Now that summer is here, I pause sometimes in my daily productivity to work at being a couch potato (usually after 7 or 8pm). Tonight I decided to flick around my many channels to see what stupid TV I've been missing this year, carefully avoiding the news because I know how worked up I tend to get and I'm trying to remain calm and relaxed for as many days as possible (noble goal, yes?).
As my title suggests, my channel surfing landed me on TLC's Extreme Couponing. "Anytime I can land a really big deal, it kinda feels like I'm on crack," says one extreme couponer in a room full of canned, packaged, preservative-laced, salt-packed food. A diet of sports drinks, noodles, and candy? Not a fresh veggie, fruit, meat, or egg in sight. There's the first problem. Fresh food can't be hoarded. No fresh food? No thanks.
Second problem: Extreme Couponers are just Hoarders with more organized shelf space. Hoarding is hoarding, regardless of how much money you save. Buying stuff you don't need, don't want, and aren't going to use is wasteful - one woman bought 60 bottles of hot sauce. NOBODY needs 60 bottles of hot sauce! Another woman's husband said he doesn't even eat mustard, but that didn't stop his insane spouse from buying hundreds of bottles of the stuff.
Third problem: Buying a bunch of products simply because they are on sale, not because you NEED that much of something is not sane or healthy. Saving money is an admirable goal, but anything taken to the extreme is wasteful and terribly selfish. In the case of extreme couponers, they end up with whole rooms full of food and product that they will never use up and they usually hang on to it instead of donating some of it to a food bank.
Even though much of the food these crazies are buying is unhealthy, some of it is good such as frozen vegetables, canned soups, and healthy breads. If you are buying $1500 worth of food and products for $50 and you DON'T donate some of your loot, then you are a selfish, addicted human being. (Aside: One featured extreme couponer on the TLC show DOES donate a majority of his haul, which does seem saner to me...hoarding the loot greedily does not seem sane by comparison.)
Fanatical, addictive behavior is a behavioral disorder, not something to be emulated. If you happen to be one of these people who thinks extreme couponing is cool or fun or useful, think again. Why would you want to give yourself a behavioral disorder? Just because we are in a recession does not give you carte blanche to become a hoarder of food and products that you will never use. It is NOT "being smart and saving money," no matter what the one woman's grandmother observed. Buying a 12-pack of toilet paper and a five-pack of toothpaste is sane bulk-buying...you will use these products within the next few months and can likely stash the items in a cabinet or closet. Buying 120 12-packs of toilet paper and 240 toothpaste tubes is wasteful, unnecessary, and reflective of a psychological disorder bordering on OCD that involves the acquiring and stockpiling of consumer products for the sake of it.
And evidently, I'm not the only one who holds this opinion of this mortifying recession sickness.
Just say no to extreme couponing. Go for a hike in a beautiful park or spend some time with friends or develop a hobby that doesn't involve addiction and might actually benefit your mental and physical health in particular and humanity in general. If this is what passes for "entertainment" now, I think I'll stick with books and movies.
