Coupon Virgin

To tell you the truth, I debated over whether to share the folly of my first coupon shopping escapades with the world...but in the end...I decided perhaps others could learn from my experience, so I would go ahead and share.Well, the story begins this past Friday when Blooms was having a triple coupon weekend. I had been collecting coupons for the last three weeks hoping to get in the coupon game after being inspired numerous times by friends.

So I headed to blooms and found 17 items that I currently do use that I had coupons for. I got up the register and checked out. Now mind you the silly computer screens weren't working so I couldn't see how things were adding up. The total came to $85 WITHOUT the coupons...I thought to myself, "Wow I can't wait to see how much I save!" A moment later I was told the total was $55...a savings of $30...but not what I was expecting to spend (way too high!) That's when I began to question my coupon shopping and was told that they only triple coupons up to $.99. "OH NO...I used a bunch of dollar coupons and you mean to tell me those don't triple! I thought I was getting a bunch of great stuff virtually free." Well, the customer behind me just glared and glared and I was so nervous that I just decided to pay and get out of there.

As I drove home, I realized that I spent way more on things that I didn't need at that very moment...I mean I didn't even leave the store with much actual food really. So I made the decision to drive to the other blooms where I wouldn't feel as embarrassed and return some things. What you see above is what I decided to keep since I had gotten a deal anyway with my coupons and they would be needed soon anyway. I walked into the other blooms and asked to make some returns. Then I was told they didn't return items from other blooms stores due to their inventory count at which point I asked to see the manager because I wasn't driving 40 minutes back to the other blooms. I nicely explained to him that I was so embarrassed...that I had never before today shopped in a blooms...nor had I shopped with coupons and I was unaware of the fine print stipulations for the tripling so I felt the need to take some things back that I had not budgeted for. He was VERY nice and agreed to return my items. A cashier rung my items back in and handed me $55 dollars.

Did you catch that!?! That's right...I spent $55 dollars my first go round and was refunded $55 the second go...and I still had all those items in the picture above waiting for me in my trunk of my car to go home. So I took home a bunch of free stuff...totally a fluke experience...but I guess in a twisted way, when asked how I did with my first coupon shopping trip I can say "GREAT!" However, it still wasn't the true savings that I will hopefully achieve the next go round. I'll keep you posted!

Do you have any tricks when it comes to shopping with coupons?? Things you learned along the way that you didn't think to ask when you started out?