Extreme Couponing Essay

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BOGO’s, Blinkie’s, Peelie’s, and Q’s As most young people across America will tell you, if you want to be hip you have to know the lingo. It’s no different in the world of extreme couponing, where rolling, stacking and doubling is an art form mastered only by the dedicated few and your arch nemesis is an expiration date on a coupon. The word “coupon” originated from the French word “couper”, which means “to cut.” The first coupon, distributed by the Coca-Cola company way back in 1894, entitled you to one free glass of Coca-Cola. More than 8.5 million coupons were redeemed and thus started the career of the coupon. Later in 1909, coupons received another boost when C.W. Post began offering 1-cent-off coupons for his Grape Nuts cereal. Now I know what you’re thinking, coupons nowadays are for soccer moms and elderly ladies who bring a Ziploc full of change to the register to pay for their basket of groceries. However, those days are over, well maybe not the latter, with the emergence of TLC’s hit TV show “Extreme Couponing” which hit airwaves in December of 2010 and had more than 2 million viewers glued to their television set wondering how they too could become an economical extremist. “I get inspired on how to save money on items that I never thought of. The show has given me some pointers,” said self-proclaimed extreme couponer Lisa Bush of Norfolk, Va. The first mention of extreme couponing came courtesy of The Wall Street Journal when they wrote an article in March of 2010 entitled “Hard Times Turn Coupon Clipping into the Newest Extreme Sport.” However, Bush has been couponing since 1985, a 27 year veteran of the coupon world, and doesn’t see an end in sight, “The only way that I will stop is when I pass away,” she said. Bush’s grandmother originally got her jump started on using coupons because being a 19-year-old college student barely making

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