First Trip to the Grocery Store

• On Thursday (Bonnie Day) Bonnie wanted to go to the grocery store to get some soda. It was supposed to be a quick trip because I made out my list the night before and everything was ready to go. On some Thursdays at our Shop N Save they have No Coupon Thursday where you get $10.00 off any purchase over $50.00. This is very nice to take advantage of if you can. I can only get there sometimes. So we get to the store and all of the spots are full so I have to drive around the parking lot a couple of times and then I find someone backing out. We get in the store and the first item on my list is sold out. Let me back up a little bit. Shop N Save was also having a deal where if you bought 10 items from a group of certain items then you would get $10.00 off your next visit. They also had another one where if you bought $25.00 worth of items from another list then you could get another $10.00 off your next visit. I was trying to get both of these coupons so I had picked out everthing I needed to qualify for them. So, when the first thing on my list was not available I had to recalculate everything. It turns out that three things on my list we sold out so I really had to recalculate my list. While I am in the midst of this the boys are bickering so I remove Cameron from the cart and make him walk. In aisle three he decides that he has to go to the bathroom so I leave the two others with Bonnie and take off for the bathroom. We continued shopping and about halfway through Keira decides to start crying. Bonnie had to carry her the rest of the way through the store while Cameron pushed the cart with Keira's stuff in it. That gave him something to do which kept him out of trouble. We finally made it to the checkout and we were packing the groceries when I realized that I did not get my coupons for which I worked so hard. By this time all of the kids are ready to go home, but I had to get those coupons. I asked the cashier if they printed out and one had but one had not. I was sent to customer service with Cameron to get the other coupon while Bonnie watched Garrett and Keira again. They were able to get me the other coupon and while I was waiting I realized that I didn't get my gas coupon which gives me a certain amount off per gallon depending on how much I spent. She told me that she couldn't print that off but she had a leftover receipt for $.03 per gallon. I was eligible for $.09 off per gallon so I was not impressed with only $.03. Finally the manager came by and showed her how to print off a $.09 per gallon coupon. Yeah, we were finally ready to leave the store after our 2 hour ordeal. Bonnie and I are not so sure that we will be going to the grocery store with all 3 kids again. Although most of the problem was not with them it was with the store selling out of the items that I needed to get my coupons. I know that I must sound crazy but in this day and age I have to save every penny that I can. Next time I go to the store, if it is on a No Coupon Thursday than I will be able to save $35.00. That is worth it for me.