On today’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Donna Freedman returns to the show. Donna Freedman is a columnist for MSN Money and staff writer for Get Rich Slowly. Donna also writes for her own blog, Surviving and Thriving.
Today, Bryan, Donna, and Flexo discuss extreme couponing.
Table of contents
– [00:00] Introduction from Bryan J Busch
– [00:36] Interview with Flexo and Donna Freedman
– [00:52] What is extreme couponing?
– [02:22] How much effort is involved? Where do you find the deals?
– [06:17] Are people buying things they don’t need?
– [08:21] The role of social commerce like Groupon and LivingSocial
– [09:49] Know what stuff costs
– [10:09] Are coupons still inconvenient?
– [11:12] Loyalty programs vs. invasion of privacy
– [12:40] Is it possible to swap coupons?
– [14:08] Where do I store all this stuff?
– [15:28] Delaying other customers & store clerks who don’t know everything
– [18:06] Free items you don’t need make great donations
– [19:18] If coupons become more popular, will the deals go away?
– [20:46] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
Theme music by Mindcube.
Published or updated May 15, 2011. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
Rank: Platinum
Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
As always Donna is clear on her explanations and stratagies. Nice podcast, very informative.
Very nice podcast. I have watched this show and really dislike it. I coupon and never act as these people do. I get plenty for my three person family and still manage to donate and help others. But this podcast explains things so clearly. Thanks Donna, you got me started years ago.
I am a lesser-extreme couponer, and have been for over 20 years. I have seen this show and dislike the aura of greed that surrounds it. Depleting a store of its supply of mustard, laundry detergent, toothbrushes, whatever, is greedy. I donate much of my freebies to a friend’s homeless ministry, who appreciate getting full-sized bottles of stuff rather than the travel-sized ones.
I’ve followed Donna’s writings for a few years now and she always does a great job explaining how to save money. Keep up the great work, Donna. And kudos to Flexo for inviting Donna in to share her insights.
A number of the individuals on the show actually work with the store ahead of time. They work out their purchase weeks in advance and have the store special order a large portion of their purchase. Some of the first few weeks did seem unethical and one seemed to be committing coupon fraud (assuming we saw everything). I don’t like the tone of the show but i think it is more the way the show gets cut and produced than the people they show couponing.
great cast! it is amazing to me how much one can save with the effort. i utilize coupons/savings/weekly deals, but not nearly on the scale as some. i am going to try to use this podcast as inspiration to make the most of my efforts and see if i can get more for less.
thank you for the insights donna!