My grandmother has been couponing my whole life but I really only started getting into it seriously with groceries when I lost my job. Before that, I would always use coupons at Borders or at craft stores because the 30 – 40 % off a book or craft material was worth it to me. But couponing sure takes a lot of energy that I would probably not spend if I could afford not to. I was only making 24k at my previous job so its not like I could really afford to not use coupons then but I guess I wasn’t being as cheap as I thought. I think the stockpiling useless crap is kind of bizarre. It’s like couponing meets Hoarders. And I think its just another fix for those who have shopping and consumption problems. It’s like “oh I bought all this crap we don’t need and can’t afford BUT I HAD A COUPON AND IT WAS ON SALE!”