Why I prefer clearance shopping over couponing any day!

I went to Dollar General yesterday to use the $5 off $25 coupon that I had received in the mail for a new store opening.  The coupon was only good for that one store, but they were working on the roof and it was obnoxiously loud inside, so I went to a different store.

So at the next store, I only had the option of finding a deal with the $2 of $10 digital coupon that is available.  First, I tried the Ponds cream that is $1.50 and laundry soap, but the Ponds coupon wouldn't come off automatically, so they wouldn't take it.  They said maybe because of the size.  So, I was back to square one.  Void and find a new deal.

$5.16 out of pocket after coupons!

I ended up with a pack of 31 Tide Pods for $8.95 and 4 packs of the (orig $1) buy one get one free Papermate pens.  So I put in my phone number for the $2 off $10 digital coupon and the register freezes.  They had to shut it down and start over.  This took quite a long time.  So they had to re-ring my items and we tried again.  This time it worked but it kicked off the $2 off $10 coupon after they scanned the Tide coupon, but I put my phone number in again and it did reapply it.  But, the Papermate coupons wouldn't scan.  So, she played with it for a while and finally it took the coupons but this time, it kicked the buy one get one free savings off for the pens!  I figured it all out manually and he refunded my newspaper to give me the additional amount back.  What a hassle!

I am not sure which store is worse for couponing, Dollar General or Kmart.  I have experienced the "freezing" of the registers at both stores when I have used coupons.

When one coupon doesn't work, it can throw the entire deal off.

Have you had similar experiences with couponing?

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