Cashier Reactions

Some of the cashier reactions I've gotten when I've used coupons and specials to get really great deals can be rather amusing. Here are some of the reactions I've gotten this year:

At Giant earlier this summer I was able to combine a rain check and coupons to get Bob Evans Italian Sausage for $1.50 a pack. The cashier commented that I was her kind of shopper.

At Walgreens during one of their $10 on $40 coupon weekends I was able to get my original total of over $60 down to $30 and change. The cashier was completely amazed by this. He was so amazed that I didn't have the heart to tell him that after register rewards and rebates I had actually made money on the transaction.

At Safeway today I was able to combine their save $5 on 5 promo with coupons and register rewards to get my out of pocket down to $3.70. The cashier commented that I was a good shopper.

At Target a week ago I was buying several items with coupons. In typical Target fashion several of the coupons beeped. The cashier commented that she hated coupons, but she pushed them through. My brother checked out behind me with the same cashier. He purchased several bath towels along with his other items. While ringing him up she commented on how she hated bath towels. This girl was probably all of 16 and her grumbling wasn't done in a nasty way so we both found it rather amusing. We were even able to joke around with her about it.

At Walgreens today. I got a cashier I have gotten several times in the past. He remembers me so when I was checking out and I only had milk he asked if that was all I was getting today. The tone of his voice said he couldn't believe I wasn't buying more and using coupons. He is one of the more fun cashiers that they have there.

What kinds of reactions have you gotten from cashiers when you've used coupons?

Safeway Deals

Safeway has some great deals this week. In the past I had avoided Safeway because I feel their prices are high. I still feel that way, but you can also get some great deals if you look. Right now I've been getting some really great deals with their save $5 when you buy 5 participating items promotion. I've spent enough now to get $0.10 off per gallon of gas. That's the first time that has happened to me at Safeway. Now I just need to remember to stop and get gas there before the end of the month.

For the full listing of this week's Safeway deals, check out Mommy Making Money. Here is the listing of the deals I took advantage of:

Super Coupons:
$0.99 5 pounds white potatoes
$7.00 3 Oscar Mayer lunch meat
$4.00 2 Pepsi 6 packs (These are also part of the $5 on 5 deal)

Saturday/Sunday Only
$1.88 Oreo cookies

Buy 5 and save $5.00 Deals
$1.50 Old El Paso Taco Shells
$2.50 Progresso Chicken Stock
$3.00 Pillsbury Cookies
$2.00 Pepsi 6 pack (using Super Coupon, limit 2)

Weekly Deals
$2.89 Ragu Spaghetti Sauce - Buy 1 get 1 Free. There are also $1.00 on 2 coupons in today's paper making this $1.89
$2.50 Quaker Instant Oatmeal - I used the $1.00 coupon for the High Fiber version to get this for $1.50

Register Reward Deal
$1.99 Glade plug ins - Use the BOGO coupons from a week or two ago, these generate $2.00 register rewards for your next purchase. So if you buy 2 using the coupon you pay $1.99 and get $4.00 in register rewards.

Walgreens Catalinas

I stopped at Walgreens today to pick up some milk and the catalina machine printed out some notices for me on some upcoming deals.

#1 - Always Inifinity - Look for it on the shelf in early October. Visit Walgreens.com in September to order a free sample. You can get your sample here.

#2 - Buy 2 participating Crest or Oral B items 9/26 - 10/25 and receive a coupon for $2.00 off your next order.

#3 - Buy select Dove products 9/26 - 10/25 and save up to $3.00 off your next order.

Sharing the Plunder

Since I started really getting into finding the deals a few months ago I have built up quite a stash of items that we regularly use. My stash has gotten to the point that my husband has been complaining about it taking over the house. Please note that it isn’t that bad, I do have it contained to closets and the laundry room, but there is a rather large stash for two adults and an infant. Anyway, my husband’s employer has started a collection of personal care items to be sent to the hurricane victims in Texas. When he found out about it he asked if I wanted to give anything. Since we do have so much I was more then willing to donate. I put together a large shopping bag of items that he took in. It felt really good to be able to help people in need like that.

For those of you with a stash, have you ever donated anything? Are you one of those generous souls who makes regular donations to a local charity or homeless shelter?

Taking Advantage of Clearance Clothing

Buying clothes for children can get expensive really quickly. We have been very fortunate in that we have been given a lot of clothing for my daughter. There is still some clothing that needs to be purchased though. To help keep my costs down I have been trying to pick up clearance items at the end of the season for the next year. Just this past weekend I was able to pick up several tops for her for $1.97 each and I even got an adorable skort for $4.97. To help keep up with what clothing she has in storage I decided to start an inventory. I just made up a master list of what clothing she has in what size. I'm trying to keep it simple so the list is something like this:
Tank Top - Purple - 2T
Jean Shorts - 2T
etc.
This list helps me keep tabs on what I already have so that I don't buy too much of one thing and not enough of another. By creating this list I discovered that my daughter has plenty of tops for next summer, but she needs some shorts. So now I know to keep my eyes open for clearanced shorts and to stop buying tops.

Do you buy ahead for your children? If so, how do you keep track of what you have?

Coupon Perceptions

During my drive in to this work this morning the radio hosts mentioned that a study had just been done that found that less then 2% of coupons are ever redeemed. The reason they gave for this was that most people perceive coupon users as being cheap. Now, I am a coupon user and I have been for several years now. I personally don’t care if other people think that I’m cheap. When I look at how much I am saving it makes it all worthwhile. This whole concept of people worrying about how strangers perceive them and not wanting to look cheap amazes me. This is exactly the kind of attitude that got us into the financial crisis the country is in now. So many people worry about looking successful and having all the trappings of the good life. They don’t seem to realize that buying that “stuff” on credit today means you will be paying a lot more for it in the future. Eventually you have to pay the piper and so many families are now unable to do that.

This reminds me of a conversation I had earlier this year. I was outside talking with one of the kids in the neighborhood when another neighbor’s girlfriend pulled up in a BMW. The kid commented that it was a really nice car and that she must have a lot of money. My response to him was that the car you drive has absolutely no reflection on the amount of money she has. There are millionaires out there driving old clunkers and there are plenty of people out there driving luxury cars and hiding them from the repo man. You just really don’t know. He was amazed to hear me say this and I could tell from the look on his face that he had never even thought about that. I can only hope that what I said sunk in. It was definitely something that he needed to hear. Heck, there are a lot of adults out there that need to hear this too.

Reward Program Thoughts

First I want to state that I am a fan of participating in any reward programs that you can for products that you like or use frequently. Two of the programs that I have been using lately are the My Coke Rewards and the Pepsi Stuff programs. For both of these programs you get codes under the cap or in the boxes of participating Coke and Pepsi products. You then enter the codes online to accumulate points and redeem those points for your rewards. I use the Coke points to get coupons for free Coke products and I use the Pepsi points to get free music from Amazon.

To help get the rewards faster I get points from my family members and friends. I told them about the programs in case they were interested in participating in them themselves. None of them were, but I was able to get a few people to save their codes for me. We have also picked up codes in other places too. When I was leaving the grocery store one day I saw an empty Pepsi box in one of the shopping carts. It still had the code for the points attached so I grabbed it. We have also come across caps laying on the ground when we are out walking in our neighborhood. Keep your eyes open and you just may come across some free points too.

What reward programs do you participate in? Have you gotten any good rewards from them?