Over the last six months, TLC’s “Extreme Couponing” has rocketed through popular satellite skies, earning a second season of airtime. The show features adults, usually parents, who go to superlative measures in order to find all the day’s great deals. They cram excel sheets and stuff binders full of coupons, organizing them in meticulous and even obsessive fashion. Some folks even go dumpster diving for the sake of finding trashed savings. Then, when they’ve hawked out just the right deals, they grab a shopping cart and spree their way through a grocery store.

The benefits of this extreme style of shopping should be clear: families with low-incomes now have new, informed means by which to save themselves hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars a year. Inherent in this behavior is the demonstration of frugality and the evidence of how beneficial a sharp sense of resourcefulness can be. Children might watch their parents using loads of coupons and feel gratitude and respect for their foresighted bread-winners. From there, they might even cultivate their own sense of initiative. A common complaint of today’s twenty-something-year-olds is that their parents never taught them how to save and budget money. Could this shortcoming be rectified—if only marginally—by extreme couponing parents? Perhaps so…

…but perhaps by justifying such shopping habits, I’m stretching the truth as much as extreme coupon gurus stretch their dollars. Consider this: a friend of a friend of mine just happens to be an extreme couponer. She’s not exactly getting press for it, but she’s as devoted as anyone, spending up to 7 hours in the store, and taking up to 15 different turns in the checkout line. For her efforts, said shopper actually finds ways of making money on her deals. But what do you do after spending that many hours of your day in a grocery store?

I’m all for teaching your children how to develop a sense of frugality, but if the teaching of obsessive and aggressive tendencies is an inadvertent side effect of such a model, then how beneficial is extreme couponing after all? How does extreme couponing impress on your children the importance of managing time? How does it teach them to respect the time and space of other bodies in the shopping arena? If their children grow up and experience balanced work and life schedules, they might not be able to utilize such extreme tricks of the trade, and their childhood savings lessons prove fruitless. We like to say that the pleasures and risks of life are all worth experiencing, as long as it’s in moderation (think beer, poker, late nights, even exercise). Aren’t shopping habits also good to curb? We shouldn’t be spending frivolously, but we also shouldn’t look to clear out an entire shelf-worth of products in a public market space. Workers are forced to engage with a single customer for hours, parsing tediously through coupons. This injures productivity for the company, at the very least, and abuses a generous system of savings at the worst.

As the television show and its featured phenomenon continue to gain more attention on a national scale, we at Bargain Life will revisit the conversation. For now, let this article be an aperitif for you, our readers. If you want to read more about extreme couponing, check out the chatter posted on The Today Show’s web page. To see some clips online, visit TLC’s extreme couponing page, which can be found here: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/extreme-couponing/couponing-social.htm. And please, if you feel so inclined, hop onto our comments section and throw your two cents in.

Photo via http://how-to-start-extreme-couponing.com/

Last week marked my ten year wedding anniversary. I spent the first half of this year enthusiastically planning a romantic Italian getaway to celebrate. Our trip was scheduled for Christmastime, but circumstances changed and we can no longer justify sinking thousands into a luxurious European vacation.

I know this year has been particularly hard for those of us with tightening budgets and an incurable love of travel. Fortunately, my family sees this as another opportunity to explore more affordable and unthought-of destinations. I’d like to present our own list of the top overlooked destinations for finding adventure and luxury on the cheap.

1. Monteverde, Costa Rica

Home to the beautiful San Gerardo Cloud Forest Reserve, Monteverde is the perfect place for a couples’ adventure. You can zipline or take a rainforest canopy tour of the lush Selvatura park for just $85. And it turns out even the most posh area lodges are a surprisingly reasonable $200 per night. Surrounded by such natural wonders, my husband and I made sure to spend a couple nights renting gear and camping out under the canopy. And glimpsing the nightime activities of the sweet, raccoon-faced Squirrel Monkeys and Spectacled owls was well worth our $14 camp fee.

2. Split, Croatia (photo above)

Croatia is the perfect alternative to any classic Mediterranean vacation destination. Cheaper than Italy and less crowded than Greece, the fishing ports along the Dalmatian coast rival any in Europe. Our visit to Split has left us aching to return. We spent our days lounging on the beach next to a perfectly cerulean Adriatic. We admired works by Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic and walked through the ancient peristyle of Diocletian’s Palace. And each evening we dined on fresh, cheap octopus salads and tuna steaks. I’m hoping that this 1,700 year old city can retain its charm (and affordability) even as I refer more tourists!

