The Day I Went Overboard . . .

with coupons. Seriously. It's a little embarressing. I'm having visions of people at Old Navy corporate having a staff meeting to talk about the people who took advantage of their Valentine $5 off coupon event and how they won't EVER be doing that promotion again. Color a valentine and receive a $5 off coupon. I stopped by the store a couple days prior to the event and asked what the conditions were. Apparently there weren't any. Take as many valentines as you want . . . they're free I was told. "And," stated the nice employee . . . "we have flip flops 2 pairs for $5 so you could get some free flip flops." WOW. Employees encouraging coupon usage. Multiple coupon usage. Amazing. There was however NO ONE else shopping in the store, except for my sister. I took 4 coupons colored them and had them on my counter waiting, just in case. Saturday morning rolled around and I wasn't planning on visiting Old Navy. We had an 80th birthday party to attend for my Grandpa and the kids have never gone naked so I didn't give the sale a whole lotta thought. Until my sister called. There's hardly anyone here she said. They just rang up my stuff in multiple transactions. REALLY??? I was there in a flash. I found shorts for the boy for summer, cute stuff for the girlie girl and had it all figured out. I went thru the line and my cashier was more than happy to do four separate transactions. WOW. So, I grabbed some more valentines to color out of the basket next to the registar that had a sign on it "FREE." Then I went to the back of the store where they had a table set up with chairs, and a basket of crayons and a whole STACK of coupons. So, I started coloring. I only needed 9 more. (That should've been my first clue that I was going overboard. Seriously. NINE???) My sister and I soon had company. Another lady. Sporting her Old Navy bag. She had obviously been through the line already. Oh. And here comes her friend. Maybe they were sisters too. Kidding. Well, they could've been. They were coloring more valentines (coupons) too. At least one of them was. And I saw BOTH of them back in line when I was purchasing my stuff. My cashier kept telling me, these are on sale 3 for $15. Do you want to get more? I had three. I wanted to purchase them individually. See, if I paid for all 3 at once with one $5 coupons I would owe $10. If I paid for each one individually I paid $1.50 a piece. You do the math. I asked the clerk if she wanted me to get back in line (because there were more people in the store now and a line was forming). No. She seriously didn't care. She'd ring up my one item and I would pay my $1 or $1.50 and she would do it again. And again. And again. You get the picture. I couldn't believe my luck. However, I was a bit remorseful. Surely this isn't how they intended these coupons to be used. But nobody said a word. So . . . I took my bag, talked with my sister and left the store. My sister soon called. "They told me they aren't excepting any more Valentines." Huh?! "Yeah, I turned around and one of them told me they aren't taking any more valentines. They were meant as a fun activity for the kids.

RIGHT (I thought in my head). That's why the employees told us to take a many as we wanted. Besides . . . all those poor people who have infants who haven't mastered their coloring skills. They don't get coupons. Whatever. Someone at Old Navy decided to make up a rule because their cashiers were ringing up multiple transactions all morning.

So, that was the end of that. I was already done with my shopping anyway but, it did make me think. How much is too much? It's a common question I see on many frugal/coupon/money blogs. Today it was my reality. The day I went overboard. I got over $135 worth of clothing for under $26. Now that's a deal!