free day means SHOPPING

Okay ladies.. I'll admit I've been missing hounding something fierce especially after having to go to Woodmans the other night and spent $96. Yeah it was $96 of darn good deals, but having to shell out that kind of cash.. yeah well.. you guys understand. I haven't spent $96 in an entire month on groceries. oh well

Okay I only put together a few deals and it took me long enough to do these.. so bear with me.

Butera
3 cans of black beans 69 cents each used $1/3 coupon
2 clearance sausage $1.15 each
1 clearance bacon 99 cents
6 v-day clearance cupcakes $1.50
1 can sardines for my cat 99 cents
total $6.96



Dominicks
I got there and *thought* I had forgotten a HORMEL coupon so I didn't do the same pork tenderloin deal as I had done on Sat night. Then, when I got home I realized I did have one with me.. grr
4 boxes cereal 4/$10 store coupon $4 off (makes them $4/6) then used two $1.50 off 2 manus = 4/$3 or 75 cents each
1 bag chips $1.99 store coupon $1 off 99 cents
1 head of lettuce $1.49
total $5.63

CVS
4 boxes of Pop Tarts $2 each used $1/2 manus $6
1 CVS soap $1.69
2 CVS allergy $1.79 each (clearance)
2 boxes CVS cheese crackers $1.97 each
1 CVS 10ct Ibuprofen $1.99 FREEBIE with a coupon I got from the scanner!!
2 cans Campbells Healthy Request soup BOGO used FREE COUPON BOTH FREE
$2/$10 cvs coup, $7.50 in ECBS spent $5.xx OOP and got back $2 ECB for the crackers
total OOP $5.90 *gasp



Meijer
2 sour cream $1.29 each used $1/2 Meijer coup and 2 55 cent manus
2 coffee mate $2.99 each used $1/2 Meijer coup and $1 IP manus
1 bag of cat food $3.76 FREEBIE with manu coup
total $3.86 left the cashier scratching her head!! for real!

I also went to Petco but really only got my cat a few things. Not much. I wanted to go to Woodmans again and Jewel but seriously ran out of energy.. sick huh.

owned

yup that's me.. today.. you see.. I ran a bunch of errands. Came home started taking pictures of my deals. Went outside to take pics of the the last deals and dropped my camera on the ground. Grr.. we've been looking for a new camera HOWEVER we don't have the $$ to be going off to buy a new one yet. when I take pics the screen looks normal but then the pic looks all weird. I figured maybe it was just the way the pictures were displaying. yeah no dice... I just loaded them and they look like this...


yeah not good.

Okay.. my run went like this

CVS (sorry it's impossible to see what is in the picture)
First Transaction
4 Glade candles $2.50 each used $1.50/2 coupons
paid $7.xx OOP got back $5 ECB

Second Transaction
4 batteries $5.99 each used 2 $5/2 and 75 cent coupons
4 Glade plug in refills $3.99 ea used BOGO coupons
2 Glade candles $2.50 each used $1.50/2 coupon
$5 ECB and $15 ECB from last trip
paid $3 OOP and got back a $15 ECB for Duracell and a $10 ECB for glade.

Butera
2 bagged salads 99 cents each used 75 cent coupons
1 clearance bag of rolls 99 cents
$1.52 OOP

First transaction
9 Swiss miss hot chocolates $1 each (regular price $2.35) used 2 30 cent coupons
1 (not pictured) Parmesan cheese $2.99
$10 CAT from last week
$1.60 OOP and got back $10 CAT

Second transaction
8 boxes cereal $3 each used $1/2 coupons
2 boxes chex mix bars $3 each used $1/2 coupons
$15 in CATS $9.53 OOP got back a free milk CAT (for next transaction) and $15 more in CATS.


Last transaction
1 milk $3 used $4.50 coupon gave overage
1 Dannon Yogart$2.29 Avenu coupon 75 cents
paid 12 cents for both

Okay so the question of the day is, do you know of any great deals on cameras? Bring em here if you do! :)

ran a few errands tonight...