3. Victoria, Canada

The secret to experiencing Victoria lies in traveling like a native. After pricing seaplane fares from Seattle, we realized it was cheaper to take a commuter ferry from Port Angeles, WA. And what a beautiful sail! We even saw an orca pod just a quarter mile from our ferry! A perfectly walkable city, Victoria features galleries, museums and gardens most of which can be accessed with one $30 pass purchased at the Butchart Gardens. And I would recommend the high tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel, but make sure to grab the Empress Groupon first (we saved 60% on the $47 tea ceremony!).

4. Phuket, Thailand

What an adventure! Phuket showcases Thailand’s biggest attractions best. Our first day we visited the temple at Wat Chalong, watched traditional Thai boxing at Patong and strolled through the colonial old town all without buying anything but two plates of delicious street food. It was absolutely our favorite destination in East Asia and I recommend it highly. I also challenge anyone to find cliffs more stunning than those that surround Phang Nga Bay or a beach more idyllic than Nai Harn.

5. Galway, Ireland

I know it seems unlikely that a popular Irish city would be found on this list, but Galway is full of suprises. We spent a week here and our first day we discovered a music and pub scene that took up most our remaining evenings. The concerts were frequent and free. And it’s true that Irish music improves with a few glasses of guinness, our primary expense. We visited in July during the Galway Arts Festival. We enjoyed plays under the city’s famous Spanish Arch and danced with locals in the Mancas Parade. Beyond airfare and Guinness, Galway turned out to be our most affordable European stop.

Photo via http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-3840750996

The 4-1-1:

“Once you use a deal, you’ll get extra incentive for return visits here. More goodies for being a model ‘Mobster‘.” So claims Scoutmob, an iPhone app which targets the hunger in us and offers discounts on local restaurants. Scoutmob was started roughly a year ago, but was recently updated in August of 2011, and has been all the rave since. In fact, friends of mine in Seattle have been arguing over which once, exactly, introduced me to the app. To use Scoutmob, simply download the app (free in the App Store), then provide your email and city. From there, the program “scouts” your city for cheap deals on eateries and confectioneries. You can sort through the list for new deals, expiring deals, and the deals in closest proximity to wherever it is you’re standing at that moment. I, for one, was thrilled when my favorite restaurant, a pupuseria named Gaunaco’s Tacos, was offering food through the app at 50% off. And, as I mentioned in the beginning of this article, I’ll be able to receive “Return-Perks,” exclusive incentives to return to your new favorite locales.

The Kickers:

• This application covers nearly every major metropolis in the nation, and includes other hubs such as Austin, Portland, Charlotte and Nashville.
• A “Curiosities” page offers trivia about the city you’ve selected for your home location.
• A “Stache Cam” allows you to turn your phone into a photo booth as you take snapshots of friends donning one of four, built-in staches (note the photo of my friend above). You can use these photos to email friends and generate interest in the application. Scoutmob owns a collection of amusing, hip emails they send along with the photo.

The Catches:

• Though most of the major cities are accounted for, there are still some legitimate complaints that some areas are unrepresented. You still can’t use Scoutmob in 35 states!
• Restaurants use a max discount, some of which are a mere $5. You can’t exactly afford a feast with these coupons.
• Restaurants have to pay a fee towards Scoutmob’s advertising, and so it’s definitely more of a bargain for consumers than for chefs and servers. Also, it’s rumored that a lot of patrons are tipping on the discounted price, and not the full meal price, so restaurants aren’t making nearly as much as they should be. I know I’m a consumer in this whole exchange, but it’d be nice if it were more of a win-win situation.
• The app has upset some by collecting information, and therefore bypassing a privacy policy. Opinion on the matter differs, of course.

The Take:

I think Scoutmob is running a pretty good operation right now, but changes seem imminent if the group will continue to make money. First of all, more cities will have to be included. Why not add Cleveland, St. Louis, New Orleans, or Madison? Also, once enough business is established, restaurants are going to need a larger share. Perhaps the restaurants that do the most business with Scoutmob can earn a reduced fee. Also, I’d like to see the group step into their big-boy pants and ditch some of the tacky elements of the app. For now, I’ll continue to feast on good deals, become acquainted with new restaurants, and fiddle with the sillier components of the growing monster named Scoutmob.

