So I have seen the first few episodes of Extreme Couponing. Never mind the sheer time commitment required (8 hours of clipping coupons a week? EEK!) but have you noticed these people are showing off their wall of toothpaste or the 63 bottles of mustard they are buying, but we always see people showing off their storage spaces for their coupon haul. But other than a few vague references to donating to food banks – and one guy, Nathan, who had a bit focused on a charity helping troop’s families, we never actually see any of this food being donated. But we definitely see people proudly showing off their cases of toothpaste or the woman who bought out all the mustard, I don’t think even a mustard-loving family could use all that in the next 5 years!
Not only that, stuff expires. Cereal has a shelf life of 1-2 years. Now, maybe this guy is going to eat those 700 boxes of cereal before it is dated, but I’d be shocked. Same goes with a ton of other items I saw in what people had in their garages – deodorant, soup, mayo, sauces, etc.
Now, I really hope a lot of this excess food does end up at food banks… and maybe there have been other interviews where they say this, but I wish TLC would focus more on this aspect of it and maybe convince some people to use coupons for free goods they get for the sole purpose of donating to charity, or even focus on episode on those who do it mainly for charity.
I wondered this too, it seemed a little strange that all these people had their own corner stores in their house, but not donating it. I think if they did a special on donating it, that would be great.