a cartoon, my own cake wrecks, and super SPENDING Saturday.

well.. I got this cartoon from Jackie over at Mommy on a Debt Free Mission she also has a story about having to fight for her coupon rights... *sigh* so very frustration to me to read that other people have the same issues.. actually now that I think about it I'm not sure if that is a comfort to me to know that I'm not alone in that and the actual frustrating scenario is how so many glide through the SAME transactions I've tried with no issues what so ever.

Anyway.. go check out her page.

Also in the spirit of "cake wrecks" I have a few pics.. let me start with a bit of background. I live close to the small town of Woodstock Illinois where they filmed the movie "Groundhog Day". This town gets a little "into" the actual holiday because of that movie.


So last night after dinner my mom, my son, my husband and I all went to Super Wal-Mart. My son and husband needed jeans (really bad) and this is what we found (of course in addition to jeans, t-shirts, some thingy for my car to plug in my sons IPOD to, and some benadryl.




yeah not quite sure exactly what they were getting at here, and whom is going to buy these AND eat them.. but Punxsutawney Phil never looked so... soooo.. errrr.. welll ummm for lack of better words poopie!!

and on to the best news of all...


I broke down and got a new car! amazing huh? I found out Dodge was doing Employee pricing, plus all sorts of rebates, sooo out we went late Friday night exactly 15 minutes before they closed and looked at a few cars. We went back yesterday morning and drove and drove and drove and lunched and talked and played devils advocate, and fought and talked, and laughed and made shadow animals and finally after 6 hours I drove away in this....

2009 Dodge Avenger SXT
of course as always I don't feel I got the best deal I could have (that happens every time I buy a car). The very worst part is that I miss my old car already. I have been driving a 2000 Dodge Stratus. It has 106,000 miles on it and I've never had a single problem with that car until the key issue. Little stuff here and there, but always easily fixable and things that cost $300 or less to fix. That car was always dependable, never had it not start on me (except the other morning). So I kept that car which is now sitting in my garage and my new car has to sit outside. I'm trying to decide what to do with my old car. I guess I'll wait for my dad to come back from his snow bird southwest sun ranch and help me figure this thing out.

COINSTAR IS A RIP OFF

I had decided a few weeks ago that I wanted in on the $10 rebate from Coinstar you could get for simply putting $40 in change in one of their machines. I read the website
coinstar in detail outlining this deal. Now not every had used this machine before I wasn't exactly sure how they worked so once I got to the machine I did the short tutorial and read all the signs on the machine. The one sign taped to the machine said that you have to bring the receipt to the service desk. Knowing I had to choose an ecert or gift cert I was a little confused by that but thought that maybe that was just how this store worked with their coinstar machine. I went ahead and started looking through the choices for gift certs and when I couldn't decide I just figured I would put my money in and get it counted. I was over my $40 mark by just 76 cents. I had to work hard to get that $40, the last week I has $9 short and wound up having to buy $6 worth of change because prior to getting to the machine I didn't realize it took dollars as well.

Part of the advertising for this actually says "TRY" so I'm thinking this Coinstar trying to get new customers to use their machines. Of course, I'm looking for directions at the machine to get the rebate and all I remember was the website saying that I needed to keep the bottom part of the receipt to get the extra $10. My coins got counted and now I'm looking through my options and each one just wasn't that appealing to me. Of course I hit the back button to go back to the first screen that had different gift cert options than I was looking at and the next thing I know it's printing out a receipt. Umm okay.. so I go to the customer service desk and the lady hands me $37.16 Coinstar had taken my 8.9 cents on each dollar even though I didn't chose the cash option!!

The customer service lady said she could print a duplicate receipt for me, but this receipt only shows the $37 so I'm asking how I get my rebate. Of course they know nothing of this so I ask if I could get a copy of the receipt that came from the Coinstar machine. Sure, no problem.. so they walk me over to a copy machine which I had to pay the 10 cents for one copy of my receipt.. okay whatever.

I come home, find Coinstar's phone number so I can call them and get this worked out. The man I spoke to basically said "it's your fault you didn't select and it will time out" umm what? So I'm out my $3.63 plus the rebate huh? Basically yes.. so he suggests that I take the money some where else and get $40 in change and start again! Umm yeah you know how long it took me to get that $40 in change together? A long time, and I live in Chicago, this deal ends tomorrow and we're in the middle of negative degree windchills and snow! Yeah like I want to go back out in this weather, inconvenience the store for them to give me $40 in change, and start the process all over again. This is totally nuts.. So finally he puts me on hold to "talk to his supervisor" and comes back and gives me the same smoke so I said "okay so you are telling me I have to take time out of my day to lose even more money to complete this transaction because now I have to come up with another $4 in order to get the $10, how is this worth it??" and he hung up on me!!

