My free cheese.

I am cheap! I don't care if certain people laugh at me (and you know who you are) when I get excited over saving a penny or two or ten here and there. Those pennies add up one at a time eventually to a dollar or two or ten. I like rummaging through shelves looking for that special deal. It's fun....and yes at times it can be frustrating. But it's the thrill of the hunt....that moment when you get to say "AHA!!!!" that makes it all worth it. When you unearth a treasure that puts pennies, or if your lucky, dollars in your pocket is makes you smile knowing all your hard work paid off. Mind you, depending on how many people are around you at the time you're hunting, you might want to use some proven strategies. Talk and mutter to yourself as you are looking for the treasure. People tend to move away from you when you talk to yourself. Using key words like 'doctor', 'medication' or phrases like, 'I not going back to THAT PLACE' will definitely aide in your treasure hunt. People will move even farther away if you can cough, sniff or make weird twitching motions while talking to yourself. Drool helps as well, but I don't do that as it makes my chin itch. Anyway, if you mutter out loud or to an invisible person beside you, then the area around you will be cleared with nobody to bother you or worse yet, find a treasure with a bargain price before you get to it. I know, I know......those are greedy, rude, selfish and underhanded ploys to use.....but IT WORKS! I always say, all is fair when it comes to thrifting. There are no real rules. Well, except for the one that everyone who thrifts knows about. If somebody has their hand on something, you are not suppose to take it. However if they move their hand off the said item, then dive right in and grab it before they reposition their hand on it. Once contact with an item is lost then said item is fair game for anyone within the reach area. Anyway, regardless of whether it is a new or used treasure, you have to be ruthless and cut throat or you risk loosing the prize to someone else. This week I have found quite a few bargoons that have made me smile. I bought card making kits, at Hallmark, at 70% off. Each kit has items in it to make 8 cards. I got them so I can use the card stock and embellishments along with my own stock and will double or triple how many cards I will eventually make. I am so pleased with all my purchases this week. At 60% off I, of course, bought a few items for use next Christmas. Oh, not to worry! I won't forget about them. I have a few special drawers dedicated to items that I pick up during the year for use as hostess gifts, B-day gifts and as Christmas gifts for the family. Ooops! Listen up family members.....stay out of the drawers! They are off limits to all but me! I also got quite a lot of craft supplies at 60 and 70% off. So I am good to go in 2010. So as far as being thrifty I had a good week BUT today was the star at the top of the tree! I had gone in to Zehrs to buy some cranberry goat cheese for use at our gang's potluck New Year's Eve party that we are attending this evening. There was a little yellow sticker right underneath the display that had the UPC code on it and a sale price. Regular price was $7.99. The sale price was $6.99 BUT to the right of this little sticker was a large sign stating that there was an additional price reduction bringing the final sale price down to $5.99. I was a happy camper at that price. I bought a few more things, keeping it to eight items in total so we could use the express lane. I paid for the goodies while Hubby John bagged everything up and off we went. As I was walking toward the doors I glanced at the receipt. WHAT???? For Pete's sake!! They had overcharged me a dollar for the cheese. Now I know it was only a dollar. But it was MY dollar. I took my bill and bag and went to the courtesy desk. I explained to the young lady at the till what had happened and she sent me and a price checker over to the display. There I showed him that the cheese had been further marked down from the price that came up on the register. They had indeed overcharged me. When we got back to the till with the sale sign in hand, he told the girl that yes, I was due a refund of $1.00 plus tax. A lady who had just finished her paying for her purchases turned to me and said, "Lucky you! You get it free!" I told her that yes, I would get it at the sale price. The young lady at the register said, "Yes, you get a refund." The lady beside me then said very loudly, "No, she gets it free!" She turned to me and said "There is a grocery law that says if the price at the register rings in at a different price than the one posted at the shelf, they have to give it to you free." Now I really thought this was someone who might be a bit of a nut case so I just smiled and said, "Well, I am happy with getting my dollar back." The girl at the register started working on the receipt and said again that it would just take a minute to get my refund. The price checker said to the girl that it was a dollar plus tax that I needed to get back. The lady next to me said to both of them, very loudly and firmly, "No!....She gets a full refund. She gets it free!" The cashier looked at the woman then looked at me and then back at the woman and said," She's right! You are entitled to a full refund. You get it at no charge." I couldn't believe it! I turned to the lady beside me and thanked her for telling me (and everyone else within hearing range) about THIS POLICY. She replied that she was glad to help. I thanked her and the teller again as I was given my cash refund of $7.00.
So for all you who laugh at me about being cheap and thrifty and frugal, I really don't care! I am smiling right now as I type this post and I will be smiling tonight as I munch on my free cheese!


PS: The link that I provided is for a Canadian site. I have seen USA sites that deal with frugal buying but I don't know if they have the same policies or not.