some weekly money musings

I revisited my lunch and breakfast in the not so flattering way at work today... & of course I wasn't at the gym (because karma can be mean sometimes)... but rather, I was working at City Hall on an event program for a special event we have coming up... so I was on a very short deadline. Despite my tummy flip flops, I was still able to finish what I needed to do today, so when I got "home" (to the condo), my fiance stepped up to take care of me and set up the TV in the bedroom and let me watch a movie while he brought me ice cream from the freezer. After the movie was over and the ice cream had settled he went off to hunt for a job and left me here with my laptop, so I thought I'd write about a few money musings I've come across this week since I'm feeling much better post ice cream. =)

Local Target just lost a customer-
After church on Sunday, my fiance and I were planning on going to target to buy a cheese grater and a cooling rack because we got an offer from offermatic ($10 off a purchase of $20 at Target) and while we were in the store we came across these blue plastic square type bowls that are basically made in our wedding color... for $0.88 a piece. We cleaned them out and bought 18 of them (2 per table, 9 tables) so we can put out M&M's and other snacks on the outside tables for guests to much on... and post wedding we will have plenty of cereal and ice cream bowls.
The only problem is that we have 12 tables that we are using for the wedding, so we needed to find a few more. On The way home, we hit the Target near the condo and found the same bowls for $1.25... we picked up the 6 we needed and when I went to cash out, I asked the teller if they would match them for the price I had found them at, at the other Target. He called the manager over and the manager said he couldn't (even though I had a receipt and had made the purchase 20 mins ago at the other target and had the same bowls in my car still). So we did buy them because we needed them... but I left the conversation feeling a bit cheated. It would have only saved me a buck or two, but the fact that the guy wasn't willing to do it kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I don't plan on shopping at that Target anymore. I have plenty of Target choices in my area, and matching the deal would have kept me as a regular shopper there, but after that conversation I realized that I'd rather drive farther to the Target that was near my fiance's church and conduct my business there when we are in the area.
Just to be on the safe side, we hit another target latter that day to see what the price of the bowls were there, and surprisingly the bowls at that store WERE NOT even marked down at that location (they wanted $1.79) for them. If we had found them cheaper, I would have taken the $1.25 bowls back to the other target, but I'm glad I picked up the 6 I needed, even though they were more money then the first batch.

Wal-mart Coupon
On black friday we bought a camcorder to record our engagement and inside it there was a coupon for 25 free one hour photo shots. It expired this month, and since we are putting pictures on the table tops for the reception in various sizes, we thought we should just get them done at Walmart and save a few dollars. I tried to use the online site, but it wouldn't let me activate my coupon, so we drove down to the store. When we got there, the 1 hour photo machine didn't take memory sticks, but the instant machine did (for a larger price.) I explained to the tech that I had tried to use it online, but i couldn't enter my coupon so i brought my memory stick to the store. He told me I could use the instant machine and that he would charge me the 1 hour price. The photos turned out really great, and I have to give props to Walmart. I think I may actually like them better than Target now. =)

Utility Bill increase
Apparently Cox has decided it wants more money from me, $3 more a month. When I called about the increase the lady told me it was across the board and I asked if I could talk to someone about temporarily lowering my bill for a few months because money is tighter now. She kindly transferred me to her manager, and while I was waiting my cell phone started to die so I had to hang up the phone... I'll call back later if I can find the time and try and reduce my bill that way (without affecting the speed hopefully).

Banana Bread
My neighbors like my fiance because he accidentally tripled the recipe for banana bread... and they all benefited as we found ourselves swimming in it.