Couponing and grocery shopping used to be simple and straightforward – you’d cut coupons out of the Sunday inserts, and head to the store. Now, there are as many ways to get coupons as there are to get your groceries – you can get coupons from the Sunday paper, on your computer, or on your phone. Then you can get your groceries in the store, loaded into your car as you drive up, or delivered to your door.

So is it any wonder that some shoppers who want to ensure they’re making the best choices and getting the best deals are a little overwhelmed by it all? The entire article from Coupons in the News here.

FirstBorn is spending the week in Vegas at a business convention and sent some photos – the Arc du Triomphe is about 6 stores tall!  Took a cab from his hotel (Hooters, if you can believe it!) for a trip of about a mile and paid almost $50!  Beat feet, boy!   Paid about $30 for one of those all-you-can-eat buffets with lots of prime rib, which made his evening 🙂

Couponers’ stockpiles are often filled with household cleaning supplies – one brand or another is almost always on sale and there are frequently coupons available, so you can stock up on the cheap if you’re not particularly brand loyal.

That’s not what most manufacturers want to hear, though, because brand building is big business. So big, that Clorox is taking severe measures to protect its brand, by filing a federal lawsuit against the maker of Lysol cleaning products for launching what it calls a “false and deceptive advertising campaign” that “falsely disparages multiple Clorox products”.  Coupons in the News article here.

You’re gonna be seeing this post for a few days right on the tippy-top of the page, so here’s a brief explanation:  I posted earlier that I was running to be a trustee on the Lisle Library District Board.  One of the things the Daily Herald asked for their Candidate Profile was website address and Why Are You Running.  If you go online to the Daily Herald, you’ll see candidate profiles for all races. Here’s a very brief synopsis of mine:

First off, I have no horse in this race – I am in excellent health and take classes like kick-boxing and tap dancing at COD to prove it.  I’m running because we need to bring all people into the library: those who are disabled, don’t drive or can’t afford internet are part of our community, too, yet have been marginalized.  Eight months to repair an elevator vital to those who can’t use stairs?  Washroom counters too high for those in wheelchairs or small children to reach?  Let’s set more daytime adult classes for those who don’t drive at night.  Investigate a weekly service to transport those residents so they can spend a few hours a week taking a class, choosing movies and books, going online and socializing – help maintain their independence.  Senior residences offer transportation; do we just ignore those who can’t afford those places?  And no, the answer is not Ride DuPage (already checked that out).

It’s been nine years since Safeway first started testing its “Just for U” digital discount program, five years since Safeway was acquired by Albertsons, and three years since Albertsons began expanding the program to its own stores. Now, finally, Just for U has become the digital coupon and personalized pricing program across all major grocery chains owned by Albertsons.

So remember a few years ago when Albertsons dropped its multi-tier pricing programs and said “all customers deserve the same price on all items”? Never mind!  Whole article from Coupons in the News here.

Jersey Mike’s will donate 100% of SALES to charity on March 27th.  This is my favorite sub place – yeah, pricey, but that giant sub makes two extremely full meals and the taste is far and away the best of any chain out there.