Couponing Chaos Trifecta--HEB 8/23/2011
OH. MY. GOODNESS. Ok, so this trip was made under some unusual conditions that I hope to never-again repeat. Reese's 2nd day of school was today. Raeleigh and I had out first day of Parent's Day Out at Journey and we were ALL e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d!!
So that is strike one in the coupoing chaos trifecta.
We made the trip together as a family--not our usual Jason-only trip.
Strike two in the trifecta...
And three? What is three you ask? We went to HEB to coupon and deal shop on the last day of the ad cycle. Meaning, all the deals listed in the current ad end are changing at closing tonight. Never, ever, ever, never, ever do this! At least not if you plan to budget and coupon shop.
I will tell you why:
HEB was completely out of many of their combo locos and meal deals. When I say out--I mean OUT. In some instances there were no yellow in-store coupons remaining, if you could locate the items, and in other cases the items were completely sold out.
Empty shelves--no product.
I am not sure why this is. It could have been that the shelves were not restocked so that workers could rezone the store for the new ad coming out tomorrow. It could be that all of Waco is back to school this week and parents are buying these items for back-to-school lunches and snacks. Or it could be that the rest of Waco has some secret knowledge about some pending apocalypse that I am not privet to....Regardless of the reason, my trip was crippled by these issues.
I could not find cantaloupe
The store was out of almost ALL their waffles and the combo loco where you buy the HCF 24 count waffles and get the frozen fruit cups was completely MIA--no product and no coupon--ANYWHERE.
There was a combo loco for BBQ sauce and shells and cheese with the purchase of tyson chicken nuggets--yet again no coupon and the BBQ sauce and shells and cheese were MIA. They had the combo loco partially set up on an end cap. When I say partially set up I mean the chicken nuggets were there and that was it.
There were no nature valley granola bar thins in stock.
There were no Bob Evans side dishes in stock.
The combo loco for buy cheerios get HEB brand cereal free was out--they were offering rain checks.
The sargento cheeses were not stocked.
I could not locate HEB ready to bake sugar cookies (I had to purchase choc chip instead)
There was no in-store coupon for the advertised deal on free family sized doritos with purchase of gatorade.
and the list goes on.
I was livid and in coupon rage. My trip was completely ruined by the stores inability to follow thru with their offered deals until the sale end date.
I understand that they have to re-set the store for the new ad coming out tomorrow--but why should I be penalized for that? I will never shop again on an ad end date.
I did have a great cashier who did not give me trouble about manually entering coupons that the system did not immediately recognize. And yes, as I have said before some of the coupons that did not scan immediately were HEB's own in-store offers. CRAZZZZZZZZZZY!!!!
Any way...I still managed to save a total of $56.82 even with all the mix ups on deals.
We bought a total of 131 items.
On brand savings: $7.80
On sale savings: .50
Free/coupon savings: $48.59
total spent $276.83
So that is strike one in the coupoing chaos trifecta.
We made the trip together as a family--not our usual Jason-only trip.
Strike two in the trifecta...
And three? What is three you ask? We went to HEB to coupon and deal shop on the last day of the ad cycle. Meaning, all the deals listed in the current ad end are changing at closing tonight. Never, ever, ever, never, ever do this! At least not if you plan to budget and coupon shop.
I will tell you why:
HEB was completely out of many of their combo locos and meal deals. When I say out--I mean OUT. In some instances there were no yellow in-store coupons remaining, if you could locate the items, and in other cases the items were completely sold out.
Empty shelves--no product.
I am not sure why this is. It could have been that the shelves were not restocked so that workers could rezone the store for the new ad coming out tomorrow. It could be that all of Waco is back to school this week and parents are buying these items for back-to-school lunches and snacks. Or it could be that the rest of Waco has some secret knowledge about some pending apocalypse that I am not privet to....Regardless of the reason, my trip was crippled by these issues.
I could not find cantaloupe
The store was out of almost ALL their waffles and the combo loco where you buy the HCF 24 count waffles and get the frozen fruit cups was completely MIA--no product and no coupon--ANYWHERE.
There was a combo loco for BBQ sauce and shells and cheese with the purchase of tyson chicken nuggets--yet again no coupon and the BBQ sauce and shells and cheese were MIA. They had the combo loco partially set up on an end cap. When I say partially set up I mean the chicken nuggets were there and that was it.
There were no nature valley granola bar thins in stock.
There were no Bob Evans side dishes in stock.
The combo loco for buy cheerios get HEB brand cereal free was out--they were offering rain checks.
The sargento cheeses were not stocked.
I could not locate HEB ready to bake sugar cookies (I had to purchase choc chip instead)
There was no in-store coupon for the advertised deal on free family sized doritos with purchase of gatorade.
and the list goes on.
I was livid and in coupon rage. My trip was completely ruined by the stores inability to follow thru with their offered deals until the sale end date.
I understand that they have to re-set the store for the new ad coming out tomorrow--but why should I be penalized for that? I will never shop again on an ad end date.
I did have a great cashier who did not give me trouble about manually entering coupons that the system did not immediately recognize. And yes, as I have said before some of the coupons that did not scan immediately were HEB's own in-store offers. CRAZZZZZZZZZZY!!!!
Any way...I still managed to save a total of $56.82 even with all the mix ups on deals.
We bought a total of 131 items.
On brand savings: $7.80
On sale savings: .50
Free/coupon savings: $48.59
total spent $276.83
Comments
Kristen
Join millions who have already found better methods for investing in Ripple...
Learn from experienced eToro traders or copy their orders automatically