Sorry this was not worth it to me.. I'm out my $3 and I'll never use their machines again.

walked in with $30 ECB left with $46.92

Okay.. in the grande scheme of CVS black weekend deals I didn't do THAT great.. they were out of a ton of stuff and they said they would give me rainchecks but I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to find the products again or if I would remember or if the coupons would still be good etc.

Here is what I wound up with.
♥1 universal remote $6.99 gave back $6.99 ECB FREEBIE
♥1 excederin $4.79 used $2 manu $3 CVS and got back $1 ECB FREEBIE = moneymaker
♥2 Loreal lip glosses $6.99 ea used $1 manus got back $6.99 ECB's each FREEBIE
♥2 Johnson Buddy bars $1.19 ea (fillers) used $1 manus
♥1 Sally Hanson nail polish $3.79 FORGOT TO GIVE A COUPON UGHH got back $3.79 ECB so still a FREEBIE but not a money maker
♥2 Hershey bars 50 cents each used BOGO bought the wrong bars, should have bought the king size so didn't get any ECB's oops
♥2 playtex tampons $3.99 each used $1 manus (could have used $2 ESC from WAGS??) got $3 ECB for each FREEBIE
♥3 Gatoraides $1.49 each no coupons got $1.49 ECB back each FREEBIE
♥Johnsons lotion $5.69 used $1 IP manu got back $5.69 ECB FREEBIE + moneymaker

used $3/$15 CVS I got in the mail, couldn't find my beauty coupon???? and then used a $10/$50 as well.
paid $1.33 OOP

It's funny how things have been coming to me when I need them.. maybe because I'm actually looking for them? not sure but the last couple days I've been looking at peoples stockpile pictures and realizing that everyone has a ton of TP and I have absolutely none! I'm down to my last few rolls and that was from a deal that I don't even remember that I know wasn't "that good" oh wait.. yeah it was at Menards of all places. Anyway.. so I finally found a deal that was ending today at Jewel $6.99 for Cotonelle 12 double roll pack. I had a $2 CAT for Cotonelle and a $5 CAT (left from my rolls at Jewel the last few weeks) so I paid 55 cents OOP for 12 double rolls of the TP we love. I'm good with that.

Then again tonight.. I wasn't going to go to CVS but then my husband talked me into it. I looked at the tampons thinking I could really use some. I was hoping that they would at least have one box even though I was seeing it was a max of 2.. and low and behold there was 2. It's just funny how since I've started hounding how putting myself out there things have come to me when I start thinking about them. It's a great hobby! lol!

UPDATE!! I went to Jewel today and asked about the bags I had purchased for $2 and the first girl at the Service Desk immediately said that I couldn't return them.. *sigh* I said they've never been used, they are still tagged and I'm going to rebuy them immediately.. do you need me to bring the bags in??? So she asks another girl who was just walking through and she says "yeah give her the $10 back" so the first lady I talked to said "you give her the $10 back I'll go do this" and grabs some stuff out of the 2nd ladies hands and walks away.. umm okay.. she cheerfully handed me $10.18 out of the drawer and that was that... I stood there with the receipts and said "shouldn't you MARK the reciepts?" ooh yeah.. lol! she marked them that I was refunded I took my $10 and was a happy camper!!

Even though I didn't get all the Black Weekend deals at CVS I wanted I was glad to get what I did get and with the help of my favorite store employee. He always tries to help me out and even says "let's just do this and if it doesn't work then I'll refund your $$" So as far as my deals today, I got things I actually needed and great customer service. Great day for me even though I didn't get much! lol!
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whew, I'm exhausted!

This was my lunch after my hounding crawl!! ha ha I don't drink so instead of a pub crawl I do hounding crawls! nice!
Made it from my 99 cent chicken breast I had grilled and frozen and one of those Green Giant Veggies I got! whoo hoo
and now for my feature presentation.....

