extreme couponer arrested

That is pathetic. I think that the Extreme Coupon show has really made people go crazy. I just do not see how people can be so fascinated with trying to spend 30 or 40 hours a week sorting, clipping coupons and such. I have watched the show but it is not something I would go out and steal coupons to do. Sad situation and I think lots of people are affected by the show. I saw on a yahoo news report that because of the show Rite Aid and Target had changed some of their coupon policies. I wonder if they will keep wrecking things for the small couponer?

Okay, that woman needs an intervention.

It seems to me she was either a newbie at it, or just didn't want to have to pay for the extra copies of the newspaper. It's sad that things like this happen but I hope she's learned her lesson, better to just pay another dollar or two to get all the papers (depending on how many were in tehre at the time). Though I wonder if this won't just turn away from couponing all together?

I really don't bother with coupons myself. It's generally cheaper to buy the generic brands than it is to buy the name brand with coupons. Plus you usually have to buy more than you actually want to.. like save 25 cents on 3.. or I could save $2 and just buy the 1 I need!

That is just nuts!! I have watched Extreme Couponing a few times and I have to say at first I was amazed at how much people save. I do clip coupons, however, after watching a few episodes my husband and I figured we would really see if that works. We could definitely save the money. So I started to clip more coupons and even got a binder to organize all of them. Since then we have saved more money at the grocery store, however, they don't really show you the real truth in that show. You never see anyone (at least in the episodes I watched) save money with fruit, vegetables, dairy products, etc. I have never even seen coupons along with deals that will give you free milk, eggs, cheese, etc. How much do these extreme couponers spend on these items? Yes, you can get toothpaste, shampoo, laundry detergent, etc. at next to nothing and or free, but you can't consume those things. Also, how much toothpaste does one family REALLY need in their lifetime. Some of the people that are depicted on Extreme Couponing, need some serious help. It is one thing to save money, but when you need to hoard items to just get gratification that you saved money...I don't know if you saved anything. Like in the case of this women in your discussion, is it worth the $4,000 fine and possibly going to jail?

Unbelievable what some people will do. I remember some paying for one newspaper in the past and take two but to actually go through each one and take out the coupons seems a bit extreme. I wonder what the value is for the coupons that made it worth her while. I am like you where if they were free items maybe that is why she did it but funny on how she says: "The woman told reporters that she plans to pay for the fine with the money she saves from clipping coupons." LOL that means she still has the coupons? Too funny though as how much damage is there really. Okay on a serious note it is cheating the other paying newspaper customers, I suppose.

Couponing is good and there coupons in the little free local newspapers around here.But,I do not and can't see anyone steeling them to save money.

Unbelievable... I guess they call it "extreme" for a reason I've watched the show once or twice and I've seen the featured couponers explaining how they get SO many coupons. They've shown people who routinely go to recycling centers and hop right into the bins/dumpsters and pull out the coupon inserts that people toss away. Some go to all their neighbors and ask for their coupons. It's one thing to collect discarded coupons... it's quite another to steal them from the papers that no one has purchased yet! People should be smart enough to know the difference I live in Quebec and we don't have those sorts of coupon inserts. In fact, I rarely see any coupons in our flyers or anything. We also don't have double or triple coupon days or other things I see when I grocery shop in the US. When I go to a store and they have something on sale 10 for $10, I get all psyched We don't have that either. I order coupons online and I pick the ones I know I will use and they mail them to me. I use coupons mainly for things like toilet paper, paper towels, pet food/treats, etc. When my kids were babies, I used a lot of diaper coupons. I routinely get $1 off coupons for Royale toilet paper... which, if someone puts a large pack on sale for $2.99 means a nice saving. I have easily knocked $10 off a shopping total... but I can't see ever going the "extreme" route. I would never steal to save money... how backwards is that!?

i actually read that stores are clamping down on these extreme couponers. i wish we could do half the things they do to save money here in canada (like get paid for bringing our own bags and store loyalty).

It sounds to me as though she's become obsessed with saving money through couponing. This economy is enough to make anyone a bit bonkers since there is so much uncertainty and we don't know what's going to happen from day to day. We might be fine today but tomorrow there can be a new tax that affects us or our jobs, or we might lose our job tomorrow. Our savings might be wiped out later today or the banks fail and the FDIC can't make good on their guarantees. Anything can happen. It's not like previous depressions where everything stunk but you knew it would eventually get better. Rules change daily with this economy and about 40% of Americans think it won't get better at all. So I can see where some people would become obsessed with coupons and be desperate enough to do what that woman did and not see it as stealing. It's wrong, but a lot of people are going nuts right now.

