then I'd leave them at home when I went shopping. So, I quit. Short lived career in couponing.

Seriously, I think those people are sick. They can't possibly use all the stuff they buy. Some of it has to expire long before they get to it. I've only seen one woman mark expiration dates on packages.

And the woman that gets a thrill just looking at all her toilet paper supply ... please ... get that girl some help. I hope mice get into it!

fitzie

Interesting article. Having watched Extreme couponing and the time it takes to check out some of these people, I have always wondered why they scan every item and coupon. Wouldn't it be easier to count the items or coupons, scan one and then enter the quantity purchased. I'm also surprised that they aren't limiting the quantities of some of these items also say to 10 an order.

Most stores have removed that function from their registers. It keeps the process more honest and fool-proof. For instance, say you are buying 5 cans of Campbell's soup. Three of them cost $1 and two of them cost $1.50. The cashier can't key in a 5 then scan a cheap can. Granted, if s/he were doing that as a favor to you, s/he can still just scan a cheaper can 5 times, but the more common scenario is just that s/he is in a hurry and didn't notice that two of the cans were different. Also, at many stores the register is keeping track of inventory and the register is a good place for mistakes to be made over items that appear too similar. And the manufacturers who reimburse the stores for those coupons want to be sure that the item purchased was actually the item they printed a coupon for. Plus, if the process is unwieldy, it will keep the majority of people from wanting to do it.

This showed up on one of the papers I get (for the coupons)......

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20110514/NEWS01/105140339/Coupon-clipping-an-art-science-form-Elmira-woman?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

She calls it "ethical couponing;" takes what she needs, doesn't clear out a shelf, etc.