At the grocery store the woman behind me was in a motorized cart - I offered to take her groceries out and put them on the counter. I thought she said thank you so I started to take an item out. She said "I said no thank you". I immediately apologized and said I was sorry and I misheard her and put the item back in her cart. Her next words to me floored me as she said "Yes, you did mishear me". The look I got was quite icy and irate.

Pffffffffft. Glad I never did offer you a coupon as I had I (I like to do this whenever possible) she likely would have gotten even more offended.

I honestly misheard her. And didn't mean to offend her. It is so hard to know the protocol about helping people. You offer and try and you offend and you don't try and you are seen as rude and uncaring.

I feel like its a "heads you win, tails I lose" proposition whatever you do.

Oh my this is just too silly. You know us Canucks with our "monopoly money". Well we get into having fun on our quarters.

A few years ago our 25 cent piece here had a red poppy in the centre. On rememberance day (veterans day) we all wear a poppy to remember those who have fought for our country.So why not remember them when we spend money too!

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

Anyways, some US army folks came up here to the Great White north and got all spazzed out by our unusual quarters - thinking it was spying on them.



Hey guys, relax it is a quarter and not a bug.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070507....

After work last night I went crazy "shopping", but only spent about $5

I went to Home Depot and looked at flooring to see if they had any mats/runners/floor covering that would work for my balcony. I had seen something at a hotel that might work but didn't see it there. So spent nothing.

Headed to the local shopping centre and went into Marks Work Wearhouse - they had some nice priced t-shirts but nothing inspiring enough to bring it home. Then to check out their shoes. Lets just say their selection seemed pretty crappy to me (sorry Marks, but this is my blog I get to say what I think here). I have to say though that both staff members I talked to were genuniely friendly and helpful.

Checked out a woman's clothing store but nothing inspiring there. Reitmans is one of those "catch as catch can" stores for me. Caught nothing this time. Tempted for one shirt on sale but it had this weird keyhole thing in the back that showed off my bra (and if I turned it around it one would might start using the words wardrobe malfunction)

Then to the Superstore (a grocery store modelling itself on SuperWalmarts). You know the store is bad when the kid at customer service trashes the staff as lazy assed (it took three loudspeaker requests to get someone to call him back about the item I was asking for). I ended up just getting a raincheck for toilet paper from there.

Then to two dollar stores where I splurged and spent $4 at one and $1 at another on some headbands.

I use the same bank for my chequing as for my visa. Yeah, yeah I know technically one is the bank and one is the credit card compnay but to me THEY ARE EFFECTIVELY THE SAME COMPANY

So why if I do an online transaction paying my visa card on Tuesday does it take til Thursday night for the payment to show on my Visa? The money gets debited from my chequing account on the Tuesday. That transaction seems to take about a nanosecond. Poof money gone.

Just where is that money for two days?

Enquiring minds want to know...

7 items at $1 each

tax of 14 cents

3- $2 off coupons

= a bill of 14c.

Yes I think he forgot to ring something up! I was going to ask him to redo but the line up was huge so I paid what he asked and hustled out of there thinking the 10 folks in line behind me would be happy.

Nice deal but I feel a bit guilty

I hate wasting food but when I defrosted the chicken it had a odor even after rinsing it. It was a big package of chicken thighs (skinless boneless). I tossed them. $7.56 wasted.. but better wasted than me having self induced stomach flu!

First of all can you please hire people who are not so accented I can't understand them. And understand, I'm first generation Canadian. Both my parents have accents. People who do telephone work need to be able to be understood over the phone.

Second, if you tell me I have your long distance service and I don't (I have DSL with you); you instantly lose credibility. Please give your telemarkers correct information or teach them how to read.

Thirdly, you've been calling me monthly for months. Get the hint. I will likely get your phone service one day but I'd like to speak to an experienced, long time, employee of your company and not someone from that call centre who was hired Monday and doesn't know the difference between DSL and long distance service.

A friend gave me a free ticket to the Creative Sewing and Needlework festival. I went on Saturday morning and had a blast looking around.

Priced the sewing machine of my dreams. New it is about $3500. YIKES. I was good girl and didn't buy it though I have to tell you all I really really really want it.

I went there with no intention of buying. Honestly! But that wasn't to be. Some jewelery called my name, as did this gorgeous ball of hand dyed mohair in shades of pink and purple. I found some discontinued laurel burch fabric on sale as well as an adorable pattern for a small quilted purse.

