And the day of bargaining comes to an end.

I'm tired.

Late night last night, early morning this morning, and a long day of battling with multiple cashiers has left me tired, frustrated, and a little concerned with the education system in America. I literally had to argue, with a human, in each store, to receive the deals advertised in the paper.

Whether it be an incorrectly marked items included in a sale (Target) or a missed case of soda that the cashier somehow managed to miss after she specifically ASKED me not to put it on the counter, which almost DOUBLED my bill (Weis), or the customer service guy at Weis who was, well, a little taken aback at the numbers coming out of my mouth, to the lady at Shoprite who regarded my internet coupons as if I'd conjured them in a cauldron rather than printing them off of coupons.com. Or maybe we want to talk about Walgreens, who deliberately manufactured a lesser discount than the one the coupon I handed her offered.

Ugh. At the end of the day, though, I spent a little over fifty dollars out of pocket and got ridiculous deals. At Target, I took my Cafemom gift cards, which totaled $125, and got 12 rolls of paper towels, 24 rolls of toilet paper, three boxes of tampons, a bottle of shampoo, a bottle of conditioner,bottle of baby shampoo, two pounds of deli turkey, four sticks of deodorant,6 bottles of high heat Pam, a dress, three shirts, two of those razors my husband likes, two bottles of nail polish, three garden hoses, two large bags of Iron Man, Spidermanand truck toys for the kids- roughly three hundred and fifty dollars worth of items, for only $20 out of our bank. It looked like this:

At Walgreens, I completed the deal I mentioned the other day...(small stack on the right)

The stack on the left, was $13 at Shoprite, and included, 1 pack of coffee, five boxes of tissues, a bottle of baby shampoo and a bottle of baby body wash, two boxes of pasta, a pound of cheese, and a box of bagel pizzas, (refrigerated items not shown). I got two dollars back on my next order. According to the receipt, this order was $30.

Finally, and this is a much less impressive picture and a much more impressive deal-

I spent $8 at Weis, and after breaking the customer service guy and two trips back out to the car in the pouring rain, they actually CHARGED me $8. I brought home five cases of soda, two boxes of veggie pasta, and two bags of chips. I have to say, though, the manager over there is fabulous, very friendly, very sweet, very helpful. The signage, not so much.

Oh, and one more deal I'm happy with....

Our gas bill for the week. I'm officially taking 24 hours off couponing before I get ready to do it again next week.

Get Out Your Credit Cards, Girls! Sephora is Having a 15 percent off sale!

You have to be a beauty insider to participate, but it's easy to sign up for.

When you get done, search "sale" in the search box...and select from items already fifty percent off, then use the code BICHIC to get 15 percent off all your orders. Sadly, I'll be sitting this sale out, as I couponed (that's totally a verb) my way through Target's clearance section last week, and I'm not going to be a beauty piggy.

The sale starts April 15 and ends April 21rst.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Oh, my goodness, I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself! I'm getting to host my FIRST review that isn't just because I love something so much!!! Natural skin shop is going to be giving me a chemical peel to try, and I'm waiting to hear back from my personal Esthetician. So I pick the right one for my skin type.

I'm just thrilled that some day next week, I'll be able lock myself in the bathroom for at least five hours and call it work. What's that, you say? A peel doesn't take five hours? It's a simple process to be completed in a couple of minutes?

*fingers stuck in ears* La la la! I can't hear you!!!! Five hours I say! Don't tell my husband or kids!

In the meanwhile, you've just GOT to check out this website. It's got SO much information.

The fine print: I found out about this promotion at sheblogs.org. (See the button to the right? Give her a click!) The Natural skin shop is giving me a peel to write this. Oh, I'm just so excited!

Random Acts of Kindness

Well, the last five days have been, let's just say, hectic.

DAYS of cooking. There is flour caked in the crevices of my kitchen table. Croissants that took three solid days to make. Fresh wheat bread. A really fabulous apple and pomegranate crumbly tart creation.

After all was said and done, and I traipsed off to work Thursday night, pretty convinced that the night was going to be flop, something amazing happened. Something that reaffirmed my faith in humanity as a whole, something that really deserved to be one of those happy kind of news stories that they throw in at the end to make you just a little bit optimistic after showing you all the rapists and murderers.

Against all my thoughts, we did a bit of business. All the other staff went home shortly after I arrived, and I allowed the few parties that came in to choose where they'd like to go, and each chose a separate section where they could talk with their family uninterrupted. An older couple chose a small both in a dark corner, and were very quiet. She was dressed in a neat Christmas sweater and gold jewelry, he wore a pressed top, but it was clear they really did not want to be bothered.

 A younger couple saw them and called me over, in order to pay for the strangers' holiday meal. I brought them the check without hesitation, and they paid quickly, and I walked around once more.

As I told the older couple of the kindness of the strangers, they seemed slightly disturbed for a moment. Not at all pleased.

Thanksgiving was a bad time for them. They never really know what to do with themselves anymore. 13 years ago, they lost both their sons on the holiday, and they just don't know what to do.

One of the boys was coming home from serving our country. I'm hoping I'm telling the story accurately. It was difficult to understand the man, as his voice broke, and his wife's eyes teared. 

 Such a wonderful act of kindness. The young couple didn't wish to be identified, no thanks, just, "We want to take care of that couple's check. It's Thanksgiving, and they shouldn't be alone."

It was a beautiful minute.

Blessings on you all for the holiday season.

Talk about Crazy... the internet makes the world small...

This blogger thing is pretty cool.

I can sit down and pour some random nonsense onto a page, feel better afterward, or at least have a good laugh at how my life resembles an 80's sitcom... house constantly in a state of controlled chaos, children perched on various objects where no human should reasonably be, dog scrambling madly about the house in search of infant produced bodily fluids for a midnight snack or a light lunch.
 
I'm fairly sure my life is a family version of Seinfeld. A show about nothing. But a damn good show.

Every once in a while, I think about giving this up, this little bit of bloggy sanity that I've actually managed to convince my children is work, because it's a slow start and well, who's really reading it anyway?

Evidently, people in Singapore. Who knew? And someone in Russia...there's a map that I hadn't noticed before. This is pretty darn cool. I like it. I like it a lot. So, I'll still tell my children I'm working when I need a minute to process the fact that they've just emptied four toy boxes onto the floor of my living room, and then go ahead and force them to clean up at least six pieces of it. (It's only right!)

 Wow, Singapore.
I like this internet thing. Hope it sticks around.