"What, mom, what???"
"I went to Rite Aid tonight, and I got a card and took my coups (coupons) and tried to do like you do! I don't know if I did it right, but I got all this stuff and it was only $14. And I got five of those up dollar things back."
So Mom's been listening to me go on about this whole coupon thang for months now. I tell her when there's a particularly good deal to be had; "Hey, cut out that Crest coupon in your Sunday paper, it'll be free at Giant Eagle next week." She's still remained mostly a casual couponer, though.
But I think the drugstore bug bit her hard tonight. I don't recall the last time I saw her this excited - maybe for the birth of my youngest nephew, but she wasn't screaming then so maybe not.
She got her hands on a couple buy one, get one free coupons for Axe body wash yesterday. My oldest nephew loves the stuff, so she was going to use the coupon to get him some for Christmas. She mentioned it to me earlier today and I said "Hey, I think there's some sort of sale on Axe stuff at Rite Aid this week, maybe you could get them there."
I didn't have the sales circular at hand, so I was going off memory. Well, she drives right past a Rite Aid on her way home from work, so she stopped in to see what the prices were. While she was there, she saw a display of Planter's NUTrition marked down to $3.99 from $6.99; she keeps those in her desk at work to snack on, so she decided to get a couple canisters and go ahead and get the body wash since she was making a purchase anyway.
She found the body wash and was a little bummed to see that the sale I'd recalled was apparently buy one get one 50% off of the Axe deodorant and body spray. The wash wasn't marked, but she was still pretty pleased with the BOGO coupon and the Planter's sale so she loaded up her basket and threw in a bottle of conditioner and a couple bottles of soda so she'd be sure to have a total of $25 to use one of the $5 coupons.
And that brings us to the phone call. She was trying to make sense of the receipt and just couldn't understand how her total wound up being $14 and change. The body washes were $5.69ea, the nuts were $3.99ea, and she had conditioner and soda on top of it. Even with the BOGO coupons, she thought her total should have been about $20.
Turns out the body wash was included in that buy one get one 50% off sale. And they took the full price of $5.69 off for each of her coupons, only charging her the half off price for two body washes. And she got $2 in +UPs for each two bottles she bought. When she realized she had paid $5.69 for four body washes AND had received $4 back on top of it - effectively making those Christmas gifts $.42ea - she literally started shouting and yelling in excitement.
I tried to get her calmed down, but she also discovered that she'd received a $1 +UP for buying the two Planter's. She was on a tear.
"I'm going back tomorrow to get more nuts! And maybe some other stuff! I got a sale paper while I was there and my hair dye gives me those up dollars back. And there's a coup in the sale paper for it. I have a coup already, can I use both??"
My mom speaks a special language. I knew what she meant. The coupons printed in the Rite Aid circulars are store coupons and, yes, they can be combined with manufacturer's coupons that you get from the coupon inserts. This is called stacking coupons. She has some $2 off coupons she'd cut out of the Sunday paper, and then there were additional $2 Rite Aid coupons in their circular, which will take $4 of of each box of hair dye, plus she'll get $2 in +UPs back for each which is...
"That's like getting them for $2.99! OH MY GOD!!!"
"Okay Mom, here's what you do. Buy two of your hair dyes. Take two of your newspaper coupons and take two of the Rite Aid coupons with you. Go ahead and buy two more of the Planter's. If you buy those things, your normal total will be $25.96. Use one of those $5 off coupons since your total is over $25, so we're down to $21.96. Use all four of those hair dye coupons, and that'll be $13.96. Use the $5 in up dollars you got today and pay the $8.96 in cash, and you'll get $5 more up dollars back. There ya go - for the price of one hair dye, you'll get two of them plus two cans of nuts!"
She couldn't believe such a thing, and she told me so. Loudly. But she was busily putting all her coupons and "up dollars" in an envelope in her purse as she told me so because she planned to stop at Rite Aid before work. She'd get up early and just stop there first to make sure she got what she needed.
I do believe I have created a monster.
No comments:
Post a Comment