11 May 2011

"She's super-freaky, yow!" --Rick James




First question du jour: Is it wrong to pay to watch freaks do their freakiness?*

Yeah, that's what I've been doing of late.

We pay for Dish satellite service and I've been watching Extreme Couponing on TLC. Have you seen this stuff?!

I'm all for getting a good deal buuuuut...

As near as I can tell, this is not about getting half off a product you'd buy anyway. This is about setting up a room that is Armageddon-worthy and filling it with items that can be gotten for free or nearly free, whether they are needed or not. These people hoard. With a capital Holy Moly. There was one woman who had hundreds of packages of diapers but no children. Okay, so diapers don't go bad but who needs 400 bags of Doritos?** It's freaky, I tell ya.

And, yet... I can not stop watching. It is amazing to see these people, invariably sweating as they see the purchases ring up to hundreds--sometimes thousands!--of dollars and, then, they hand over the stack of coupons and the total steadily drops down to $28.52.

Additional questions du jour: Do you clip coupons? Are you annoyed when you see the person in front of you has a lot of coupons? Have you ever passed a bad coupon?***



* Thank god reading blogs is still free. You freaks, you.

** Mike, put your hand down.

*** You may want to respond in code to that last one--the coupon police are everywhere.

13 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

I haven't watched it because I am so uncoupon-y but wow, does sound like Hoarders. I will bring the grocery store's 10% off your next purchase to the store and forget about it. I think I've turned in one of these over the years.
Clerks will tear off coupons on packages for me, bless their hearts.

suicide_blond said...

im not much of a coupon-er..and i have only seen the commercials..but those people freak me out...of course... i do keep a stack of gift/discount cards cards about 6inches tall..
so there is that..
xoxo

HK said...

Wow, I have never seen the show. Sounds like the pawn shop shows, I've seen an episode or two - strange behavior captured on film.

I don't use coupons other than occasionally entering a discount code when shopping on-line.

magnolia said...

there's nothing like a good freak show, eh? i think that's why we're still not rid of reality TV 20 years or so after the first real world.

Unknown said...

I am waaaay too lazy to sit and clip coupons. Way too lazy.

Mike said...

I gave up on coupons a long time ago. I would forget I had them, even when the cashier would ask.

Just say no to doritos.

Sandra said...

My 11 year old daughter loves the show. Thing is, in Canada we don't do that kind of couponing, so it's not like she's picking up anything useful. I'd much rather she watch Toddlers in Tiara so she can see how lucky she is I'm not as psycho as the mothers on that show.

Raquel's World said...

OH coupons. I do not clip them my neighbor is obsessed with coupons and does them for me.. I always feel bad because she must spend hours doing that and I may use a couple.

I hate people ahead of me using coupons. And I feel shameful when I use mine because I know I am irritating all the 15 people behind me in line at walmart.

And Hell yeah, I've passed on a bad, expired coupon.

That first sign on here...the whopping savings of a penny...HILARIOUS!

spleeness said...

I once spent 4 hours in the supermarket wrangling all my coupons. It was a nightmare. I never did it again!

I LOVE the idea of that hoarding show. I haven't seen it yet because something is always getting in the way but I NEED to watch it.

LMAO at the coupon graphics! Perfect!

Anonymous said...

You know, this definitely raises questions of the "what the heck is wrong with people?" variety.

Also, hells to the yes regarding coupons and hoarders. Eek.

lacochran's evil twin said...

pureklass and the other people who took the time to comment before Blogger insensitively blew them away:

Thanks for weighing in and my apologies on behalf of my chosen blog provider.

GreenCanary said...

"These people hoard. With a capital Holy Moly." Lacochran, you are my hero. "With a capital Holy Moly" is my new favorite thing to say.

I've never seen Extreme Couponing, but apparently a girl I used to go to church with was on that show! She posted it on Facebook so I clicked over to see screenshots of her mega-pantry. It made me think of a particular part of a this fabulous animation.

Brutalism said...

The couponing cult is a weird one. You're right -- who wants/needs that much of anything? Plus, I read somewhere that many of these people cheat the system, which costs the rest of us money.

My two cents (unless it is a double coupon day...in which case...it is my four cents...)