I had 2 REDBOX movies to return (freebies with Walgreen's text codes from yesterday) so I decided to grab some coupons and get in on the buy $20 get $10 Conagra deal. Sorry I had so many stops to make I didn't get pics of everything.

Jewel
have you ever seen such a perfect HUNT'S diced tomato pyramid? The cream cheese couldn't make it to the cheering competitions tonight, sorry. and for heavens sake, will someone please little miss hunt's diced in the 2nd row from the top on the left to stop looking at her mom while we are taking pictures.. geez! I guess this is what Jon & Kate plus 8 feel like at family pic time!!
♥10 Hunts diced tomatoes regular price $1.80 sale $1 used 5 .40/2 manu coupons
♥1 Healthy Choice meal thingy regular price $3.95 sale price $3 used $1 manu
used two $5 CATS from last weeks trips paid tax for those items
♥2 Zone Perfect bars on sale for $1 ea used $1 manus FREEBIES
♥2 Jewel cream cheese on sale for $1 ea
paid $2.30 OOP for that entire order. Basically I paid for the cream cheese and everything else was free! OOH and I got another $10 CAT for my next purchase!!

Butera
yes, that is a Thomas Kinkade stained glass covering an outlet in my kitchen.. and yes, that is a phone jack with no phone.. the only phone jack in our house and there is no phone.. woot for being unplugged for 5 years and counting!
♥2 Fresh Express bag salads on sale for 99 cents each used 2 .75 coupons 24 cents each
♥1 lb Deli Salami $2.95
♥6 pack onion rolls day old sale $1.19
♥2 Banquet breakfast sausage 99 cent each
Total OOP $6.74

Dominicks

♥2 gallons of milk sale price $1.99
Total OOP $4.05 p.s. if you've never seen 2 gallons of milk together, raise your hand...

Okay so my total for the night is: $13.09 added on to my total from yesterday of 18 cents I'm at $13.27 for 2 days.. ughh not great.. but I've gotten items that will last.

I ♥ Butera clearance

Okay.. have I not told you guys about Butera clearance before? Seriously.. every time I go there I hit their clearance sections because they change every day. In the produce section they normally have a full cart of produce that has been wrapped and greatly reduced in price.

Today I got 4 huge peppers (red, yellow, 2 green) for 79 cents. Nothing wrong with any of them.. I cut them up and threw them in my freezer.. DONESKI (that's done in Chitown polish if you didn't figure that out) Also I go by the bakery and look at their stuff.. most days they have brat buns, hamburger buns, or dinner rolls marked down to 99 cents. that is what they had today so I got some hamburger buns. Other days they have garlic bread marked down and sometimes those awesome sugar cookies with all the frosting on them.. yummmm The garlic bread I normally take home and throw right in the freezer.

I know Butera is a small little grocery chain in the Chicago area. They are family owned and operated. They boast an amazing produce section normally priced well below the other area grocery stores.

grocery brag

Okay I don't have a pic because by the time I got home with these deals all my neighbors were outside and wanted to talk. I finally remembered I had groceries to put away including ice cream so I quick took them inside.

I don't ever get great grocery deals and to everyone else who is a grocery gamer I'm sure this isn't that impressive considering somehow I always read you have a balance of like $5 and you use a GC which I have no clue how you get. I don't have the same stores, not one store in my area ever does double coupon days, and we never get $5/$25 or anything like that ever in our area. I've seen Jewel do $5/$150 a few times.

♥ 5lbs of boneless/skinless chicken $5.99 $1.99/lb
♥ 2 lbs of bacon $1.99 each
♥ cilantro 2/$1
♥ tub of onions (on clearance rack) 89 cents
♥ skim milk $2.79 (this is a high price for me but we needed milk)
♥ 3 8oz bricks of cheese $4
♥ dozen eggs 99 cents
♥ edy's slow churned ice cream $2.89 used $1 manu coupon
♥ banana's $1.39
♥ 2 bakery garlic breads 79 cents each

$24.57 OOP total.

