When it Pays to get sick!

I knew it was coming yesterday but I didn't want to admit it. I thought if I just worked harder and Moved faster, I could out-run the hippopotamus squatting on my chest. So I worked hard, I moved Fast, but by this Morning I was down for the count.

I called my Doctor's office and told them I had to be seen immediately. Unfortunately, the only opening they had was at 3:30; however, when I mentioned that my sweet Husband might be planning my funeral by then, and I offered to Sleep in my truck in the parking lot, on the off-chance my doctor might be able to squeeze me in sooner, I was told to come on over. And, it worked! I was seen as soon as I arrived, and was walking out to locate a Pharmacy twenty-minutes later!

I don't have a regular pharmacy I use. Because I don't get sick, and I avoid all synthetic Medications like the plague. However, since I knew someone at my office was down with a severe case of Bronchitis this week, and that I'd likely been exposed, I bowed to the Z-pack and whatever else sweet doctor-Bernie wanted to give me. Besides, who has time to get sick when you're off on Fridays all summer, the pool is clean and the Ranger comes home on leave next week? Not me!

Usually I would just scoot to the Walgreen's conveniently located in the parking lot of my doctor's office, to drop my prescriptions off there. However, that was before I met my Guru of savings, Melanie of The Coupon Goddess. You see, she is one of those people you hear about that regularly leaves stores with hundreds of dollars worth of great merchandise and pays nothing at all, or very little for it. I've been following her blog for a long while now; therefore, I knew that it could Pay to need a prescription! Armed with this knowledge, I took my laptop with me to my appointment, and when I finished, I popped over to a WiFi hot-spot to search this week's Target circular. Sure enough! This week at Target, you get a $10 gift card, per new or transferred prescription you fill there. Better yet, you can Shop while you wait!

I rarely have time to wander the isles of Target… Usually, I dash in for my Downey or Iams cat food and get out. But with this time I had today, I got to see first-hand a lot of the deals Melanie shares with her readers on her blog.

One of the more interesting deals at Target this week involves kitchen and culinary products by Giada De Laurentiis. I'm not a huge fan of hers… Mostly because people that go out of their way to speak or smile in a way that shows ALL 32 of their teeth annoy me; however, there are a few items in her Kitchen tools line that I do find interesting - So I often pop over to her isle to see what's on sale. Right now, if you purchase any three pasta, or sauce/salad dressing items, you'll receive a sack of Giada's coffee free! No one in his house drinks coffee. To me, coffee is like gasoline... I enjoy the smell but I wouldn't drink it. Nevertheless, Free is Free - So I thought I would go for the deal because the pasta and pasta sauces looked pretty Good, and as for the coffee, I knew I could easily give it away. Or put it into the freezer to serve to guests. But here's the kicker... And, where Melanie's cautions about deals and advice comes in... Because when I turned the bags of coffee around to see how long it might last, the reason for Target's deal became very clear... Yup! You guessed it! All of the coffee expires either in August or September 2010. So I put the fifteen boxes of pasta and sauces I picked out back, and kept moving. Thanks, Melanie!

Here is the Break-down of my Target deal,

ala advice taken from The Coupon Goddess!

Click photo twice to enlarge

I don't usually have a need for laundry pre-treatment stuff, but after

a certain accommodating husband had to deliver a Clean blouse to my

office this week because some of the Blueberry CLEAN shake I drank on

the way to work splashed out of the cup on it's way into the garbage can,

I picked up a couple of tubes of the strongest stain remover I could find!

And, because that husband brought me a clean Blouse, I picked up

these two Hot Wheels he was missing from his Toy Story 3 toy

collection. He said all he needs now is One more to complete it!

I also picked up this Handy over-the-cabinet-door towel rack. I

go through kitchen Towels like crazy. So having a place to hang

them to get them off the Island, and out of my way is a good thing!

I told you I had plenty of Time to

wander through Target this morning!

Here's the breakdown: I used the $20 gift cards I got

for filling my prescriptions + a couple of dollars I had

left on an old Target gift card to get everything FREE!

Doing so well at Target allowed me to go a little Peanuts at Hallmark!

And Macy*s! Okay,... So I haven't quite learned as

much from Melanie about saving money as I could!

But I'm getting there!

Thanks, Mel - Lucy and I think you're the Best!