Rebate Wrangle

Last night I went to Fellini Kroger's. The deals are particularly good at Kroger's this week. I was buying a lot of duplicates and was obsessed with keeping the item count versus coupons in sync. One mistake I made, though: I was purchasing items that I would ultimately use for two rebates; and the original receipt is required for a rebate. That means I needed two original receipts. I didn't remember that until I got outside, so I turned around to "return" one of the rebate items and be issued a new receipt.

The clerk had "Long Island, New York" on her Kroger nametag. hmm, interesting, I thought . . . and THEN she claimed that she had never heard of rebates, so I took five minutes to try to explain why I needed a separate receipt. I'm thinking this New York versus Tennessee thing is wider than I first imagined. Only when another clerk, who by his accent was clearly from around here, showed her how to process the transaction did she understand. I even took the time to walk back to my car and retrieve the rebate forms and show her. THEN she was getting sort of interested. She asked me where I got them (from notices from coupon bloggers) and nodded her head. I think she might check the rebate thing out a little further.

FYI, one rebate is for a Tyson Fajita kit (rebate $4.99) and the other is for ten Kellogg's items ($10 rebate plus $70 on a Dell computer. I'm really wanting my own laptop.). I had coupons for a dollar off the Tyson kit and at least $.75 off each box of cereal. I spent $56.24 last night, and the receipt shows I saved 48.56 through coupon and Kroger special deals.