Target!!
♥5 boxes of Kelloggs Cereal $2.75 used $1 coupons
♥4 Prego $1.67 each used $1/2 IP coupons and $1/3 coupon
$5 GC from a previous Target run
$6.67 OOP and I got back a $5 GC for nex time


2 stores, 2 transactions
first store
♥8 Celestial Seasons Tea the sign said $2/5 but they rang up as $1.50 each??? I read they were suppossed to be free after $1/2 ESC and $1 coupons and that's what I got them for FREEBIES
♥8 packs of gum $1.19 each used BOGO circular coupon and BOGO insert coups
total 29 cents

second store
♥8 packs of gum $1.19 each used BOGO circular coupon and BOGO insert coups
total 8 cents
**had to fight with the cashier on this one.. she tried to give me the "one per purchase" blah blah blah


♥10 Green Giant veggies $1 each used 25 cent coupons or 50 cent/2 coups
♥22 Pure Protein bars $1 each used $1.50/2 coupons
♥4 reusable bags $1 each (decided to do 4 more xmas bags)
♥4 Old Orchard Juices BOGO $3.49 used $1/2 coupons so 4/$5 I had read on another site that this was giving a $5 RR.. I didn't get it..??
♥2 Lipton teas $2.50 each used 60 cent coupons plus $2 ecoupons FREEBIE
♥4 Ranch dip packets $1.29
used $15 RR from last trip, total OOP $13.61 and I got $15 RR for the next trip!!

**this trip has made it impossible for me not to go back this afternoon HOWEVER I don't have the freezer room for all the free veggies I could get *sigh* So I'm going to try to work up just one more deal.. we'll see what I come up with.

YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TOOOOO COUUUUUPPPPONN!

I decided I needed to go back to K-Mart yesterday.. however.. fitting into my schedule was another story. I woke up to my cell phone ringing over and over around 7:40am. It was my son's dad telling me I had to go pick our son up from school. He was a very sick baby, wound up having 3 brain surgeries, and now when a headache hits we have to be very cautious. Of course I had already planned my day because I had to take out a neighbors dog then go babysit a friends kids while she went for physical therapy.. well how am I going to do both and not drive back and forth??

Luckily my friend and my son's school are very close to one another which happens to be a 40 minute drive for me. So I took a shower, went to let the neighbor dog out with plans to come back after her physical therapy to let the dog out again at 2pm. So I get up there, go to my mom's.. ohh I forgot to mention my car has been acting up.. I have all sorts of issues with my car but the new one.. My car likes to keep the key hostage in the ignition!! nice.. so between picking up my son and babysitting I had to go figure out how to flip around cars in my family (thank god we have so many extras.. but my extra can't be driven in cold weather it's a 1978 928 Porsche with no heat and Antique plates) so I did that, took my car to the mechanic, drove my mom back home, grabbed lunch for my son/myself, and headed to my friends house. He actually felt good enough to read to one of the kids and helped me some. Then after that I got him back home and then I raced back home to grab the dog.

I got home and realized I had to pay a credit card bill which I pay off every month. We only use it for purchasing on line items and bigger ticket items now that we've paid off all of our debt WOOT! So I went on line, paid it, and then logged on to my bank account to figure out I didn't get my unemployment check.. UGHH run to the mail box sure enough a letter saying it had run out and some other problem had red flagged me (I guess I answered a question wrong on accident) so I had to call unemployment.. thankfully I have a contact person who is very helpful.

In the midst of this my mechanic called along with my sister in law OH and my phone had been almost dead all day! nice huh? So I was waiting for the mechanic to call and had no juice.. I was glad I got home and he hadn't called. I suddenly realized I still had my neighbors dog and it was almost 5pm and she would be home wondering where her dog was! So I called her and let her know, then walked her dog home, and then took my little man for a walk. I come home, my husband was already eating so I made myself some dinner... after that I really wanted to go to K-Mart to work more deals and get my money back from my last trip.

I called my buddy and she was already in route to K-Mart to do the same! lol! I got there and spent about 20 minutes at the service desk with a very nice guy who figured out everything that happened including my one Gillette coupon that did double, my one that never even scanned, and one that scanned but didn't double. (well double making them free so the double should have been $1.50) he gets all done and says "woah this isn't right... it says you are at $20.50" umm I know that can't be right IN FACT I was trying my best to be honest and say things like it doubled here but for the wrong amount so I did get 69 cents of the $1.50 (on the glade spray) but then on another item I got it for free I didn't expect to get for free (the cashier had chosen the wrong glade product) so then add back in 19 cents.. so I figured 60 cents for each glade spray. Anyway.. he figured out that he had doubled something he shouldn't have doubled and my total back was $12.xx that I was happy with!! Yeah customer service guy!! lol!

