And they didn't even buy me dinner first

This holiday season I have been very good about figuring out what we're buying the kids for Christmas, where (and when) we can get the best deal, and anything else I can do to save us money. This morning I went out to A.C. Moore and Toys R Us because there were specific items on sale that were on my list.

My first stop was A.C. Moore. There were three items on my list. I found the first one with no problem. After a little searching I found the second one. Then I walked around the store about three times looking for someone to help me find the final item. When I finally found someone that worked there I learned they don't actually stock that item despite it being listed in their weekly flyer. That was a little frustrating. When I got up to the check out counter the first item rang in fine but the second one came up as the regular price. After the lady tried to convince me that what rang in was the sale price and I argued that she was wrong she finally had someone do a price check. I was right. After that I went over to Toys R Us. Video games were on sale so that if you purchased three of them you got the fourth one for free. I found two games that were $19.99 each and two that were $29.99. That means I should have gotten one of the $19.99 games for free. It turns out that one of the games was only $9.98 because it was already marked down. I guess over all it didn't really matter because I still got the game for free but part of the success in shopping is being able to say "guess how much I saved!"

Basically what I'm saying is that I felt so proud of myself for doing my research and going out to buy these items on sale today and yet I still walked away from both stores feeling like I had just been screwed. Don't you just love the holidays?