To coupon or not?

Out of curiosity I have been watching the coupon clipping show on the TLC channel. I guess there is merit to this madness, but I just don't see much real value in it, for us anyway.

There was a time when we could find good coupons that worked for us, in fact the coupons used to pay for our newspaper subscription. Not anymore, I rarely find any usable coupons in the paper, and they sure don't pay for the paper.

One woman pays $2000.00 a year for newspapers, plus she has her store card that she loads from her computer for cents off coupons, in fact she has 5 computers she to print paper coupons, she is only allowed to print 2 coupons per product, per computer. She puts in 60 hours a week accumulating and arranging these coupons in her binders, and setting up her plan of attack. That is a lot of work. If it saves you money that is great. Some items she get free, walking out of the store having paid $22.00 for $500.00 worth of groceries.

That sounds great, but the items that are purchases make me wonder about this madness. Flavored water, frozen pizza, candy bars, cookie mix packages, and cake mixes, any brand of whatever as long as there is a coupon.

We drink tap water, the price is included in our water bill, frozen pizza hasn't entered my house in many years, its nasty and has junk it in you can't pronounce, we make our own for a lot less and it takes no time, plus we know what is in it and it tastes good, cookies mixes, you still have to add other ingredients and they still have unpronounceable chemicals and stuff in them. I admit that I use cake mixes, I used to cook everything from scratch, but the mixes are good and a lot easier to use, not to mention that they rarely fail and your clean up is a breeze.

A thousand rolls of paper products that cost nothing. Sorry, I like to be able to depend on my toilet paper. Single ply isn't cheaper if you have to use twice as much, even if it was free, besides that is not thinking green.

Storage of these items? One lady has no garage to put her car in because it is full of groceries. She brags that she has the most popular house on the block, the kids can eat anything they want. Another lady has a third bathroom shower that is unusable because it is full of paper products, one woman keeps her paper products under her children's crib and beds, I wonder about fire safety, if there is a basement, it too is full, their houses look more like store then homes.

100's of boxes of cereal, cans of soup, personal products just waiting. One woman has a system that helps her use the oldest stuff first, good for her. For some, if their products get old they invite their neighbors and friend to shop .

However, there is one couple and a single gentleman who have won my heart and my respect. They work hard collecting their coupons planning, their shopping strategy and sharing their bounty. The couple puts most of their efforts into supplying a local kitchen that serves 3 rounds of breakfast to the homeless each day. They set up care packages for homeless shelters and people in areas that who suffered a disaster. The gentleman donates his work and products to care packages that he sends overseas to our military forces and other people in need. In these cases I guess brand doesn't matter, packages from home are a comfort and can lighten a heavy heart.

I guess there can be value in couponing, but a lot of it looks like plan old hoarding to me, it depends on what your trying to accomplish. I guess if we have a nuclear disaster some people will eat.