I don't bother with coupons at all. I have tried to use them in the past, but most of the time, I could find generic items cheaper than I could get the coupon item for since a lot of times you needed to get a certain size or more than one item in order to use a coupon. I just get what I need and since I don't read (or even get) a Sunday paper any more, I never even get any coupons any more!

And this is why I scold my boyfriend for abandoning the cart at times while my binder and other coupon holder are in it. He doesn't believe that people will steal coupons. *Sigh* He doesn't understand that I might have more than a thousand dollars worth of coupons in that binder. People have gotten coupon crazy. So many people think that they're going to consistently walk out of stores with thousands of dollars worth of groceries for mere pennies... It doesn't work that way. I have gotten things for free or almost free. However, my typical savings on a grocery bill runs between 50-80%. That includes items that we don't typically have coupons for--such as organic milk and organic produce. I am wary of those who say that they have "saved" X percent on things--and then proceed to list a bunch of unhealthy, heavily processed items. Eating rubbish leads to health issues that will end up costing one far more than whatever one "saved" on one's groceries.

We all want to save money, but she cannot take the coupons from the other papers if she does not purchase them. The other people who get their papers will not have coupons and that is not right. Maybe she will learn a lesson b/c what she is doing is wrong, it is stealing.

I heard about that. It happened in my area. Think it is ridulous for someone to pay for 1 paper and then takes all the incerts in the other papers. I would be mad if I paid for a paper and there was no coupons.

That's just crazy. She probably could ask people for them and they would just give them to her. I have watched the show. I wish I could coupon more to save my family money since we are struggling, but what they do on the show is just crazy. I have no need for 60 bottles of mustard. If I could cut a regular 2 week grocery bill down that would be great. I've seen proof too that people are scamming with that, using a coupon to buy the brand, but not the exact product on the coupon and getting away with it. They showed proof from the first episode where the one woman did that a few times.

That is ridiculous!! Why didn't she just buy the papers with all the money she is going to save? It sounds to me like it is someone who really doesn't do extreme couponing and she just thinks that it is a good idea. I will have to read the story some time soon.

Wow what a rotten thing for her to do. That is stealing. She probably just thought that she wouldnt get caught. A $4000 fine is a lot though. I agree she should be fined and then also have to pay the cost of all those papers... even if she didnt take them she took the coupons and made them useless for the people who wanted them. What she did was unfair. Its good for her to try to save some money by using the coupons but what she did was wrong.

Its these kinds of people that have ruined couponing for us honest ones. I think the whole thing is so stupid anyway.. I've watched the shows...they have more than they could use in a life time! Things dry up, go stale, loose flavor, loose suds etc...so why bother if you are not going to be using the stuff? I mean 150 bottle of roll on deodarant....they will dry up long LONG before they are ever used so why bother doing the hours and hours of work to get them? Plus...they carry on about how much money they save....they aren't saving that much because they use so little of what they get...even for free! All they are saving is what groceries/sundries cost each week...say $150 a week. Just cause they get all the extras and tons of stuff they will go bad long before they can use it ..if they ever use it....where is the savings there? And the massive hours they put into getting the coupons and tracking the stores and all....50-60 hours a week...if they are earning $10 an hour...that'd be $500-600 a week....they could earn a heck of alot more by working and paying for groceries than they do using coupons. Or...just use the ones that you need that week/month. But they are't saving that much..just their grocery bill. I coupon reasonably, and got 2 coupons for a site for a BOGO offer for Lipton Ice Tea.....the store I have been going to for four years, and I have used those before, just recently stopped taking BOGO coupons unless they are the kind of coupon from the newspaper..the colored shiney kind. THey don't take online print out of BOGO coupons. Won't be long before they stop taking all online print out coupons....thanks to these people that are to lazy to go get a job, but just scam the grocery stores for what they don't need anyway and then brag about saving money. All they are doing is taking money out of my pocket and others like me. I'd do about $15 a week with coupons...now, thanks to these extremers...that is down to about $8-$10. I hope they choke on those 50 Butterfinger bars that horded up on cause they had a BOGO coupon and stink to high heaven while they scammed the store out of 150 bottle of roll on anti persperiant. THey are costing me and many others like me serious money.

I think stealing is just that and no excuse is good for this crime. If you steal you take something that isn't yours which means it belongs to someone else. We all need to pay the price for what we take.

Well, it definitely is right to arrest the woman for stealing all of the coupon inserts from the newspapers that other people will later pay for. I know that for me in our area, there are a lot of times that people will drop the coupon inserts from the papers that they've paid for into the bottom of the machine, and I will take those when they are laying there. However, I won't take a paper or anything out of a complete paper in the machine. I don't do super well with couponing, but I'm getting better with it and I hope that soon I will be able to save even more money on my purchases.