No Coupon Needed

Never go anywhere without your coupons. This is the #1 rule for couponers everywhere, and yet I was in Walmart this morning without my binder. I was there to pick up medication for my daughter Emily, who just had her wisdom teeth removed. While I waited, I wandered the nearby aisles, coming across five more boxes of marked down Kotex U pads, along with five $2 coupons. $1 a box after coupons is a great stockpile price, so of course I bought all five.  I almost didn't go in the clearance aisle because I knew there was a good chance there would be something marked down that I had coupons for~ at home~ and I didn't need the guilt at having forgotten my coupons and missing a good deal. I'm glad I ignored my initial hesitation because when I got to the clearance aisle I immediately spotted a cart of marked-down Scott toilet tissue. Now, Scott tissue has been my favorite brand of toilet paper for over 15 years, ever since we lived in the country with a septic system. And I was just thinking about how low we were getting on toilet paper.

(photo circa 2002)

I am always looking for a good deal on Scott tissue, so when I saw these single rolls marked down to 25-cents (regularly $1), I began throwing them into my cart.  Then I thought What am I doing? and I put the rolls back in the cart and added my other items to their cart full of toilet paper, instead. Then I pushed it up to the checkout, where I was met with the very wide pair of eyes of a young cashier. David would have loved this, I thought.  He was never embarrassed with my good deals, unlike my children, who would have been mortified. David would have started bragging on the good deal and called me his "Coupon Queen." (despite the fact that I didn't have coupons for the toilet paper) "She's the coupon queen who writes a column for the Telegraph Herald," he often told complete strangers in line behind us. Hey, he was proud of me, and after 32 years, used to my sometimes extreme couponing tactics.

I helped the cashier count the 89 rolls and handed her my coupons for the Kotex products. "Now you have something funny to talk about in the break room later," I told her, "You can tell everyone about the crazy lady buying toilet paper."

"Oh, I will," she smiled broadly. I think I made her day. I know this deal made mine.

EMERGENCY COUPONING!

Last night I heard the words every mother of teenage girls dreads hearing; "Mom, we're almost out of pads."

It is a fact that for 40 years, I have not run out of "feminine protection." Seriously.  As soon as I realized that my parents had a difficult time keeping the house stocked with such an important necessity, I started using my baby-sitting money to pay for my own. When I got married in 1979 I began using coupons on everything I regularly used, and at that point I stopped being brand-loyal. It was whatever pad was on sale that I had coupons for. For one entire year it was Always pads, the year I lived in Independence, Iowa and raided the recycling center weekly, netting 25-30 of the amazing $2 coupons that made the product entirely free. And up until six weeks ago, when my husband passed away and I temporarily lost my mind, I avidly perused the sale ads and the coupon inserts so that my cupboard was well-stocked with this important product at the lowest stockpile price possible.

Then last night one of my daughters informed me the stockpile was down to one single pad and I needed to go to Walmart first thing in the morning.

Without coupons.  There was not one single coupon for feminine protection in my coupon binder. No Kotex. No Stayfree. No Always.

Terror struck in my heart. Would I have to pay full-price for this pricey product?

At Walmart this morning, my eyes scanned the shelves, silently repeating the steps to saving that I recite in my workshops:

Step 1: Identify what you need.  I needed pads.
Step 2: Look for a sale price. I found a couple boxes of Kotex U products on sale for $3, regularly $5.97, and they included a nice purse clutch holder. 
Step 3: Ask yourself if you have coupons for that product. No, I did not. BUT, and this was the best part of emergency couponing shopping in action~ Right on the product were $2 off coupons, bringing those two boxes down to just $1! I picked up two other packages that were priced at $3.97, and used the $2 coupons on those as well.

There was also a refund form attached to a Stayfree product, offering a $5 refund for purchasing two Stayfree products, limited to one per address.  I picked up two packages of pads priced at $2.84, and immediately filled out the form when I got home, sending it out in today's mail to get a $5 check. (the manufacturer's count on the impulse buy and the slippage that occurs when the consumer forgets to send for the rebate)

Arms full, I headed to the checkout, only to be stopped by an older gentleman who informed me I had dropped one the packages.  He laughed when I stooped over to pick it up and dropped another one of the packages.

"Emergency run. Two teenage daughters," I explained.

"That is an emergency!" he said, "But I think you could have used a cart," and he gallantly offered me his empty one.

I demurred, and carefully made my way to the check-out.  Hopefully I won't have any more emergency coupon runs anytime soon.

A Cut Above

I managed to collect 8 $3 off Olay razor coupons for a good deal at Target yesterday. My daughters and I actually prefer these all-in-one razors, but they are normally too pricey for us. At $5.99 a pop after the $3 coupon applied, you might wonder why I would purchase eight of them. Target had the new Olay razors on sale for $8.99 in last week's ad, but what caught my attention was the fact that for each two I would purchase, I would net a $5 gift card. Now, things were getting interesting. I paid $11.98 for the first set of razors~ quite a pricey investment for a $5 gift card. However, the next set of razors rang in at $11.98, and I used that first $5 gift card to bring my total down to $6.98, and netted yet another $5 gift card, which, of course, I used to purchase another set of razors. I was able to do this as long as I had $3 coupons, which meant only four transactions, since I had eight $3 coupons. If I did my math correctly, I ended up paying $32.92 ($11.98 for the first transaction, $6.98 for the subsequent three) for eight packages of razors that come with an extra cartridge, but I have that extra $5 gift card to use next time I am in the store.  Still pricey razors when we can buy an entire pack of Bic razors for less than $4, but let's face it, when it comes to razors, you really do get what you pay for; when we use Bic, we feel like we are scraping our legs with a slab of cement, and these razors just glide over our skin. We don't have to use shaving cream with these, either.

Hitting the Sauce

The young cashier looked up at me, one eyebrow raised, "Planning a salsa party, are we?"

"No, just a good deal," and I handed her a stack of coupons.  The Hy-Vee I stopped at yesterday had an endcap of Ortega products marked down; taco shells were just 99-cents and the taco sauce was 3/$2, which for those of you who are mathematically challenged means two jars came up for 67-cents each and the third rang up at 66-cents. Factor in my $1.00 off two Ortega product coupons, and figure in the fact that during the summer we go through several bottles a week with our favorite hot summer day tortilla chip dip, and this particular stockpile will likely get us through August, and for only 16 and 17-cents a bottle!

Mary's easy breezy taco layer dip

For a low-fat dip on a hot summer day, use Lays Baked tortilla chips and dip them in this treat. I eat this for a meal

line a cake pan with tin foil or wax paper, or this will be a mess to clean up.

Use two blocks of fat-free cream cheese as the bottom layer. Top with two smaller jars of taco sauce, or one larger jar. Top with chopped lettuce, cut up tomatoes and a bag of fat-free Kraft cheese.  Those with more refined taste buds will want to add chopped onions and olives.  Push down to compress the ingredients together, and dip the chips into it.  Enjoy!