This was taken a couple of years ago when my husband and I went to Herbster WI for a family reunion on the shores of Lake Superior. Today it is cold, windy and going to rain, possibly turning to snow and I could sure use some warm sunshine next to the big lake SOON!
The deal...
Today's deal is from Dress Barn, you can either shop on line or at a store near you for up to 50% off their sale items. Plus, you can get a free clutch if you spend $100.00 or more while supplies last and you will earn 5 Daisy Dollars for every $25.00 you spend before tax. Daisy Dollars can be used on future purchases and can even be combined on one item.
Extreme Couponing, my thoughts...
After watching PART of an episode of TLCs Extreme Couponing (its all I could handle before I was yelling at the TV) I felt it necessary to let my readers know I am not part of that group of people. As a matter of fact it is one of my biggest pet peeves for all of us that coupon. I practice responsible couponing, period! Twice I have actually gone to my local supermarket here is a small town in Northern Minnesota with my ONE coupon for a dollar off a bag of sweet potato fries when they have been on sale for $1.00 and BOTH TIMES they were sold out. WHAT?!?! How the hell do you sell out of them the day the sale starts? Well I found the answer, we have an extremist in town and she was in the store at 6 AM. Does she really need all 60 bags the store had in stock? NO. There is no need to stockpile, unless of course she is feeding all the homeless that are here, but I am pretty sure the news would have picked up that story. Maybe she is running a group home or half way house, but again, with the amount of time it takes to plan that kind of trip I would have to guess that's not the case either. I am also pretty sure she did not pack these away to use in case of a natural emergency since they need to be kept frozen. What I would LOVE to think is that she is donating excess food to some of the food shelves that desperately need it, unfortunately I would have to guess that's not the case either. In fact, I look at extreme couponing as one of the most selfish things you can do in a store. Families hit hard by the recession are trying to feed their family of 4 or more and you are clearing the shelves of food they need, forcing them to take rain check and come back later if they can or buy food that is more expensive. Here are some facts about extreme couponing, aside from the woman that committed outright fraud on TLCs show, that you should know. Many extreme couponers use clipping services, however, according to Bud Miller of the CIC when asked in an interview about this he said "I'm not aware of any legitimate coupon clipping service out there ... Keep in mind that it inherently violates the terms and conditions of the coupons issued. In the event they say they get the coupons from the manufacturer, (you should contact the manufacturer.)" Next, taking a group of coupons from inserts and cutting them with a paper cutter (gang cutting) can cause your store to be audited by the coupon manufacturer, which by the way, the time that it takes the employees to take care of all an audit entails gets passed on to the consumer. (Again, in the spirit of using a coupon you really only need a couple of any one item, food products do go bad you know, even all that shampoo will get nasty and separate.) Also, if you are buying coupons on eBay or any other sales site, please read the fine print on the coupons, they may not be sold, even if you are paying someone for their time to cut the coupons its not OK. Please practice responsible couponing so all of us can enjoy shopping for deals. And finally, if you are a stockplier and its gotten out of control, you may need to find some help for shopping addiction or hording issues. Please reach out to someone, you can start by talking to your Doctor, they will have more information available for you.
I welcome you thoughts on this and would love to read them! I know I am not alone because I have talked to other shoppers in our store as well as the clerks who all try to run for the hills when our extremist comes in. What if your local store limited the amount of coupons per item? Would you still shop there? Our store is considering a 4 coupon max for any given item for just this reason.
I hope you are all having a great week so far, hang in there, the weekends just around the bend.,
C.Q.