**side note for myself** I don't do a really good job keeping track of my savings like others do, however, I have started keeping a small spreadsheet just to keep track of how much I've spent. It's helping me stay on budget more than anything.

As of today I have spent $125.69 this month in groceries/wags/cvs/target/meijer runs. My budget for groceries is $300 per month so I'm doing very well as you can see. $300 includes all my groceries, paper products, toiletries but does not include eating out which comes out of my entertainment allowance.

My savings to date is $519.16 but that is a rough estimate because some stores break down your savings like adding in sales prices (what you would have spent if you hadn't gotten certain products on sale) other stores don't even give a "savings" amount so on those I count up my coupons and just put that in as my savings.

This is going to take forever... maybe longer..

first stop jewel

Okay.. sooooo I wanted to go to Jewel first because it's the farthest, I had nothing cold to get there and because they had a super give away at this particular one JUST TODAY! It was a reuseable grocery bag filled with free organic goodies (including pet products) and tons of coupons. If I had time like a day and half I'd actually list out each coupon.. all I know is that they are all for organic products.

I tried to take this picture twice but my chihuahua Blue just had to be in the pic.. I guess he's my photobomb for the day.. ha ha

Inside Jewel I wanted to get the $1.77 cereal deal (limit 4) and it just so happened that I had two $1 off coupons and a free chex mix product (up to $4) from GM for calling in and telling them about a bag of chex mix 100 cal pack I got that was slit up the back. Totally weird. It was like a box cutter had cut right up the back of the bag but there was no box cut mark in the box that the bag came from.

anyway so I got all this for $11.xx but I'm taking the soup back because even with the $1 off 2 coupon they were $5!! I had no clue they were $2.99 each. I thought they were $1.99 each. I did finally get to use my MUIR coupon but just for that little can of tomato sauce. I only had one.

STOP TWO WAGS

I had read WAGS was doing a demonstration type deal today something to do with Clean and Clear complete with coupons/samples so I went in to check it out. Basically it was both the Clean and Clear blackhead eraser and the Advantage Acne Cpontrol Kit were both $19.99. All Clean & Clear products were buy 1 get 1 50% off this week plus buy $30 and get $10 in RR. So because I was a few cents short she run up one of my C&C items as $20.10, gave me 2 $1 off C&C coupons, 50% one of them, plus a $5 Internet coupon she had sitting there. I had a $5 RR plus somehow she worked in 2 packs of Starbucks candy for free (she had the coupons for those too.. I wanted to ask for some coupons for myself but didn't). so my total came out to $19.xx and then I got the $10 ECB!!



so basically, I got all this for $9.xx not bad!!

exhausting unorganized stop CVS!!

Okay, so I'm driving to CVS and realize I'm really not all that prepared. I have a few coupons for deals that are ending today. I have a my CVS $2/$10's printed, $2 skincares printed.. that's about it.. no lists breaking up my deals, figuring out rough totals nothing.. okay.. wing it.. My total for all three transactions were OOP $2.80 and one $10 ECB which I got back.

Transaction 1

2 Crest toothpastes $2.49 each with $1.50 ECB plus 2 75 cent coupons

2 oral b toothbrushes $2.49 with $1.50 ECB plus 1 $1 off 2 coupon

2 colgate toothpastes $2.99 each with $2 ECB plus 2 $1 coupons

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CVS hand sanitizers $1.19 each b1g1 50% off with $2 off CVS skincare coupon

total came out to $8 something and I had planned on using a $10 ECB so I threw another CVS antibacterial $1.49 and a nail clipper $1.19 up on the counter. My OOP was 19 cents!! I got a $6 ECB for Crest/Oral B and a $4 ECB for colgate.

