I was at the checkout counter at my own fave Plum Market grocery store. The one that’s a few blocks and one annoying intersection away from the Landfill. I almost always walk there but this morning, I drove over there before work, grabbed a turkey, took it home, stashed in the refrigimatator, and high-tailed it for work. I knew I would be back there in the early evening after work and I knew I would want to walk to the store then and I did not want to carry a turkey home with me, along with a bunch of other stuff.

So, yes, I was at the checkout counter again after work, and the cashier was one of the young men that often checks me out. I had a coupon in my purse for $10 off any purchase of $50 or more. I wasn’t sure if it was expired or not. I wasn’t sure if I had spent over $50 or not. As it turned out, I had spent over $50 but the coupon had expired. When did it get to be after November 21st anyway? But the cashier said that they honored coupons a week after they expired. I didn’t really care. I could afford to buy what I had in my cart without a coupon. And so, he swiped the coupon. It didn’t work. He asked, “Did you buy alcohol?” Well yes, there was a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau. 2009. The coupon wasn’t good for wine. I didn’t care. It was my error for not reading the fine print on the coupon. We laughed and I hoisted my shopping bags and walked home, in the dark afternoon that is the western edge of the Eastern Standard time zone.

I feel very fortunate that I can walk to an upscale-type grocery store in my neighborhood and not pay *too* much attention to the prices. I do have my limits. We eat well here at the Landfill but we don’t eat a lot, at least not most of the time. Potato chips are my downfall and if I allow them into the Landfill, they don’t last long. The stupid thing about all of this is that I have walked over to the Plum Market a number of times during the time that the coupon would’ve worked and spent $44 or $40 or whatever. If I were better organized, I would’ve managed to consolidate some of those grokkery lists a bit better and my coupon would’ve maybe saved some money.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.