He spent almost a year completely naked in a one room apartment trying to win 10,000 worth of prize goods. After he reached his goal, he thought he won but actually was flown to Korea, once again stripped naked, left in a room and required to enter contests until he won enough money to buy a plane ticket back to Japan.

Needless to say, compared to that I don’t think this man’s life is very hard at all….

It would have been a much more fitting article for GRS if April had written more on how regular people can benefit from companies like Groupon, and gave fleshier examples on how the lessons from the challenge can actually be transferred successfully to the real world, where people don’t receive coupons in lieu of money for free, and are not part of a marketing gimmick where they are more likely to receive help from intrigued strangers. It would also have been good to mention other companies who do the same thing, as this did come across as somewhat advertorial-like, especially the paragraph under Deal of the Day in Your Inbox. Having said that, it was still quite interesting to read about the challenge.

Bartering, trading services and working out deals – those were the days!

I feel so awkward and weird doing that nowadays, but this guy proves that when you don’t have an option, you don’t care.

I need that kind of attitude to save money and get some good deals.

Not at all helpful for my frugal/minimal lifestyle 99% of the time

But hats off to the guy–and its a pretty ingenious marketing scheme.

Yes, you have to be cautious about which ones you buy and if you will really use it but it’s enabled me to check out restaurants I’ve been itching to try at a discount, and do things I’ve really wanted to do but haven’t been able to afford. My friends and I are are already spending money on dining out and activities pretty often and carefully chosen Groupons let me stretch my budget further.

I’ve also been following Josh’s story and I think it’s really neat that he is living for a year off Groupons. I certainly couldn’t.

Me too! I thought this very same thing! I’d love to hear from the other side.

@Jim (#44)
Not an ad for Groupon. Just April doing her thing. I’ve been meaning to mention Groupon for a long time (a lot of people love it, as you can see), but haven’t had a chance. I’ll admit that this post isn’t my cup of tea, either, but you know what? I’d just skip it!

Sure we don’t have an unlimited number of coupons to barter with, but how many of us could in fact give bartering a try? Because of the limitations of Groupons, almost every single one of Josh’s transactions involves a negotiation. (For those of you concerned about tipping, he always works it out with the server or another patron in advance. No one gets stiffed on tax or tip.) How much might the rest of us save if we negotiated more?

If you were to do this yourself, you would have to pay the 50% off of the coupons you purchase. Most of the deals I’ve seen on there are typically like “$15 for $30 worth of stuff!”. So you would basically be spending at least $15 a day in food alone and that is if you can use the coupon (gift card) for more than one meal.

So there is no way you could do this in reality without spending any money.

DONE.

This reminds me of couchsurfing.org more than it does “luxury coupons.” It’s like “hey if you can live like a couch surfer, we’ll give you luxury coupons. We get publicity, you get to do fun things. Win win!”

I think the negative comments stem from perhaps expecting (from the title) someone to “out of the blue” voluntarily live for a year entirely on coupons – the kind you have to dig out of the paper. That would be a real challenge, whether or not you couch surf.

“She thought I spent bank but I really spent coupons”

Hope you at least got some money from groupon for running this post

Heck, if it wasn’t for the fact that my girlfriend probably wouldn’t appreciate only seeing me five times in a year, this sounds like a wonderful deal to me!

I think that April’s post has two points: first, a reminder to look for unconventional deals. Groupons can be truly incredible. The customer is getting an honest-to-goodness real price break – the seller gets lots of people to try their product and great PR in exchange. As with coupons that you find in your paper, you have to be careful about what you buy – select only those items that would be worthwhile to you and fall within your budget.

The second point is that this guy is a great example of finding ways to barter. Or to include family and friends in your plans in order to save money. When was the last time you posted on Facebook that you’re looking for a fridge, does anyone have one they’d like to sell. It’s at least worth considering.

Enjoyed the story!

Or is that included too?

I’ve been following the live off Groupon challenge since the contest was announced. A couple friends of my college-age daughter applied to be considered for the challenge at my recommendation. I don’t see how being away from friends and family for a year is that much different from being away at an out-of-state college, or studying abroad. If you’re young and free to participate, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I LOVE LOVE the Groupon experience and it hasn’t been difficult for me to save money on purposeful spending without giving in to temptation on reckless spending. A couple times a year I schlep my daughter up to college in Portland and stay a couple of days in a hotel (booked name-your-own-price on Priceline). Since I’m eating out anyway, I pick up a couple of restaurant Groupons in advance of the trip. I bought a Groupon for $20 worth of pizza and wings for $9 and $30 sit-down restaurant for $12. When I’ve used them before vendors have said they were wildly successful for them. Groupons are also great to buy for gifts. Fire dancing lessons, trapeze experiences, massage, pedicures are hugely appreciated gifts at steep discounts for the giver.

When using a restaurant Groupon, the Groupon guy often tweets or Facebooks where he’s going to be and meets up with a follower or fan. Both enjoy eating with the Groupon, then the fan pays anything above the Groupon amount and the tip. Tips are not included in the Groupon amount and Groupon users should always tip separately and generously. As I read it, the Groupon guy only tips with groupons if the server accepts that arrangement.

One side bonus of Groupon membership – the Groupon copywriting team is witty and clever and the Groupon descriptions are often quite entertaining.