A coupon coup

However hard you work on your various projects, it is tough to top the satisfaction you can get from a plain old trip to CVS, you know?

The other day I went to get allergy stuff I needed but detoured to the hair care aisle where I was able to land L'Oreal at, I don't know, 50 cents a bottle. I like L'Oreal so that was a nice score for me. L'Oreal's coupons are generous, plus the Magic Coupon Machine had spat out a coupon for $3 off if you spent $10 on L'Oreal.

Ain't too proud to clip coupons!

It is funny how when you bother to cut the coupons out of your Sunday paper, the more expensive brands suddenly become the cheapest.

Anyway ... satisfaction to start out the work week. And more money to spend for vintage press portraits of Leonard Pennario.

I am about those pictures the way I am about shampoo. You would think I have enough.

But I cannot pass up just a few more!

The ExtraBuck stops here

CVS has my undying allegiance because today they let me use my ExtraBucks that had expired 10 days ago.

That is how busy I was with Leonard Pennario. I let my ExtraBucks expire!

The neighborhood CVS is always so nice to me for which I am grateful. This is the CVS known as the Spectrum Building because as our friend Ryan has pointed out, the building is where a bar once was that was called the Spectrum. On CVS documents they call it the Spectrum Building.

While I was in the Spectrum Building today I took the picture above of the spring line of Candle-Lite Candles. They are just so beautiful! Only I cannot see paying full price for them. $15.79 is just too much. We will have to wait to see what can be arranged.

With which, today the CVS staffers and I discussed their store's remodeling. Everything in the store is going to be rearranged. I would not have remembered any of that had not Howard asked.

He said, "What's going on in there? Are they remodeling?"

And I said, "Why, yes." Later I thought to ask him how he knew. He said, "They rolled in a couple of metal storage containers and I was wondering what they were for and since then I noticed they were unloading tons of stuff so I figured something was going on."

No secrets in Buffalo!

Today was a two-fer for expired coupons. My friend Michelle and I ate in Cafe 59 which used to be Madonna's and they let me use my Buffalo Dining Deck card for Madonna's even though the name is different now. The same people own both places but still it was nice of them. Michelle negotiated that and her success inspired me to ask CVS if I could use my expired ExtraBucks.

The moral of the story: Hang on to your coupons and ExtraBucks!

Even when they expire!

'It cures everything'

Bargain alert!

There are great buys to be had right now -- some in Buffalo, some elsewhere as well.

At Tops, Carrington brand chamomile tea is $1 for 20 bags. Twenty bags!! It is not fancy Celestial Seasonings, but chamomile is chamomile. I bought two boxes and am going to go back for, oh, 150 more. I get a kick out of Tops. It is the only supermarket that survives from when I was a kid and though you have to know how to play them, they have great stuff.

It is worth it in itself just to use Tops' animated checkout. How entertaining is that? This robot talking to you: "Do you have any coupons?" Yessirree I do!

So, Buffalo Leonard Pennario fans, get to Tops, get that cheap chamomile tea which, as the Germans say, alles zutraut. It cures everything!

Another thing, CVS is giving away pens.

You go there and buy this big pack of ballpoints and they give you your money back as Extra Bucks. You will see the sign. Go find them.

Plus there are notebooks four for a dollar. Back to School is the greatest time of year! I am telling you.

Yesterday I picked up four of those notebooks just to luxuriate in them. I got home and picked out one with a bright green cover, and I opened it, picked up one of my free pens, and wrote:

"I will finish my book on Leonard Pennario in 2011."

There is nothing like getting something like that in writing! It works magic in your head, is what I think.

Then I turned over a new leaf -- literally I mean, and wrote "To Do." I started listing everything I had to do to tie up loose ends and pull this masterpiece together.

I made a cup of my cheap Carrington chamomile tea and slept like a stone and this morning I was up early and at it, checking things off.

Already the magic is working!

His Honor, Aisle 4

So I was at CVS today buying those Revlon nail polishes, pictured above, that are on sale. And guess who showed up?

Our mayor, Byron Brown!

It has been way too long since he was mentioned on this Web log.

I have to say this for the mayor, he is always a sight for sore eyes. There is an antiquated expression for you! Today he looked especially immaculate. This being Buffalo I was gabbing with the clerk. The clerk had begun talking with me because of my masterful exploitation of specials, coupons and Extra Bucks. He had come out from around the counter, the better to gab with me, and we were deep in conversation and that was when the mayor walked in.

"Mayor," I said.

This is terrible but whenever I run into the mayor he looks immaculate and I am always coming from somewhere sloppy. Today I was coming from Zumba class. Luckily for once I was not in my Zumba clothes but still.

The mayor greeted me warmly the way he always does and then he said to the clerk, "And how are you, sir?" Then he disappeared down some aisle.

I walked outside with the clerk and we gabbed a little more. The clerk had never seen the mayor in that particular CVS before! We discussed that among other things of great import. Then I said goodbye to the clerk and went to my car.

Here is Howard's influence. He always has me park my car a long way away from anyone else, to minimize the chances of someone knocking into me. Not that it protected me from that Kenmore snowplow! But anyway, I was at the other end of the lot. And the rest of the lot was pretty much empty. And right next to my car, in the very next space, was a big dark SUV with tinted windows.

It must have been the mayor's SUV!

I got to my car and right when I was unlocking the door a lovely and high-maintenance looking woman got out of the SUV.

It must have been the mayor's wife!

And here I was all sweated up from gym class. Well, I drew myself up. I am after all Leonard Pennario's authorized biographer.

On top of that I do believe I set a record at CVS.

That clerk said that my $20 in Extra Bucks was the largest amount he had ever seen!

Waltz with CVS

My garage sale skirt made me the center of attention yesterday. Including when I was coming out of CVS. A gentleman held the door for me and called me "Lady."

It was like going back to the 12th century!

This was me.

My mother said it was because I was wearing a dress and so few women do. Could be, could be. Although I prefer to think it was this skirt in particular.

I am having fun riding the CVS merry-go-round. Yesterday I stopped in to nail a few of the bargains hyped this week. There is Purex for 99 cents if you have a coupon, which I do. And everything Suave is very cheap if you are prepared, which I am. Pennario was always prepared for his concerts and I am prepared when I go to CVS.

Now I have four Extra Bucks.

And CVS played a surprise card by giving me, on the way out, a coupon for $5 off of a $15 purchase.

However. That is good only for three days! That adds a challenge. You must return to the store almost immediately and spend that $15, incorporating the four extra bucks and not buying things you do not need.

If you work things out right you get more money back on top of that. There are already offers whereby, if you spend $10, say, on certain products, you get $3 back.

It is a ridiculous game and you wind up with way too much deodorant and body wash and toothpaste. But it is fun.

"Well, doesn't it take a lot of time?"

No, it does not. Because I cut out and sort my coupons at my mom's house when I would ordinarily be doing nothing other than maybe discussing the Catholic Church's stance on yoga. It is not as if I would be able to work on my book or anything. Heck, it is not as if I ever get to work on my book. So, the CVS game is just a little extra in my day.

My life is rich!