Transaction 2

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CG lashblast $8.49 b1g1 50% (I thought this was B1G1 free?? hmm, oh well) plus 1 B1g1 free coupon

2 CVS foaming soap $1.99 each b1g1 50% off with $2 CVS skincare coupon.

My total came to $2.18 OOP which should have been negative now that I see what I did wrong.. oh well I wanted to try that mascara anyway! lol!

Transaction 3

1 cvs sunscreen $2.19 with $2 off all CVS sunscreens PLUS $1 CVS sunscreen coupon from scanner

2 CG loose powder $7.99 each B1G1 sale with B1G1 free coupon

2 CVS aloe hand soap $1.69 b1g1 50% off with $2 CVS skincare coupon

again my total was negative so I threw another CVS antibacterial $1.49 and a nail clipper $1.19 up on the counter. My total OOP was 43 cents! Woot!

Last stop, Butera

Okay I went simply for the $1.99 milk.. but you have to spend $20 to get that good milk price. It's limit one so I went twice this week. Ok. So I wanted to make sure I got only things we would use so I wound up with lettuce, cantalope, hot dog buns, water bottles, 2 liters of pop, 4 cans of full throttle, milk, and some marked down doughnuts. My total with coupons was $21.95.. not bad.

TOTALS for the day

Okay, roughly OOP I spent $55.53

minus $10 CVS ECB

minus $10 WAGS RR

minus $5 soup return later today

I spent around $30

Plus I got a $4.79 Rebate today from Excederin. Not sure if I mentioned it but I also got one for $6.49 yesterday from 3M for the stove top cleaner I bought a few weeks ago.

In the mail today I got Glad force flex trash bag sample, and a Freeze It sample with a $1 off coupon. At WAGS I got a sample of Eucerin Redness Relief face wash and face moisturizer along with coupons for those products.

Okay so the way I'm looking at it, I spent $30 on the Clean and Clear products at WAGS and everything else you see was free! not bad for a few hours!

this GAME is sooo frusterating!

OKay.. so this was my idea for the day. I had TWO $5 RR from the WAGS KELLOGGS DEAL from Sunday. So I figured this.

1st transaction
8 speed stick deoderants 4 womens 4 mens $1.99 each
use 5 coupons 2 $1/1 3 $1/2
use 2 $5 RR
pay $2.15 (roughly)(giftcard)
get $10 RR from Speedsticks

2nd transaction
2 biofusion products $5.99 each
use $10 RR from Speedsticks
pay $3.xx OOP (gift card)

Earn $11.98 toward Easy Saver.

and that is basically what I did HOWEVER.. of course my coupons wouldn't work, the cashier told me I COULD NOT use two RR together in one transaction.. even though it does not state it anywhere and I haven't heard not one person say that ever on here.. ughh

So of course I walk up and there is not one person in the store.. just me and employees, nobody at the register and little old lady Judy starts my order and as soon as she sees the RR's "ooh I can't take both of these the last time I tried this it messed me up" so she tries *shaking her head the whole time* then she calls half the other employees asking them telling them what the register says (she can't just ask one of them to come up) I've tried that/this/whatever. Now there is 5 people in line and she has tried the first $5 RR like 27 times and it beeps and says something like it was more coupons than products which is totally wrong.. okay whatever.

So finally mr manager comes up front as she whispers "ohhh he's in a terrible mood" great as I turn and roll my eyes. Finally she calls for Mary to open a 2nd register and sends a majority of the line back to her. mr manager voids my entire transaction, rerings, throws my $5 RR through FIRST, then my coupons and my total is $7.15 they refuse to take my 2nd $5 RR he said they aren't allowed to.. okay whatever.

