"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
.com...
> Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> I think saving money is great. And I think it is necessary to keep a
>> stock of some non-perishable items. Particularly in the winter if
>> you are likely to be snowed in. Or if you live in an area where
>> roads might be flooded and you can't get out.
>>
>> What is wrong with these people?
>
> It's pretty clear that some of the people have a form of OCD similar
> to hoarding. Sometimes it seems to be triggered by having to do
> without at some point. On the first special there was one woman
> who would cancel any and all plans if she came across some deal.
> She'd have to go shopping right then, the heck with that dinner with
> friends. Not good.

I grew up in a house with a parent with OCD. Apparently there was some
paper shortage back in the 70's. Whether this was real or imagined, I do
not know. At any rate, it set off a penchant for hoarding paper products as
well as some other select things. What it didn't do though was bring about
a desire to hoard food. So I always worry when we get snowed in. My
parents very rarely cook and tend not to keep any extra food in the house.
Every time I look in their fridge it is mostly bare. There will be
condiments, margarine, maybe the half cup of yogurt, a few pieces of fruit,
some carrots and perhaps a tiny amount of cheese and meat. They do usually
keep a few cans of food like chili and soup and some oatmeal.
>
> I like to have extra so that I don't have to watch sales all the time,
> like I'll find a good deal on shampoo and I'll get 4 and I'm done worrying
> about that for months. If it's often on sale for $2, it bugs
> me to pay the "regular" price of $4.50 if I let it get to that point.

I have extras of some things, particularly because I shop at Costco. But...
In doing my Spring cleaning I discovered a horrifyingly large amount of
coconut bath wash/scrub. I kept buying it because daughter said she needed
it. But apparently it was never making it to the shower and there were
bottles stuck in all sorts of interesting places!
>
> I like matching a coupon to a sale as much as the next person, but
> it's a full time hobby for these people. I didn't understand the one
> woman who thought she'd get $10 off every $50 she'd spend, I've
> never known a store deal like that to be more than a one $10 off.
> If she's such a couponer, how'd she miss that detail?

I rarely ever get coupons any more. I noticed one woman was shopping at
Albertsons and she said she got double coupons. I have never seen that
happen here. When I lived on Cape Cod, I think all the stores doubled and
one store tripled on Tues. Oddly I found a LOT more coupons when I lived
there. I used a coupon organizer and always managed to save at least
several dollars but nothing like these people do.

And yeah, that woman was stupid, but... Having spent most of my working
years working in retail, I know how a lot of people think. I used to get
people who would buy one item and try to hand me three different coupons for
it. And in the old days they did get away with it sometimes if they got an
idiot checker. The coupons almost always say not to be combined with other
coupons. But now that the registers scan the coupons this won't work.
Unless of course you get another idiot checker who will bypass the system
and just take that amount of money off the sale.
>
> I never get how they can take so much off their bill, either. Yes, double
> coupons are nice but they rarely wind up with getting a product for free
> for me.

I have gotten some free products over the years. When I first moved back to
WA, I was getting a lot of coupons from various stores offering me free
things like pasta. I would always get these and if they were something we
don't eat, I would donate them to the food bank.

> I can just see these people's heirs backing up a dumpster to get rid of
> stuff they stockpiled 25 years ago.

Yeah. That's what I was thinking too. I worry about my own parent's house
because they seem to keep everything. Their garage is stuff full of stuff
like wood stain and fertilizer that I'm sure is no longer good.