Cat Food

Gotta write this quick before Baby wakes up...

Went to the pet store again today, and hauled home
2 big bags of dry food
1 small bag of dry food
30 cans of Fancy Feast
1 bag of dental treats for cats
3 bags of T-bone doggie treats
Retail price $96, I paid $72.
I got a free can of Friskies with that coupon I used the other day, but I donated that can to the pet food bank.

The people at this store are hit and miss with coupons. I think they all like me, but some of them struggle with my efforts. They have to ring everything up, scan a coupon, then re-scan the item. Which is a lot of work. And sometimes the coupon doesn't even go through. The cashier who was ringing me up today got flustered about why my Fancy Feast coupon wasn't working, but luckily  the manager was there. And when I told her she had to key in the barcode on the store coupons I printed from online, she got even more stressed. So its true, us younger cashiers are the ones you couponers should go to. Also, the receipts from this store are hard to read.

Btw, me and the hubs have been living mostly off my stockpile since I went on leave and this season has been slow for him. I told ya'll I would be doing that!

Still Using...

...coupons, that is! Today I went to Petco to use my $5 Rewards coupon, and a free Friskies coupon I found on Freestuff.com, or whatever Thunderfap.com is now.
I bought:
one 5.7 oz can of Friskies (a new variety) 57 cents, free with coupon
one "I Love Kitties" planner, marked $7.99 on clearance
4 snowmen rawhide pieces, on clearance for $2.84/lb
4 mini rawhide bones, also on clearance for $2.84/lb
My total was $8 and some change; turns out my planner was $3.98. I love register surprises like that.
Final price: $2.04. Go me!

Also, I have been watching youtube.com videos about extreme couponing. But only while I'm clipping my coupons.

On Leave

As you may or may not know, I am currently on leave from work. I'm on Short Term Disability and will be until February 22nd. I will then apply to get 6 more weeks off, given in the Family and Medical Leave Act.

I was thinking about the German woman I wrote about on New Year's and how she probably thinks I got fired for being so rude to her (or what she perceived as being so rude) and it makes me mad to think that she might think she got the best of me. Or perhaps she is not thinking of me at all. Anyway, I'll be back at work. Sooner than I want, of course.

I told my manager my availability has gone from 40 hours a week whenever you need me to 32 hours and evenings only. Which means I'll be working with a bunch of new people, I think. Lord help me!

I thought maybe this blog could temporarily be about the coupons I use as a regular coupon-using consumer. So I might be posting tomorrow if the hubs wants to watch Baby while I go shopping for shoes.

Contagion

There is an Indian woman who walks with her hips jutted out. She comes in pretty frequently. And she frequently startles me. She is very unfortunate looking, but I think she is friendly. She speaks only Hindi, although some of her words sound English, which leads me to believe we are in a conversation. We are not. Although she chatters on as if we are. And somehow we make it through transactions.

There was another woman who came in today. This one had an exceptionally awesome mullet; the defining line between party and business was drawn with a part on the top of her head, in front of her ears. She spent a long time going through the sweats we just got in. While she was in line I overheard her phone conversation and it made me uneasy:
"Well, apparently I got myself a respiratory illness. ... yeah, it was pretty bad. ... I went through a whole bottle of Robitussin .. I was sick for eighteen days....No, Arthur took me. ...Bless his heart. ...I think I'm feeling better, but I came in to buy more meds. Ok, I'll let you go."
OMG, ma'am if you are sick you need to get the hell away from me. Sometimes I really do get nervous. And her appearance in my store made my sort-of symptoms that much worse.

My face allowed someone to tell me a personal story again. This girl says she just got out of court, and she was having a real good day. I wondered how, and she said because she was in there for having a bowl in the car while driving (using it too? I do not know). And because she had no priors, the judge sentenced her to a psych eval and some classes. She is one of the first to go through this new program that will prevent first-timers from having to go to jail. She was super-excited. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Late Again

I was eleven minutes late to work yesterday. And I forgot to write an entry here. When I came in, my boss yells,
"You're late!"
like I didn't know. But he was in a surprisingly good mood. And when I told him I needed to change my address they had on file, he let me do it right then. Much to the dismay of the woman in Cosmetics, who I left at the front for so long she called into the office. Not that I cared.

My favorite vendor was later than she usually is, and I was starting to think she wouldn't make it in, which would have bummed me out because I had coupon news for her. She did finally come in, and I told her about retailmenot.com and how I ordered my ink so I could print out coupons again. Consequently, I had some good purchases at work yesterday. But at this time I am too tired to recall either of them. So there.

Cotton Swabs and Lost Profits

A disheveled fellow approached my counter today, asking for T-Mobile cards, among other things. He was a tad unfortuante looking, but it could have been remedied if his clothes had fit. I direct him to the appropriate aisle, and he comes back with a box of store-brand Q-tips, while holding one in his hand. He runs the one in his hand over his eyeball and around his eye. During the transaction he does this several more times. And when he came back to do a few more transactions, he had a few more Q-tips in his hands. And was running them over and around his eyeball. Freaked me out. OCD? Unclean? I have no idea. But he did say he wished he brought his glasses, while he was wearing a pair.

Our rewards cards rack up points, depending on what one purchases. I, of course, have several thousand points. But today I made a mistake: I redeemed points during a transaction that caused me to lose about $4 in points. Once I figured out what I had done, I was super-annoyed. Then I promptly lost my receipt so I couldn't fix it. Its' ok though. I'm hoarding "free" (items for which high-value coupons print out) items behind my register. I'm stockpiling like crazy before my baby comes. I don't trust the hubs or the fam to get the deals like I do. And I'm having coupon anxiety because I have NO cleaning supply coupons. How did that happen? Also, how does one figure out how much one's stockpile is worth, how much one paid, and how much one saved over the course of the year? My remedial math skills only take me so far. 

The Doctor Is In

I must have one of those faces. I must have the face that says 'I am a good listener. Tell me your problems.'
This guy comes up, and I know he wants Marlboro Lights.
"Yeah, you know what I want." He says. In that possibly creepy tone.
"You? I thought you bought cigarettes for your ex-wife. That's what you told me! And I believed you."
"Oh, yeah, well, a lot has happened. I want to quit though."
"Hey man, I understand. Quit when you can."
"Its' just that, a lot has happened between me and her...we got divorced in September. And I was still living with her. And then a bunch of shit went on...and finally one day I was like, 'gimmie one of those'. So now I'm living with my ex-wife, and I'm smoking. And a lot of shit happened. Things should get better though."
"Absolutely. It'll look up."

My manager said some more weird and kind of creepy things today. Asking me if I'm ready to push a whole human out. What the fuck is that?