It was mentioned but not pictured that Nathan donated many of the products he purchased to charity. This was filmed, but not shown on the show. It was arranged for the Food Bank to come pick up the items on the afternoon of the last day of filming. As it happened, the truck showed up just prior to him building the Total Tower. The Food Bank Chairman and his wife a truck and two volunteers came to take the donation.

Before Nathan started the Tower, the producers had the Chairman and his wife go in the house and kept them sequestered. They wanted to get their surprise reaction to the Tower and stockpile. It took Nathan about 30 minutes maybe closer to 45 minutes to build the tower. They took the cereal right off the trailer. The production helpers brought the cereal to the tower just off camera and Nathan built the Tower. Not all the Total was used in the Tower, there was some left over still on the side and in the trailer, as it got so tall, Nathan could not go any higher.

Also not shown, a big gust of wind came up and blew off the top two boxes . Other than the top two rows, it was very sturdy, check out the pictures of that!!

At the reveal, they brought the Food Bank Chairman and his wife down to the garage, and raised the garage to reveal the tower. There reaction was priceless, and I was surprised it did not make the cut. Then they did an extensive interview with Nathan and the chairman and his wife. After that, everyone pitched in and loaded the cereal and the extra into the truck around 700-800 boxes.

Here is how it happened in pictures!!!!

Getting ready to start the Total Tower, the Total boxes were brought over close to were the Tower was to be built.




The camera man didn't understand how tall it was going to be. So Nathan was telling him and pointing to the roof, as it as going to be that high. It was kind of important, as they wanted to do the time lapse shoot and Nathan did not want to do it again if it went out of the shot.




This is Nathan setting the first row. He put marks on the ground, so it would be straight and square




This shot shows the producers and Sugar (sitting) of the left while Nathan is building the first row.




Nathan was concerned about the base row. The initial plan called for a solid base, but he changed it to have the base row with gaps in it. Less boxes were used that way and he ended up using less boxes than the original calculations called for.




Nathan started the second row. As a reinforcement between the layers, Nathan put a very thin sheet of plywood of top of some of the layers at the bottom to help stabilize the tower. It worked great.




Here is a shot of the helpers bringing the boxes from the trailer to the tower. Yes one of the guys is wearing a skirt. It is actually a Utili Kilt. I thought it was cool, but when I told Sugar I wanted one, she vetoed the idea.



Nathan building the third row.....





...and the forth row.




Here is a shot of the cars. Nathan had the "WeUseCoupons.com graphics put on both cars to try and promote the site. Sadly, they blanked out all reference to the site.




Here is the graphic on the other car. It would have looked better with black letters instead of white, now we know.



As Nathan get higher and higher, he had to use a ladder. It doesn't show very well, but it was very unstable.




The ladder was so wobbly, all the production crew including the producers got real interested, I think they were looking for one of those "reality moments"




So he had Sugar come over to steady the ladder. I refused to sign the waiver to be on camera, so I couldn't help.




The ladder got so shaky, Nathan decided to try the other side. It was a little better on that side.




The last very top boxes were hard to get on top. Picture this the ladder is wobbling, Sugar is trying to steady it, the producers hoping for it to just crash down with Nathan falling. That was what it was llike.




Finally it is finished with no drama moments.




The finished Total Tower



Right after the tower was finished, they interviewed Nathan talking to Sugar. This interview did not make it to the show.




This is when the wind gust hit. It blew the top two rows off and blew one of the microphones over. The production man is running to get to the equipment.




They did a lot of filming of the completed tower. More than I expected for the little that was used in the show.




The other thing that kink of irked me is they would not let Nathan put his sign on the tower. He made a sign that said Total Tower and the website, but they did not want it on there. It was to go where the blue row is.




Here is a pic a took after they were done filming, and just before the reveal. I ran over and put the sign on when they weren't looking. Took a quick pic and they had to take it down.

Here is the reveal. The food bank Chairman and his wife are standing just inside the garage.




This is right after the reveal. I wish I had a video of their expressions. Priceless.




Nathan then interviewed them both. They are from the Franklin Area Community Services.



More Filming!!!




More filming!!




Here is a shot of the two volunteers from the food bank that helped load all the product.



Here is the truck from the Food Bank getting ready to take the cereal.




They weren't sure how to get the top rows down without the whole thing just crashing down. So Nathan went and got the ladder again.




Nathan decided he had to deconstruct the tower. Notice how many people are holding the ladder this time. LOL




All pitched in to load the truck




In addition to the Total cereal, the other product was also donated and loaded up that very afternoon



The donation letter the organization sent later

Thank you all for viewing this segment of TLC Extreme Couponing Behind the Scenes. Donations are a BIG part of what we do!!! We were slightly disappointed that it was not highlighted more. TLC did get it wrong though, although we donate to our church regularly, the majority of the Total Cereal was donated IMMEDIATELY to the food bank!!

Here are some of the items we donated to the Food Bank:
700-800 boxes of Total Cereal. (We purchased 1,100 boxes so 300-400 boxes goes to our churches grocery giveaway monthly, we still have some and continue to give monthly to that program)
600 Sticks of Deodorant
60 Cartons of Oatmeal
400 Boxes of Jello (last little bit of Jello goes bye-bye )
100 packages of floss
200 toothbrushes
100 cans of Hormel Chili
300 Bottles of Gillette Body Wash
200 Bottles of Aspirin
100 Packs of Rolaids
150 Bottles of Salad Dressing
50 Cans of Disinfectant Spray
50 Diabetic Meters
and various other household items in smaller quantities

They valued the donation at $6000, click here to see the letter!!

This is really great!!! Thanks Dad for the great pictures, I didn't even know you took them!!!

Ya'll really are wonderful people!

Thanks for the pictures..and the rest of the story.

Sincerely, Michelle

Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious. ~Bill Meyer

My 9yr old daughter watched the show with me last night. I just showed her this thread and she's all "WOW". Thank you for showing and listing what all it took to do this. My kids and I are going to start donating some of our surplus once we are able to build up a surplus. You are truly an inspiration!

Thank you so much for sharing all the fun details!! A lot of work went into this segment! Wish they had shown more of it. You all are very creative and patient!!

Thanks again!

Bloom where you're planted.
Proud Wife of 17 years to Army soldier with 27 years of service , Mommy to 8 year old DD .

Apple said it BEST.....it is wonderful that couponing enables people to give more!

It is too bad couponing is given a bad wrap with the overtones of Hoarding and OCD!!

Thanks for the behind the scenes shots Best Couponer!!

You all can be VERY Proud of all that you do for charities and for us fellow WUCkies! Thank You!!!

Couponing is

I enjoyed the show and the "show after the show" up above. Great pics! I learned a few things and have but one burning question...

Where did you order the graphics for your autos? I have thought about putting one on the back of my SUV. I'm thinking that it would help with deductions on taxes too!

LOL that is so funny you ask that!!! We have a few friends in the printing business, and they printed them both for $30!!!