Extreme Couponing- Nathan Engels on tonights show

Missy, you said, “I do like watching him because he does donate and so its not all that bad when he clears the shelves when its for a good cause.” I would have to disagree with that. I think it is disrespectful when anyone clears the shelf for any reason. How convenient that Nathan called into the show to be on it again with a reason that he was donating to the troops, yet the stuff he was buying was stuff he already had hundreds of at home (toothpaste, deodorant, toothbrushes) or perishables like link sausage which obviously cannot be mailed to the troops. I think he is buying for his greedy hoard and would be pretty irked if I went to the store for one tub of butter and found it all gone because Nathan had “bought it for the troops”. Right, because butter can be sent overseas. Or the constant buying of 100 boxes of pasta, come on, what can the troops do with something that hard to cook? You are kidding yourself if you think that stuff was for the troops, it wasn’t and to me he is almost as bad as Jaime.

Thanks Nathan not only for giving to your community and being a great guy, but for keeping it real and letting everyone know that he normally saves 60-70%, not 90-95% as the show would have people believing. This show makes people think they can get $1900 worth of good groceries for $100 in one shopping trip, and that is just not realistic. As it is shown on other coupon websites that Jaime’e paralegal lady (mustard lady) fraudulently used coupons on the wrong produts, doubling $1 coupons for what was supposed to be used on the big family packs of Buddig meats and used them on the little .59 cent packages therefore making money off them. Basically they scanned but shouldn’t have since they were for the wrong product and size, but since she had such a huge quantity of food and coupons the cashier didn’t notice. You’d think as a paralegal she would realize she was breaking laws on national tv. No wonder she got carts full of meat and other good groceries for so cheap! She told her husband to clear the mustard shelf because for every bottle she put into her cart she was making 11 cents. I wish they would have shows what she did with all of this product. What she did was unethical and illegal and I think that TLC was irresponsible to highlight someone breaking laws and letting viewers think that it is normal to save 90-95% just by clipping coupons. Us real couponers know that we can get some good deals and items for free but what they show is just not realistic, what stores have unlimited tripling and doubling, and giving cash back? That is not a reality! They should have showed the Idaho lady doing what we actually have to do here, go through the line 3 doublers at a time at Alby’s. The reality is we can save a lot but we do have to be willing to sacrifice our time and it was not accurate of the show to let her do 18 transactions and open a lane just for her. Couponing can be postive and helping our families and others I just wish TLC would show the reality of it and that it is not easy, it takes work and time, the shelves aren’t always full of what we have coupons for especially with the extreme couponing trend taking off. How many times have we spent time priting, buying off ebay, and organizing our coupons for a good sale only to go find bare shelves?

I WATCHED THE EPISODE AND LOVE IT. I WISH THEY WOULD DO MORE EPISODES LIKE THIS ONE.

I love Nathan’s story of extreme couponing, and I love to see the charitable side of it. I coupon at a much less degree, but I also learned if you can get non-perishable/hygiene items for free/very cheap and you can’t use all for your family’s use – give it to others who will benefit. It’s something I try to do with my kids to show them you don’t need alot of $$ to help others with basic necessities.

Cool! Good to know he normally saves 60-70%……..I was feeling like a coupon failure….:)