Like to Clip Coupons and Use Them with Devious Cleverness? Not Anymore

Extreme couponing is a term that's really become popular. Article after article and TV show after TV show will go and talk about how you should clip coupons with the express aim of hitting retailers and stores for all they've got.

Well, there's this one little flaw here in all these extreme couponing  plans that everyone teaches you. They take these rules for how to coupon effectively a little too seriously. They treat them like they're the laws of nature and theyy are forever.

Well, the retailers out there are completely mad at people who clip coupons for extreme couponing strategies. They never intended for you to combine offers and coupons like this. And they're about put an end to it.

Extreme couponing started as a kind of secret underground movement. People began to learn about all the ways they could combine coupons from the manufacturer, the store and the Internet to make a serious dent in  what they spent at the store. Sometimes, they would even buy in bulk and completely wipe out the profit margin that the retailer had.

With time, this became a popular thing and not very secret anymore. It's turned into such a mass movement now that retailers are going to have to do something to stay in business. They really weren't set up to deal with people who played them the way Great Depression families did.

The first thing they are cutting off is how you combine different coupon offers and get triple-off savings. Supermarkets like Kroger are saying that you cannot stack coupons any more. There are other supermarkets that are following, too. Places like Food Lion are cutting off extreme couponers and any attempts to stack coupons.

Others like Walgreens and Rite Aid will allow stacking and extreme couponing, but they won't way you do it for everything. Walmart doesn't want more than one copy of a printed home coupon, and Target says that you can't come in with two twofer coupons, and get both items free.

It isn't just that the economic climate is kind of low-key now and people really need to do this kind of thing. It's also that the manufacturers and the stores kind of stoked the flames themselves, outdoing one another with more and more coupons.

Now, they're at a place where they see that they've gone too far. If they roll it back like this, they are going to alienate shoppers. If they keep doing this, it's going to be hard for them to stay in business. That's a tough call.

Do As Seen on TV Products Make Sense

Can you or can you not believe in those fantastic claims that the happy people on television make all the time on those infomercials? Let's take a look at a couple of those "as seen on TV products" that you're tired of resisting on the late-night infomercials, and see if they actually make as much sense as those hopped-up people say.

Okay, what is the one thing that most As Seen on TV products are really well-known for? Well, if you had to pick one thing, it would have to be how they like to come up with these ideas for easy and convenient products and actually show up on TV all hopped up with enthusiasm.

So let's take a look at a couple of those kind of products and see how good they are - the EZ Cracker to break eggs open with, and a new superglue they call UGlu, both which sell for $17, all included.

The EZ Cracker looks like a nut cracker - only larger, and made of white plastic. The design requires that you take an egg - raw or boiled - and that you place it in there. It'll help you just take the shell off off of hard-boiled eggs and and it'll help you beautifully crack raw eggs in half so that you can separate the egg whites with no fuss. At least, that's what they tell you.

The thing is, you should be able to take a look at how simple these designs are and know that the there's no way that they can help you do anything. With hard-boiled eggs, the EZ Cracker does nothing but pulverize everything. With raw eggs, it works about half the time. The rest of the time, the break is not clean and everything ends up in a mess.

While it is very obviously difficult to solve any problem with a very simple device like the EZ Cracker, the UGlu concept doesn't have to appear impossible-sounding. Their concept is that they wish to give you very powerful bonding abilities - ala Superglue. But they don't want you to have to mess around with fluid goop. They want to give you that ability in tape. The box comes with strips of double-sided tape, and it's supposed to be able to stick anything to anything. Without clamping.

UGlu isn't a bad product at all. Within reason, this works well. But like most other kinds of tape, it isn't all that strong, and it's certainly not going to stick to cloth or brick for anything. There's no way to use it to stick the handle back on a broken cup or anything. In other words, you'd be much better off going down to your local store and getting a roll of double-sided tape. It's less hassle.And that's the case with most As Seen on TV products.