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!

bad *hounding* dreams???

Okay so the last few nights it's been hot/muggy in the house but I refuse to turn the air on because it's been in the high 70's for the last 10 plus days.. of course Sunday it got up to 89 but we were gone all day and then yesterday 87 and I was home all day but I don't care.. so Sunday night I wound sleeping on our couch in our loft (family room) which was the coolest room in the house because it has the most windows. Fine no issues.. last night the loft was hot, our room was worse, I even tried my sons bedroom.. no dice.

I decided to sleep on the first floor which is usually cooler anyway, but I had to open windows/doors to get a breeze which I was leery about because there has been break ins in our area. I figured I was sleeping with my chihuahua who barks at the wind so if he heard a noise he would wake me up. Sure enough at 2am SOMETHING woke me up.. not even sure what it was.. but because I was scared I decided to shut all the windows/doors on the first floor and try to sleep upstairs.

I get up stairs and my room is an ice box.. okay.. I fall asleep with no issues. then my dog wakes me up at 7am to go out.. so I take him down stairs let him out, let him back in, feed him and his sister the cat and they fell back to sleep on the couch down stairs! lol! I woke up to my husband making himself pop tarts and his lunch for work.. and fell asleep again as soon as the door slammed behind him.

Okay.. so I've been in and out of sleep for 2 nights which usually messes me up. My sleep has to be perfect in order for me to function.. I'm a freak like that. So I start having this dream that I decide to go "shopping" (umm hounding) so I gather all my stuff (the coupon box, my purse, my little spiral I write my notes in etc) and I head out the door.. but I'm not at home I'm at my friend Carolyn's house and for some reason the only car there is what I thought was her car but it was stick! I don't drive stick. But I have to leave to go get my deals.. so I take it anyway and of course I can drive it perfectly! ha ha ha riiighht.. of course I get on this steep hill and luckily the guy behind me figured out that I couldn't drive stick so he stayed far behind me because I couldn't get up over the hill. so I finally get up over the hill and get to I think CVS.

I'm throwing things in my cart at CVS, breaking things up into "transactions" in my cart as I usually do.. then I get to the front.. as usual I'm the only person in the whole store, not one person in line.. as soon as the cashier starts ringing up my first transaction 4 people show up behind me. He gives me my total and I swipe my debit card and enter in $31.19.. wait WHAT since when have I spent over $10 OOP in my hounding days.. so he's already ringing up my 2nd order, I get the receipt from that and I realize I never handed him ANY coupons for the first two transactions! omg this is a very scary dream.. I don't know if you want to continue. So when he handed me my first receipt I had remembered seeing something about my total being $31,000.00 what was that? So now the line behind me is maybe 8 people deep, and I have this rude man behind me was making comments, rolling his eyes, shuffling his feet, sighing.. you know the normal "I'm pissed because I got behind you and you are taking forever".. so I sorta step to the side and I'm looking for my first receipt because I told the cashier there was something wrong on my first transaction.. so he says find the receipt and we'll figure it out.. so I show him that my total was entered as $31,119.00 instead of $31.19 and he chuckles and says he'll fix it..

So I'm standing there looking at some shredded cheese and some other items I had in my basket and in my bags I already paid for and I'm thinking "since when do I buy shredded cheese at CVS?" lol! So he hands me back my receipt and he gave me back $6,848.00 (don't ask my how I remember these numbers from a dream I just do) and I said "ummm hello don't you owe me more than that? you charged me 31 THOUSAND dollars for a $31 DOLLAR transaction.. $6 grand isn't enough! So he says I have to wait for the manager and I woke up! lol!

So today I'm planning on getting some hounding/shopping done. Mostly for stuff we need (shocking I know) but also to get in on some deals that will be ending Wednesday at local grocery stores. I'm exhausted just thinking about this trip. I had mean to wake up at 7am and get out the door so I could be back by noon to walk my neighbors dog.. but here it is 11am I'm still in my t-shirt/shorts (pjs) and writing this blog.. it's been a crazy morning already! lol!

Rookie Mistakes? Nervous Nelly problems? Bring 'em here.. let's share our tales of shopping horrors!

