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Busy in the Burbs

Busy in the Burbs

Category Archives: Websites

BJs Coupon Policy – Some Education is Required

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Product Reviews, Websites

≈ Comments Off on BJs Coupon Policy – Some Education is Required

I like that BJs allows coupons.  But, they need to better educate their staff on their coupon policy as I have repeatedly had the same problem (maybe I should just bookmark the page on my phone).

The policy states, in part:

“When purchasing a multi-pack of “individual for sale” packaged items, which is a set of items that could be sold individually (each item has a barcode) shrink-wrapped and sold together, shoppers can use multiple manufacturer’s coupons (up to 5), and ONE BJ’s coupon on a single selling unit. The total value of the coupons cannot exceed the total retail value of the item.

Examples of a multipack:
Three-pack of toothpaste

Two-pack of salad dressing
Three-pack of taco kits

Examples of products that are NOT a multipack:
Box of cereal that contains two bags (the bags cannot be sold individually)

Case of water
Case of soda
Case of juice
Case of motor oil

Members may also use one BJ’s coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon on a single item.”

 

So, when I buy Coke flats, Cheerios, diapers, etc they are not multipacks.  But, if I buy a pack of cans of mandarin oranges or Campbell’s soup, or (my personal pet peeve) sunscreen, I should be able to use one BJs coupon plus as many manufacturer’s coupons as match the number of items in the multi-pack.

Like I said, sunscreen is my pet peeve in this department.  Every year there is a BJs coupon for Coppertone.  Every year there are $1 off one Coppertone product manufacturer coupons.  Because BJs sells them as three shrink wrapped together, I should be able to use the BJs coupon plus three of the manufacturers coupons.  I have never succeeded in doing this without a fuss from the cashier who eventually relents and agrees to let me use them “just this once” because they’re only supposed to accept one manufacturer coupon.

But, a new coupon culprit raised its ugly head this past week.  Yes, this is the same picture from Monday.

img_5626

As you can see, there are four bags of chips/popcorn.  This is because I had two copies of the $2.50 Frito Lay coupon shown below. (Note – A Pick and Pack bundle is two bags of chips.)

bjs-coupon-page-11142016

This time, I was first told I couldn’t use it because you had to buy both the chips and the dip (he was pointing to the “and” between “Pick” and “Pack.”  When I explained that “Pick and Pack” was the term for the bag containing two bags of chips and that it very clearly said “OR” before “Dips” I was told that the coupon was printed in error and wasn’t being accepted.  They would have a sign up soon.  Well, this was two weeks after the coupon went into effect – no sign.  And, I got the above from the corporate website today, which obviously hasn’t been updated.

So, while I agree that it may be an error (because that is a lot off), with no sign and no removal of the coupon from their own website, they need to accept them.  They did, very reluctantly and with much too much complaining on their behalf, hence the rant here.

 

Why WordPress, why?

03 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by Nora in Websites

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I’m not sure what WordPress was thinking when they launched the new Edit window because, quite frankly, I can’t find any benefit.  There’s only pain.

Let me count the ways:

  1. When you choose a category, “Uncategorized” now stays checked also, until you manually fix this.  Doesn’t this seem wrong, by definition.
  2. You can no longer see when the post will be published unless you open the Publish submenu, which promptly disappears when you go back to typing.
  3. I can no longer drag & drop images from other folders on the computer.  I actually have to look them up.
  4. Speaking of images, now you have to open the boxes that allow you to label the images separately.  They used to be right there.
  5. Similarly, it used to offer a list of past posts when you used the Link function.  Now you have to paste in the URL, which seems to require opening a separate tab.

Now, I hope I am wrong on some of these things.  Or, maybe they’re still working on the interface and some of the functionality will return.  In the meantime, while I admit its prettier, I’d like the old functionality back.