So then the 2nd transaction I messed up by grabbing one of those Jane make-ups IN THE WRONG SIZE, so it rings up $6.99 even though what I grabbed had a tag that said $4.99. She checks the size (of course with everybody sighing and coughing behind me) and says "oh you have the 1.4 oz not the .xx oz" or whatever. ok.... great.. so it's right there next to the register to I grab the correct one as she is taking off the other one and she rings up my total $8.29, I put $5.64 the remaining balance of my gift card and paid $2.65 on my debit card which I had more than $2 cash but I was so nervous with everybody mad behind me I just threw it on my debit card.

After that I strolled over to Dollar General to see what coupons I could steal or which ones of mine I could use NOTHING! great huh? So I went next door to Butera (the store I had a big problem with over the 75 cent Krakus coupons) and got a few things. they had $1.99 milk (with a $20 transaction) so I got two packages of Scott towels for $4.99 each and used my $1 coupons and then some fruits/veggies, kraft cheese for free with 3 kraft products (kool aid), and sour cream. I had never had this cashier before but woahh what a nastyyyy girl.. at first I thought maybe someone had seen me in the store and told her to be careful with my coupons (because she asked me about each of them including the Butera milk coupon) but then I heard her talking to the lady behind me and this girl was just a nasty arrogant miserable person. Nice huh?

Got some great samples yesterday/today. Eukenuba Naturally Wild dog food which both my cat and dog love!! That came with a $5 off any size dog food coupon. Gillette shampoo with $1 coupon, Carress body wash with $1 coupon, and another Stayfree sample with $1 coupon.

Okay so in the end I still have my $5 RR and am out $10 OOP which makes me mad.. but whatever. I think from now on I'll go to the cosmetics or camera register myself to avoid the whole situation! lol!

the curse

and so it goes.. I'm cursed. everyone has a curse of some sort. I believe. my husband's curse is being the slow driver magnet. No matter where we go, what time of day, it ALWAYS takes my husband twice the time it would take anyone else to drive there.. why? because every person in front of my husband drives at least 10 mph under the speed limit even during rush hour traffic and if they don't do that then they ride the break so you never if they are actually stopping for something or not. my curse has been pretty obvious over the years.. being my friend or just someone who knows me usually proves to be dangerous.. fatal is some instances.
I have the worst luck when it comes to my friends.

but worse is now this coupon hounding curse. I love it so much.. the deals.. out there calling to me.. sooooo I had a ton to do today.. and of course I wanted to hit my walgreens for their $5/$20 deal.. and I get there around 9am there wasn't anyone there.. ahhh yes.. I get my milk and decide to get the glucose monitor why..?? because it's free that's why. and because $14.99 + $5 = almost $20.. woot.. so I pay nothing OOP!! So I decide to stop and get some $1 items like twizzlers and those little crystal light type packets (I think they are Wylers brand) that WAGS sells for $1 per box. I figure I need them anyway so I buy enough to cover a possible $5 overage. I also grabbed a bottle of Pert to add to my easy saver.. armed with my $5/$20 WAGS coupon, 99 cent each twizzler, $3 off Pert, up to $20 off Touch one coupons I walk to the front to cash out.

In front of me walks a lady with only one item and she motions for me to go in front of her.. ahh noo.. I have COUPONS that always seem to take forever. So she goes ahead. I get up there and the cashier now is telling me her life story, showing me her blood monitor, her lunch, and I have no clue what else. oh yeah she was cleaning the countertop.. so finally she starts ringing me up.. I have some weird total like $36 which I never pay attention to..

So I hand her my coupons and she starts to try to scan the One Touch first and I say "ohhh you better do the $5 off $20 coupon first otherwise it probably won't work once the total is under $20" she looks puzzled, totally confused, but does it anyway. Then she tries to scan the ONe Touch coupon.. of course.. no dice. she looks it over and over.. keys in the $14.99 shrugs and keeps going.. my total NEGATIVE $4.81. umm okay.. how did that happen. now there is a huge line behind me (probably 7-8 people and if any of them were at Butera on Tuesday they hate my guts) so finally she calls for a manager, another cashier to open a register, and the cosmetic counter opens up her lane. Very relieved by standers make their little snide comments "thank god" as they glare at me likes it's my fault she has no clue what she did.

