Extreme Couponing = Gluttony

I was told about a new reality show on TLC called "Extreme Couponing". I went to the TLC site and watched a few episodes. There's nothing wrong with saving money especially in our economy. It's the smart thing to do. If you can shop and save 95% with coupons more power to you. But what these people were doing was just disgusting.

They weren't shopping just to buy food for their families. It's an obvious addiction and a challenge to go through hours of planning and coupon clipping then going to the store, filling up several grocery carts of several items of which many times consists of 72 bottles of mustard, 35 bottles of Maalox, 100 candy bars, 50 spools of tooth floss etc., simply because they had coupons for them and made the item cheap.

It not only takes hours of strategic planning and preparation to achieve their savings, it can also take them up to 5 hours just to get through the checkout. For what purpose? To prepare for a world wide famine? Because their building a bomb shelter for a coming nuclear holocaust? No! Simply to replenish stockpiles in their homes that they display proudly. Some have their hoarded masses of food in their kids' rooms, closets, basements...all over the place. One woman commented that her stockpile was almost as beautiful as her family.

I'd like to know how much goes bad sitting on display for no other reason than to stroke someones ego. Most products have no longer than a year shelf life. How much do they have to give away? This is absolutely ridiculous and equals nothing but gluttony and greed. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. When these people proudly clear out shelves of vitamin C pills because they amassed 100 coupons for them doesn't make them smart shoppers. It makes them gluttonous hoarders.

When someone has this kind of stockpiling going on from floor to ceiling and brag that they have $75,000 worth of items in that room...that's a serious problem. Who could possibly eat that much food? Only in America do we find gluttony celebrated and people running after it so they too can show off what they amassed. Like it proves how special they are. How wise they are. As if they'll become the envy of all their neighbors and maybe get on a TV show.

When I consider this...

                                                     

how can people not be disgusted? This is what goes on every single day in the world while we tune in and boost ratings so gluttony can be displayed like a weird sideshow. Way to go TLC! You proved how ignorant you've become along with those you celebrate!