Out Past Curfew

I guess I will forgo the long post about our pet bird in the microwave vent, since things didn’t end to well for him. Apparently birds get dehydrated after 24 hours and you have to feed them with a syringe of water to nurse them back to health. Ignorant, we released our trapped bird of 2 days and put him outside; happy to have him free but then he didn’t make it. (We didn’t know he was trapped, we thought he had found a nice home--just a little to close for our comfort). Anyway that is old news, on to today happenings. Last night I stayed out past curfew. In fact I was up so late I had a hard time finding a grocery store that was open. I am a night person and work graveyard shifts, so pulling an all nighter isn’t that big of a deal. However, usually I am earning money not spending it.

I have only been couponing for a year now, but I got excited when I heard that for one day only Kroger would be doubling all coupons up to one dollar. It took me a while to get organized, cut my coupons and get my spreadsheet ready. I meant to go at midnight, but it was 2am before all was put in order. As I pulled into the store lot there were a good handful of cars, but I was told the store wasn’t open. I had 4 more stores to choose from, but I didn’t want to guess wrong at which were 24hr. stores so I decided to back track home and look up them up to avoid any further delays. Apparently, the Kroger site was not accurate. Kroger stop #2 was also closed. At this point I was ready to call it a night, but I pushed on to store #3.

The store was hopping with activity. The lines were long, there was beeping everywhere, a girl was even sorting coupons on the floor. I grabbed my two carts and took it slow. I knew I had all night, and I didn’t want to back track. 3 hours and 25 minutes later I exited the store. What a fun night! Remember I work nights so at 6:30 am I was still chipper. I bought $400 worth of groceries for $160. Sorry I am too lazy to pull the receipts and get exact numbers. I took a picture (frozen and fridge stuff excluded) but not a good one with everything stacked nice and neat. It was the most groceries I have ever brought home. The kids were amazed, and excited and at the goodies. Surprisingly even though I was 3 hours late to the start of the sale, there were some items that were already gone. No fruit snacks for us. Plus I didn’t make the best decisions. Who buys oversized sandwich baggies? Those aren’t going to work in school lunches.

Couponing is a fun hobby. Scott pointed out that I would have had a bigger profit if I had just spent the night at work and skipped the coupons hassle, but where is the fun in that? It would have been just as fun holding little babies at the hospital, but the accomplished feeling of being organized and walking out of the store a head my game is hard to beat. Plus checking out at 6:30 had some benefits. The late night frustrated people were gone, and the early birds were just getting started, so I had no competition at the cash register.

As a closing note, Alexander wanted to let everyone know that he appreciated the gifts and calls and that he and Scott had great birthdays last week. Click Here for the Birthday Post.