Sunday, December 7, 2008

{{{{{SIGH}}}}}

First I have to say I am totally fed up with my Christmas tree. We bought the new one, this one, that is pre-lit as I hate stringing lights on a tree. The tree is super heavy and it took all my strength to lift the sections. I couldn't get the base into the tree stand, dh ended up getting it in, but it was so stiff. I then arranged all the branches, that took forever. Switched it on and the bottom row of lights doesn't work :0( By this time I was fed up and will have to try tomorrow to figure out what is wrong. I don't know what is wrong but I just don't have the patience this year for all this........

Here is a photo of the tree, the decorations on the tree (click on the photo to see) are Lindt Chocolate treee decorations. I buy a couple of packets of them each year. My nana always used to have chocolate decorations on the tree when we were children. I should add, I will be decorating the tree this week, the chocolate ornaments were laying around, so just wanted to get them up out of the way.



There is a referral event going on at Shopper's Drug Mart, so wanted to go in and get some things. However I also had some good bonus points coupons I wanted to use. Plus, when you spent $100 you got two movie tickets for free. So me and the kids decided ds would go with me and buy dh MarioKart for Wii for Christmas, as it was something he wanted? They were going to buy their grandparents a digital photo frame and they this one on sale (page 30 on the Christmas gift guide)

So on Friday I checked out my local store to see if they had these two items, and they had the Wii item, but not the photo frame. So I called another store close to us, and they said they had both items. So me and ds go to this store and before I get the rest of my shopping I ask them to get those two items for us. After much searching they could only find the photo frame not the Wii item.

So the cashier suggested we buy the photo frame there, take it to the other store, return it and then buy it at the other store again with the Wii item, so we could get all the bonus points and movie tickets. I had to spend $150 to get 15,000 bonus points, so that is why I needed to buy everything together.

So off we trot to the store closest to our home, we get everything we want. Return the photo frame, re-buy it, get the Wii item, and everything else I needed. I then check to bill as she was giving ds the two free movie tickets, only to discover the bread I had bought, had rang in at the wrong price, so she had to return those then ring them back in and I got one loaf of bread for free.

What should have taken us 45 minutes, took us an hour and a half. Dh thought we had got lost!!! However, when all the bonus points are awarded I should have another 40,000 points from today's shopping and that translates to $100 worth of free product. Plus dh got two free movie tickets, worth $20+ and between us we spent under $200.

At the moment there is a neat promotion going on at Mark's Work Wearhouse. They have a coupon click on this link where if you get $10 off and all you have to do is spend $10+. Now there is a list of exclusions a mile long, but as long as you spend it on clothes you are good. This is a badly thought out promotion, but you really can clean up here. So we pop into Marks Work Wearhouse today, and I send ds through the check out with a nice polo shirt for my dad, that was originally $39.99, marked down to $14.99, with the $10 off coupon, we ended up paying just over $5 for it. I found a fleece sweater for dh that would be ideal for work. It was marked at $9.99, I asked her to mark it up to $10, which she did and I walked out with that sweater for free!!!

Needless to say I will be going back there. I went to the store in Georgetown the other day, before the list of exclusions was enforced and got two chapsticks and a pair of earplugs, and I paid something like 40 cents for them all.

We were out on Friday night at dh's works Christmas party, so I am pooped, that's why I am sighing, I'm tired!!!

10 comments:

Linda said...

My son who is working towards being an accountant loves Mario Kart as well.

Our tree is up, but we need to tidy a bit too. Ours took a couple of days.

Caroline said...

Gill the british woman. Do I have permission to rename you gill the shopping queen you are so good at the savings thing I take my hat off to you.

Lakeland Jo said...

your story reminds me of other half's afternoon yesterday. He called the B and Q call centre (DIY Superstore) yesterday and they said they had ten bags of rock salt/sand for de-icing paths in stock at our local branch (eight miles away). When he arrived at our local store they said they had been out of stock since Wednesday.
I like your tree but if we had such an arrangement here ( ie: Lindt decorations) there would be nothing left on it after one day. Teenager adores Lindt- he has a Lindt advent calendar!!
Well done on the bargains- we rarely ( never??) get such fab bargains here. Usually 'get five pound off when you spend fifty' etc etc

Expat mum said...

I've just printed off a 25% coupon for the Sport Authority, which is great as we need loads of winter stuff.
Love your putting chocolates on the tree. We used to have those except they were so old my mum wouldn't let us eat them!

Rudee said...

I say string some lights along the bottom of the tree for now then when the holiday is over, return it. How frustrating. You are incredibly clever with your savings plans.

Gill - That British Woman said...

thanks for all your comments. Dh looked at the tree and got the bottom lights working.........thank goodness, so that's something.

Gill

Lib said...

Hi Gill,
Sorry to hear of all the problems you had with the tree as well all the running around for the buys!
Hope this up coming week goes better for ya'll!
Blessins',Lib

Marla said...

I finally got the tree up and most of the other decorations. I forgot about the front porch where the pumpkins are still sitting. Everyone else has christmas lights and I have pumpkins. I guess I'll remove them tomorrow in the daylight. I still have to put up my snow village collection of buildings and that takes forever!

DeniseinVA said...

Gill, you worked hard what with running around and dealing with a difficult tree. And you got some great bargains. I think all your hard work is paying off, the second photo looked really nice. Mum used to buy those little net bags of chocolate coins to put on ours, along with the chocolate Father Christmas'. She also loved her liqueur chocolates. She was a tea-totaler all year but come Christmas time she scoffed down a lot of those chocolates - lol. Have a great week and I hope all goes well with the house selling.

Susie H said...

That is an absolutely lovely tree! Glad to read in your comments that the lights are now ALL atwinkle...

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