Vida. Risa. Amor.

I love helpful people....and they are rare to find in these times. I had a lovely cashier actually work with me and my insane stack of coupons to help me earn my free movie tickets. The deal was you had to buy 10 specific items that qualify and a free movie ticket would print out. Well I wanted 2 tickets not one, (like I'm going by myself), so I purposely found 20 things, (and as always, I had coupons for each and every item). I've done deals like this before and have learned to not buy a bunch of stuff you really don't need, and I was lucky that every item I bought happened to be something we use regularly...like toilet paper and french fries. The problem was that it was a limit of one free movie ticket per deal, so she had to ring up 10 items, and then had to start another separate order for the other 10. Well when you have a stack of 25 or so coupons, and a 3 year old who is sick of sitting in a grocery cart car seat belt, there really is no time to figure out which coupon goes with each different order. But this rock-star cashier lady really went the extra mile to sort my coupons out even though I was holding up her line. I was also sorry for the elderly couple behind me that were patiently waiting and though I kept apologizing to them, they kept telling me they were impressed and wanted to learn how I do what I do.

There's more to deals than just coupons. Since I have a few grocery stores I visit weekly, I've also learned who the cool cashiers are and who aren't...who are smart, and those who really should just run the self check lanes. My basic rule of thumb I live by, is to pick the lane with the male manager or the high school guy...even if it means waiting a little longer. They take every coupon. I have also discovered that most women cashiers are more likely to hand your coupon back to you if it doesn't work or stand there and analyze it for 4 minutes, call in a supervisor, and then still hand your coupon back to you. On occasion I run into extreme coupon Nazi's, and once was told I could be responsible for them losing their job if they didn't make sure each and every one of my coupons match up. I never forget a rude cashier. And if they can't pronounce my last name, they shouldn't ask for it, #1: because they won't remember me, and #2: I'll make sure to avoid their lane next time anyway.

I clearly spend a big part of my life figuring out grocery deals. I think even if I were wealthy, I'd still watch for sales...my conscience wouldn't allow me to buy milk at $2.99 when another store had it on sale for $1.58. I might be a little freakish for all this, but I'm tempted to save my reciepts from a year and figure out my total savings. I've noticed that I usually always save over 65%. In these times, I don't think there's anything insane about saving $2000 a year on groceries just by using coupons...especially for a family of 6 living off of one income. On this visit I bought about 30 items and spent only about $40....AND earned my 2 free movie tickets!! I really believe it pays off to spend a few minutes reading the grocery store ads every Wednesday, cut coupons on Sunday, and then match up coupons with the sales.

The best things in life aren't always free, or easy, but if you can save a few bucks on grocery expenses....that's a total bonu$!