Coupon Musings

Last week I didn't do much couponing because there were some things that I had to get as far as groceries went, that weren't on sale and didn't have coupons, so I went to Winco. Winco has the best prices overall for regular groceries, and if you don't have time or don't want to look for sales or coupons, this is the place to go to at least help with your grocery budget a little.

Next week I'll do better. I've already got my eye on several things at Walgreens.

This past week I also did a lot of pondering on the attitude of some Walgreens managers toward those who enjoy finding bargains using sales and coupons. Some managers will not allow you to use a Walgreens coupon that you find in the Sunday ad or the Easy Saver catalog thing, combined with a manufacturer's coupon. I find that a little sad. I don't think it should matter to the manager; if we use a manufacturer's coupon they're going to get their money, it will just take a little longer because it has to come from a clearinghouse.

The thing that I find ironic, is that Walgreens ads actively encourage this kind of bargain shopping. They offer things that are free after rebate, etc., and proudly advertise them in their ads. But then managers get mad because, I suppose, they feel that the people who are buying these things should spend a lot more money than just buying the coupon/sale/free after rebate things, and a lot of them don't. I think I do my share to support my local Walgreens so I don't feel bad when I get 2 Sense n' Spray air fresheners for free with a small overage that helps pay for the rest of the items I'm buying. I guess I can see them being a little mad when people come in repeatedly and only buy the deals and never shop there for anything else. But like I said they will get at least some of their money when the clearinghouse gets the coupon.

People are trying to stretch their dollars as far as they can. When I am a cashier I am one of the ones helping them use their coupons. The other day I had a customer who had walgreens coupons, manufacturers coupons and a register reward from a previous purchase. The cash register wouldn't accept the register reward, it was giving me an error message about coupon value exceeding purchase price which I knew wasn't true. I remembered that you couldn't have more manufacturer's coupons than items and that register rewards count as a manufacturer's coupon. So I told her she just needed to buy one more small item and she would be able to use her register rewards. She threw in a 33 cent caramel and voila, it worked! She was so grateful for the help. I know that she'll be back.

OK that's enough rambling for today. I'll let you know what deals I'll be getting in a post tomorrow.