Saving Money

It’s what we all are doing. Right? Finding ways to trim our budgets and save a few dollars. Therefore, I cut out the $10 off coupon from Safeway. It’s seems a simple task. Check the paper for the deals. Cut out a coupon or two and begin making a list. Add a few items that are special for a new recipe and head out to the store. All is well, until I am almost at my $50 threshold, the amount needed to spend to save the $10, when I realize I have my $1.49 milk coupon, but not my $10 off coupon. I remember exactly where it is on the dining room table. I leave a phone message for my husband who is out running and ask him to call me ASAP. Now what? Do I keep shopping and make it to $50 or do I wait and make sure Bob gets the message, calls and is willing to drive to the store with the coupon or do I leave my whole basket and drive home and get the coupon myself? Bob calls and is willing to drive down with the coupon. Whew! I think all is well. I am so wrong!

I am also trying to buy the “mix or match” items that will reduce to $4.99 each if I can find the right ones and if I buy three of them. The first item is obviously popular as the shelf is empty. The next one is confusing. The one advertised in the paper is listed for a higher price, but there’s another one with the $4.99 price. No problem, I can adjust. It is just paper towels. The dryer sheets are listed as advertised and I’ll just swap something else in for the first item.

At the check out stand, the food and other items are quickly scanned and double quick shoved into the bags. Dryer sheets in with loose produce, but I can pull that out at the car.

A crash sounds from the direction of the sweet young bagger girl. She says to the checker, “I dropped one of her bags on the floor and broke the eggs. What do I do?”

While asking this question she picks up the bags and drools the egg whites and yolks on my bag and then sets the oozing dozen on the counter. The checker instructs her to go get me a new dozen of eggs. As she leaves I ask the checker if she will know what to get me. The checker says she’s not sure. It is the bag girl’s second day on the job. When she returns she tosses (and I do mean tosses) the eggs into my bag. I cringe, thinking of the vegetables that have just been smashed, but realize it wasn’t that hard and so move toward the door. Just before exiting I think to check this dozen eggs and sure enough one is broken. I do a 180 with my cart and meet her as she is trying to find a mop. I show her the broken egg and she takes it to the back of the store and returns again. This time I open it in front of her to check for breakage and incredibly find another broken egg. She took that dozen to the back of the store and returned quickly with another dozen. It took four tries to get me one dozen intact eggs. But my shopping experience wasn’t over yet.

After I unloaded all my groceries into the car, I decided to check the receipt and make sure that the prices looked correct. One of my $4.99 items had rung up at $11.29. Oh, my! That meant the rest did not ring down to $4.99 either. I picked up the two that I thought were wrong and headed to customer service. The woman obviously thought I was trying to pull a fast one, until she and I both looked at the tag on the shelf and she agreed with me that it said $4.99. Now what? The tag might say it, but the computer was not going to ring it up. Truly I no longer care. Give me something else for the $4.99 price. Any old paper towel will do! I don’t know if you noticed, but I said I brought in two of the items. I needed all three items in order to return the originals and then ring up the new ones. I went out to the car, parked far at the end of the parking lot, to get the dryer sheets. All three were successfully returned. Two new items and the dryer sheets were then purchased. The three items all went down to $4.99 each and I saved a whopping $10.50 on those three items.

Total savings for the trip: $32.85! And I only spent $47.37. But is my time worth anything?

I do NOT love shopping.