Ask For the Sale Price

Part of last week's weekly shopping trip was a lesson in consumer shopping for my children.


First we went to Menards. This summer we have been slowly acquiring patio blocks to make walkways around our house. However, since we don't own a pickup truck, we only haul a dozen of these blocks in our trunk, at a time.


The blocks are usually on sale for $1.22 each, however, on a recent trip, they charged us $1.99 (the regular price, because they weren't on sale). The blocks were again on sale for $1.22 the next week, so I took my receipt and the sales flyer to customer service. She issued me a merchandise credit for $9.90 the difference of the sale price and regular price on 12 blocks.


I used the credit to buy the last few blocks for our project. I made almost $10.00 of "found money" in a few minutes of time.


Next we headed to Meijers. First off, I found a $20 bill lying in the parking lot. Yay! I guess I should have turned it into the customer service department, in case someone reports it lost, but I didn't think about it at the time.


Again, armed with my receipt and the sale's ad, I went to customer service and explained that the locker kit my daughter had purchased had gone on sale last week and could I please have the sale price. I was refunded $5.31 - the difference of the locker kit sale price, regular price and the additional tax price I paid.


What I am trying to teach my children is, first of all, buy it if it's on sale. But, if you can't, watch for the next two weeks (that's the time limit most stores will allow). If it goes on sale, it can't hurt to ask for the sale price. I have done this several times, and to date, I have not been refused.


One time I did ask for the sale price on mini blind. It went on sale for a difference of $2 and some change for the tax. The cashier was being a little obnoxious and asked if I had the item with me. I said, "Yes I do, it's in the car of my trunk, I can bring it in and have it refunded and buy another one at the sale price, if you like." (It was in my car). When he learned that I did indeed have the item, he cheerfully refunded the amount. He said he had to ask if I had the item, but I've never had anything like that ever happen before.


Do you have any experiences like this? Please post in the comments or leave link to your blog post.

Kroger Deals

As if the mega deal going on at Krogers wasn't enough reason to get you there, we found out last night that our Kroger has the cheap turkeys again this year! Woo-hoo!!

I don't think it's an advertised special. I didn't see it in our ad. When we got to the store there was a sign outside. The Riverside brand turkeys are 29 cents a pound when you purchase an 18 pounder or bigger.

This is a no-brainer! Cook it for Thanksgiving and freeze the leftovers for use over the winter months!

Extra Money for Portions of Stimulus Check

Have you seen that retailers are getting so desperate for Americans money that they are giving consumers an extra chunk of change for spending in their store.

Retailers like Kroger and Meijer are giving an extra 10% when you purchase a $300, $600, or $1200 gift card to their store.

Wow! Could you imagine if CVS did that. I'll bet it would last me forever!

Now this is quite a deal. Our family is debating on what denomination we will buy from Kroger. The catch is you can only do it one time between now and July 31.

If you have debt though, I would suggest that you apply your check to those balances. Because let's face it, you would only be saving 10% buying a card and most consumer credit card interest rates are around 20%. You would definately get more bang for your buck paying debt.

Have you gotten your check? What are you going to do with your check? Has anyone tried buying the gift cards for extra money? Does anyone know if the Kroger cards can be used at Kroger gas stations or is it groceries only?

Meijer Savings

I decided to apply my CVS money saving techniques to all my shopping. Here's my Meijer trip:

4 bags Gold Medal Flour - $1.57 (free product - was supposed to be $6)
1 Whole Chicken
1 yoplait kids 6 pk yogurt - free with sample coupon
2 cans Muir glen tomatoes - used 2 $1 coupons
2 20 oz cokes (which Morgan took off with before photo)$1.39 ea. Both free with coupon

I used $1 off Meijer catalina

Total oop $9.32 (Would've been $4.89 if $6 General Mills coupon would have worked correctly.) OH WELL!