TLC's 'Extreme Couponing' Or, As I Call It, 'Grocery Hoarders'

I wrote a post a couple of days ago on TLC's apparent fascination with little people.  Most reality shows today can be sorted into one of four genres:

• Little people
• Pawn shop/Auction
• Extreme food/Gluttony
• Hoarding

In the last year or so, hoarding shows have become very popular.  It started with A&E, which used to stand for "Arts & Entertainment", debuting their provocative series 'Hoarders'.  'Hoarders' did a very good job at bringing a camera into the homes and lives of a group of people that are rarely seen and widely misunderstood.  It was educational, sometimes sad, and many times, simply disturbing (If you have a chance, watch the episode where the guy hoards thousands of rats.  Jesus!).

Last season, TLC (which ironically stands for "The Learning Channel") jumped on the hoarding bandwagon, and came out with 'Hoarding: Buried Alive'.  It was a much more exploitive version of the A&E original.  It had no substance.  It comes across as a "let's point and look at the freaks" type of program, with no interest in the lives in the people involved or closure in the situation.  

Three weeks ago, TLC premiered their new series 'Extreme Couponing'.  It is made with the intention of being inspirational to people, and to show viewers what can be done if you put your mind to something.  There have been shoppers featured on the show that have had over $990.00 in groceries, and have walked out of the store paying $9.00 after coupons and "club card" discounts.

The problem I have with the show is the obvious mental problems most of these people have.  Many of them truly believe that god is physically assisting them through their shopping process.  Such as this woman:

It's not necessarily the soccer moms evoking god that I have a problem with, which happens more often than you might think.  It's the greed and sheer gluttony that these people display that make me nauseous.  

The woman in the clip above, the one that god was helping collect the coupons, was helping her daughter in law start a stockpile of goods on a recent grocery trip.  Keep in mind, with god's help, she already had a reserve of over 2,000 packs of batteries, over 100 bottles of laundry detergent, and 300  2 liter bottles of Sun Drop soda, not to mention thousands of dollars of additional products.  During her shopping trip, she bought 114 bottles of Excedrin PM (every bottle the store had) and  54 more bottles of Purex laundry detergent.  How much did she give her daughter in law?  Four bottles of Excedrin and five bottles of detergent.

Another woman in a past episode purchased 70 bottles of yellow mustard, clearing out the store.  She's the only person in the family that likes mustard.  Why?  Because, with a coupon, she could get it for $.39, instead of the regular price of $1.69.

Another has collected over 1400 packages of toilet paper, under her son's bed.  Another lady has over 700 packages of diapers in her garage, yet she is single and doesn't have any children.  Why?  Because she can.

There are a couple of exceptions to the rule, however.  Jessica, a mother of four, had her grocery budget reduced to only $160 a month after the recession hit.  She used coupons to make up the difference in her budget.

Others, like Nathan, use coupons to donate food and other goods to local food banks and to troops overseas.

For the most part, though, many of these people are mentally ill.  In tonight's episode, someone goes dumpster diving, yes, dumpster diving, for coupons.  Is it really worth 30 cents off of a stick of deodorant to jump into the trash for a coupon?  I'm all for saving money.  I saved $23.00 using coupons the last time I went to the grocery store, but isn't this crossing the line?