A day late & ten dollars short

Yall know those people who are "a day late and a dollar short?" Well, that was me yesterday.

Recently, Charon asked me if I knew how to play the coupon game. "No. How?" was my reply. "I wouldn't have asked YOU if I knew how," was hers. "Oh.".... Well, Charon had seem some pretty cool couponing moves from a girl in her Sunday School class and was wanting in on the MAJOR money saving action. Cool couponing moves just sounds funny, huh? Or is it just me? Probably just me....

Anyway, Charon emailed a couple days later and invited me to a small little coupon class. I went, and yall, said Sunday School friend, Jennifer, is AMAZING at saving some money. I was amazed. First, look at all this stuff she got for $3.77. Yes, THREE dollars and 77 cents. And it's namebrand, good stuff... The batteries alone would have been over the amount she paid for everything... all from couponing...

My question, of course, was, "you FEED people? like you buy food and spend this little? Not just batteries, Benevia drinks (by the way what is a Benevia?) and over-the-counter medicine?" And yall, she DOES. You should have seen some of the receipts she had.

Anyway, this story isn't about Jennifer's mad couponing skills. It's about being a "DAY LATE AND TEN DOLLARS SHORT....." (hence, the title...)

The class was two weeks ago and after leaving, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some coupons and start saving some serious money on my groceries. I've never been one to cut coupons because anytime I look, it's stuff we don't use. (Hello, Benevia drinks)...."They rarely have coupons for stuff we buy"... or so I thought... But after the class, I was totally in. DW works hard and a lot of hours every week to provide for our family, and if I could save some money by researching a little and cutting coupons, I totally would. (Plus saving money means that the money saved can go toward something else...see my thinking?!?!? If DW reads that, he'll be cringing...his thinking is that money "saved" is money SAVED...as in NOT spent...ha)


Yesterday was the big day. I'd scoured the Publix ad, got all my deals worked out, gathered my coupons and made my money saving list! I was ready. Yall, I had it worked out to where I was getting Luzianne tea bags for $.26 a box, Texas toast (the frozen boxes) for $.80 cent a box and a few other things, not to mention $10.00 off my total bill.

As I was gathering up my things, I noticed the expiration date on my $10.00-off-my-total coupon... was EXPIRED. The.day.before. Yep, it was good through January 27th. DANG it... But, that wasn't stopping me. I still had all those other steals and deals...the coupon grinch, AKA the expiration date, was not robbing me of my couponing joy. No sir.

When we got to Publix, I noticed there were different deals than the ones I had prepared for. I couldn't find any of the things that I had written down as sale items and had my coupons for. About my third attempt at one of the deals returning void, it hit me... that sales ad must have been expired, too. YEP, the.day.before.... dang it.

and that was the story about the day my couponing dreams went up in smoke.

I may try again next week, but this much is certain... I will check the date on the ad BEFORE planning my trip....