Hunting Down Savings

I love coupons.

I especially love when I have a coupon for an item that’s on sale. When the $1.99 potato chips are on sale for $1.49 and I use a 25 cent coupon, I know I’ve saved 38% off a single item which makes me feel like I’ve conquered the grocery store, and math skills. Every single chip tastes 38% better, of course.

The whole idea of celebrating a small monetary gain is similar to working a penny slot machine at low caliber casino. A few wins here and there, while the house wins every time.

Still, it seems entertaining. Kroger runs deals where if you buy X number of a select set of sale items, you get additional savings. It’s a process. I see what is included in the special sale, see if I use it, and then, hunt it down.

Like this weekend, there was a promotion that if I bought six items, mix and match, from a list of sale items, Kroger would take an additional $3 off my total bill. So I hunted down cheese, ice cream, toilet paper, coffee, cottage cheese, and Craisins*. (Isn’t the term “hunted down” dramatic?) I use all these products, and they were all marked down, and I had a coupon for the cheese, the TP and the cottage cheese.

It feels like Kroger is giving stuff away.

Which they aren’t.

Obviously.

In fact, they are just tricking me into buying more stuff.

But I figure, I’m already in the store so let me go head-to-head versus their marketing department.

I like to think I win (because I don’t want to believe I could lose). I only buy stuff I actually use. If it’s something I don’t really need right away, but I’m holding a coupon, I’ll won’t buy it. I’m stubborn about it. If it’s not dire, I wait for the on-sale/coupon combo. How many times have I waved a coupon defiantly at the Fabreze and said, “nope. You can stay right here in aisle 27 until you go on sale”? (I whisper it under my breath, of course. When I’m product hunting I don’t like to scare the merchandise or the other people in the aisle.)

Miriam Webster says the definition of a coupon is a voucher to receive a discount on a particular item. I like to think of a voucher as a subsidy. I like to think Kroger is subsidizing my grocery shopping experience by providing a savings game. Did I mention I like to think I’m the winner in all this? LOL! #DelusionsOfShoppingGrandeur

*Craisins = I have fallen for a marketing concept. The same product comes in clear plastic tubs in the organic aisle under the less flashy name “dried cranberries.”