Monday, March 05, 2007

Where Achieving Goals & Being Frugal Intersect

I have a lot of goals. Some are humble, short term goals, like getting through the day. Others are more long term and intricate like mastering certain yoga moves (headstand is my current quest) or completing frugal projects (making potholders out of outgrown clothes is my current project awaiting completion) or learning a new skill (knitting) or paying off a car loan (which we just did!). Some of my goals are all encompassing like simplifying my lifestyle and lessening my environmental footprint.

One goal I've had recently is to decrease the amount of plastic that comes in contact with hot foods, especially after reading Environmental Risks and Breast Cancer. We've stopped microwaving plastic bowls and putting hot leftovers into plastic containers but recently I've had my eye on the plastic pieces of the coffee pot. Jim and I decided we wanted to get an all metal percolator and have been watching the prices. I've checked ebay and Overstock.com and put wanted adds on our local freecycle site.

One of our local grocery stores had a 10 cup Melitta percolator for $39.99, while the same grocery store near my job, which had been newly remodeled, had it for $59.99. Since $39.99 seemed to be the cheapest price we could find, we decided to buy it on our next trip to the store.

At the register it rang up at $59.99. The price was marked $39.99 on a tag on the product and on the shelf tag as well and I told the cashier so. He went to check and I didn't think much of it until he came back and said it was going to be a few minutes because he needed the manager to bring the key but we were going to get it for free. He walked away again and I turned to Jim and said, "Did he say for free??" The woman behind me on line gleefully reminded me of the store policy of giving items that scan at the wrong price to the customer for free. I knew this but it didn't occur to me that it applied to non food items. Actually, it didn't occur to me at all.

Sure enough we got our brand new percolator for free. That's one more ogal we've achieved and you can't beat that price!

3 comments:

Barbara said...

Wow, what a deal! Most places around here either just give you the marked price or at most 10% of the difference. Free is good!

I do have a question. If you don't use plastic, what do you use to store things in?

Barbara

Anonymous said...

wow ! amazing price :) free is always good!

Katie said...

I'm putting more dried beans and grains into glass jars (mostly giant pickle jars from a gourmet food store/deli nearby). I'm still using plastic for stuff that goes in the freezer but I'm being very concious about making sure food is cooled before placing it in the plastic containers.