Two things happened today #1 I didn't get my Sunday paper, but did get coupons from my neighbor which for some reason didn't include any of the coupons I had read about on line.. must be because he gets a local paper.. never went and got another paper either.. I hope someone kept theirs for me. #2 I found very few deals I actually want to even look at this week.

Just to pass the time I was thinking about people telling their stories. Over at Coupon Cravings it was asked "what was your Freak out Moment" umm yeah for me.. I have several a day.. I'm just a freak like that what can I say. I'm a newbie and I'm making mistakes left and right.. I'm learning from them but in the end I'm still getting great deals on products I would have not even wanted to think about buying due to their price. I'm getting what I used to think of as "luxary items" for very cheap, free, or being paid to buy them.

Anyway.. as usual I'm rambling.. other than "freak out moments" what were your "rookie mistakes", nevervous nelly trip ups, or even "verteran follies"? What hounding mishaps have you learned from? which do you make over and over again? which will you never forget? how have you learned to not make that error again?

I'm hoping by talking about this, hearing other peoples stories that we can all learn from one another and possibly help any newbies that decide to jump into the "game"... ahh it's sooooo addictive.. run while you can newbies.. run far far away! lol!

ready set go! lol!

attempting to put the $4/$20 to good use!

Well I attempted and TOTALLY failed on using the $4/$20 coupon for 4 of my 5 transactions.. I had to break everything down and rework every deal.. things turned out good in the end.. so oh well. I went to a different store today. One that is a bit farther from my house but I wanted to check it out. I stopped and talked to one of the managers and commented on how quiet it is in that store and how nicely everything is stocked/organized. We got to talking and it turns out that they are opening a CVS really close to my house!! woot! He said it's set to open in September. I'm not sure how that is possible because on that location there is nothing but dirt right now! lol!



FIRST TRANSACTION

2 m&m dark choc 14oz $2 each
One Touch $19.99

$4/$20 CVS coupon
$19.99 1 Touch Coupon

Total OOP 45 cents

Second Transaction
1 cvs feminine wash $3.29
One Touch $19.99

The register wouldn't let another $4/$20 coupon go through. I printed it from my email, didn't copy it.. but at my regular CVS they just keep putting them through.. this one they wouldn't. soo..

$2/$10 cvs coupon
$19.99 coupon

Total OOP$1.86 which is actually good because if I had used the $4/$20 that would have not worked anyway. I could have grabbed something quick for 99 cents but oh well. **uggh and I just realized she never scanned my $2 CVS skincare coupon for this!! ughh oh well.

Third Transaction (can you read this? I hope so)
2 advil childrens $5.79
1 CVS feminine wash 15oz $4.79

2 $1/1 Advil coupons
$2/$10 CVS coupon
$2 CVS skincare coupon
$10 ECB

Total OOP 59 cents and I got back an ECB for $11.58

Fourth Transaction
2 Alavert 12 cts $5.99 each (I was hoping this ECB deal would work twice like it did fot the Advil but in the end it didn't)
1 Twizzler canister $5
1 skin effects cleanser $6.99
2 J&J buddies 99 cents each

$1.98 J&J buddies coupon (down from $2, oh well still free)
$2/$10 CVS coupon
$2 Skin effects coupon
2 $4 Alavert coupons
$11.58 ECB from 3rd transaction above

Total OOP 66 cents! I got two ECBS, one for skin effects for $5 and one for the alavert for $3

Fifth Transaction
1 honey wheat pretzels 99 cents (filler)
2 lamisilk foot lotion $8.29 each

$2/$10 CVS coupon
2 $4 lamisilk coupons
$3 ECB from fourth transaction
$4 ECB I had from awhile ago

Total OOP $1.27 and got back a $10 ECB. I could have worked this into two transactions, but I was all flustered by them refusing to use my $4/$20 coupon for more than one transaction.

ALL ABOUT THE $$ TOTALS!!

TOTAL OOP $4.83 (should I join that $5 challenge?)
I walked in with $20 in ECBS walked out with $21 in ECBs and if I had spent another $1 in candy I could have walked out with $25 in ECBs or spent $1.xx more OOP and had $26 ECB. I'll stop in again this week and spend $1 on candy and get that $5 in ECB! so that was my rookie mistake for the day.

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!

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.