Seventeen Cents

Here's an account of my shopping trip to Shop 'n Save on Thursday:

I previously posted Shop 'n Save Deals and My Shop 'n Save Plan. Now that Thursday had arrived, I put my plan into action, picking up the items for my first transaction. When I got to the dog food area they were out.

Time to regroup. The dog food was a major component of my plan, so I decided just to pick up other items to put me over the $50 (to get the $10 off) and call it a day.

My Transaction:
9 Orville Micro Popcorn - $15.00
5 Kashi Cereal Bars - $12.50
12 Red Gold Tomatoes - $6.00
8 Rice a Roni products - $10.00
1 pkg. Chuck Steak - $5.66
1 20 oz. Diet Coke - $1.38
Tax - $2.60
Total - $53.14

Coupons Used:
$10 off $50
9 - $1 Orville Redenbacher
5 - $2 Kashi Cereal Bar
6 - .75 off 2 Red Gold Tomatoes
2 - $1 off 4 Rice a Roni products
1 - $5 off meat when you buy 8 Rice a Roni
1 - $1.38 free 20 oz. Coke product (from My Coke Rewards)
Coupons Tendered - $41.88
Tax Reduction - $2.05
Paid at Register - $9.21 and received $3 coupon (from popcorn purchase) for next trip

I stopped at the Customer Service counter to get a rain check for the dog food and inquired about the Catalina coupon deal it was involved with. (Buy $20 Nestle products get $5 coupon for your next trip.) The clerk wrote me a rain check for the dog food and handed me $5.26 in cash for the Catalina coupon. (Huh? Where did the .26 come from? Tax?)

Again, time to regroup: this time at home. Do I go to another Shop 'n Save to find the dog food? Or do I go to another Shop 'n Save hoping they are out of dog food? Or do I just go back to my regular store knowing they are out of dog food?

I pondered the ethics of my decision. On one hand, the deal seemed too good to be true. On the other hand, I had already planned out several transactions including the dog food. Ultimately, I went back to the same store. Too embarrassed to claim my rain check and five dollars -again- I sent my husband to the customer service desk.

Second Transaction:
5 Kashi Cereal Bars - $12.50
4 Quaker Granola Bars - $8.00
1 Cap'n Crunch - $2.00
2 R & F Pasta - $2.00
1 Carlita Salsa - $1.67
2 Nestle Refrigerated Cookie Dough - $5.00
2 DiGiorno Pizzas - $12.00
6 20 0z. Diet Cokes - $8.28
Tax - $2.65
Total - $54.10

Coupons Used:
$10 off $50
1 - $3.00 Catalina coupon from previous transaction
5 - $2.00 Kashi Cereal Bars
2 - $1.00 off 2 Quaker Granola Bars
1 - .50 Cap'n Crunch
1 - $3.00 off when you buy 5 Quaker products
2 - $1.00 off Cookie Dough
2 - $6.00 off DiGiorno (from complaint to DiGiorno)
6 - $1.36 free 20 0z. Coke product (My Coke Rewards)
Coupons Tendered - $50.78
Tax Reduction - $2.10
Paid at Register - $1.22
Husband to Customer Service - Dog food rain check and $5.00 cash

The Days Totals:
Groceries - $107.24
Coupons Tendered - $92.66
Tax Reduction - $4.15
Cash Back at Customer Service - $10.26

Total for the day - Seventeen Cents