1 borax sale 3/$9 used $1/1 coupon doubled $1 final price (not bad)
4 Good Bites not sure of actual price coupon gave me $4.99 overage FREEBIE ***
1 zest 3 pack $2.19 used $1/1 coupon doubled 19 cents final price
4 Hershey's Dark Choc bars $1.59 each $1/1 coupon doubled 59 cents FREEBIE
3 Revlon Nail polish $4.19 used $2/1 coupon doubled 19 cents
3 Revlon nail clippers $2.89 used $1/1 doubled 89 cents total
1 Dove Choc bar $2.19? used $1/1 19 cents total
2 tic tac 99 cents each 55 cent coupon doubled 44 cents FREEBIE ***
4 Quaker granola bars $2.59 each? used $1/1 coupons doubled 59 total each
1 Iams cat food used FREEBIE coupon
2 Vaseline mens lotion $2.99 used $1.50 coupon FREEBIE

My total OOP was $5.xx (don't remember) but to get down to that price I had fight with the cashier over almost each coupon.. it was nuts. I gathered that she had gotten in trouble for something coupon related within the last few days because finally after I asked her to call over a manager she made some comment about "not wanting to go back to Mr so and so's office again over coupons". Which is understandable HOWEVER she didn't understand any of their policies, I had to explain them to her AND she was making it out like I was robbing HER personally! It was nuts!

***With the tic tacs she said she couldn't use any more of my coupons because GET THIS "I can not give it to you for free" of course I had just gotten done with the service desk manager who had no issue giving me several items for free with coupons that didn't double or didn't scan, so of course I asked why not. She grabs the sign and points at the tiny print that say "can not exceed the price" UMMMMM 99 CENTS IS THE PRICE IT GAVE ME 99 CENTS THAT IS NOT EXCEEDING. Then she tried the "per purchase" act and I said YES EACH ONE I BUY IS A PURCHASE THIS (opening my arms above my whole cart) IS A TRANSACTION... her response? "that is not what mr so and so told me" umm I have no clue who mr so and so is but obviously either he is misinformed/educated or he didn't explain it to you correctly.

The the Revlon color coupons wouldn't scan, not sure why, and she said point blank "I can't use these" and shoved them back at me "umm why not?" "the computer won't take them I don't know why so they can't be used" yeah call the service manager over.. who of course put them through with no issue. Of course, as soon as he scanned one I realized she had already used one of my Revlon "tool" coupon towards a nail polish because only 2 nail polishes popped up but he made sure that each coupon went through as $2 and doubled at $2 so I'm pretty sure I got the deal I intended.

With all that said/done my coupon buddy did her transaction and we walked out side. As soon as we got outside I looked at my receipt and was laughing my butt off BECAUSE those *** Good Bite dog treats were on sale for under the $4.99 the coupon gave me off! So I guess on those it's okay to exceed huh?

boy, I was seeing RED tonight! ughh ***WARNING*** SEVERE RANT IN THIS POST

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.. YOU CAN'T GO BACK AFTER THIS LINE.. I'M STARTING MY RANT RIGHT..... 3....... 2.........................1..................NOW

ughh!! here goes..

Soooooooo my husband has a round robin poker thing going with our neighbors. Basically the rule is if you host you buy 2 cases of beer and they used to include snacks of some type. They have changed the price of the game and over time it's gone down to $5 for the first game and 2nd game has always been a cash fun game. Anyway.. now the game is back up to $20 for the first game which since I've been unemployed and my husband was down to 32 hours making only $20 a week more than me on unemployment, he's had to bow out and not play for probably months. Well he felt bad because he would play, and go and drink the hosts beer, and could never host due to $$. So one of the last times he played right after he got laid off he told them all "I'll host the first week I get my new job and do pizza and snacks" so one night another guy couldn't host due to a death in his family so Tim offered to host, went and got beer, but of course couldn't do pizza that night. So this week he made a big deal out of hosting, it's not even his turn, but he figures so many of them had to host several weeks in a row because we didn't have the cash, at least he can return the favor on some level.

So last week restaurant.com had a 80% off sale so I bought a $25 certificiate from a local pizza place that we always have bad service at, but I figured if I just ordered pizza's to go that I could get really good pizza for $10-$15. So today I ordered the pizzas at 7:20 they said 25 minutes.. okay.. so I rounded up some coupons and ran to Walgreens while I had some time (I'll post that run later). I leave Wags at 7:45 exactly, the place is less than a mile down the road. I walk in, the girl finds my pizzas, I hand her the certificate and she sorta looks confused.. says just a second, walks back, and comes back with a manager looking type woman who asks me if I had read the certificate. Umm sure.. I read it when I was printing it out last week.. okay why.. She said it's DINE IN ONLY.. ohh geez.

So I was standing there thinking "I'm not paying $40 for pizza.. there is just no way" so I asked if I could sit down and eat some of the pizza and then just take the rest to go and they said NO! Okay.. so the manager hands me the cert back and says "just bring it in another time" like it's no big deal.. So I tell her that I wouldn't ever come to eat there because I have such bad service there in the past and I figured ordering to go was my best option because I do like their food. She starts asking me 20 questions about all my "bad service experiences" which included times I've gone there with good sized groups to the times just my husband and I have eaten there alone.

