....but it's less than five dollars...

There are 2 Wal-mart stores near me. One is close to my house. It's a "super" Wal-mart so it's ridiculously big. There are always crowds, the lines are long and I've even seen people shove each other to get to some deals. I try to avoid this store as much as possible. The other store is close to my work. Every time I stop there on my lunch break I swear I will never step foot in there ever again. Of course I never learn. I hate Wal-mart. I repeat, I hate Wal-mart. No offence to anyone....but I hate people who shop there (even though I do too). I hate people who work there. I just hate everything about Wal-mart. So naturally this post is all about it.

Travis works outside, so he takes Powerade to work with him every day. I noticed that they had Powerade on sale for 78 cents so I figured I would stock up. I went to to the store near work on my lunch break yesterday. I needed 10 bottles of Powerade, 2 boxes of pain patches, sandwich bags, and air freshener. That's it. I had 5 coupons. Not a huge number of items or coupons so I figured I was safe. HA! My order came to $26.26. The cashier scanned my coupons and it brought my total down to $14.26. I scanned my debt card and walked out.

As I was putting my bags in my car I realized that the cashier hadn't scanned all of my coupons. I had 2 coupons to save $1.00 when you buy 5 bottles of Powerade, 2 coupons for $5.00 off each pain patch and one coupon for a free air freshener. She failed to scan one of the Powerade coupons and didn't take off the money for air freshener. Uggg! I debated on just saying screw it. After all, it was only $3.66. Then I thought, no way, I'm going to say something. I took the time to clip those coupons. It's my fucking three dollars and sixty-six cents and I want it back!

I went back into the store and marched over to customer service. I told the clerk what had happened. He gave me this look like, "really lady? It's less than five dollars". He then told me that there wasn't much that they could do. I told him I would walk to the register with him and that he could check the register's coupons. He could see for himself that there was a mistake. Again, I got the look.... "it's less than five dollars, lady!" Normally I don't do stuff like this. I'm very passive. Something about this irritated me though and I wasn't leaving until I got my money back. He huffed and we walked over to the register.

Amazingly enough, there were my coupons. Shocker, right? We walked back to the customer service counter and he re-scanned my coupons and reluctantly handed me my money. I wanted to scream, "That's right, bitch!"...but I refrained. So my total cost for all my purchases was brought down to $10.60. Not too bad!

In the end, I took my money and went to Dunkin Donuts to feed my iced latte addiction. I even had change left over and it was delicious. Totally worth every penny....and all the hassle of dealing with the inevitable stress of shopping at Wal-mart. I still HATE shopping there. I always will. I'm sure I should learn a lesson from this...but knowing me, I won't. I'll probably end up there again next week. Heaven help me!

Happy weekend!

Something for nothing

Hi friends. I am in fact, alive. I had planned several blogs ....but like everything in my house, my computer is falling apart. It has approximately 8000 viruses on it. Or maybe slightly less. ;) I'm hoping we will magically come into money soon so I can get everything fixed and running correctly. Until then, I just have to suffer through.

In an effort to start saving money, my friend suggested I start using coupons. I just laughed at her. Up until that point, I never used a coupon at a grocery store in my life. Ever. I always use the 50% off coupons at AC Moore or Michael's but never at a grocery store. It seemed like such a time consuming task so I never bothered. She suggested I check out this site called Living rich with coupons. In the past few years everything, gas, food, expenses...have gone up. Everything that is, except my paycheck (don't get me started!). Reluctantly, I agreed to start couponing.

The first time I used a few coupons and saw that they doubled up to a $1.00 at my grocery store, I was hooked. I tried to find as many coupons as I could for the brands that we used. I still wasn't saving a ton of money but I figured it was still better than not using coupons at all. It was money in my pocket instead of handing it over to the store. I finally wised up and realized to get the most bang for your buck you have to match up the items that are on sale with your coupons. Now I know it is a time consuming task....but a beneficial one.

I recently started watching Extreme couponing on TLC. Have you seen it? It's INSANE! These people rack up about a $1000 in groceries but use so many coupons that they pay little or nothing for carts (yes, SEVERAL carts) full of stuff. How the f do they do it? I really wonder. My store puts a limit on how many same coupons you can use in one transaction so I have no clue how they accomplish it. Everyone wants something for nothing. Or in their case, everything for nothing!

I am no where near that good...nor do I ever think I can/will be. I am happy with my progress though. Last night I spent about $91 at the supermarket....but I saved $82! AND, I got something for nothing. A few somethings actually. Yep! I am proud to say that I got 3 bars of deodorant, 1 bottle of shampoo, 8 candy bars, 2 bottles of coffee creamer and 2 bottles of ketchup for free! WHOOO HOOO! So I may not be saving as much as those extreme couponers but I am saving a little. And every bit helps.

Do you use coupons? Have any good tips or tricks to share? I’d love to hear them.

Love, Kelly