So beware the free ticket. It can end up costing you.

What is it with Walmart that they can't get enough cashiers? They used to be great but more and more you go there and most of the cash registers are closed and you get to stand there in a line up to pay.

Then when you price match you have to get into a long discussion with the girl that "no the ketchup you are price matching is not the item that was on a two day sale that is now over.." but an item that is on sale until Friday.

Add to that the store was really warm so I felt like I was having a hot flash. I wasn't - the store was just really warm and really crowded and my temper and frustration levels may have been slightly raised.

On a good note - the Ziploc big bags I bought had a $1 off coupon on each of them and I found a coupon in the store for an item that the man in front of me was buying - so I gave it to him (I had lots of time to be nosy and look at what others were buying)

I have my parking pass for work on this D ring (Carboneer?) that is large and easy to find in the car. i also have a parking pass for home that is this white card with a hole in the top. I've lost that parking pass recently and had to have it replaced - a white card is so easy
for me to lose (and I found the old one after I had it replaced in the back seat under some clutter).

So today I realised I could put the pass for home on the same ring as the pass for work. A small thing but it will likely save me from 5 minutes of searching several times a week!

I'm now contemplating putting the old card in an envelope and writing a note to ask my management office if I get the $10 back for it?

My debit card is dying through overuse. I was in the branch today to take money out of the machine and attempted to get a new bank card.

Well I just learnt you need picture ID to do that and I happened not to have picture ID on me. The card worked in the machine but one day I'm going to be sadly without money as the card isn't going to last much longer!

I managed to get upgraded to having phone with call display - this is a big deal in a large company. Puts me now up to date with technology 10 years behind the times.

So, in response to that somehow I got removed from the employee directory. My boss knows nothing of it. I told him (it was a incredibly busy stressful day) that if I was being fired I'd be very happy to leave my work undone on my desk and leave. He wasn't going for that...

Dang, it was one of those days where it didn't look like too bad of an idea...

Every year when I pay the bill for my roadside assistance I curse it. Then I have a day like today when I need it.

After I picked up my parking pass I headed to the car in visitors parking - to find the overhead light on very very weakly, the keyless remote didn't work and the engine didn't even pretend to turn over.

After time on hold waiting for an agent (and being asked way more questions about my car than I could have dreamt of) I got told its up to 90 minutes to get someone here. So I'm sitting here waiting for them to call me to go downstairs to meet the tow truck guy.

The good news? Whenever he shows up I don't have to pay the booster dude.

Oh yeah and a $20 stupid tax for me to pay.

On Wed on the way to work I stopped and bought a coffee. After getting the coffee I tossed out an old cup. I'm 99% sure when I tossed out that cup I tossed out my parking pass. Duh.

Went into the management office on Thursday night. Old them what happened. They said I'd likely be out of luck for about a week because only Georgie (the building manager) can get a new card and it will involve "Fred" (not sure who the mysterious Fred is). They told me to put in a written request this weekend and some time next week I'd have my card. I was pretty cheerful (told them I knew I had pulled a bonehead move) and thanked them.
I haven't got around to writing the note yet as they said Georgie wasn't in until Tuesday so I figured I would do it at some point this weekend.

Fast forward to a few minutes ago. I just got a call from the office. The building secretary just called me. She pulled some strings for me and my card is ready for me. Just have a $20 non refundable "stupid tax" to pay for it.

I'm enjoying meeting people on facebook! (Ya, know cause I really need another place to spend time online ....)

Now here's the rub. I don't as you know have a cellphone. To verify your account you need cellphone. The perils of being online and a luddite.

That was my question to the butcher. My signiture dish for our work potlucks is a Pot Roast. I get rave reviews and frequent requests that I make it. So I make it.

I usually get the meat on the way home from work the night before - quite often scooping a last day of sale package with some good
coupons on it to sweeten the deal.

Well there was no pot roast. None, nada, zip, zero, zilch. I had them call for an "associate" from the meat department and he assisted me. Seems there is a special on prime rib and that is all they have in right now.

Pffffft, that's not good for a pot roast, and I don't want to get workmates hooked on prime rib.

So instead I bought stewing beef and am making a meat stew just as I would as if it was a potroast ( but with smaller pieces of meat...)

I went to a website yesterday that had wee window pop up to say that they would send you a free product coupon in exchange for completing a short survey.

I filled it out. Then for some reason clicked back and realised that the offer ended in February.

I then tried to complete a form to send a comment to the company to tell them about their outdated web page. I tried to send it twice but have no idea if it went or not.

