Thoughts on the TLC show

apparently, the ratings for the show are worse than ever and there's a possibility of the show not being renewed? all speculation at this point, but ...

Who watched 20/20 tonight? They had Joni from EC on there. They interviewed her, and showed some of her extreme couponing deals.

what is wrong with this woman!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8vZoHV-Gg

Quote from rosaries : what is wrong with this woman!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8vZoHV-Gg

No words for this...none at all.

Quote from rosaries : what is wrong with this woman!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8vZoHV-Gg

Quote from ashjam67 : No words for this...none at all.

It seemed like a rather time consuming sorting method as well.

Quote from rosaries : what is wrong with this woman!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8vZoHV-Gg

Bizarre!

What is the point of that thing? It didn't look useful in the slightest.

Quote from rosaries : what is wrong with this woman!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8vZoHV-Gg

Quote from ashjam67 : No words for this...none at all.

Quote from hollyhousewife : It seemed like a rather time consuming sorting method as well.

Quote from ladycat : Bizarre!

Quote from smashngrab : What is the point of that thing? It didn't look useful in the slightest.

what a waste of time...you could sort 192839123 coupons in the time it took to build the machine, program it, etc.

But maybe if I had a coupon minion to run the machine ike she does...

Her son has no life.

I am now thinking the same thing I think when I read the title of this thread.... WTH??

I have nothing else better to do tonight, so why not take a whack at another episode of Extreme Couponing. The show that is Double Trouble! (I know, that made no sense, but it sounded good, didn't it?) So in today's episode, we will have: Cry without all of my inserts, some teenage boys and girls dumpster diving, getting a little ambitious, getting really nervous, taking the entire display of Colgate - stand and all!, Thought I Was Going To Die, get out!, and off we go!

So here is a young man getting ready for bed, and we have some sweet music reminiscent of the Sugarplum Fairies dance. Obviously, the money that was previously being paid to Mr. Narrator has been used to upgrade the Extreme Couponing Music Catalogue. And he is puttering around, laying his head down to sleep, but wait! He places a small baggie of coupons under his pillow. Is he hoping that the Coupon Fairy might visit and leave him a treat? Perhaps she will leave him some coupons for a free 12-pak of Quilted Northern? Or maybe free Tide? No, he's merely placing them there for safety, because he's worried someone might try to mess with them. And that is our introduction to 15-year-old Broderick, from Kansas, who calls himself "The Coupon Kid", and he claims he has 64 pounds of coupons. We have no explanation why Broderick does not place these entire 64 pounds under his pillow, nor why that particular baggie's selection was chosen, but let us not obsess. Broderick's sister Danelle says that she doesn't think Couponing is weird … but she thinks Broderick might be a little weird … !!! Broderick shows us his stockpile which he says is worth $4500, and it includes 225 boxes of "feminine products" .. tee hee! Broderick has all of his most amazing shopping trip receipts taped to the wall of the stockpile room. Now we begin this very goofy and completely scripted and cheezy scene where Broderick is in the family room and telling all his sisters what sort of coupons he needs them to find, and talking about his Coupon Chair, and something about a patio cover and pool, and Broderick loves bossing around his older sisters with his parents complete approval, because he's saving money! Broderick now says he needs 200 razor coupons for his shopping plans to work, but only 198 are available, so the whole family is going out to dumpster dive, and this whole segment is so incredibly DUMB that I've had about all I can stand, so thank goodness that the first break is here.

We're back, and once again at Piggly Wiggly, which I guess was the only chain desperate enough to want to appear on this show anymore, and Broderick is taking the whole crew - mom, dad, two sisters, and himself. He is hoping to get $900 worth of stuff and pay nothing. They start off with two gallons of milk. One of the sisters wryly comments that this purchase isn't very Extreme .. LOL! Now they are tossing stuff across the store, and CRASH! Broderick has made an Extremely Big Mess by dropping a bottle of Vinegar. A sister says that Broderick is getting a little "ambitious", and Broderick laments that the store would place glass bottles so high up on a shelf. A Piggly Wiggly guy makes some comment about coupons and basketball. Next we have the 200 razors, which cost $1.55 and Broderick has a $3.00 Q, and he claims that he will get $1.45 overage on each one. Hmm…. was it really worth that dumpster dive for a whole $2.90, Broderick? Now mom asks if they can get some apples, but Broderick is hesitant, as that will perturb his Extremely well planned out trip. And one of those foxy sisters has slipped an unplanned item into the cart! Will Broderick notice? I'm sure this will cause drama later! No, we don't even have to wait, because Broderick immediately notices and tells those crazy girls to put that shizz BACK on the shelf! Now we're checking out, and I actually feel sorry for Broderick and his family for agreeing to participate in this show, because it's just all so contrived, pointless, and dumb. But let's finish it out. Scanning is Boring™, Annoying Running Commentary™ by Broderick, Getting Really Nervous™, Do You Have Any Coupons?™, Dramatic Music, Random Disinterested People™, and his final total is $5.23. Broderick is looking forward to his new pool next year, and he says that it feels really good knowing that he can support his family using coupons. At least that I can agree with.

