Monday, March 16, 2009

Shopping For Seven Sisters

(As posted on my blogsite http://goldencoupons.blogspot.com)

I did something yesterday that made me very nervous, so much so that I enlisted the assistance of Gopher Jim who was enjoying a sunny afternoon nap at the entrance to the burrow.

But, being the nice, helpful, Hubby Gopher that he is, we quickly set out on an adventure in the great metropolis city called Meijer Super Store.

You all know how excited I am when those Golden Coupons provide us with FREE groceries for our burrow. Already we've had to add an extension tunnel for all the extra goodies obtained by exchanging a tiny piece of paper for 'taxable goods'.

Sometimes coupons 'expire' before the sale price makes the item worth my time and effort. Like a dozen .50-cents off on Cottonelle TP coupons that I had on hand for that perfect Kroger .99-cent sale. (Doubled here made them FREE.) I guess Kroger got wise to all the FREE TP they were exchanging for these coupons, so they removed the sale tags and never put them back. Alas, I searched all the Kroger's within a 5-mile radius and no .50-cent TP were to be found. So those coupons expired yesterday and the death was noted with some displeasure at having wasted .80-cents on them at my online coupon store (here). I refused to take .50-cents off of a non-sale product that now costs 3.49!

Back to the city excursion of yesterday. Another stash of coupons being held back for a good sale price was 14 coupons for those sweet, tasty, Warm Delights by Betty Crocker. Made to serve one person by adding two tablespoons of water and 30-seconds in the microwave, these have fast become an occasional afternoon delight when the sun refuses to shine on our family habitat, and the chill winds continue to blow across the Midwest territory.

Oh the joy when I discovered that Meijer was conducting such a good sale price on the Warm Delights to make them FREE when the coupon was doubled. Oh the challenge when I realized that Meijer only doubles the first TWO coupons of the same product. The rest are at face value.

My solution (and I always think of one!) was to make seven transactions for the 14 coupons.

One more imposition is that when two Warm Delights are purchased with doubled coupons, this creates a override or nagative balance, (where they owe ME money), and Meijer Store does not like that either.

So I spent an hour or so the night before last, reviewing ALL the other sales at Meijer to combine with coupons stashed away in my big fat coupon holder to determine what else I could purchase with each of the seven transactions and not create a override balance.

Ready at last, I roused the napping Gopher and we set off for the city with Sheba happily settled in the back seat of the car.

"What am I suppose to do," queried sleepy Gopher.

"Just do whatever I ask you to," was my nervous reply.

In the end, I did make seven transactions at the self check-out counter using one grocery item with two Warm Delights and three coupons for each transaction. And every time I tried to scan the second coupon, the red light above my post would go off calling for a cashier to come over and 'authorize' the coupon(s).

At one point, the long-suffering but patient cashier asked why I was making so many separate transactions.

"She's shopping for her seven sisters," my quick-thinking Gopher replied.

I'm so proud of my 14 FREE Warm Delights (although not quite sure what to do with the stash), and the fact that I figured out how to get it done the "golden coupon" way! (I've already given some to our son John...He's still out of work!)

Oh by the way, I discovered Lysol toilet bowel cleaner is on sale this week for half-price at 1.17 a bottle, and with the .50-cent coupon that was in Sunday's paper, I got two bottles for .17-cents each.

A GREAT DEAL for anyone living in the Columbus, Ohio, area who lives near a Meijer store.

For a FREE Warm Delight, click HERE.

Happy Coupon Sales!

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

HOME: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com