Most people welcome ideas on how to save money, and though TLC's reality show Extreme Cheapskates
gave airtime to plenty of those ideas, it was canceled in 2014. The reason? Its penny
pinching got pretty extreme. And viewers began questioning how real this reality series was.
One of the biggest criticisms of Extreme Cheapskates was that it was allegedly
faked. A Reddit user posted supposed proof in the form of side-by-side
images of Christina Oster from Worst Cooks in America and Kia Cambridge from Extreme
Cheapskates that appear to show the same person. One commenter noted,
"A lot of reality show stars are actors."
The website All The Frugal Ladies listed five reasons the series was, quote, "completely fake,"
including the argument that most of the money-saving actions depicted were more
expensive than the alternative. For example, one star drove to various restaurants to pick
up ketchup packets to save on the cost of buying ketchup in the bottle from a store.
“Can I get a few of those extra packets of ketchup?”
“Of course. How many do you want?” “As many as you could spare.”
On the basis of this segment in the show, All The Frugal Ladies posted the following observation:
"You know what's more expensive than a freaking ketchup bottle? The amount
of money used to drive around for hours picking up ketchup packets."
On another site called BrokegirlRich, the writer claims she was contacted by producers,
but her ideas for saving money were too boring for the show. She wrote that
"[A casting director] wanted me to sign up for a bunch of free
online dating sites and start going out with guys so they would buy me dinner."
One episode featured Kate Hashimoto, who is seen dumpster diving for food,
but a comment on the YouTube video for the episode claims,
"TLC actually staged and scripted most of this [...] Matt and Rose
shown here aren't actually her friends because Matt and Rose are actors,
which is why their introduction to each other is so awkward."
Due to this scene and since, according to The Tennessean, participants were supposedly
compensated, viewers began seriously questioning how genuine the show was.
A review in The Hollywood Reporter claimed Extreme Cheapskates was, quote,
"not for weak stomachs," citing scenes featuring unusual habits such as not flushing toilets,
dumpster diving for food, and reusing dental floss.
That was only in the show's first season, and many viewers abandoned the series as
those depicted took their frugality to even more extreme and disturbing levels. Common Sense Media
has also pointed out that Extreme Cheapskates' content can be bad for your health and even
unethical. For example, the O'Brien family was shown washing dishes in the same swimming
pool their children had just gone swimming in.
Another participant, Stephanie, is shown reusing
obviously dirty water to cook for her family, leading one commenter on YouTube to write,
"This is lowkey abuse. The amount of bacteria she's feeding her man and
children, but can get her nails done? Disgusting!"
Some of the dental habits depicted on the show even led Advanced Dental Arts,
P.A., in New Jersey, to write a post about proper dental hygiene,
citing Extreme Cheapskates as a reference. It could be in part because of one episode,
in which a couple shares a toothbrush and dental floss. Regardless, most of what
viewers saw on the series maybe should have come with a don't-try-this-at-home warning.
Besides displaying unhealthy practices, some of the cost-saving methods depicted on Extreme
Cheapskates were downright disturbing to viewers. Take, for example, Vickie,
a mother of five, who was shown taking her family along to find roadkill, which she later prepared
and served for their dinner. One commenter on the YouTube video for the episode wrote,
"This is child abuse. Those little kids need good nutrition."
As mentioned in Huffpost, millionaire Victoria Hunt is featured in an episode, and she claims
she urinates in a jar rather than a toilet to save costs associated with flushing, but that's
not all she does. She also dumpster dives as a means of foraging for food.
Meanwhile, another self-made millionaire named Aimee is shown serving her friend a tuna sandwich, which isn't made from
regular tuna — it's made from tuna-flavored cat food, which she claims saves her 30 cents a can.
While strange and unusual acts can sometimes draw audiences,
extreme money-saving attempts such as these might have driven viewers away.
Even so, anyone who is curious can now watch old episodes of the series on discovery+.
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