Finally I shook my head and I said I simply didn't want the pizza's and they said "that's fine" so I left! I get in the car and call my husband and tell him and he acts like no big deal. Okay.. so I get home and I'm feeling bad so I say "why don't you just go grab some from Little Caesars they have $5 ready made pizza's" and he said no. So I had a walking buddy waiting on me so off I went walking. We got back and I still felt bad so I just went to Little Caesars myself and grabbed 3 pizza (2 minutes before they closed) and came home. I walk into my garage and all the guys were super happy BECAUSE NONE OF THEM HAD EATEN BECAUSE MY HUSBAND HAD TEXTED THEM ALL TO SAY "I'M HAVING PIZZA TONIGHT" lol! nice guy huh? he could have told me that before I left to walk! I just would have gone then! or HE could have gone himself like I said! ughhh stupid boys!

So that's not my only rant for the night.... earlier in the night one of our neighbors had stopped by to help my husband set up the poker table. Of course, they were in the garage so *somehow* they got on the subject of my "store" as my husband, the kids, and our neighbors call my stockpile in the garage. So I guess the neighbor grabbed one of my Scrubbing Bubbles Foamers, one of my Scrubbing Bubbles Foamers that I had to wait 3 months to get a good deal on, one of my Scrubbing Bubbles that I only got 3 of, one of my Scrubbing Bubbles that I had to go to 3 stores just to find, one of my Scrubbing Bubbles that I had just finally gotten a week ago and asked a question about it and my husband says "just go ahead and take it, she gets the stuff for FREE" umm no I did not get that for FREE!! I was so mad, I was totally yelling at my husband about it and he's all "I'll get it back from them" omg who does that? seriously.. oh I didn't know my wife had to pay for that! geez. Luckily this is the neighbor that gives me 2 sets of coupons every weekend (they get two papers) so they've probably saved me much more than that Scrubbing Bubbles actually cost me.. but really.. stupid boys!

3rd stop CVS to use that $10/$50 coupon

I'm not even sure why this coupon is so appealing to me.. seriously. we have $3/$15 coupons... oh well. Okay this is the deal I put together. I had actually put together many deals to make sure I got the $10 off and make some extra ECBS but you know how those CVS shelves become bare with any monthly ECB deal! Yikes.

OKay I have to apologize to the people who read my blog that I know personally. Most of you will see things from my blog that I either got free or REALLY cheap because these are going to be my Christmas gifts. Sorry I'm unemployed and the amount of stuff I got free will be things you use in your house/daily lives. Also the face value of each "goodie bag" I'm thinking of putting together will probably be around at least $50 each bag. Okay I look at it like this #1 I'm unemployed #2 I had to take the time, effort, and gas to get all the items that will go in your bag #3 the gifts you get you will most likely use at some point.

♥24 Shick Shavers 99 cents each used 11 $2 coupons and 1 she lowered to $1.76 to make it work
♥11 Johnson's buddies $1.19 each (boo I thought these were normally 99 cents but after walking around the store several times I needed the additional $12 plus dollars to make my total over $50 to take advantage of that $10/$50)
♥5 kids anti bacterial spray pens $1.99 each (tried to use a $2/$10 CVS coupon and it wouldn't let me use it.. just figured out if she had forced it down to $1.95 it would have worked, oh well)
♥Always pads$4.98

Used my $10/$50 and a $4 ECB my total OOP was $2.35 and I got back $9.98 in ECBS that is $5.98 more ECBS I walked in with! Woot for me! Right now I have like $32 in ECBs not bad considering like 2 weeks ago I was mad because I had used up half my stash on stupid batteries! WORST OF ALL, I GOT ANOTHER $10/$50 COUPON. I'll be saving that for like the last day it's good 10/18!

YTD spending $875.74 Fall 2008 spending $3.24

2nd stop WAGS and the rest of my ride smelled great

♥6 Glade scented candle refills $1.99 each used B2G1 coupon and will get $4 ESR
♥2 boxes envelopes 99 cents
♥1 carmex $1.59 (had to grab a fast filler I'd use)
♥4 shredded cheese 2/$3

used $5/$20 coupon and my total OOP $12.28

This WAGS I went to I always get amazing customer service which is why going to K-Mart didn't seem like a big deal because if I was just going to the grocery store and CVS there were 3 other WAGS I could have gone to.

hmmm what I *thought* was a fun Target run turned out to be not good!

grrr.. I'm so angry right now.. anyway.. I went to Target to try to cash in some of my $1 cat litter coupons. They have my cat litter for $1.77 but for some reason they have all stopped carrying the type I normally buy and I've had to resort to the one type of that brand I don't like and have way too much of. grrr.. So of course this store only had the type I don't like so I decided since I had time, my coupons, and tons of clearance I would walk around and check out some deals.

