Extreme Couponing: Botswana

Have you ever watched the television show Extreme Couponing? If you haven’t, the premise of the show is that families clip coupons and then go shopping. By using the coupons at checkout they end up saving upwards for 90% of their total bill. In other words, a shopping trip which would typically cost $1,000 only costs $100 or less. In many cases they get items for free or even cash back with double coupon deals.

Here in Botswana we do not have anything even close to Extreme Couponing. In fact, the Sunday paper here doesn’t have coupons at all. But we do have a special publication which comes out each week called The Botswana Advertiser. The Advertiser is available virtually everywhere nationwide; I pick mine up each week at the gym. I’m never really looking for anything, but it is interesting to see what is available for sale. However, I did purchase a microwave from an ad in The Advertiser and I LOVE MY MICROWAVE!

The Advertiser:

Last week’s issue of The Advertiser included the following items for sale/rent: houses, cheap strong bricks, best clowns, brazillian hair, jumping castles (there were 9 ads for those, I guess they must be in high demand), donkey meat and VIP toilets. But here is what really blew my mind:

Who just has a bus lying around that they need to sell?!?!

Remember when I went to the UNWTO conference back in August? If not you can read about it here, here, here and here. But, one of my observations was the fact that the host nations, Zambia and Zimbabwe, had both bought a fleet of new police cars, staff vehicles and busses in which to transport attendees. I couldn’t fathom what they would do with a couple hundred brand new busses at the conclusion of the conference. But when I saw the ad in The Advertiser I thought they may have found a solution. Perhaps I should call and inquire for myself.