12/12/13
“Coupons?” asked Anne. “You can really save a lot?”
“Oh, yeah!” answered May. “Just think of it as if you’re cutting a picture of a dollar bill out of the newspaper and then being able to spend it like real cash.”
Anne was new to the concept of using coupons, but she was eager to learn how to stretch her money. May had been couponing for years and was glad to share a few of the tricks with her friend.
“Let me tell you about my big score last year,” May continued. “I went to an after Christmas sale at a department store and headed to the clearance table. I found a big serving platter that was marked eighty percent off. The original price had been $100, but now it was $20. That’s about the best markdown you’ll ever find. Anytime you see eighty percent off, try to get whatever they’re selling.”
“What if I don’t need it?” asked Anne.
“Get it anyway. You can then re-sell it at your next yard sale. Leave the tags on so people know it’s new. You can ask more that way. But I didn’t finish my platter story. So I decided to take the platter, but I also had a coupon for ‘50% off your entire purchase.’ With that I could get it for just ten bucks. Wait; there’s more. I saw a sticker on the box still there from when it was full price. It said inside was a voucher for a fifteen dollar mail-in rebate. After I bought the platter I sent for the rebate and got a check. So by the time I was through they had paid me five bucks to take the platter!”
“Really?!”
“Uh, huh. Really. You don’t get deals like that all the time, though. Ones like that are pretty hard to find. But you can save a lot of money if you do it right.”
“Wow,” said Anne. “Makes me wonder how much I could have saved if I’d known about this sooner.”
A couple of weeks later the two ladies were comparing notes over lunch. Anne explained how she no longer bought things as soon as she saw them; instead she would compare prices at three or four stores before finally buying something. This way she was finding a lot of sales that she would have overlooked otherwise. After listening for several minutes May couldn’t help but offer a few corrections.
“Remember, you also have to factor in your gas. By driving to all those stores you mentioned you used up a lot of your savings. Then you have to consider your time is valuable as well. It’s taking you all day to drive around to three or four stores and then go back to the one with the best price.”
“But it was fun,” protested Anne.
“Yeah, at first. Only you’ll save even more, especially in time and gas, if you learn to find the sales without so much driving.”
“So how do you do it?”
“Sign up for the frequent shopper clubs at the stores and restaurants you use the most,” said May. “They’ll tell you of sales coming up and will send you special coupons they don’t give everyone else.”
“Oh, good idea. Several stores have asked if I want to be on their mailing list but I’ve been saying no.”
Sometime later Anne and May were again socializing when the conversation turned to shopping. Anne complained she was suddenly getting a lot of letters, emails and text messages that she never used to receive; and their numbers were growing everyday. It was becoming bothersome. Just yesterday her email inbox was stuffed with more than fifty advertisements; most of them for things she couldn’t use.
“You didn’t give them your main email address did you?” asked May with alarm.
“Yes.”
“Oh, no. You’re first supposed to create an email account to use just for mailing lists and contests. Otherwise you get so flooded you can’t find the mail you really want.”
“Now you tell me,” Anne lamented.
“I thought you would have known that already. Well, it’s too late to stop it. Once your address is out there, everybody gets it. What you’ll have to do now is make a new address to use for your friends and just leave the old one for the ads and coupons. Oh, and don’t give the new address to any stores.”
“Okay.”
“So, have you received any decent coupons in all that mail?”
“Yes!” said Anne brightening. “A lot of good ones. I got a ten dollar gift check just for agreeing to try a water monitoring service. And I got a coupon like yours, ‘fifty percent off any big screen TV purchased on Black Friday.’ I plan to use it after Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks.”
“Wait. Slow down,” cautioned May. “That gift check, did you read it carefully?”
“What do you mean?”
“On the back of the check, was there a lot of small writing right above the line where you sign?”
“I don’t know. There might have been. Just a minute, I didn’t mail it yet. Hmm. Here it is.”
“Read
the fine print,” said May. “I think you’ll find that by
endorsing the check and cashing it you’ll be signing up for a
contract you can’t cancel.”
“Whoa! You’re right. Those
little sneaks. I’m tearing this up. How do they get away with it?”
“That’s not uncommon. Just be sure to read anything before you sign it.”
“I still think there should be a law against it,” said Anne.
“Oh, and the Black Friday TV; don’t get it,” advised May.
“Why not? It’s fifty percent off. That’s a big discount.”
“It would be if it were a regular TV. But didn’t you hear on the news about the Black Friday TVs?”
“No. What about them?”
“All the big stores get special TVs just for their sales that one day. They’ve arranged with the TV factories to make special models. They look identical, but they have less features, they use lower quality parts, and they don’t last nearly as long as the high quality ones. They’re made just for that one sale day when the prices are so low.”
“What? No way. That sounds like conspiracy talk.”
“It’s true. It’s been in all the news. Then the ones they don’t sell sit in a warehouse until the following year’s Black Friday sale.”
“You gotta be kidding me.” After a moment Anne sighed, “There’s so much to learn with this couponing business. Life was so much easier back when I paid full price.”
“Yes,” agreed May. “It isn’t as easy as it seems. You can save big; but you have to do a lot of homework first. To do it right it becomes almost like a job, or even a lifestyle.”
“That’s another thing,” said Anne. This is starting to require a bit more than I want to do. I’m seeing changes in myself I’m not sure I like.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well all this penny-pinching makes me feel funny. Especially when I do it in front of my other friends who aren’t into it.”
“Oh, you get used to that,” said May.
“Do you? It doesn’t bother you when your friends think you’re cheap?”
“They don’t think that,” protested May. “They think you’re smart to save money.”
“Really? Well, let me ask you a question then. Remember that platter you told me you got for free?”
“Yeah.”
“Was that the same one you gave to John and me for our wedding anniversary last Spring?”
“Wh–what?”
“Uh, huh. I see. You may know a lot about saving money. But do you know anything about saving friendships?”
“Well,” said May leaning back in her seat. “It seems you’re feeling a bit out of sorts today. How about if I pay for our lunch this time?”
“Why? Do you have a ‘buy one, get one free’ coupon?”
“Ouch. No need to be snarky.”
“I have to reconsider all this,” said Anne. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this kind of life — Coupons!”
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