Pages

Thursday, January 23, 2014

For One Moment, I Knew How An Extreme Couponer Felt



And let me tell you, it was freaking awesome!

Way back in December (for some reason it feels like eons ago), I was out Christmas shopping with Mom. Every Christmas we pick a day and it's just the two of us, hanging out, catching up, and shopping. Just a nice "girls day".

It was kind of towards the end of our shopping day and I was looking for a couple more things. One of them being for Boyfriend. So Mom and I popped into Kohl's  to see if they had any t-shirts. I knew it would be impossible to find the shirts I was looking for, it being December and all (and supposedly winter, however Mother Nature has completely screwed us over this year).

Instead of t-shirts, I found a really nice zip-up hoodie with fleece lining. Since his new job at a small town water district is awful cold, I figured it would help keep him warm. I looked at the price tag and gasped. $80!! I looked up and sighed with relief when I saw that it was on sale for 50% off. Niiiiiice.

Mom had a couple Kohl's coupons in her wallet that she'd let me use and said she'd put in on her Kohl's card and I could just pay her back when the bill came in. We were all set.

As the cashier was ringing up the sweater and discussing coupons with my Mom, I suddenly remembered that I had a gift card to Kohl's from the previous Christmas. The cashier looked at me like I was insane. I pulled it out of my wallet and said, "There's probably only $5 left on it or something, but whatever."

The gal scanned it while I wasn't paying attention (because I was putting my wallet back in my purse) and suddenly Mom was elbowing me saying, "They owe you money! Holy shit!"

I looked up all confused and the cashier said, "There's twenty-four and change on here. Did you just want to go ahead and use it all up?"

I stared - dumbfounded - at the register screen. The ($80) sweater (after all the coupons) came to $22 and some change. The gift card still had $24 and change on it. The store only owed me $2, but still.

But STILL. The store owed ME.

That never happens.

So I went across the street to Best Buy and bought Boyfriend "The Hobbit" since I didn't have to spend any of my own money on the really nice sweater from Kohl's.

And for one brief moment in time, I finally knew how one of those extreme couponers felt when the grocery store owed them money at the end of it all.


8 comments:

  1. Maybe your neighbor the Pastor was praying for you... ehh, probably not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am 100% addicted to coupon shopping and sale shopping. I got my electric toothbrush (originally $89) on sale and with a coupon for $15 and thought I was the coolest bitch on earth. There is NOTHING better than saving money on something you need. Now...coupining and buying things you DON'T need is still a waste of money no matter how much you spend...but on essentials...it's a great feeling.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm starting to see the upside of couponing. Especially now that I'm looking for full-time work again. lol But it can be so much work. But I agree, stockpiling things you don't need is always a waste of money. Just because you can get it free doesn't mean you actually NEED it!

      Delete
  3. I love when that happens!! A while back I tried extreme couponing. In our state you can't do a lot of the things they do on the show, but let me tell ya I did get a whole lot of stuff for free and deep discounts. The key is stockpiling, which of course I don't have the space for. Now a days I just search our local ad for things we already buy that I can monopolize on gas points for (our store has a gas station as well... certain items get more gas points which gets you $ off of gas per gallon.) I got a full tank of gas the other day for $2.09 a gallon. *sigh* That's like 1992 prices.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I watched the show on TLC I heard that some states allow "doubling" up on the coupons or something like that. Unfortunately CA doesn't allow that. I'm in serious awe of people on that show. lol

      Delete
  4. That is awesome! I always HEAR stories like this, but no one is sharing WHERE to get the coupons/HOW to do it. I only see coupons for products I don't normally use. Sometimes it's a similar product, so I might try it but it's a WHOLE dollar off. Big whoop! hahaha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously, I hate clipping coupons and stuff. My mom always has coupons to Kohl's because she's got their card and shops there a lot. And really, I thought there was only $5 left on my random gift card. lol

      Delete

I love comments. Please leave one. :o)