JD at Get Rich Slowly recently had to check a receipt from IKEA. I, myself, recently had to check a receipt from the grocery store. Sometimes I go shopping with laddie for groceries even though we don’t live together. It’s kind of fun for us and we share coupons or get BOGO stuff and give the free one to the other person. (Plus he helps carry everything into the house for me.) (BOGO means Buy One Get One Free)
This week we picked up the in-store flyer and saw tons of BOGO stuff we like. The main thing was cases of Pepsi. I, myself, am not a fan of Pepsi. I am a die-hard fan of Coca-Cola. But I do like the caffeine-kick and the variety of soda vs coffee. (Yes, I know tap water is best. Let’s not beat that horse to death again.) Since cases were BOGO, I got two. Per the flyer and the shelf tag, Tide was also on sale for $4.97. I use HE (high-efficiency) Tide because of the HE machines in the laundry room of my condo. I picked up two 100oz bottles.
I got various other things BOGO, like cans of soup to stock the pantry, my regular Sunday sale rotisserie chicken, etc. The only things that weren’t on sale were Dole Mandarin Oranges, deli Muenster cheese and some boneless chicken breasts. The total was $83.45, which I thought was damned expensive since almost everything I picked up was on sale.
I looked at the receipt closely and it looked like the Pepsi was not BOGO and the Tide was not on sale. HM… Laddie checks his receipt since he also bought Mountain Dew on the same BOGO promotion. It turns out we did get the discount but it was marked “Holiday Spice” at the bottom of the receipt. Go figure. Apparently Holiday Spice is some special seasonal Pepsi soda. Since I had already made up my mind to return the Tide HE that wasn’t on sale, I got a $30 refund for returning the detergent. I’m sorry, but the flyer said 100 oz Tide was on sale for about $5 bucks. Since it wasn’t, it had to go.
It turns out I was wrong. The Tide promotion had a little starburst which said that HE was excluded. That’s fine. I’m not desperate for detergent. I’ll just wait it out. But I am thankful that I didn’t just walk out having overpaid for a lot of detergent.
Check your receipt BEFORE you leave the store, and make sure you are getting what you think you’re getting. We also found out by staring at my receipt that Harris Teeter doubles coupons! WOO HOO! I got an extra 50 cents off of soup. This isn’t going to turn me into a regular coupon cutter. I still hate shopping with coupons, but I find this factoid intriguing.
Some people are going to ask me why I didn’t watch the scan. Since I was busy separating my stuff from laddie’s stuff, I wasn’t watching the scanner when it first occurred.
So how many of you out there regularly check your receipts? Do you feel it’s a habit that contributes to your frugality? Or are you just compulsive that way? How big of a mistake have you caught doing this? I would have to say that this $30 detergent problem was my biggest catch ever.
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I can definitely say that watching your receipt saves you money. I have noticed since I started on this frugal boat ride that I catch a lot of mistakes the cashiers make! To think of how many times I must have been overcharged before I started this habit! Sometimes I get attitude from the cashiers when I catch their error. I guess nobody likes to admit they are wrong.. but hey it’s my money and no attitude is coming in between me and lovely $$ saved.
Hey, can you tell me where you got those trackers for Debt and Savings. I like how simple they are.
There haven’t been a LOT of errors lately, but I do check regularly to make sure that I wasn’t overcharged for anything.
I always check the receipt before leaving the parking lot, so I don’t have to make a return trip.
On a side note about Tide, the Target near me carries the 100 oz for $6.99, the 200 oz for $11.99, and the 300 oz for $18.99. Very fishy pricing.
I tend to look over them as we’re leaving the store. First to make sure all of the sales or discounts went through. Then to see if the prices match up. If it’s the week’s shopping, then Mr. Micah carries the bags and I proudly tell him how much we saved.
Tom- That is a serious loss leader! I’m going to have to seek out Tide! (Remember though, I’m using HE, which is more concentrated.)
Oh yeah, we always check the receipt before we leave the store. We found a lot of mistakes!
Mapgirl – a lot of stores have a deal that if the register rings it up incorrectly, the item is free! I always get off to the side after I checkout and check carefully. If there is a problem, I go straight to customer service and get the item for free! If the aisle price doesn’t match the register price at Walmart (I know, Walmart is evil), the item is free. Many grocery stores also follow this rule.
Whenever I’m in a store, I keep a running total of items in my head (i’ve always been good with numbers), by $.50 increments. If it’s closer to $.00, it goes to the lower dollar, if it’s closer to the next one up, it goes to the higher. I live in WA, so I automatically add 10% (our sales tax is 8%, but 10% is a nice, round number). If my total is higher than my rounded up number, I check it. If it’s under, I deposit the difference into my savings or credit cards.
Little weird tricks like that help!