Helpful Tip

Do you live in a small(ish) town or do your shopping one area all of the time? Do you have a *regular* set of drugstores/grocery stores? Do you have employees that , altho not coupon haters, may be a little cranky some times when you use all of those coupons?

If so, take the time to get to know them. Are they maybe interested in coupons and the negativity towards you is a little bit of jealousy of all those great deals you get all the time??? (Obviously don't ask them this!! LOL) Here is a couple of examples of how myself and another couponer I know (Hey Tipsy!!) turned things around in a store that could have gone either for us or against us!

1- Tipsy generall shops at a CVS on the other side of the town we live in, one where I had not had good experiences in. Being that store is not really convenient to me it was no big loss, I have one just up the road. But for her, this was the best location to stop at. After shopping there all of the time and getting to know the folks, she still felt that occasionally there could be a twinge of resistance when a coupon would beep or cause problems. But she kept going and then on Thanksgiving day when going in to get all of those great ECB deals, she took them a plate of homemade cookies. Just because she felt bad for them having to work on Thanksgiving. They were HUGELY touched and appreciative and if she has any problems there in the future I would be very very surprised.

2- I love my CVS but.. there were DEFINITELY cashiers I perferred to see when I walked in over others. One in particular is a younger girl who would just give all kinds of grief about coupons. Scrutinizing every single thing knowing I would end up with little to no OOP usually and a huge list of ECB's. But I have kept a smile on my face and super nice every time. Yesterday while in their getting all of my CVS cheapies, one of the assistant managers asked me where I got all of my coupons. I explained that I bought alot of Sunday papers for the inserts and used the online sites to find tons of printables. The *cranky* cashier said that she had missed getting the Sunday paper this week and was so mad at herself. So I told her that next time I came in I would bring her a set as I had bought 7 and had MORE than enough. I figured a 1.50 investment could help smooth out some of that crankiness. I also printed a few of the $3 off coupons for her. When I went in today with the 5 inserts and CVS Q's she actually came around and HUGGED ME! I was so happy to be able to help her out and by doing so I can already tell that I have made my future couponing there so much easier! I also found out while talking to her that she trys to use coupons but *it never seems to work out like she thought it would*. That sound familiar??? LOL I explained that for most of us *couponers* we were in the same boat UNTIL we found the forums and blogs out there where others had found the deals or figured them out and posted about them. I told her that I would bring her a list of good sites that will help her get the hang of this *couponing thing* . Again she was sooo excited and I think I may have brought someone into the *frugal* fold!

Moral of these stories? Be nice and spread the couponing love! Have coupons you NEVER use (For me it is makeup as I do not wear it.) but while talking to the cashier you find out she LOVES makeup? Take a few minutes to clip those out for her each week and drop them off to her. It takes only a few minutes of your time but helps someone else out and , let's be honest here, benefits you by making the cashiers your biggest ALLIES!