CVS is Paying Me to Eat Macaroni and Cheese!! — May 18, 2009

Lots to talk about!  I’ve been trying to sit down and type for what feels like a week!

First – I have to say how excited I am that CVS is (inadvertently) paying me to eat macaroni and cheese!  Here’s how it happened.  I’ve said a whole bunch of times that if you’re going to shop at CVS, you have to “shop” the ad and pay attention to the sales.  You can’t just go in there and toss stuff into your cart willy-nilly.  Well, we have several customers who have taken the idea to an art form.  There is one customer in particular who is just amazing!  She is one of those people who can go into a store, get an entire cart full of stuff, and somehow still get out of there with only spending a dollar or less.  She comes in every Sunday and always comes and gets me so I can wait on her, hehehe.  Lately, she’s been teaching me her methods, and even though I don’t put it all to use, I actually am getting a lot of good information!  (I’m even learning how to read the ad so critically that sometimes I can even inform her of deals that she hasn’t spotted yet. (Setting the ad is my pet project each weekend at CVS.  Normally, I pretty well can recite the best deals by Saturday night/Sunday morning, depending on how much I work.))

Anyway, one of her favorite websites is The Grocery Game.  Some of it is stuff you have to pay for, but it breaks down the best deals, store by store, and then all you have to do is go and buy the items.  That’s pretty easy!  They also have a section of free coupons, and that’s how the mac and cheese came to be.

Easy Mac (individual cups) are $1.19 regular price at CVS.  From The Grocery Game, I was able to come across two coupons for the same item.  One coupon was for buy one Easy Mac, get one free.  The other coupon was for $1.00 off when you purchase two Easy Macs.

So, I went to CVS (I was in Shreveport this day) and took my coupons.  I got my two Easy Macs, which would have been 1.19 twice.  The buy one get one free coupon made them 1.19 for both, and then my dollar off coupon made my total .19.  But wait!  I also have my employee 20% discount.  So, that was about .45 off of the Easy Mac.  I would have paid .19, but when you factor in the discount, CVS paid ME like 25 cents just to take that Easy Mac out of the store.  How cool is that? 

Actually, that entire trip was pretty amazing.  I got about 18 dollars worth of stuff, and between my discount, my coupons (from The Grocery Game) and a few extra bucks I had, I got out of there for about a dollar.  Not bad for a novice!

Moving on…

Glasses Update:  I love them!  I love my newfound world of clear vision!  I could easily annoy every person I know to death with my joyful exclamations of how wonderful it is to be able to see everything with such clarity.  I really thought there for awhile that it was just never going to get any better, so I feel like I’m set free now.  I think I’m pretty well adjusted to the bifocal thing now.  It’s not nearly as daunting as it was that first day! 

The only thing that makes me laugh about my glasses is that I feel like I’m wearing a disguise. I feel like there’s some point where I just need to rip them off my face and announce, “Hey, it’s just me under here!”, as if no one can tell who I am with them on, hehehehe.

I need to write my eye doctor a thank you note for this one.  I am just so relieved.  CVS is a different world to me now that I can actually see what I’m doing.  (My vision is always worse there because it’s usually later in the day that I am there, and because I utilize my distance vision far more there than at the bank.)  My eyes don’t feel nearly as stressed as they usually do.  Refreshing!

Book Update:  I am reading a great book right now!  It’s called A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love and Faith in Stages by Kristin Chenoweth with Joni Rodgers.  I love this book!  I never knew who Kristin Chenoweth even was until one day when she was on Ellen promoting The West Wing.  From that one little interview, I became just totally enchanted with her.  Of course, I loved her on Pushing Daisies (YAY!!!!!!!  The last three episodes will air in a few weeks!!  YAAAAAAYYYYY!!), and I heard that she’s going to reprise her role as Galinda in the Wicked movie, so I’ll definitely want to see that.  (I hope that’s not just a rumor!)  The book is really good – an autobiography of her life and how she came to be who she is.  I was going to buy it for myself for my birthday, but then David found it for me at the library, so that was perfect.  I think I’ll still buy it though.  Her style of writing is exactly the same as how she talks – bubbly, funny, and full of life.  She also talks a lot about Pushing Daisies, which always makes me happy. 

Dinosaur Update: You might remember that I was pretty gleeful the other day when I realized that someone had purchased two of the three remaining dinosaurs at CVS.  Well.  Over the weekend, Shane (one of the managers, friend, etc.) came up to me and said, “Hey Athene, have you been on the toy aisle lately?”  I didn’t snap to what he was talking about and said no.  He responded that I need to go over there and take a look.  I followed him over there as innocently as a lamb being led to slaughter, and…………..arggggggggg!!!!!!!!  There are no longer three dinosaurs, people.  Now there is a entire BOX OF DINOSAURS!!  Tons of them!!!  And there are at least five different species now!!!  Shane pointed out the fact that since they’re in a box, at least we can just chunk them in the box, as opposed to keeping them in a straight line on the shelf.  That’s true, but in reality, I just know that I’m going to go back there daily and find huge dinosaur armies spread out all over the floor.  Now there are enough of each type that a kid could really have a field day back there while their parents wait for their medicine.  hm…

I need to upload a great picture that David and I took when we were in Shreveport last week.  Soon!