Had this been some small mom and pop company I wouldn't be so annoyed. But this was Alberto Culver (hair stuff). I really think that multinationals with mega staff and budgets should be able to keep their websites up to date and have response forms that work.

The food basics (a basic sort of grocery store - a cross between a regular grocery store and an aldi) near me is closing.

The guy who decided what goes on the signs for the store closing wasn't the sharpest. The signs in huge lettering had store closing Thursday March 24th.

I don't know if another store is going there or if that location is just gone! Too bad I liked that location cause it was handy, had good hours and was never too crazy.

There are layoffs being announced at my office today - at least that is what the rumour mill has out.

I'm pretty sure they don't affect the area I work in but I can still feel my stomach churning in worry. My manager is at a meeting about it right now.

A friend who I was chatting with mentioned on the weekend that she had heard we were having layoffs and that a lot of people would be losing their jobs. She knows someone else who works here I think. Not nice when you get advance notice of things from third parties who don't even work for the same compnay before you hear about them from offical channels

Used $9 worth of coupons today. Effectively got two products for free (it is sweet when the coupon covers the sale price of the product) and got some other items for about 1/3 of their regular cost.

Cashier credited me with $7.60 in coupons. I'm still not quite sure how she did that when being given coupons as follows:

3@$2.00
4@$0.75

Ended up making a trip to the customer service desk for a cash refund of $1.40 to get things straight.

Its really wearying to have to argue and be so on top of things when using coupons. Still my entire order came up to $24 so I did some nice savings on my items.

Went in to the local drug store to get stamps - they sell stamps in books at the cash registers. Two cashiers were working.

Walked up to the cash register only to watch the cashier I approached walk away. Turned around and walked over to the other cash and saw the quickly departing first cashier and said "What happened I got to your cash and you just walked away?"

She looked at me and said "Yes" and continued on her way.

Polite words can not express just how special she made me feel.

Finally it was my time for service and they didn't have the stamps I wanted "Oh yeah we ran out yesterday and don't have anymore". So I walked to the post office counter in the back of the store and I lined up again. Guess it was too difficult for the store to go buy stamps there... I did get my stamps finally, but it took about 10 minutes cause the girl working the counter there had one customer in front of me who had one item and customs forms etc had to be filled out...

Oh and while in the store I saw something else I wanted but they were sold out.

Dang its hard to spend money some days. Yes I did eventually get my stamps.

My life lately has not been abundant with good things. I'm now single again.

Good news: Save money on gas travelling

Bad news: I'm really going to miss him. Not going to be in the US much anymore - so no address for freebees and my recent foray into CVS ECB is for naught. Not really important in the grand scheme of life but still..

Pulled up to the pump. Price was $1.02 a litre (OUCH). Still one can't drive on an empty tank. Put in my debit card. Invalid password. Tried again. Same message.

Went to the booth (this feels almost wrong in today's pay at the pump world). She says that debit doesn't seem to be working right at the pump.

So I prepay $20 using my debit card which had no issues at all this time around.

Go pump the gas. At $19.70 (the tank is no where near full - that's no where near enough to fill up an empty tank these days)the pump refuses to dispense any more gas.

So back to the booth I go. The girl has the change out for me "that happens a lot" she says.

I don't normally stop at this gas station so it isn't like I'll have to actively avoid filling up there in the future. But I won't be back that's for sure.

I start leaving the store and hear the lady who was behind me in the line and who I did say a few words to while I checked out say to the cashier about her item "oh the sign says $4.99 but says that price ended yesterday so will I get it at that price". The cashier runs it through and says "no its 6.99 now". I have no idea what "it" was.

That store participates in the Scanning Code of Practise (SCOP). SCOP says that when an item that isn't price stickered rings up at the wrong price (not the price on the shelf) you get it free (if under $10).

http://www.frugalshopper.ca/links/article.php?n=5

Im partway to the door but I hear the exchange clearly and realise they aren't following the SCOP rules and are in effect going to rip this lady off. I turn around and say in a loud voice (I'm not screaming or rude, just enunciating well...) " shouldn't she get it for free under scanning code of practise". The customer in question gives me a huge smile and thumbs up and the cashier suddenly is saying "yes, that's right" and paging a stock boy for a price check.

After the comment and a quick grin to the customer I left, with a great big grin on my face. No idea if she got it or not but feel good that I didn't let them snow her.

