Learn From The Coupon Jedi Masters

Hello Couponeers!

Today we shall learn that you can NEVER stop learning about effective couponing. Just when you THINK you might know all there is to know about coupons, whole new previously undiscovered worlds can open up to you. And in the case of The Coupon Whisperer the world of PDF file coupons opened up for me last night.

You see, I have been operating under the assumption that you can only print out a couple of coupons of a particular type from the Web. In most cases that is true. However, as I learned last night, there is a BIG exception to this rule.

Some of you might recall that I previously MENTIONED the Walgreens Yoda. Here is part of what I said about the Walgreens Yoda:

Sometimes, when I am out on a coupon run, I cross paths with the Walgreens Yoda. The Walgreens Yoda is a friend who eats, breaths, lives for couponing at Walgreens. He basically knows all the deals and is usually armed with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars of Register Rewards stuffed in thick envelops...

So last evening as I made my last Walgreens run of the day, who should I run into but the legendary Walgreens Yoda. Of course, I looked inside his cart to see what deals he was working on. I saw lots of Colgate which was great since that is what I was also buying. However, I also saw a whole bunch of Arnicare gel along with a stack of Arnicare gel coupons. It is selling for $5.99 with a Register Rewards of $6.00. However, sans the online $2.00 coupon, it was just a bit steep for me. So seeing all those Arnicare coupons in the Walgreens Yoda cart, I asked him how he could print so many since the online limit is usually just a couple. The Walgreen's Yoda answered me wearily:

"That coupon is a PDF file. There is no print limit."

Huh? That was NEWS to me. So late this afternoon I checked it out. Of course, the Walgreens Yoda was exactly RIGHT. No print limit so I printed out 20 of those Arnicare coupons. (BTW, I took advantage of a $1 ink cartridge refill day at Walgreens last year and am waiting for another such day.)

So there you have it. Don't assume you know everything. Even The Coupon Whisperer can be wrong and in this case I was spectacularly wrong so a course correction is in order for the rest of the week. In my case I am thinking of playing coupon Ping-Pong between the Arnicare and Neuragen PN. See, the Neuragen which normally sells for $29.99 is on sale this week (unadvertised special) for only $14.99. Using a $10 Diabetes & You coupon knocks it down to only $4.99. Then using the $6.00 Arnicare RR buys me the remainder of the Neuragen with a buck left over for whatever else I want. But wait...THERE'S MORE!!!

That Neuragen also spits out a RR for a whole $10 which I will Ping-Pong back to buying another Arnicare for just $4.00 after the printout coupon. And the remaining $6? Well, I have some terrific Colgate coupons which knock the $2.99 Colgate Total (6 oz) sales price down to just 99 cents each which means that $6 left over when buying the Arnicare will be used to purchase half a dozen Colgate tubes. Wash, rinse, repeat. PING-PONG!

Remember, the coupon learning process NEVER ends. And when you are around a coupon Jedi Master, observe and pay attention.

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Today's couponing adventure included me catering to a case of the munchies. It was late afternoon and I was getting hungry for a FREE/CHEAP supper. Sooooo.... I used a couple of $3 Natrol coupons to buy a couple of Natrol Melatonin bottles which sold for $3 each making them FREE! However the best part is that each bottle gave me $3 in RRs for a total of $6. Then using those $6 in RR plus my $10 Neuragena coupon, I bought a Neuragena plus a couple of cheap candies to account for the coupons I had to use plus bring my total over $6. Total OOP was only 56 cents and while the Walgreens Catalina machine was spitting out my $10 in RRs, I told the female cashier that the real purpose was to buy MY SECRET LOVE. The cashier looked at me with curiosity.

A few minutes later I returned to her with a couple of large DiGiorno pizzas in my hands that were on sale for 2/$10. As I approached the cashier I broke out into the Doris Day "My Secret Love" song which I saw her perform a few days ago on the tube as "Calamity Jane." Imagine the scene there with me singing horribly off key as I used the $10 Neuragena RR to pay for the pizzas while blaring out this SONG to my two beautiful DiGiornos:

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me
All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free

So I told a friendly star
The way that dreamers often do
Just how wonderful you are
And why I'm so in love with you

Now, I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last my hearts an open door
And my secret love's no secret anymore


My intent was to give the cashier a bit of a break from her dreary routine. Didn't exactly work out that way since my rendition of singing "My Secret Love" to my two pizzas only seemed to irk her a bit. But, hey, I had fun and it made my couponing that much more interesting.

p.s. The DiGiorno pizzas purchase which was FREE spit out a RR of $1. Therefore calculating the 56 cents I spent OOP to buy the Neuragena that means Walgreens paid me 22 cents to eat my pizza tonight ($1 minus 56 cents equals 44 cents or 22 cents per pizza in my favor.)