This is what I thought I walked out with...

3bags of Beggin strips little on sale for $2.10 had $1 off coupons
2 bags of Goodlife treats $1.73 had $1.50 coupons
1 bag of Iams cat food $7.49 with a $7 off coupon
1 cat litter air filter 94 cents
5 sunshades on clearance for $1.98 each
1 bike lock clearance for $2.98
1 bike wind up headlight clearance for $4.98
1 combination lock $2.08 but rang up as 74 cents
various back to school items all under 40 cents each
pack of wash clothes $1.48 on clearance

my total after coupons was $39 and I didn't even think about it because I had multiples of many products and I forgot to use my $5 gift card from a few weeks ago.. plus most of this stuff is Christmas gifts so I thought I was doing good.. umm yeah.

So after my CVS trip (which I'll post about next) I came home, spread out my loot to take a pic of it for my blog (which is very helpful). So I'm looking at everything just trying to make a mental note of what I should have paid for certain things and my total is nowhere near $40.. I'm at like $28 and that was with a cushion. I look at my receipt and realize the cat food rang up as $11.49 and the Goodlife treats $3.99!! umm yeah there is my difference!

I called the store and explain the situation. Most stores just say "bring your receipt back and we'll get it worked out" ooh no the operator tried to tell me that sometimes people decide they don't want a product and put it down anywhere in the store.. UMMM no I bought these things from the specific shelves. there were many other products and I even usually will READ what the tag says to at least verify that it's in the right place. She said she didn't know and basically acted like too bad... so I asked for a manager. Some guy comes on the line and is telling me I have to come into the store NOW and when I tell him I don't live close (I wanted to check out the new CVS by that Target which is the only reason I went there) he said "TELL ME WHAT DAY AND TIME YOU WILL BE HERE SO I CAN NOTIFY CUSTOMER SERVICE" umm what??? what happened to "when you have time" or "next time you are in the area" wtf is that!!

So I explain the situation again and he says I have to come back when the prices are the same.. omg whatever.. TELL ME HOW LONG I HAVE AND I WILL TRY TO GET BACK THERE WITHIN YOUR TIME FRAME so he tells me 2 weeks and takes down my name.. what is that going to help? seriously.

So I get off the phone and my husband is standing on the stairs and he's laughing at me and says "you get so angry" OMG the man who gets angry about everything is telling me I get angry when I'm being treated poorly? hello.. so I tell him what they said and he's still laughing at me like I'm in the wrong!!! WTF not a good day here guys!

My *****BEST****** WAGS trip ever!!!!! I ♥ Wags 4-ever!!!

OMG I AM SOOOO EXCITED TO ACTUALLY POST THIS.. CHECK IT OUT!!

okay the rundown of my goodies.... sooo sooo soooo excited, can you tell??
buy 7 get $10 RR
5 Scrubbing Bubbles scrubbers $3.79 each used $2 coupon for each
1 windex $2.49 used 75 cent coupon
1 shout wipe box of 12 $2.40 used 75 cent coupon

buy 3 get $4 RR
3 Benadryl $3.99 used 3 $1 manu coupons

rebates
1 excederin $3.79 used $2 IP coupon
1 crest pro health toothpaste $3.79 used 75 cent coupon

clearance
3 aqua noodles $1.49 each (my dad brings these to our house in AZ for the pool)

stacked deals
2 oust spray $2.99 each used BOGO coupon 1 $1/1 manu coupon plus $1/1 ES coupon which gave me $2 off ($1 off each one)
3 twizzlers used coupon from flyer 99 cents each
2 Dove bars used 2/$3 ad coupon 2 $1/$1 manu coupons 1 easy saver coupon
2 Herbert Choc bars $1.99 each used ES coupon took off $3 so I paid 49 cent each?
1 Visine $4.79 used ES $2 plus $1 manu

no deal
2 gallons of milk $2.99 each

used $10/$40 WAGS coupon good only yesterday/today
used two $10 RR I had

Originally she said my total was $88 or something.. handed her coupons my total was $15.21. Used my GC so paid NOTHING OOP and got back $10 for the cleaners and $4 for the benadryl which I needed desparately. Plus I will get back $8.34 in rebates next month! Woah.. I'm spent!

