It feels a little bit like I’m about to start seventh grade and my Mom has stashed my new clothes and pristine new shoes into the hall closet where I can pull them out one by one and day dream about the first day of school when I can wear them. Actually, she always gave me permission to wear them ahead of time but she laced her approval with a caveat, “If you wear them now you won’t have something new to wear on the first day of school.”
Any other day of the year I was happy with hand-me-downs, but the first day of school? Even my underwear was new. I still remember in the tenth grade a friend wore dirty, black hi-top converse on the first day. That, I thought, took guts. It also made me realize that not everybody could afford to have new clothes.
But I digress. The stash that I am currently excited about is not clothes but a huge bag of toiletries. I used my coupons from TheCouponMaster.com at Target!
I redeemed 15 coupons totaling $17.25, bringing my bill to $32.74. (Incidentally, I still had to pay 9.75 percent California sales tax on the full, pre-coupon amount.) I paid $1.79 for the coupons, bringing my savings to $15.46 ($17.25 – $1.79).
Yes, I broke my moratorium. But I decided letting a wallet full of coupons go to waste – the ones I used all expire in July – was very un-Bargain Babe-like. However, as reader Tammy suggested, I am going to hide these items away until August in observance of the moratorium. This is the most sensible solution, I decided.
I would not have gotten this big of a deal without befriending the Target cashier. Most of the coupons say only one can be used per purchase. I was prepared to make separate purchases if need be. Turns out my placement in line set the stage for a score.
The person in front of me was a Target employee buying clothing with her employee discount. She started talking to the cashier about a local celebrity that had walked into the store wearing a *very* short skirt and a *very* low-cut top revealing her fake “pillow bags.” Naturally, I joined in the conversation. As soon as the celebrity left, everyone surrounded the cashier, who had rung her up, to gossip.
The cashier swiped the employee’s purchases and asked for her employee number.
“How big is the employee discount?” I asked. “Should I get a second job?”
“It’s not too bad,” the employee said.
“But they are getting more strict,” the cashier chimed in. “Now you have to show your ID card, not just the number.”
“Oh yeah?”
“My son tried to use my number – he is my designated shopper – but he didn’t have his ID card on him. I asked him how much it was. Just $30. I told him I would give him the $3.”
So the Target employee discount is 10 percent, I thought.
“Every little bit counts,” I said.
The cashier, who has a second job, agreed. She works 7 days a week but has Friday evening off, she told me.
Then she started to ring me up.
“Speaking of every little bit counts,” I said, “I have some coupons I’d like to use.”
I had set out my 15 coupons with my odd collection of deodorant, shampoo and facial cleanser.
She looked at the coupons, then she looked at me. I smiled.
“I guess I’m in one of those moods,” she said, scanning all the coupons. “But you know you’re only supposed to use one coupon per purchase (per item).”
“Thank you,” I said, swiping my credit card. “Enjoy your day off.”
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
Two years ago when our daughter was home from school, she worked at Target in Valencia. At that time, Target was implementing a series of rules to make it even harder for employees to use the discount.
1) Eliminated the use of credit cards when using the discount, except for Target-issued (through Target National Bank) Target store card and Target Visa card.
2) Eliminated the use of all debit cards, whether pin-based, or signature-based.
3) Eliminated the use of hand-written personal checks.
4) Allowed the use of cash and if you did wish to use a check, the use of a Target-issued Check Card.
To me, it was a simple case of economics where Target is paying credit-card fees and much smaller fees (pennies) when using a pin-based debit card in lieu of its costs to offer the discount.
So, Target in theory makes money on the backs of employees who may not have the cash to make the purchase (that’s another discussion) through the use of Target-issued credit cards who probably do not pay the balance in full, and pay interest back to their employer.
I would like to see the statistics as to the percentage of sales using the employee discount that are made using Target-issued credit, cash or Target Check Card. My hunch is the mahority of employee purchases are using the a Target-issued credit card.
So, the 10% savings is great, if you have the cash to pay for it, if not, it’s not a great deal if you have to pay inetrest on your balance in order to obtain the discount.
I really like Target. Their new store in Santa Clarita has a very large grocery department, but without the perishbles as the Super Target locations. However, unless a Wal-Mart is nearby, Target is not as aggressive on pricing as they were in previous years.
BargainBabe, don’t worry about your spending restriction. You obtained GREAT deals on items that you and hubby can use in later months, plus you were lucky that the cashier did not limit you to one coupon per item type.
Did you know that Target permits you to “stack” coupons (they do), but sometimes the cashiers don’t know how to handle the transaction and call for assistance, but it does work.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT–Expanding Soon!
I have a Target near by, like the store. The grocery section is really a deal on many items, but I don’t go that often, because of not having vegetables and fruit. It’s for the best, I would buy too many other non food items.
The policy you’re speaking of seems strange to me, unlike the Targets I frequent. Were the “one per purchase” coupons Target store coupons or manufacturer’s coupons? Typically you can stack one mfq and one store coupon per item. The store coupons read ‘one per purchase” but that simply means per item most of the time, not per transaction. Every store is different in their interpretation of policy, I guess, and I’m grateful that our stores don’t enforce a “one per transaction” policy.
… hahaha This is a funny post. I always feel so embarrassed whipping out all my coupons (unless its at the grocery store).
Can we know who the celebrity was?
I was at target 2 weeks ago and I saw a shoplifter get caught by undercover security- oyyy,it was pretty intense!
I would share the name but can’t remember. It was something like Jessica???