This great article by Amy Duran really details how "unrealistic" extreme couponing really is:

"When they film the show they ask the participants to create an extreme shopping trip. So what do the participants do? They pull out only the special sales for that week, special order products from their store, and special order coupons. They buy things that will be free or provide overage, instead of what they need. They buy hundreds of certain items to show extreme savings, not the typical groceries they would buy in an average grocery trip. Yes I could set up a transaction right now where I head to the store and buy $1000 worth of stuff and pay mere pennies. But those items would not include all the items we need for the month."

Read complete article.