Its not a store I shop at regularly so not worried what the cashier thinks of me. I know I made the customer happy. I really hate when store clerks decide that following rules that their store abides by isn't what they are going to do. I don't care if they think that we are getting a deal we shouldn't. The store is part of the program so abide by the rules please.

There is some common sense stuff you can do quietly if you are thinking about trading with someone (be it coupons, gift cards or what not)

Use the search feature on the forum . On most forums you can search by nick and see someone's posts. Failing that google their ID. Look at where the person posts, how they contribute. Then use your common sense filter (the one in your brain).

I'm not saying don't trade with newbies. But why trade with folks who make negative posts, who only post about stuff they want? Did the person make a real introduction if they are new? Are they participating in the board or are they only popping up to ask for free stuff? Do you like their tone? Do they have attitude? What is the tone of their PM?

If your little voice speaks up then don't finalize the trade with them.

Oh and if the trade is too good to be true it probably is, if the person is too eager that can be a flag too!

Common sense. Based on what you've seen of them would you meet them at (insert name of your favourite place to go for coffee) for coffee? If you have no interest in meeting them, don't trade with them.

I don't do many trades online. But yes, I read one too many posts about folks bitching about trades while sipping my morning coffee.

Off the top of my head:

At work - 5 passwords (phone, email, internet, server and mainframe). All change randomly at different times.

Phone - only one I can think of

Banking - a whole bunch - debit card, credit card, savings account, phone banking, interent banking

Computer, Email and Web - lets not even go there okay? Wireless, yahoo, email, this website that website.

We aren't supposed to write any down. We aren't supposed to duplicate them and they are supposed to be all random letters and numbers with funny capitalization.

Any wonder I have to call the bank tomorrow to ask them to issue this dolthead a new password cause I did too many wrong tries and locked myself out of the site?

Yeah okay. Anyone have any good (and relatively secure) suggestions? My brain is full, if you know what I mean.

I left my debit card behind after using it to pay for groceries. I really have trouble after a long day (or week) in doing any multitasking whatsoever. And packing groceries and getting your card back when you are really tired rates as multitasking.

I only found out I forgot it when a stock boy ran up to the car and handed it to me!

With all the stories of identity theft and what I would do with no debit card .. YIKES! I sat in the parking lot for a few minutes while it sank in just how bad it could have been.

I've decided that we must be in a frozen spinach shortage. The last two grocery stores I have been to have both had fresh spinach but not frozen chopped spinach.

I really like frozen spinach (I either cream it or add it to meat dishes as an extra veggie). I think its because my mother always bought frozen spinach. Now I think of it I never remember her buying it fresh and it wasn't until I was an adult I actually ate raw spinach.

Could this shortage be the work of an evil mastermind who hates spinach?

I gave in and bought some fresh.

I think I have had it with the grocery store I shopped at tonight

Talked to the manager about my issues regarding it being badly stocked -lots of stuff empty on a Friday night - shelves look like they haven't had new stock in or been faced in a few days - enough carts in the parking lot for 10 normal sized store.

The manager was a good retail manager sort. Politely listened to me. His reasons.

*busy store
*hard to get good staff
*looks great every morning

It isn't walmart but has that superstore concept thing happening. I wasn't impressed with his answers. The store needs a ton of shoppers in it all the time to keep it profitable. Pay more to get good staff. And sorry I shop when it works on my schedule.

Senior pie in the sky managment must do their tours at 8am and not at 8pm.

The cashier was the sweetest thing. Very nice, polite (actually the staff are all super nice) but are all on (for lack of a better expression) island time. My life these days doesn't run on Island time. I don't have 20 minutes to stand in line with only 2 people in front of me.

There is another store that is nearby (another chain) that usually doesn't have these issues. I perceive it as a bit more expensive but my sanity can't take this store I shopped at tonight.

My wallet and whatever sanity I have left are going to take a break from tonights store...

We finally tracked down some of the money we are owed at work on this one client. Embarrassing as it is between $3 Million and $5 Million that we've been wrongly blaming the client for not sending in. Its taken us a few months to realise we have the money

Better late than never right?

They sent us the money - but the client didn't properly tell us how they decided on the amount they sent us - the deal is they create their own statement of what they owe us and then send in that and the money.

Damn I love our business model sometimes.

For the record we are annoyed at them. It drives the accounting folks batty when they have money that's sitting around in suspense accounts. We are sending some staff around to meet with them early next week to hasten this process and express our displeasure.

My work is wacky sometimes.