Commissary savings of 51%

Today I saved 51% at the commissary, but I'm afraid that I can't take credit for it because of a store mistake. I am a firm believer in honest couponing - I approach all of this as if it were a game, because it's actually great fun for me to find coupon match-ups and deals. That being said, if everyone did not abide to the rules of the game, it wouldn't be fun anymore. However, what is a mom to do when stores just give away money even after you point out their mistake?

This has happened to me three times in the past two weeks. The first was at Walgreens, where both a clerk and a manager gave me $4.79 off on their Rimmel makeup, even though the B1G1 coupon said a limit of $3.79. I had pointed this limit out to the both of them on two separate occasions, but they just didn't listen. The second time was when I was making a refund at the NEX - I had bought a dress for my daughter at their Labor Day sale at 40% off. Their system was set up so that the cashiers had to manually input the 40% off. Well, when I returned it, the clerk refunded the full purchase price, even though I actually went back to point out that she didn't take 40% off when refunding me. She just said "Oh well" and sent me on my way.

And the third time happened today at the commissary. I had a coupon for a free bag of Natural Choice dog food, which was worth $7.99. The coupon refused to scan, so the cashier brought over the manager. The problem was when she scanned the coupon, the system asked her to scan the bag to take off the money, but nothing happened when she scanned the bag. Well, after the two ladies messed around with it, what ended up happening was they rung me up for one bag at $7.99, then took off TWO bags at $7.99, and then applied the coupon for $7.99. I basically got a bag of free food and then $15.98 in overage. My husband was with me this afternoon, and trust me...he is not a subtle guy. He was telling them how the total was originally $40 and whatever they did dropped it down to $15 the entire time he was paying, but they still let it go.

I'm really happy that we only spent $15.32 at the commissary this week, and I'm thrilled that I had a savings of 51%, but this whole thing really dampened my spirits. I feel guilty, even though there was really nothing more we could have done, and I really feel cheated out of the normal "VICTORY!" feeling I get for my legitimate $14.74 coupon savings.

Anyway, enough of that ranting...here are some of the coupon match-ups that I had:

• Wonka Giant Chewy Nerds (B1G1 from All You): $0.66 savings
• Kotex travel pack ($1/1 printable - sells for $0.84, so I had $0.16 overage): $1.00 savings
  
• Mother's bread (FREE coupon from sweepstakes): $1.79 savings
• Mrs. Dash seasoning ($0.75/1 from Sunday paper): $0.75 savings
• Bagel Bites ($0.50/1 Commissary-only coupon - sold for $1.00, making it 50 cents after coupon): $0.50 savings
• Swiffer Refill ($1/1 from mailer): $1.00 savings
• Mighty Dog (FREE can coupon): $0.55 savings
• Natural Choice 5lb bag (FREE coupon): $7.99 savings (plus the "savings" from fiasco that I described above)
• Perdue chicken ($0.50/1 Commissary-only coupon): $0.50 savings
  Total savings: $14.74

Because of the manager's mistakes, the $14.74 came out to a 51% savings. It should really only have been a 33% savings. 33% still ranks as one of my better trips, but like I mentioned above, I'm really not excited at all about this receipt, even if 33% of my savings were valid and legitimate. My husband keeps telling me to stop beating myself up for it, because we did our part in pointing out their mistake and they went full steam ahead anyway. In my heart I know that's true, but I still can't shake that guilty feeling and I really just want to bury this receipt in the bottom of my pile and never look at it again.