OT-Did anyone else just see nightline?

[hotcouponmama]

I will also say, ABC called us for this, and I'm glad we didn't do this with them - the whole $50 contest thing was unfair and slanted - the strategies used were completely different and the types of items they were buying were different.

I did this series on my local ABC channel - and the goal was about what you could get with $50 depending on your needs - from being a foodstamp shopper to someone with high needs diets - Super Shopper: Smart tips to save big | KATU.com - Breaking News, Sports, Traffic and Weather - Portland, Oregon | Problem Solver

[ILv2Shop]

What a great series, Julie!

[Ggbwg]

Julie, wow i wish my store would leave the coupons out like that for customers to get. Very nice of your store to do that.

Great Tips! I envy your stores and you :o)

Ok, now i am back on topic.

[xythnia]

Wow, so I just finished watching that. Here's is my take on it:

Yes, Jill is just as "hardcore" as Nathan. I mean, her weekly bill for a family of like 5 is under $50 a week. AWESOME! (edit) Did they even mention the size of Nathan's family? (end edit)

Yes, I also totally agree with the PP who said it was an unfair comparison looking at their areas, stores and items being purchased. Doubles vs non-doubles, veggies+meat verus cereal and pouch tuna.

Personally, I think Nathan's stockpile -might- (I don't know the guy of course) show signs of what multiple people on here have stated. Their stockpile is kind of like a security blanket. They've come from backgrounds where as children or adults they didn't know if they would even HAVE food on the table. That is scary just in thought, let alone living thru it. Plus, yes, it can definitely be addicting, getting it all for free, etc. And yes, telling yourself "I have enough" can be a problem for some. Put those together with coupons and I could totally see going WAY overboard.

In all, I thought it was very interesting and less negatively slanted then some I've seen. But I TOTALLY cringe at his explaining the Kroger overage deal on the tuna. I think couponing is a system that only works with a limited amount of people on it (and I am new myself - only year 2). Come on, if 25% of the US became hardcore couponers, there would be NO more doubles, coupon values would drastically change and stores would have to completely change how they even stock products!

[manders13]

Wow, so I just finished watching that. Here's is my take on it:

Yes, Jill is just as "hardcore" as Nathan. I mean, her weekly bill for a family of like 5 is under $50 a week. AWESOME! Did they even mention if Nathan has a family?

Yes, I also totally agree with the PP who said it was an unfair comparison looking at their areas, stores and items being purchased. Doubles vs non-doubles, veggies+meat verus cereal and pouch tuna.

Personally, I think Nathan's stockpile -might- (I don't know the guy of course) show signs of what multiple people on here have stated. Their stockpile is kind of like a security blanket. They've come from backgrounds where as children or adults they didn't know if they would even HAVE food on the table. That is scary just in thought, let alone living thru it. Plus, yes, it can definitely be addicting, getting it all for free, etc. And yes, telling yourself "I have enough" can be a problem for some. Put those together with coupons and I could totally see going WAY overboard.

In all, I thought it was very interesting and less negatively slanted then some I've seen. But I TOTALLY cringe at his explaining the Kroger overage deal on the tuna. I think couponing is a system that only works with a limited about of people on it (and I am new myself - only year 2). Come on, if 25% of the US became hardcore couponers, there would be NO more doubles, coupon values would drastically change and stores would have to completely change how they even stock products!

ITA....

It's bad enough that Corp has been giving us a hassle this ENTIRE sale because of this EXACT thing (tuna overage) I'm sure they were REALLY peeing their pants when they saw this!

[dionada]

Hmmm... fresh broccoli vs. boxes of HCFS-laden cereal. No wonder he's saving more, and no wonder she doesn't have a surplus stockpile of adipose tissue. I'm glad they showed someone like her - I should start reading her column.

Maybe I'm just biased because I personally disagree with acquiring ridiculous quantities of things while wearing your "I'm donating it (and aren't I swell)" t-shirt. Whether it's for the high you get from the "thrill of the hunt" (eyeroll) or the nice feeling you get from doing your good deed for the day, or whether it's for the tax deduction... in many cases, I don't agree with it and think it's inconsiderate to your fellow shoppers. Know when to stop, KWIM?

[littlemissknowitall]

For me, the issue is how he acquired it all and why. I know I've done media events at Kroger, and it has to be cleared through the corporate office. We special order everything, so that it never comes off the shelves for the average shopper. Did he do that? I'm not sure--the story shows him grabbing more than 50 packages off an endcap. I've done enough news stories to know that can be set up so that it looks normal but is really a special order--but we don't know for sure.

I am both amazed by and annoyed by the Jello logo. Great visual--but Nate and I've talked about the jello before. Anything over a certain level becomes greed. He didn't buy the jello specifically to donate, and he didn't buy it for himself. He bought it for the Catalina $$ that came with it. More than a thousand boxes for a Cat deal. Now, he donated it LATER...but he didn't buy it with the extreme moneymaking goal in mind.

See, this is where couponing ethics get so tricky. I've been in that spot, because I originally learned the WRONG way to coupon--a very greed oriented, over-the-top way to coupon. :sad: Thankfully it was only a few months of it and then God (and some fantastic women) got my head on straight. And why I'm so thrilled to bang the drum of ethical couponing and teach people the right way from the beginning. But the ethics can be such a fine line. For example, I don't think getting $50-$100 in cats is all bad--its high, but not necessarily bad. But more than a thousand boxes would have given someone several hundred in cats on that one deal alone. To me, that seems to seriously cross the line. Especially since we already have stores in our area that are really beginning to tighten up on daily coupon limits. Greed is so consuming. Getting money back on every trip becomes addicting, and its a bit like hitting the lottery each time you step into a store.

Here's another one that can be interpreted by the user/reader: We recently were given $1000 to go shopping with for a local food bank by the radio station. The food bank chose us to shop for it instead of just taking the donation. And we did--we waited till a big sale came around, cleared it with Kroger, and then special ordered very large quantities of items. 400 Hormel, 400 Quaker Quakes, 200 Mission Tortillas, and so on. There was lots of Mega Sale overage in there. It was extremely strange to me b/c I've never ever ordered in those kinds of quantities. One trip to Kroger was more than $1800 before coupons!!! (My heart nearly stopped and I literally thought "crap. this better work! I better be as good as I tell everyone else I am! ") But for me, that was all okay. Strange as heck, but okay, because it was bought with the sole intention of going straight to the food bank--and with the store's corporate approval. Not a single penny of the overage, catalinas or savings were used for personal gain--they were rolled right back into more food for the food bank.

But you know, some people aren't going to see that distinction. Some are going to think, what does it matter if he's a savvy shopper--that as long as it was donated in the end, it doesn't matter if it was purchased specifically for the food bank or not. And some are going to find me a hypocrite or call me jealous, especially since I work for the media and show people how to coupon. I'm not either, as far as I know, because all I care about is people learning, and learning properly. Nate and his wife are fabulously nice people. Professionally though...well, we disagree on a lot.