In the end it turns out she keyed in the $14.99 twice.. damn.. why didn't I get a few more items huh? At one point she kept telling me it was the $5/$20 because she couldn't give it to me for free. I said THAT IS A WALGREENS COUPON!! omg! she had no clue. so my total in the end was $7.13 I think? sounds right. ughh so in the end my 10-15 minute WAGS trip took me almost an hour.. nice huh? ughhh

So I wound up calling Butera corporate today.. the store I had the issue in on Tuesday. So I told the entire lengthy story to the RECEPTIONIST who was sure she could help me.. so after telling the whole store I'm pretty darn sure she put down the phone and wasn't listening because I told the story in time order and she had no idea what was going.. I was about to hang up and I mentioned something about talking to a neighbor about this last night and she said "oh this happned recently" I have given dates/times/descriptions earlier.. SO YEAHH.. she never took my name, number, anything.. just said she would "look into it" and *hoped* I would continue to shop there.. uhh yeah.. not so much.

ughhh thank god for good deals EARLIER in the day!!

Okay.. so I wanted to at least use my $5 RR from last week and get that $7 RR for this week.. so I headed to WAGS. I didn't think I made any rookie mistakes in a long time but I was just on the phone with my Aunt-in-law (my husband's aunt) and realized I had better coupons than what I used! ughh I went through those P&G's that are all expiring this week like 20 times.. I don't know how I missed them.

Anyway.. I also realized today that I haven't been adding my samples that I get through the mail. Today in the mail I got tampons from Tampax, at Walgreens I got a skin cream sample and also a Biore sample and one other I can't remember off the top of my head. Also, I got my first 2 rebate checks!! and one of them came with MORE COUPONS!! and wouldn't you know it.. rebatetracker.com is down? WTF! lol! I got $2.49 for the Sure Deoderant rebate and $3.29 for the Zout rebate!! woot!!

Okay so here is all the loot..



WAGS

6 Olay body washes 3/$10
1 Ultra 2 glucose monitoring system $14.99

Used
$5 RR from last week
3 $2 coupons for the Olay
2 $1.50 coupons for the Olay
1 $1 coupon for the Olay
up to $20 for the One touch (she gave me $14.99 so I got it free)

Total $6.81 got my $7 RR
of course I came home and found those other $2 coupons!! ughh! not good.

Stopped at Pet-Co and grabbed one 4lb bag of Nutro cat food (senior) and one 5lb bag of Nutro dog food (small bites) had free coupons for both but I had to pay $2 in tax?? is that right? I didn't want to argue with the girl.. she was really nice and I didn't read the actual coupons so they may have said Free up to $10.99 and my bags were $11 something each or whatever.

Then to Butera (read below)
but I did manage to get 2 monsters for free with my free monster coupons
and Edy's ice cream for $1.49 each. They were $2.49 on sale and I had $1 off coupons. So not a bad day.

$6.81 - $7.00 (rr) = -19 cents
$2 at petco
$20 at Butera

so basically $26.81 OOP
$50.16 in coupons & RR
$7 RR for my next WAGS trip
samples
and $5.78 in Rebate checks!

I know I make no sense do I? lol!

using coupons = RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE???

Okay I wanted to use 2 of the FREE monster coupons I had gotten, 6 coupons for 75 cents off a 1/2 lb of Krakus Ham and 2 coupons for $1 off Edy's ice cream. Soooooo the last time I had these SAME 75 cent off coupons for Krakus I walked into the store and SPECIFICALLY ASKED the customer service desk girl if I had to split each 1/2 lb up or if I could get them as full lbs or what. I said I didn't want to make more effort for the cashier because it's hard enough to use coupons. So she said "go ahead and get them however you need them and then I'll just come override them for you, NO PROBLEM!" big smile.. happy as could be.