My Wells Fargo adviser once fell out of his chair after discovering how much debt I had accrued from my undergraduate studies. As of right now, the number sits at a daunting $180,000. To make matters worse, the rate at which I’m chipping away at this gaudy figure is slower than molasses. Since I’d hate to see another human carry this financial burden, I’m hereby sharing five ways a student can avoid astronomical debt.

1.) Choose Your School Wisely:

This might sound vague, or even obvious. But a school’s location directly correlates to the strain you put on your wallet. I chose to go to a school in Boston, which made the school tens of thousands more expensive than the schools I could have gone to in Orono (ME) or Geneseo (NY). I’m not saying that I regret going to school in Boston, I’m just acknowledging (which is easier to do in hindsight) that I had choices, and that this debt I own is, essentially, a choice. Not everyone would or should make the same one. I think I was largely afraid of “settling” for a location that was less exciting, and I didn’t want to go to a school close to home (Glens Falls, NY). But considering that I attended grad school in Seattle, I realize that you can always put in your time close to home, save some money, and then jet-set for a distant, more exotic destination.

2.) Apply for Scholarships (Not Loans!):

Each year, there are more and more scholarships available for first-year students. You don’t always know they’re there without searching, of course, but today’s technological advancements don’t leave much room for an excuse. If you start applying for them in the middle of your junior year of high school, you have a realistic shot of nabbing 5-7 of them—some small, and some large—and then you have a chance of paying off your first year of courses. The common misstep is made when people rely too readily and heavily on loans. This is an instant gratification only—it gives you money in the now, without actually helping you save in the long run. You don’t have to pay scholarship money back. You just have to smile, nod, write a thank you letter if you’re so inclined…and then hit the books on campus.

3.) Learn to Budget Sooner (Not Later!):

I fed my impulses far too often during my freshman year. Actually, I was terrible at budgeting my funds all throughout my undergraduate years. If I had learned to eat out less, spend less on frivolous events, and save a few bucks now and then in a little jar, I could have paid more of my tuition each year from my very own pockets, thus allowing me to depend on loans even less. Besides, budgeting is a crucial life lesson, and should be learned as soon as possible, regardless of whether or not you attend school.

4.) Get Help

I know, I know—another no-brainer, right? Truth is, a lot of friends of mine have admitted to feeling so embarrassed by their lack of financial savvy and/or to feeling depressed by the weight of their debt, that they shy away from getting help. There’s this strange (and empty) hope that the numbers in red will resolve themselves, or that the debt will be pardoned. “If I’m patient enough,” we think, “then I’ll catch a break, land my dream job, and then the debt will dissolve.” But why not talk to a counselor early, before you’ve ever gone to college? And why shouldn’t we seek out advisers on campus with the same devotion and frequency with which we look for mentorship during a professor’s office hours? Really, there’s no reason we shouldn’t reach out earlier. Admitting you need help in growing up is itself an important and humble step in doing just that—growing up. Even if you have to pay a financial adviser at a bank, it seems optimal to pay now instead of later.

5.) If You Attend Grad School, Get Funding

When I applied for an MFA in Creative Writing, I sent out 9 applications. As I went through the process of doing so, I realized that some schools (Brown, Florida, and Iowa, for example) all offer the students they accept full funding. Others do not, making them further financial hazards on the road to a debt-free life. The good thing here is that graduate departments offer more jobs, internships and career opportunities that undergraduate schools don’t, and so there’s definitely a trade-off. But that being said, you can help yourself out by being as picky about grad school as you are about undergraduate school. And here’s another thing: I’ve seen fellow grad students get money (TA-ships, fellowships) just by giving the school an ultimatum: “If you want me to come to your university, I’ll need more money. School X is offering this much…” Basically, grad schools can be used as leverage off of one another if you get desperate enough. Finally, there’s no shame in turning down offers and waiting another year before applying again—keep trying until you get the money you need and deserve. Until then, keep working the 9-5 in those in between years. Patience, patience, patience…

Concluding Thoughts:

There are a lot of other means by which you can save yourself from accruing so much debt. This list is meant to be more like the tip of an iceberg than the formidable chunk of ice itself. It’s up to you, as a current or prospective student looking to avoid debt, to take the tips and dig deeper. In this current economical phase of our nation, it’s easy to follow the cries and suggest you have little say in money matters. But the sooner you ask for help, the sooner you’ll get it. And the sooner you hold yourself accountable, the more you’ll keep in your account. Take it from someone who knows…the hard way.

Photo via stumbleforward.com