Extreme Couponing- Hoarding Processed Foods?

              

Extreme Couponing-

I watched the show Extreme Couponing last night. As I've been losing weight, mostly from eating more whole foods and working with a nutritionist (free thru my job) I look at this kind of thing from a different angle. While I love a great deal, I also looked at what are these people actually buying to eat? The woman last night wanted to save $600.00 for a home repair, a great idea. She spent a huge amount of time, with her 2 daughters, clipping coupons. Short version- end of episode she walked out with $600.00 of sports drinks, candy and paper towels. She was ecstatic. She was also prettty overweight. She spent all this time and money for non-food items and is teaching her kids this "skill". Unless you're a professional athlete, who will drink all those drinks? Who needs all the candy? Neither of those are food items in my opinion. Sure we all need a treat once in a while, but a huge stockpile? I read the article below that showed how most of the foods "bought" with coupons are over processed, high fat/salt/sugar/calorie items. Things like boxed/frozen foods, and other forms of junk food. We all probably use some kind of paper products (you can use cloth napkins)- toilet paper, and things like plastic bags, but really, what is a normal amount to stockpile? You can't eat it in the long run. This is REALLY scary- Junk Food Diet Linked to Lower IQs In Toddlers  but not a big surprise.

Usually eating healthier will save you money and heartache in the long run. It may not be hoarding, but more like being OCD, doing gambling or any other addictive behavior. If something "free or cheap" isn't good for you what's the point? It's the "high" of getting it free. Many of these poverty family's time would be better spent doing some basic financial planning education (free at the library/bank), family planning (if you're in poverty why are you having more children?) and using the time to learn about basic nutrition. Reading library books is free. Make some things from scratch, use your couponing time to get a part time job or volunteer- go help out someone else. Barter and learn to use your simplicity/thrift skills- grow your own food (we do on our little city lot), preserve it and learn what's important...

I won't be watching this show again, it makes me want to get them some free counseling!

Fascinating look-
Extreme Couponing Processed Food Hoarding

Everparent- Is Extreme Couponing Hoarding Processed Junk?