Extreme couponing

There's a new show on TLC that I've seen commercials for but I haven't actually seen called Extreme Couponing.  I saw this article on Yahoo News this morning and was pretty blown away!  I have a lot of friends that coupon in a way that I would classify as extreme, but the woman in this article is ridiculous.  I'm not even sure it's possible to go through 70 bottles of laundry detergent (although I guess the article doesn't specify how big the bottles were) in a time frame where they would even still be good.  I'm sure those things have a shelf life even if they aren't food.  I mean, I can't wait to have a pantry in our house to store the things I stock up on, but where do you keep 450 rolls of toilet paper?  250 rolls of paper towels?  What about all the other things I'm sure she buys -- canned goods, baking products, pastas, etc?  I am also looking forward to having a big freezer because I would stock up on things I can freeze (like meat, veggies, and fruit) but I feel like there's a limit to how much a house can hold.

More importantly: how is it even possible to SPEND $14000 on groceries in a year?  That's a hugely impressive amount of money to save, but how many kids does this woman have to have to spend that much money on that stuff?  The absolute max that Keegan and I have ever spent at the store in one week was around $85, when I stocked up on lean hamburger, pork, and chicken along with the stuff we usually buy every week or every other week.  Even if we spent our absolute max to date every week at the store it would be about $4500 for a year's worth of food.  Factor in another hugely over-estimated $1000 for health and beauty stuff, and we're still at $5500 for the year.  For this woman to have saved $14,000 in one year she must have been spending at least $300/week at the store.  What the hell is she buying?  The article doesn't specify, but the only possible explanation for this is having like 5 kids.  And even then that's absolutely ridiculous.  My parents spent at most $150/week to feed and clean a family of 5 (I know because I learned to grocery shop with my mom) so there's no reason a family of 7 should cost twice as much.  I guess now we know why she has room to store all her purchases, she lives in a gigantic house bought when they spent $20,000/year on groceries.

I'm not a couponing master.  I don't go to like 4 different chains of grocery stores to try to get deals on absolutely everything that's on sale that I need that I have a coupon for.  I know some people that do, and that's cool for them, but to me it's a waste of time and gas.  I also don't print coupons from the internet, but I have been meaning to try that because there are some good coupons online.  Now I buy almost all things generic so it's hard to get coupons that I would actually use, but there are somethings I always buy namebrand because the quality actually does matter and I/we can tell a difference (soda, toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, etc).  I'm not sure that I'll be able to meet my goal of saving a month's rent at the grocery store this year, but then again since I'm starting out spending less than other people maybe I will just have to settle for a percent of savings instead of an actual numerical value.  I also realize that when babies come along my budget will get all screwed up because diapers are freaking expensive.  And wipes, and baby food, and juice, etc.  But at least for now I can save!  And who knows, maybe I will try to make my own baby food, like some of my friends.  There is a reason why I have a nice processor and blender (that I can never use because of limited counter space) and it's not just because we got married and nice people gave us nice things!