Why I Will Never Become an Extreme Couponer

If you have ever seen Extreme Couponing you know what this blog will be referring to.

Wouldn't we all love to go into a grocery store, pick out $500 worth of items and pay only $2. Of course, but is this truly possible for an everyday shopper?

I have tried and have found so many coupon roadblocks preventing me from becoming a millionare because I would never have to pay for ketchup or toilet paper ever again.

Personally, I rarely purchase anything that isn't store brand. Coupons that I come across are never store brand and usually seem to be products that are the most expensive kind.

Just because I can get .55 off two boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese, I can buy a pack of store brand Mac and Cheese, 6 for $2.50. Just as good as Kraft and half the price.

Even if the item is BuyOneGetOne, it still doesn't seem as good of a deal.

I like to make three full meals a day, I like to not only get quality but quantity is very important to me.

From cheese to paper towels, I like store brands. Its almost like coupon makers are made only for people who can afford the big name brands to begin with.

In order to become an Extreme Couponer, if you've seen the show, they have about 20 of each coupon. I buy the sunday paper every week. That comes with one of each coupon. I refuse to buy two papers or any more for that matter. In the episodes, couponers go to the extremes of driving around looking for forclosed homes that have papers in their driveways free for the taking.

I personally have gone to the newpaper boxes we have in our neighborhood, paid for my paper, gone home...no coupons. My guess is rude couponers disrespected the honor code of the boxes, paid for their paper and took out all the coupons from the stack! How Rude!

Newpapers aren't the only place to get coupons. One can register on special coupon websites that allow you to print coupons. The downside to these sites is that you can only print one coupon of each product. So how do Extreme Couponers work around this issue? Multiple computers. The website picks up on IP addresses I suppose, so two desktops and three laptops is not crazy to have when being a crazy...I mean Extreme Couponer.

Ok, so I'm clipping coupons, that means I probably can't afford to have 5 computers. Not to meantion all the ink and paper needed to print out 20 each of probably 1000 coupons a month.

Where are the saving going from all these extreme free grocery shopping sprees?

Last but not least, time to plan a 5 hour, 7 cart full grocery trip. In order to get the best deals from each store, all of the weekly sale ads need to be compared. If one store has something BuyOneGetOne of a product and you have a coupon for it, obviously you would go there. If Another store has something on sale and you have a coupon, you'll go there.

Im sorry but I go to one store and one store only. I refuse to spend an entire day or couple days bouncing around from store to store to save a few bucks. How much gas is that going to cost me? What about my sanity? All of this seems too extreme for me.

I will continue to buy my Sunday papers. If I see a coupon for shampoo or diapers I will clip it. A dollar off bacon is nice. For all of those people that attempt and succeed at having a stock pile of never ending free items stored in their basement from coupons, please send some of your patience and time my way, it would be greatly appreciated.