The bottom of my receipt says
WAG COUPON SAVINGS: $ 6.51
WAG ADVERTISED SAVINGS: $23.83
MFG COUPON SAVINGS: $52.24
YOUR TOTAL SAVINGS: $82.58

THHHHHHHHATTTT RIIIIIGHHTTTT!!

Nervous Nelly...

Okay I said I was going to post about her and here it is.. I've seen a few posts from my regular blog roll just in the past DAY that really had me seeing red. My deals usually take me hours sometimes over days to get just right and then I get all nervous going into the store because 9 times out of 10 I know the deal will be blown by one of several reasons.

a. they are out of stock on said item or several items that make up my deal(s)
2. I read the sale ad/blog wrong and have the wrong dates/product/price/store
d. the cashier sucks and won't use IP coupons
4. the cashier sucks and misses half my coupons
6. the cashier sucks and just won't take my coupons period
b. the register does not print my RRs or ECBS
g. the scanner isn't working at the store I go to so I can't get any coupons when I walk in which I love to do and it throws my entire trip off.
a. the rebate I thought I could do for said product doesn't start for another 3 days so I have to return said product and rebuy on said day so the receipt shows I bought said product on said day.
9. I bought the wrong product for said rebate.
10. I buy said product at store abc (I love abc stores but I'm just using the term "abc" for the example) and the next week said product is an even better deal at store xyz but I already used the coupon so I'm screwed.
f. I could probably go on and on with all the problems I have couponing/hounding but if you are reading this it's because you are also a grocery gamer and have experienced at least a few of my same problems.

**side note** the numbering/lettering like that was a joke from a movie.. I can't remember which movie it was but it used to have my mom and I laughing our butts off when we would talk like that.

So over at Frugal and Fabulous she wrote this blog close to giving up and it really struck home for me simply because I know where she was at. I know that exact feeling. It is unbelievably frustrating to hear how easy it is for others out there to walk into any store and have all their deals work perfectly.. I know maybe they did blog about their issues in the past and I've missed them.. but there are just times where feeling like you are the oddball out just makes it all worse.

Also another blog in fact the blog that really got me rolling was Hounding with Frugalsuz.. and this blog she wrote just last night makes me realize her deals don't always work out either. In fact, she is as frustrated as I have been in the past.. not sure why but this is actually a comfort to me especially since this is two blogs I read back to back last night. check out her problems. What a weekend

HERE at Frugal Floridian she writes about a look she got from the cashier during her transactions and then the comments the cashier made as she left the store.

In this day with dollars needing to be stretched as far as possible why is this such a big deal for stores ESPECIALLY recently? Is there going to be some crack down on couponing? Is it just that all of us had a bum weekend/week with this game? Is it a coincidence or is it my mind thinking too much that we are being discriminated against? Let me know what you think!

WAGS came through for me TWICE!! amazing!

Soooo last night I got a phone call from Walgreens saying that they are giving me a curtosey $5 Rebate for a folder I bought that they are claiming was the wrong one for the rebate HOWEVER in the picture it's exactly the same.. cool.. so after that message I decided to call to find out if I had any money yet on my card.. YES!! My entire rebate has already been loaded! yeahhh wags! So everything from here on out is free for me...

but I'm going to need it.. because my husband got laid off today! ughhh not good. seriously. I've been unemployed since April and still have no idea when I'll be going back to work.. ughh

But my shopping day got even better than yesterday! I bet you can't wait to hear why and how! lol! I went to Aldi just to get a few items I needed for this weekend. As I'm walking around the store I see this really old man walk up to an Aldi employee and say "where is the pasta, my wife writes the list and I can never find the stuff when she sends me by myself" so the girl points in a general direction and say "Larry you ASK ME THIS every time you come YOU should know by know" with this the manager walks out shaking his head and says "geez YOU SHOULD JUST DO ALL HIS SHOPPING FOR HIM CONSIDERING THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO DO ANYWAY" in a loud shouting voice! ughhh whatever.. so I get my items go to the front.. the line is of course down the isle and mr manager opens a 2nd register.. seeing everybody in front of me has like 3 things each I of course wind up in mr managers line.. he put up the CLOSED sign after my order.. this guy walks up behind me and has 3 items all the same and he says to him "THAT'S OKAY REPUBLICANS DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ EITHER" ughhh what??? what is that about? seriously!!

So yes, my day was swell how was yours? lol! :)

okay lady.. you pushing your cart up my @zz is not going to get you and your 4 kids out of this store any sooner!