I went about my shopping and the only coupons I had were for the Krakus ham and of course it was giving the cashier a problem.. I let her know that the customer service lady said she would override them with no problem, so she calls her over.. little miss smilie comes over, overrides them and as I'm leaving I realize that the way that it appears on the little sticker printout on the meat it looks like I've well over paid.. so I'm standing there and the cashier asks if there is a problem.. and I said "ahh I'm just trying to figure this out, if it's right" so she asks "which product" and I tell her it doesn't seem like the deli had printed out the right sticker or something.. so then like 3 other people come over another cashier, little miss smilie customer service desk lady, oh and one of the deli people even showed up. So we went back and forth and I kept saying over and over "I was just trying to figure it out in my head" and they kept going and going with it.. Finally I said "NO IT'S FINE, I WAS JUST TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT FOR MYSELF" little miss smilie is now NASTY says "I *HOPE* you are satisfied" umm okay.. whatever and I leave.

That was about 3-4 weeks ago.. so fast forward to today. Now I have 6 coupons for the 75cents off.. KRAKUS is on sale for $1.99 a 1/2 lb so I'm riding nicely at $1.25 a 1/2 lb or $2.50 a full lb!! Cool. I walk in again.. get my ice cream, the monsters, wait at the deli counter get 3lbs of KRAKUS all split in 1 lb packages, and a few other items. I get to the cashier and all heyyyylll breaks loose. Somehow I get mr ghetto gangster cashier who doesn't understand that a PURCHASE IS 1 ITEM. so he's fighting me that I can't use 2 coupons for 2 monsters. I calmly explain that each item is a PURCHASE and all my items is a transaction (as you've taught me here, thank you everybody) and he says he can't do it, it won't let him.. so I look over and it's because he is keying in $1.99 instead of their price of $1.69!! So I tell him that he says "ohhhhhh" keys it in, it goes through.. no issue. he gave me major tude, but at some point I said "Fine take one of the monsters off and I'll do it as a separate TRANSACTION" and he said "whatever"

Then he keys in the $1 off coupons for the Edy's..no issue.

Then he get to the Krakus I explain it to him and he's like "oh yeah ok" so he put in one, it took it.. the 2nd one.. nope.. so one of the other cashiers comes over and tries to override them for him.. it lets her do 2 others and won't go any further. so she looks at me and shurgs as if to say "too bad lady" and I said "okay take two of the hams off and I'll just buy THOSE separately" so mr ghetto boy gets all huffy and starts taking them off BUT instead of grabbing the 2nd one which is priced LOWER by 30 cents he tries to take off 2 of the lower ones.. so I stop him just as he's about to do it and he says "I wasn't going to do that" he's still holding the one that is marked $3.90. the $3.90 is already taken off.. done.. so now the line behind me is totally backed up.. and here comes miss smilie all ticked off apologizing to the people BEHIND me for the wait and yelling at the cashiers and me "RING HER OUT I'LL TAKE CARE OF THIS UP THERE" then mumbling "this is nuts, totally ridiculous" and some other choice comments I could clearly hear. So he rings me out.. gives me this little receipt and she says where is the receipt.. I give her what he gave me.. she asks HIM for the receipt he has no idea what he did with it.. tries to give her something else and now nasty smilie says "THIS ISN'T EVEN THE RECEIPT" and looks at me.. I have no clue WTF he did with it.. so we walk over and she says so what happened, I explain it to her (I forgot to tell you he was trying to take all my 75 cent coupons off at one point too), she gets all huffy and says "YES I REMEMBER YOU FROM LAST TIME" and I'm like.. "umm I'm right, I don't see what the issue is with this.. I specifically asked you how I should do this transaction, I did it how you SAID I could do it and it's still a problem" she slams some piece of paper in front of me asks me to sign it.. hands me $1.50 and then rings up the last ham, scans the 2 75 coupons which scanned perfectly fine for her with no overriding.. then as I'm leaving makes some comment in a sing song voice "HAVE A NICE DAY"

OMG I was steaming! What is the deal? I don't get it!! Why is this such an issue???
Smile.. it will make people wonder what you are thinking!

