Well...That was fun! :-)

This is one of those reasons I'm a reluctant coupon clipper/shopper. I hate irritating people or feeling like I'm a nuisance. Well, at least I had two months to start thickening my skin before getting my first crabby cashier and being made to feel like I was the most annoying person she had seen all day. Tonight, after putting Braxton down for the night, I ran to Target and Safeway to grab some deals (always faster and easier sans Braxton!).

Safeway was no big deal. The cashier was tired, but didn't give me a lot of grief. I mean, I'd be tired too if I had to be on my feet that long. Target on the other hand, Oye! The cashier there obviously needed some coffee...or sugar...or happy pills. Anything to counteract the crabbiness! Granted I had twice as many coupons as items, but I had double and triple checked that they were all legit for what I was purchasing. When I walked to the check out area, there was only one register open. I hate it when that happens. Inevitably a lady walks up right as I start getting rung up. This made the cashier antsy (I remember working retail - you never like a line) and she started not paying attention to the coupons and telling me that because they beeped they wouldn't work. I calmly explained to her that they should work based on the guidelines of the coupon (remember, I had double and triple checked). She was obviously irritated and started hitting the "accept" button every time they beeped without actually checking anything. For my second transaction, when I handed her my second stack of coupons she glumly said "all these too???" "Yup!" I replied as cheerfully as I could muster up. My printed coupons kept beeping and she just kept carelessly punching them through as fast as she could. Both my transactions combined took less than 3 minutes (looking at the times on my receipts), but as I put my bags into my cart, I overheard her tell the lady behind me very loudly "sorry for your long wait!" Really?! Seriously?! Ugh! The final total on my second transaction didn't sound right to me (too low). I'm pretty sure she got going so fast she messed up some coupons and gave me some extra discounts - but she also overcharged me for a few items. The way it balances out between those two errors only makes about a dollar difference, but I still think I'll run back tomorrow and see if they want me to make it up to them (I know I only owe them a dollar and they'll probably just tell me to forget about it, but I'm trying to be honest here!).

Life lesson learned: after 8pm, cashiers get progressively more grouchy!! Even though the shopping trip was not the most pleasant experience of my life, I still scored some major deals on some much needed items.

Here are my totals for the night...give or take a dollar. :-)

Total Combined Target and Safeway Purchases
Spent: $28.68
Saved: $54.09!! :-)

Safeway: I bought 8 boxes of General Mills and Quaker Cereal.
Total Spent: $5.92 ($0.74/box)
Total Saved: $24.20

Target:
Transaction #1 - Total $20.54
Charmin Toilet Paper - I earned a $5 Target Gift Card by purchasing two packages of the Charmin toilet paper. Combining sales, coupons and mentally counting the gift card brought the packages down to $6.24/pkg or $0.34/roll. The goal price for toilet paper I've been told is around $0.25/roll, but since Charmin is the toilet paper brand of choice in the Bergen household and it rarely goes on sale, I had no qualms paying $0.34/roll.
Nature Valley Granola Bars - $0.25 total for 3 travel packages (12 bars).
Lysol Wipes - $1.40/each. Pretty sure they were supposed to be $1/each. Whatever. I'm not going to heckle over $0.40!

Transaction #2 - Total was $1.09 (I used my $5 gift card I earned in the first transaction). This is the transaction that got a little funky as I was expecting the total to be around $2.50 after sales, coupons and gift card.
2 Lysol Wipes
2 Rimmell Mascaras
1 Johnsons Baby Wash - not on sale, but we were almost out and I had a coupon.
3 Nature Valley Granola Bar travel packs

Confused yet? My head was spinning after I left Target. Most days I still don't think I'm smart enough to actually do this. But I got a chocolate milkshake on the way home and that made life so much less complicated. It's the little things... :-)

Now I'm off to try to find a place to store all this toilet paper and cereal!