Okay I had a bad hounding day.. I'll just put that up front.. starting with Wal-Mart. I needed to get a gift for my husbands god-daughters baptism this Sunday and there were 2 ladies at the Jewelry counter who decided that they weren't going to help me. I finally had to go up to a CSM that I recognized close the jewelry dept and ask her how to get help.. finally one of the ladies came and helped me.. but of course she was suggesting I get the baby a savings bond over getting the baby what I wanted. Whatever. Savings bond suck now, they take what 38 years to mature now? Total insanity. I chose an appropriate gift and moved on. Getting through the register was another story based on a really slow cashier, a lady with a ton of coupons for items she didn't even have! If I had more power on my phone I would have taken a picture of her and started a segment called "the people who make couponing impossible for the people who are attempting to coupon legally" anyway.. I finally got through.

Next stop, Ulta.. I ran around the clearance and I had a 20% off for the entire order coupon and a $5/$10. When I get to the front the girl said "I can't use both coupons together so can I just divide these two orders up.. it will be the same" I completely snapped back because I had a 20% off coupon last week and the girl was trying to get me to use that $5/$10 but because my total wasn't even $5 she said I couldn't use it.. she even told me to go run and grab another item "just grab a nail polish" to get it over $5 so I could use it.. I should have because this girl wouldn't let me use them together even though I explained that another cashier would have let me use them.. "she was wrong, you can't do that" I left my items and left the store.. typing this out it now makes sense because the 20% coupon I had for last week was for ONE ITEM and the one for this week was for your entire purchase. Still she could have explained that instead of "it's the same" umm noooo it's not.. let me figure it out for you.. doh!

and finally the grand finally of my trip. I get to CVS and scan my card and get my $5 ECB that I called on last week WOOOT!! and a $2 off 2 gold emblum nuts and I think $1 off 3 CVS paper towels. So I start my hunt for the purex, dawn, cover girl lip slicks, and flavor ice deals.. yeah no dice NOT ONE of any of them... yeah.. jerks. They never have anything stocked. ughhh I guess there are a ton of hounders out there clearning those shelves but they should have a huge stock in back just waiting for this. They were restocking shelves while I was there but of course I looked at the boxes they had waiting and not one of them was dawn, purex, or cover girl..

I decided to walk around the store in search of some good clearance items. I found 2 of those Glucerna meal bars for diabetics marked down to $1.75. If I had coupons I could have made $7 off those puppies.. oh well.. such is life.. My dad loves them so I figured I could use my $2/$10 coupon to get one of them for free at least. Not bad. My husband has been whining about needing batteries for the smoke detectors (I guess it's a good thing to be whining about) so I grabbed some Duraceel that were on sale for $5.79.. now here is the kicker.. I had to use a $5 ECB and I got NOTHING back! GASP! I know.. horrible.. my total was like $1.7.... something not bad for all I got.. so I was happy..

Okay now this is not the first time this has happened to me but today it was super irriatating because as usual there is not one person in the store. I decide to check out and the lady in front of me is arguing about some water she is trying to buy that didn't ring up right. She was right, she even went and got the sign off the display and put it right in the guys face. He was basically telling here there was nothing he could do and that "maybe she grabbed the wrong kind" umm no.. So now the line is the lady aruging about water, another woman behind her, me, and now walks in some lady with 4 kids. Okay whatever, they are just buying snacks. Her oldest a boy is dressed in a gi ready for his Karate class.. she's yelling at him that he has a string around his neck and he tells his mom that his sister had given it to him.. and she is yelling at him that throwing it at him and giving it to him are "2 DIFFERENT THINGS" now she is standing close enough to my back that if I decided to put my foot under the cart and lean forward my butt would have been touching her.. so now I look behind me and there is a good 8 people total in line including myself.

Finally the lone cashier calls for help and nobody comes.. of course.. then when someone does come up there is not one register that is clear to be able to use.. each counter was full of items that needed to be restocked. I finally got to get rung up and left the store.. whew.. but that is seriously not the first time that someone has been basically shoving me forward as if it's going to help them get out faster... I want to turn around and look at them and wait in line while staring right at them or turn around and be so close I could spit on them if I talked hard enough.. ughhh

oooh and must I forget.. my last stop the dry cleaner who LOST my husbands shirt had no clue where it was.. "what color was it" I have no idea and my cell is out of juice, so she hands me her phone to call him because she can't find it.. I call him, he says gray, the thing was hanging directly in front of me and she asks me "where is your tag for it" all I ever get is a receipt when I go there.. no clue.. but also while I'm in there some russian guy is asking for his drapes which he dropped off weeks before... "I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow I don't want to forget them" they weren't done yet! yikes.. think I'll be changing dry cleaners! lol!

so yes.. that was my day.. I think the rain is getting to me.. who ordered the cold and rain? huh who was it?

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.

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!