I see why moneysavingmom.com took a week off...

this hobby is very frusterating.. every week I make a huge mistake or a cashier makes it impossible for me to get the full deal that others are getting at their stores.. etc.. anyway.. today of course was no different.. of course, I was nervous all over again.. I'm going to make a post about nerves.. I swear.

Anyway.. I had 4 stops to make tonight.. stay tuned.. this ride is gonna bore the heyyyll out of anyone.

stop 1

Starbucks.. I found a link for free starbucks. I posted it on my neighborhood site, gave a few copies to my son/nephew who both refused to use them because it looked fake. A few days later my neighbors told me they've been using them every day. I tried to use one and was told it was fake and I couldn't use it.. bomb #1 of the day.

stop 2

butera grocery store..
got only sale items.. but now I need to look at the receipt because I spent $20 and really didn't get much. I did get 2lbs of ham that were priced at 99 cents a half lb.. other than that some produce, cheese, not really much else.

stop 3

Walgreens.. WHAT A MESS bomb #578,923,190 coming to a theater near you.. omg..
I had a ton of coupons.. both store and manufacturer.. of course I couldn't get half my deals to work because first the store had barely any of the products I wanted and the manager didn't offer rain checks.. I'm such a wuss, I should have asked.. instead I said "I'll check another walgreens before Sunday" ugh

I would have taken a pic of everything I got BUT I'm a dummy and left my camera plugged into the computer which drains it.. the battery is being charged now.

Basically I got 2 bottles of pantene, 3 powerades, 5 folders, paper clips, pencils, markers, dawn dish soap, highliters, pens, mechanical pencils, and a ruler for OOP $4.14 but I'll be turning in $8 in Easy Saver rebates from this trip.. so I made roughly $4 on the deal.. I guess I didn't do as bad as I thought..

I tried to do the stayfree deal.. B1G1 50% off plus a B1G1 free coupon which would make me pay $3 for 2 huge packs of pads.. but I messed up and grabbed the wrong pads.. so that was a rookie mistake (gotta read the little signs in front of the products, the sale ads, etc) and then I got free Monster coupons.. yeah.. Walgreens only gave me $1.99 when they were charging $2.69 for each.. why? BECAUSE the coupons states that you can only get up to $1.99 for each.. ughh I'll get them someplace else that only charges $1.99!!

stop 4

Jewel
I had to pull the cereal/milk deal one more time (5/$10 cereal with a free gallon of milk) we are actually running low on cereal again and was totally out of milk. So this was a good run. They had B1G1 free ICBINB tubs and I had a 50 cent coupon.. not much but it was a product I needed and for some reason I don't do well with food hounding. I gotta work on that. I have enough shampoo and dish soap to last until next year. I'll be donating that stuff for sure. Anyway.. so milk, cereal, ICBINB tubs, and liquid smoke.

I decided to ring up the cereal first by itself to make sure I got the coupon at a self checkout. I did. Cool.. so I had heard that a friend of mine used the self checkout and if you keep using coupons of the same brand product it will take them.. so I tried that trick and it didn't work for me.. oh well..

so my 2nd transaction I stayed at the self checkout so I could see if I could get the full $4.50 when my milk was only $3.79 and I did!! Yeahh!!! So my total for my 2 tubs of ICBINB, milk, and liquid smoke was only $4.38 I think.. my first transaction came out to $7 something.. I didn't do that good on the coupons for that deal.. oh well. I saved $8 just in coupons with both deals and it was for things we actually needed for this week.

I'll try to post pics later when I grow a brain and get my camera charged.