Everyday Frugality for the Unemployed:
Part One, Coupons
I know it might seem lame, but looking for useful coupons, following up on rebates, and going through those Valpak mailers have shown it can really pay off. It helps in lean times. Check this out. These are 23 2-litre bottles of various Pepsi sodas. I got all of these for free!
I've been buying Diet Pepsi and Pepsi One in 24-can cubes, and the cardboard divider between the layers of cans have four coupons for a free 2-litre bottle of soda each. So, they kinda accumulated, and over the past few days I've cashed them in.
The bottles are all on the top of my fridge and it looks like I'm stocking up for a war. Furthermore, Albertson's has been having this deal where certain productions are marked 10 for $10. You don't have to by ten though, which effectively makes huge chunks of the store $1 / item. They rotate every week or so, so by planning ahead I've saved a buttload of cash.
Ah, the domesticity of unemployment.
I've been buying Diet Pepsi and Pepsi One in 24-can cubes, and the cardboard divider between the layers of cans have four coupons for a free 2-litre bottle of soda each. So, they kinda accumulated, and over the past few days I've cashed them in.
The bottles are all on the top of my fridge and it looks like I'm stocking up for a war. Furthermore, Albertson's has been having this deal where certain productions are marked 10 for $10. You don't have to by ten though, which effectively makes huge chunks of the store $1 / item. They rotate every week or so, so by planning ahead I've saved a buttload of cash.
Ah, the domesticity of unemployment.
So, I feel obligated to point out that all those liters aren't actually "free," since you're already buying massive megapacks, presumably at something close to retail price.
And Albertson's, well, don't get me started, even though it's the grocery store I use. Sure, they've got $1/item on all sorts of things, but milk has gone up 90 cents a gallon in the past month. And when the "official" price on a frozen dinner is $4.79, but the "card" price is only $2.50, you feel like you're saving a shitload, but the actual value of the dinner is indeed far closer to $2.50 -- and that's precisely what the Wal-Mart down the street is selling it for, to all comers.
But these deals are most likely their way of fighting off the rapidly encroaching Wal-Mart menace, as they go forward with their plans to expand grocery inventory across the state.
Perhaps, but I'm looking at it this way:
I almost always buy soda somewhere only when it's on sale, which means at Alberton's that's $6.49 for a 24-case (marked down from $10.49 - which is exhorbitant by any standard). Whether any of this is a value for cans of flavored, carbonated sugar (or aspartame) water is another dicussion. Soda is one of those simple pleasure / creature comfort things for me. If I can just have cold diet soda in the morning, things are generally ok.
Anyway, I buy these cubes at sale price, which is $1 and some changes less than two 12 packs, which contain the same amount of soda but not the divider with coupons for extra soda.
A 2-liter bottle is just a little more than six cans of soda. If there are four "free" bottles with each cube, that's an additional 24 cans of soda for each 24-can cube purchased at $6.49.
I'm sure there's several equations that prove, in the grand scheme, that it isn't a real honest-to-goodness value. But it's even less of a value if the "free" stuff goes unclaimed. By not claiming the extra soda, I'd effectively have paid double for the soda originally purchased, even at sale price.
At a $10.49 price point, this would all come into question. $6.49 for approximately 50 cans of soda seems a fair deal. :-)
I'm just saying the extra stuff's yours, it's part of the deal, take it. Stretching the grocery dollar is important in tough times.
*ohmygoodness* bring up soda economics and unemployment in one post and it gets the geeks buzzing *snort* being a savvy shopper has always been fun for me even when I didn't really care about the money. coupons have always been aluring for some reason.... oh and bravo for you jason - diet pepsi rules
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