We needed to purchase about 90 bottles of salad dressing for our daughters wedding. Michelle, a good friend, gave us a tip about Meijer's sale on Kraft salad dressing.
The following is a true story.
If you could have seen me last night... The salad dressing sale was buy 4 Kraft dressings for the sale price of $1.59 each, I had run copies of or been given $1.00 off coupons for every bottle. and as if that wasn't good enough, 59 cents each, I received a Meijer catalina worth $3.00 off of my next grocery purchase. In other words, Meijer paid ME to buy dressings!
I didn't have time to buy just 4 at one time so I thought, I'm just taking 20 bottles of dressing up at a time and do 5 separate orders at the self checkout line. So I stepped to the center self check out surrounded by other shoppers at about 9:30 last night. Next thing I know, after com
pleting one order and beginning the next. Everyone was gone - except the managers and people taking money out of every machine but mine.They pulled the divider across the entire self check out area - not allowing any more customers to enter. There I stood - trying to work the system to get my $3.00 catalinas by checking thru just 4 bottles of dressing at a time - as the Big Top Manager person stood watching me outside the dividers - and as my coupons required the clerks assistance - I caved in to the pressure and just ran the last 16 through as one order.....so heart breaking, but they were so intimidating! I was preventing an entire shift from going home!
This morning while Ron was at the Elders meeting - I headed back to Meijer with determination and coupons in hand I went back in. This time I decided I would try one of my old Kraft catalinas to see if they would roll. They did! So for 26 cents - I headed back to my car with 4 salad dressings and a $3.00 catalina with the intention of grabbing more coupons and going right back in.
What I found was that I had left the parking lights on in my euphoria to get a deal, and my battery was dead! I called my husband and he and Deering came to the rescue. I somehow talked Ron into going in for one group of 4 dressings before heading to church. We took turns sitting in the car with the motor running to get the battery built back up - while the other bought salad dressings - ridiculous!
We then agreed to come back after work and buy more, even if we had to go in one at a time and just by 4 dressings. So we did! By Ron's 3rd trip to the car I could tell I was losing him - his eyes had that far away 'I'd rather be anywhere in the world but here' look - so as he returned once more to the car with the goods I reached a dead-run pace with my cart racing to get the rest of what we needed in my cart before he returned. He didn't.
I called and he said he was done! I asked him to just bring back in the final $3.00 catalina and promised I would just buy the remaining 27 bottles in one transaction. He agreed...
As we checked out with not only our remaining dressing purchases but additional groceries, our clerk was extremely patient as she took coupon after coupon off of our bill - our $75.00 bill dropped to just $17.00 and produced another $3.00 catalina!
It grieved me greatly to give up the additional 6 catalinas I could have earned - but, it wasn't worth losing a husband!
Couponing is a good thing I suppose, but, it is so much easier NOT to know about the deals out there!
1 comment:
So, funny!!! When I was growing, there were 9 kids at home (and later, there was another). My mother lived and breathed coupons and rebates. Anything on earth to save a buck, because with that many kids, you could bankrupt yourself just on the grocery bill.
She knew every trick there was and then some. And she even put us all to work to make the operation run more smoothly. But, she did manage to keep us all fed.
When I think of this now, it makes me realize just how much she has sacrificed over the years for us and how much I love her for it.
Thanks for posting this Lori.
Tammy
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