extreme couponing

We recently started watching the show Extreme Couponing and we quickly got hooked on it. The amount of time that these people spend on clipping coupons and grocery shopping is unreal. But to me, what is more unreal is the types of things, specifically food, that these people buy. What did you accomplish if you go to the grocery store and buy 135 candy bars for $5 or less? Do you really need to buy 240 bottles of Powerade?

A common theme with a lot of the people on this show is that they spend X amount of dollars a week on groceries, where X is a small number. In a lot of these episodes, they'll spend their X dollars, get numerous carts full of food, and very little of it will be anything nutritional/good to eat. Where is the produce? Where is the meat? I think you get the idea. What can you cook that tastes good or is good for you with 93 bottles of hot sauce and 37 packages of cream cheese?

I'm all for clipping coupons and stocking up on food. I do it all the time. I just think this show is either A. dishonest in what people are spending or B. promoting crappy eating habits.

I will say that a lot of the people do donate and share some of their bounties, so that is good. I think it would be more interesting to see how these people are using the food they purchase, so copy cats don't start doing this and eventually end up on Hoarders.

How does this tie in to Eating Heat? For me, one of the keys to losing weight and being healthy on this plan is the variety of great, fresh food that I eat. I have no limit to the amount I'll spend to eat quality fresh veggies. I'm lucky. A lot of people on this show do have a limit to the amount they spend. I think they would be serving their families a lot better by spending $5 on ingredients for a great homemade pasta sauce than buying 135 candy bars, even if you donate a bunch of them.

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