I was having a Hallmark moment this afternoon:
Total spent: 0 – I made .73 cents profit (see below!)
Total before Hallmark discount: $177.27 (may have been slightly higher, I don’t think I got a receipt for one of the transactions)
I earned 2 gas discounts, bringing the running total to 19! That’s $1.90 off gas so far!
I also got more of the plug-ins, so I received 6 of the $2 catalinas back.
And to top it all of, a customer in front of me did not want their catalina for free margarine – so they turned around and handed it to me!
There’s way too many receipts for me to scan them all in, as you can see!
ETA: I got so many groceries yesterday that when I got in my car this morning, I discovered 2 more bags that I missed when I was bringing everything in!! I’ve updated the totals to include these items:
Here’s what I got:
21 packets of Ramen
1 Spam Single
1 packet of “Choice” Ramen
2 cup-o-noodles
1 packet of plastic cutlery (for the boyfriend)
4 packages of TP (16 rolls altogether)
5 rolls of paper towels
2 packages of napkins (400 napkins total)
An 8-pack of purse sized tissue
6 plug-ins
1 package of cookies (notice how the package is already torn into? Yum yum!)
2 cans of black beans
2 cans of garbanzo beans
1 can of water chesnuts
1 can of corn
2 jars of artichoke hearts
7 Yakisoba bowls
2 Halloween cookie cutters
6 bags of rice (12 pounds altogether)
120 or so Halloween cards – I’m not sure if I did 30 or 31 transactions, but it’s somewhere around there. Um, it’s a lot of cards. When you care enough to send the very best….
Since the Hallmark promo at Safeway ends on the 20th, I’m trying to do it as many times as possible before it’s over. I had it worked out that after the $5 off for buying 4 cards, and my 10% discount, that I could buy 4 of the 99 cent cards and have $1.44 left over to pay for whatever I wanted. Naturally, there aren’t many items that are exactly $1.44, so I would get it as close as possible, and just pay a few cents for my items. Well, the other day I messed up – I meant to buy 4 cards, a Yakisoba bowl, and 2 corn muffin mixes, but I only grabbed 1 mix. This would make my total under $5, and I presumed that if you were under the amount of the discount, that it would either go into the red or just not work. But I was wrong, because the register showed simply a zero balance! This means, if you buy 4 cards, but only spend $4.50 altogether, the discount will still come off – it just takes off $4.50 instead of the $5, adjusting the discount down to what you are purchasing.
Well, this opened up all kinds of possibilities, since it’s much easier to come up with combinations of items if it doesn’t have to be so close to $1.44. The result? The majority of my groceries were absolutely free. You can imagine the amazement of the cashiers when I handed over my club card, and suddenly owed nothing! A customer in line behind me exclaimed that I was the smartest shopper he’d ever seen.
I only paid out of pocket for 3 of my 30 (or was it 31?) transactions. I spent .70 cents – but then, I got $1.43 change back in two other transactions! This is because I rolled my ONYOs to pay for the Glade plug-ins, as I get a small profit each time. Well, it got all confusing and I handed over too many, and it showed a negative balance, which she handed me change for as if I had paid in cash and not an ONYO. I did look at the fine print, and the Glade coupon does not say that you cannot receive change from it, as some of the Safeway sponsored ONYOs do. I have heard of other people legitimately receiving change from ONYOs before, so I’m assuming it’s pretty standard – I just hadn’t seen a Safeway catalina that didn’t state “will not give change” before. Anyway, this means that I was reimbursed for the whole .70 cents I spent, plus another .73 cents richer!!