The Prudent Homemaker

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home, Websites

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Yes, two blog reviews in a row.  This one doesn’t cover nearly as many topics, but goes in great detail into a few.  What I find most interesting (being a numbers person) is the detail and planning around eating.  One of the old posts – still linked to the homepage – refers to her ability to feed her family for 40¢/person/day.  It’s gone up a bit since then, but you get the idea.

She achieves this by shopping wisely as well as growing/making much of her own food.  You can read in great detail on the blog.

As a numbers person I find the planning fascinating – to paraphrase “Potatoes will be $x/lb this month so I’ll buy 300 pounds which is enough to last a full year.”  To be able to do this one needs to know ones prices (ideally this would be a price book), know how much of everything your family consumes in a given amount of time, and have enough space to put a year’s supply of food.  I don’t have enough space for a year’s supply of food, but I do know my prices (maybe not quite as well as her) and I know how much we eat (roughly).

The blog is excellent at reminding me to be mindful.  I’m not going to buy all my year’s green beans at their lowest ever price and can them.  But, I do realize when green beans are 3x their lowest price and buy something else.

Second, she phrases it just right when she recommends to plan meals around what’s in your pantry, not what’s on sale.  That’s not to say that I don’t pay attention to what’s on sale.  But, any given week a big chunk of my grocery shopping goes towards items that are on sale that I won’t necessarily use that week.  If I can use them immediately, great – less to store.  But, if its something I will use and it’s a great sale (or good enough on things I use regularly) I will stock up.  For me stocking up is 6-8 weeks worth since most sales cycle in that time.  For a few items, like pantry staples, that go on sale at specific times of the year I will buy more.

The downside I find to her numbers, though, is the money she spends on things most of us who shop regularly don’t have/need.  She has many kitchen gadgets – food dehydrator, canning supplies for a years’ storage of many different things, deli slicer, grain mill, food grade storage buckets – that cost money.  She has a tricked out garage/pantry.  She spends a lot of time/money gardening.  I completely agree that once one has these things grocery shopping is cheaper, but there’s an upfront cost and a lot of ongoing work that I think we need to keep in mind.  All that being said, I like reading about it with my own life lens.

So, since I’ve taken to posting our grocery spending here, I did a quick calculation to determine what we spend per person per day on meals.  Realizing that we do eat out from time to time, I estimate that we typically make 555 meals/month.  I aim for $900/month, but for this exercise we’ll use $1000/month in groceries.  That gives me $1.80/meal or $5.40/person/day if we ate every meal at home (spending more on groceries, but less total since we wouldn’t be going out).

Obviously this is much higher than her number.  But, I don’t own much food storage equipment.  I have two refrigerators and a closet pantry.  I barely garden (I don’t have time and living in the Northeast makes it impossible much of the year without greenhouses or other expenses.).  We also drink milk and eat fish regularly, neither of which would be in her budget.

I took a picture after my last trip to BJs, which was admittedly pretty small by our standards.

IMG_2843

But, I put it here because I don’t think this would make the cut for her.  Maybe she’d buy the craisins, bacon, and one gallon of milk with coupons.  But, these are things we like to have available.  And, I’m ok with that.

The Frugal Girl

22 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Websites

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I found this blog recently while searching for potato bread recipes.  The bread is excellent and I read much of the blog history.  Kristen is a good writer.  I don’t pretend to be as frugal as her, nor do I homeschool, but I do appreciate the grocery/shopping related posts.  I don’t read many blogs daily, but I’ve kept up with this one for a while.

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About Me

Welcome! I’m Nora. We have 5 boys and 1 girl. I write about the practical stuff that we call life – managing school, sports, and all things suburban. I get everyone where they need to be, with their stuff, when they need to be there and write about how that all gets done.

Recent Posts

  • October 2019 Grocery Review November 25, 2019
  • September 2019 Grocery Review November 18, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 36, 2019 September 24, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 35, 2019 September 23, 2019
  • August 2019 Grocery Review September 17, 2019

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