PITA stays in the car to read while I run errands – I turn around and she’s standing next to me! Don’t worry, mom, I locked the car door…just shoot me now…
CVS Coke display. At first I thought the stuff wasn’t moving ’cause it was already Wednesday and they had almost half left…then Emily said that this was what remained of the second delivery…another coming on Friday. wow.
I read yesterday that coupons.com says IP redemption has declined from its high point in mid-2011. wth? Are we all slacking off here? I have an idea: From now on, print, clip and carry those coupons with you. When you see a coupon for an item you know you will never use, do the RAOK-thang and either tape it or leave it on the shelf by that product. Help out someone else…and yourself, too, because news bits about declining IPs always scares The Goddess.
Okay, the tv is just blaring away in the living room so I walk in to see what’s going on: Yet another oil spill at the Daytona 500, so all the drivers have pulled off to the side, where they stand around chit-chatting, and watch workers hose down the track, then sprinkle powdered Tide all over and start scrubbing. Makes me proud to know that I probably got my Tide for cheaper (and I didn’t have to fork over advertising space!) – insert Tide promo here –
Meant to run this a few days ago, but hey, better late…
I always advise shopping the stockpile but it’s a hard habit to get into. We’re programmed to pick up something on sale at the grocery store and maybe use a couple of boxes of GG frozen vegetables for a side (which we delude ourselves into thinking is stockpile using – it’s not). So every once in a while I’m going to make dinner completely from the stockpile. Admittedly I have two upright freezers, two refrigerators and a full basement, so it’s a trifle easier than pulling cans out from under a bed.
This is black bean chili. It consists of four pub burgers browned in Wesson oil, three cans of black beans, 3 cans of Hunt’s fire-roasted tomatoes, 3 cans of Libby’s kernel corn plus plus salt, chipotle powder and several onions from last year’s farmer’s market – the Kraft cheese crumbles were offered as topping. I made enough to fill a huge cast iron dutch oven, which made for a nice dinner, some lunches and late night snacks.
Bottom Line Cost: Pub burgers were free; Wesson oil was from the last great cat deal at Jewel (50¢ bottle); Bush’s black beans were 25¢ on the clearance cart, but I used L’Oreal hair color/coupon overage to bring that down to zip; Libby’s corn was free from the DG deal 11/10; Hunt’s tomatoes were from the good old days at Jewel, so maybe 75¢; Kraft cheese was about 50¢ worth. By this point you’re almost compelled to include the cooking gas just to get up to a buck or two!
Stopped at Wags on the way back from Wheaton Drama, mainly to check out the supply of got2b products – mighty slim pickins’! Picked up eight products and went to throw in a couple more of the Thai Pop Chips, but they don’t carry that flavor. gasp!
Say hi to Ben as I pass by photo, then up to front register with my pitiful eight items. Cashier scans them and I hand over eight coupons, telling him that the last one will have to be adjusted down. Can’t scan the coupon, so instead of retrying, he starts punching in all the numbers. okay, then, if you want to do it the hard way…
Then he says I can’t use all the coupons because it’s buy one get one free. He looks in the bag and counts the products. Yup, still eight, bucky. Says I can only use four coupons. “BEN!” As we wait for Ben, I tell this guy that Walgreens corporate policy allows for two coupons on a BOGO. Ben comes over, looks to see what has already been rung up and then scans the rest of the coupons, marking down the last one by 4¢. I tell him the original cashier also punched in the numbers instead of scanning the coupons – he needs to be retrained.
I might know what I’m doing (occasionally), but what about the customer only buying two products? Or a newbie couponer? From recent emails, I’m wondering if Steve has lost control over his staff. It’s not enough for a manager to want couponers’ business if every single person down the line isn’t on board with that decision.
Any thoughts? Comment here, not just in a private email, so we can all read them, because I am concerned.
People have been encountering issues with Walgreens and the new registers – they don’t take the second $3 coupon on the BOGO: Register can’t find the second product to attach to. It’s certainly not insurmountable, because all the cashier has to do is enter the coupon manually as a mfr coupon, but I think that’s where all the confusion on accepting two coupons on a BOGO might be coming from. People have had asst mgrs telling them that Wags changed their coupon policy a few months ago…no they did not! If you encounter this at your local Wags either switch stores or beat that mgr to death with his or her own leg – either way works.
I’m gonna do an Andy Rooney here and ask why is it the inserts all have the same covers? Couldn’t they find different advertisers willing to front the big bucks for the front page? Why does every week give us eyeglasses from one company or another? And can’t they even be bothered to shoot a new picture? ’cause I gotta tell you that it’s almost impossible to tell the difference in weeks without comparing the back pages (and even those are different from newspaper to newspaper – pah)
The ss insert has a $1 off Activia (including Stonyfield Activia) with an expiration date of 3/19. That’s always a good one because Activia goes on sale fairly often.
Have Softsoap ibars been around a long time? Don’t remember seeing it but there’s a $1.50 coupon off a 2-pk or larger which really, really appeals to me: hmmmm, pomegranate & mango….coconut scrub…sweet honeysuckle & orange peel…
In today’s mail I got my sample box of 12 k-cups of Green Mountain milk chocolate hot cocoa. This was part of a FREEBIE post from January 11.
They were handing out .4 oz popchips sample bags at CVS yesterday – sweet potato flavor. I’ll be honest here…I’ve tried the cheddar flavor before and was not impressed. It’s okay, but it’s not a potato chip, dammit! The sweet potato flavor is a different story – omg, it rocks! Decided to order them on Amazon (Gold Box deal) and they were sold out! How many thousands did they go through? Don’t bother checking the non-sale prices without taking your blood pressure meds first. I’ll keep my eyes open for the next deal.
The new JCPenny shopping concept is reflected in the catalog that came in the mail: Lots of gorgeous, color-saturated images pushing low-cost, everyday prices (Sephora has eye shadows for only $15 – limited line) instead of running all the sales. And just see how well that strategy has worked for Jewel…
