Harris Teeter Shopping Trip: Mission Turkey!

I decided to take advantage of the turkey deal at Harris Teeter.  I had a list of everything that I was going to get and proceeded to leave it at home.  Doesn't that mean that I should just end it there?  Well, I called home and tried to give directions to find my list.  Luckily, it didn't take my husband too long and I was sribbling it down on scrap paper with a handy pen from my coupon basket.

The deal was to spend $40 on groceries in order to get the turkey for $0.47 per pound.  I wasn't 100% sure whether I needed it to be $40 before or after the sale prices were processed.  I  knew that Harris Teeter would be before the coupons but I decided to go with after sale prices just in case.  Hate to be at the cashier and things go badly and scrap the whole plan.

I found the turkey first just to make sure that this mission was worthwhile.  I picked a turkey and put it in the cart.  Then I cruised the outside of the store since I was searching for the dairy products which were first on my list.  I started with the butter.  I realized that I also needed two dozen Egglands Best Eggs which they were just stocking more of.  I saw that the brick cheese was on sale buy one, get one which was a surprise to me so I grabbed six and put them in my cart.  I got six bags of shredded cheese.  I stopped for a second to add up the prices so I would know where we were so far towards the $40 total.

I went on to the milk section to see if they had any Smart Balance Milk still left on the shelves.  They did so I grabbed two which I was super excited has an expiration in January.  I saw that they also had Silk Fruit and Protein which my son calls pink milk.  It is the best way to get the vitamins into him so I got two of them.  Stopping again for some quick math on my piece of very worn paper. 

I still needed a few more things and a little more money in the cart.  I grabbed four bags of vitamin C drops.  Sadly, when I got home I realized that two of them were cough drops and not Vitamin C drops!!  UGH!  Back to do a return soon.  Then, I turned around to grab some Hefty One Zip bags.  Already over the $40 needed

One aisle to go to get the Dixie Crystal sugar that I had the rain check for to pick up.  I turned the corner and saw the Diamond Crystal salt on sale!!!  I grabbed the last and dented box of sea salt, one kosher salt and one coarse sea salt.  Since I had coupons and an e-coupon, it made them all free!!  I love stocking up on free stuff that we use.  I went a little farther and remembered that I needed vegetable shortening.  I put that in the cart and moved on to the sugar which was finally in stock.  Grabbed my two sugars and was super excited since I was super low on sugar and had the holiday baking rush coming up!  Then I realized that I would like a little brown sugar since it was on sale.  The Domino's sugar worked out to a better deal than the store brand so I grabbed two boxes.  Lastly, I grabbed some of the B1G1 Graham Goldfish which my son loves as his special treat in the afternoon. 

Can you see that way too many things went into my cart at the end of this trip??  I had no idea what my total was going to be but I went to the register and gave them my Harris Teeter card and started the process.  First, the rain check on the sugar.  Then, the cashier rang through everything while I bagged everything.  I got to the end and my total was staggering.  I handed my coupons (around 26..only 13 doubling ones) to her and tried to figure out how I could get my total down to something managable since I almost choked at the first total somewhere near $80 but I might have blacked out after she said it so I could be wrong. 

After all the coupons were scanned, I noticed that there was only one $2 coupon when I handed her two but I didn't hear the computer beep so I was confused.  I told her to go back and scan it so she did and it beeped.  What?  I asked her to call over customer service and just get an override but she told me that since the milk was buy one, get one, that I could only use one coupon.  Nope, that isn't the coupon policy.  Confused on why the coupon didn't scan in the first place since I paid attention to all of the coupons very carefully (and always do).  She finally called over customer service.  They tried to explain the only one coupon on a buy one, get one.... umm, nope...  That isn't the policy.  Then, they called over a manager.  She gave the dreaded answer. "Just this time," after being presented with the issue.  I was super irritated which I don't normally get at Harris Teeter which is why they get so much of my business. 

I went to the customer service desk to get a rain check but I was so flustered that I barely knew what I was doing.  I complained to the customer service guy that also coupons and he didn't understand the issue... well, neither did I.  He said, "Did you tell them that you always follow the rules?"  I love that my good friends at Harris Teeter know me so well!!  It restored my faith but I was still shaken.  I was too busy counting my coupons at the bottom to see what might have gone wrong to look at the whole receipt.

I left the store still a little frazzled.  I was looking at the receipt while driving home and I realized that the darn holiday Graham Goldfish didn't ring up correctly.  I decided to turn around and get it resolved.  Another wonderful customer service person helped me.  She checked the shelf and found that it was marked on the shelf but the barcodes didn't match so it was just a computer error.  She credited me back the money for the one bag that should have been free.  After ringing it through, she realized that the policy is that she give me one thing for free when they ring up incorrectly so she rang through another transaction and I got back $3.68 total in cash.  Super glad it was all over and I was on my way home.

After it was all settled and I sat down with the computer to figure out if all my coupons were scanned.  I typed up all of the coupons and then I put with it which amounts were for which products.  There seemed to be a $0.50 coupon that was extra scanned which is probably why the other coupon didn't scan.  UGH!  Good news was that all my coupons were scanned and there weren't any other ones missed.  In addition, I realized the the turkey would have been $20 without the discount so the total wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking based on all of the groceries that I saved.  Plus, I got lots of cheese which we really needed.  Feeling so much happier about my purchases now that I am away from the coupon issue :)

Total OOP $36.85
Total Savings $92.93 (including amount for rain check discount)