A mom is about to give a special test to her two little girls. It appears to be a sort of dexterity test, where success depends on whether you can cut out coupon shaped rectangles from a hideous pink piece of paper. So here is Pam, from Ohio, and she is The World's Most Efficient Couponer. Her husband, Darnell, says he is proud of her even though: she is crazy, she has "a problem with these coupons", and uses Child Labor (her 5 children) for her Extreme Couponing enterprise! Now we are going through her couponing process, and Pam's printed out some sort of Extreme Flowchart so that everyone will know exactly how this is going to work. Pam starts talking about her Husband, possibly her worst employee, and that if he becomes insubordinate, she will have to fire him! (And Darnell says to himself - yes, please, fire me!) After a couple of ripped up coupon inserts, and more silliness, they are off to a store which is called SuperValu Foods, or possibly "Miller's", or possibly even both, I'm not sure. Pam says she's going to get $400 worth of groceries for under $100, all to be used for her oldest daughter's graduation party. Wow, for all of the process analysis and development that we've seen so far, I'd expect a little more Extreme Savings than that, Pam. Darnell makes a comment that he's already bored, and Pam says she's worried about how Darnell is going to act today, as she's pulling out the standard-sheet sized version of her shopping flowchart for Darnell's convenience and reference. Isn't that kind of her? And we get some Flavored Water™, and some Brownie mix, and various other junque, and it's already time for the break!

And so right off the bat when we return, we have the Synthesizers Of Concern™, and it would seem the concern is due to the fact that she needs 60 boxes of brownies, a critical item, but only 21 were available. Pam finds the clearly long-suffering Store Manager, who says there are no more, and Pam has no idea how this will impact her daughter's party. What a sad state of affairs it will be to have only 252 brownies available instead of 720! How many kids are coming to this party, anyway? So she is looking for another deal to "boost her savings", and I really don't know what's going on here, are they going to serve toothpaste at this party as well? So anyway they find this cardboard merchandiser full of Colgate, and Pam decides she wants to get all of this toothpaste including the display itself! Well, in all honesty, it's a practical idea. You gotta have some place to put it. So now it's time to checkout, and they make quick work of it, and it's $408 total. And Do You Have Any Coupons Today™? And we scan a few, and of course we have The Beep That Is Not A Good Beep™, of course it's still another Phony Beep provided by the Extreme Couponing Department of Bogus Beeping, and we need to call a manager. Oh, and here comes the same long-suffering manager from before, and he's calling some sort of help desk, and their advice to him is to power off and reboot. Pam says at this point, she thought she was going to die, and anyhoo, to make a long and silly story short, her total after reboot is $84.23, which I guess she thinks is good, because now the Guitars of Joy begin playing and we all go home.

Next Time : A 40 year Couponiversary featuring The Coupon Robot!

Love you WWBell!! Thank you for the laugh.. I needed after that final exam I had tonight ...then it took for ever to get home because of a stupid bball game at UMD

that silly coupon sorting robot. I saw the clip a couple weeks ago when I got lost on the EC website.. don't ask . Really? it is awesome because it sorts/stack/flips flapjacks? So, who puts the random qs on the big a$$ table before that thing picks the ones from her shopping list...yeah, she probably has another son they don't want to show us . Side note, I'm so glad I found D/G threads learning to just clip when needed... I would have been stuck w/ tonnes of binders of clipped qs. Well, now I have a file cabinet for the inserts and the binder is for my peelies/TPs which I don't have that many but I started finding stacks of blinkie qs right on the machine...so that is going to change

And who inputs the data into said coupon sorting machine? And why? I just genuinely don't see the point of it. Although out of everyone that's been on the awful show I like her the most. Maybe cause she's old. And short.