Extreme coupons can cut or hide an expiration date just to use a coupon. While it's not illegal, it's a practice that, in the long run, costs everyone. Manufacturers don't refund stores for expired coupons, and these losses are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. For its part, Target began to ban cumulative coupons, under which customers used both the store's and the manufacturer's coupon to get two free items.
The usual rule is to use one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon per item to avoid running out of shelves. Even though Extreme Couponing was on the air for a short time, the reaction from viewers was very intense. According to Money Crashers, it's not uncommon for lovers of the most extreme coupons to buy several copies of their local newspapers just to get plenty of coupons. If you've never bought coupons before, and even if you have, it will take time to get used to using coupons and collecting enough to save the amount of money you see on TLC.
Specifically, if you were looking for the truth about TLC's Extreme Couponing, you'd be surprised what you'd discover. Even though TLC's Extreme Couponing shows people with their own personal grocery stores in their garages (yes, really), that doesn't mean it's something you really want. Viewers watched Extreme Couponing not only to see what these shoppers could do, but also to get some tips on how to start saving money. So while Extreme Couponing may seem normal to get a ton of free items, it's not, and it could even be illegal.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, people who use Extreme Couponing can often drop their totals at checkout to staggeringly low numbers, because the store they are in has adjusted its coupon policies during the shoot. Most stores limit the number of coupons that can be doubled if used in a single transaction or the number of coupons per item. But while they may have entire folders of coupons they've collected and talk about the research they do every week to find the best coupons before going to the store, they're not really talking about the time it takes to learn how to become an efficient and extreme coupon seller. It would be almost impossible for a normal coupon seller, who is not on television, to walk into a store and buy 100 units of an item.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, organizing and understanding the actual process of creating coupons often takes a long time before you start achieving significant savings. When you watch an episode of Extreme Couponing on TLC, you usually meet one or two people who have practically become professionals in the art of getting a good price at the supermarket.
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