A Good Thrifty Day

Great Thra-ifty Day! At
7 a.m. I unloaded my surplus of Coke cases on a fellow downtowner who does not have a car. (He chooses not to.) It is challenging in what kind of choices you have to make in the grocery store when you don't have a vehicle and you don't have a garage attached to your house to walk the goods right into your kitchen. Because of restrictions such as this, you'll choose to accept the kind-of-kooky offer like when I asked him to take some of my Cokes. I could give him a big discount because I bought on sale AND used coupons and passed savings on to him (oh, I placed them in our bag with the 'walking wheels' that made it easier to move them into his condo). I went crazy during the Coke sales during the past couple of weeks, and our storage is finite. Thank you, fellow downtowner, for lessening the clutter in our pantry.

At 7:15 a.m. After I dropped my fellow downtowner off at the bus stop on Cumberland so that he could go to work way in the 'burbs. His business is on Sherrill Boulevard, as in "Harold Sherrill." I grew up riding horses at Mr. Harold Sherrill's stables on that very spot circa 1960's, and I am sure Mr. Sherrill would chuckle if he saw the transformation of his expanse of land. But I digress.

Think about it: my friend LIVES DOWNTOWN, and he WORKS IN THE SUBURBS. At least his bus is going against the traffic. I parked the car and moo-ved over to the First Tennessee Plaza with an intent for a free sausage biscuit. Today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A; so if you dress like a cow, you will be given a free entree. I had a pair of black shorts and a white top on that I had on from workout earlier. I walked in with the download that I got from Chick-fil-A, which included printed out cow ears and a cow nose. I got in line and caught the eye of the woman next to me. I said, "Did you know it's Cow Appreciation Day? I am going to 'dress' like a cow!" I don't think she knew of this annual celebration. She looked a hole through me.

The last time I got a look like that woman gave me was when I was 19 and went up to visit my dad in his downtown law office, dressed in my best fashion of 1972: hip-hugger jeans and a knit crop top. My friend with me had the most gorgeous hair, cascading over his shoulders, but a few of Daddy's clients clearly gave me and my friend "that look" as we rode down the elevator with them. (And for anyone reading this blog who is old enough and has long Knoxville roots, one was the elder Mr. Tom Broadus who really gave us "the look.") But I digress--again.

It was my time to order. I got a little nervous. I asked the clerk if anyone had come in dressed like a cow. She said no. I pulled out my ears and nose and asked if I had to really put them on to get a free sausage and biscuit. The clerk did not say ANYTHING, so I gestured with a safety pin as if I were going to pin the ears to my shirt. She acquiesced and put in the order for the sausage and biscuit. I returned home and presented the prize to my husband. He was content, but I did not divulge how I got it. But he knows better than to think that I actually paid for it.

From some Facebook entries I saw, throughout the day people took this dressing-like-a-cow thing very seriously.

AFTER WORK, I went to our new Earth Fare at what I fondly remember as the location of the Knoxville Drive-in. We used to sit in the parking lot at Long's and "watch" the movies. Of course, with no sound it was really hard to keep up with the plot. We usually did this for five-ten minutes and gave up. I digress----again!

With a store-generated coupon mailed to us and a plethora of Kashi coupons, I ended up saving nearly fifty percent over what I would have paid without the coupons. Additionally, much of what I bought was on special, so the prices were competitive with mainline stores such as Kroger.

THEN I took a coupon good for a little gift pack from Aveda that I obtained from their location at Western Plaza. I had downloaded the coupon for it from a coupon blogger. (going down Memory Lane again, does anyone remember Ray's Grocery Store on that spot in the 50's? How about Hall-Brown's in the 60's? oops, another digression.)

Yea! I thrifty-scored four times today! And obviously in terrritory with which I am very familiar!