1. Extreme Couponing - What's All The Buzz About
What makes it a hot enough topic to support a TV Reality show, dozens of
YouTube videos, websites, chat groups, and more?
Is it simply the really lousy economy with unemployment, inflation,
foreclosures, and the rest of the mess? Or, is it just that people have
found something that can be a lot of fun and saves them money at the same
time?
Perhaps it is a bit of both but, lets look briefly at the history of
couponing and how it evolved into two radically different legs which I will
call: Normal Couponing and Extreme Couponing.
Normal Couponing is what was mainly taking place when I was growing up in
the 60's. The way this worked was that my mother and grandmother (and
sometimes a few neighbors or friends) used to spend time on Sundays with
the Sunday papers looking for bargains and coupons coming up in the
following week. They would talk about all kinds of things including who
needed what coupons for the upcoming week(s), and who had coupons that were
about to expire and weren't going to be used, and maybe the widow Jones'
new gentleman friend...
Why did they do this Normal Couponing? They were basically "stay-at-home"
women and were responsible for running the household. Among other things,
this included: cleaning (house, clothes, children and pets), making sure
that everyone was set for appointments with doctors and dentists, etc. More
importantly, they were responsible for the household budget, and no matter
what the external circumstances, making sure that the budget worked.
Ensuring that, in her household, every one was clean, healthy, wearing
clean clothes and was well fed. That was a mother's responsibility, and
saving money anywhere you could was essential. Using coupons to save.05
or.25 or "buy 1 get 1 free" with coupons was a great way.
Extreme Couponing seems to be fairly new, but I think that the mentality
has been around for a lot longer. I recall the cold war and people thinking
about installing bomb shelters and then figuring out how to stockpile
enough food, water and toilet paper to last underground for years...
So, why has it become so popular and more advertised now? I'm quite sure
that people have been talking about it for years in the chat rooms and user
sites on the internet, but that it so obvious to many people. However,
YouTube and Television Reality Shows have brought it to the current "Buzz"
status, and that's not necessarily good or bad. It's just something that
made me wonder, what's it all about and how does it work?
In a word, it's about stockpiling. Some refer to it as hoarding, but I
don't think that it is.
Extreme Couponing is collecting and storing large quantities of items that
you can get for the cheapest price using coupons. What you do with them
after checking out of the store(s) can be quite different.
One thing that's being done is loading all the goodies into vehicles and

2. taking them all to charitable organizations for distribution to the needy
and; in this economy, there are plenty of us that are grateful for the
help.
Another reason for doing this type of couponing is to stockpile non-
perishables for your personal use. I remember a "buyer caused" toilet paper
shortage back somewhere in the 70's that was caused by a rumor that there
was going to be one. Large numbers of people ran out and bought the shelves
clean creating the shortage! That's NOT what extreme couponing is all
about. It's about very careful planning and a lot of work gathering,
organizing and then inventorying and storing all the purchases. All of this
activity can take many hours or even days to complete properly.
There you have it. Extreme Couponing is a term used to describe a method of
gathering and stockpiling (for charitable or personal reasons) LOTS of
stuff for relatively little money by combining store sales with coupons.
And it has generated so much Buzz because it can be fun, fulfilling to do
and, save you A LOT of money.