A Tiny Suburban Miracle

Saturday morning I did our weekly grocery shopping at Safeway. I’m using coupons and discount offers as much as I can these days. I grabbed my grocery cart clutching 4 coupons in my hand along with my list. Thirty five cents off any brand of Chef Boyardee pasta, 20 cents off frozen corn, 30 cents off children's Triaminic cold medicine and 20 cents off my favorite key lime yogurt.
I started in produce and made my way through the store. By the time I hit aisle 4 -- cereal -- I noticed that I was missing the Triaminic coupon. Darn. I didn’t want to waste time searching the store so I vowed to visit the Triaminic web site later to see if I could find a discount offer. All in all, I saved $11 with the remaining coupons and my frequent shoppers card. Not bad.

Sunday afternoon I made some baked beans for a side dish for dinner. Barbecue sauce is a key ingredient and we didn’t have any. I dashed to Safeway to pick up the missing ingredient. I headed directly to the condiment aisle past the ketchup, mustard, salad dressing and stopped at the Barbecue sauce. I reached for the Safeway brand (2 for $3.00) but then noticed the Cattleman brand (2 for $5.00). I picked up a bottle to scan the label and something on the shelf caught my eye. Yes, right there next to Cattleman barbecue sauce was a precisely cut coupon for 30 cents off children's Triaminic. My coupon.

I love thinking about this series of events. Someone picked it up and put it on the shelf and more than 24 hours later, before they could restock, I found it.


Almost like winning the lottery…sort of…