Deals gone bad

Frugal was a motto my mother lived by. We only shopped sales and she always spent cash for everything. That all changed when she got a Macy's credit card to get better deals on the sales when she used her card. Don't worry, they still pay it off every month and despite her Macy's credit love, she is still motivated by a good sale.

I inherited this frugal gene. And now I've taken it to a whole new level. Couponing and Walgreen deals. You should know that I was forced into it by these two ladies. They came over, forced me to cut coupons and took me to Walgreen's. There my eyes were opened. I could get household goods for FREE!

Despite the success, there has been a HUGE failure. Maybe failure isn't the word. Screwed might be more appropriate, albeit slightly offensive. None the less, it describes perfectly my deal breaking event.

Dreams of catalina's** danced in my head. I would have load's to spend at Fred Meyer. The family and I spent a Saturday afternoon running to 5 different Fred Meyer's purchasing horrible smelling Glade Plug-In warmers. The girls were following Dave looking for the "Glibulmumble" at every Fred Meyer. They tip-toed, rode in 'beep-beep' cars and helped me accumulate my many Catalina's. It was a family day to remember.

With a few coupons left in my wallet I anticipated the final loot I would take home. There at Fred Meyer they had 10 Glade Plug-In's left. I had hit the mother-load.

My confident coupon hands loaded up the cart and checked out. After the cashier took some of my Catalina's to pay for these horrific, repulsive, money making trinkets, one Catalina printed. ONE! What? There was supposed to be 10! My heart started to beat, my palms got sweaty and my kids started melting down. What? My money, my family Saturday, my extra groceries. I couldn't think, I had to get out of there. Where was Angela? Was there a way? Could those Catalina's possibly grace my hands again. No. I had been utterly screwed.

You see, Glade, being the smart company that they are, caught onto our money making scheme (scheme is not a good word, nothing here was illegal or wrong, we just figured out a way to make money off their product). They had revised the deal to print only ONE Catalina. Had I gone home to read my blogs I would have noted this.

My pride is a lot bruised. I just don't know if I can clip another coupon. These ladies here may have some inspiration for me. They've just started this new site to help ladies like me. I'm hoping I can find a flicker of hope there to jump back on the horse and start saving some more money.

**Edit: The short of it. I used Catalina's (a coupon off towards your next purchase) to purchase the 'motherload'. I lost the ones I had built up AND the ones I thought would generate out of the last purchase. So I would have had a total of $48! I came away with $8.