Went grocery shopping last night spent 37.26 for $56 worth of groceries. There were lots of BOGOF offers at Safeway yesterday on things that were on my list. Always a nice surprise! I wish I had more storage space but renting a room in a house of three causes some issues.

Here is a living testimony to this website and ideas:

But first a vocabulary lesson:
BOGOF = Buy one get one free
WIC: women, infantc and Children program in C: serves to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, & children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.

Now the story:

There was an interesting interaction at the check out. There was a woman who was using food stamps and WIC to buy groceries. She is new to the program and was talking to the cashier. She wanted to be able to buy formula for her baby but could not until the 14th. She could had no money and was standing there crying. She was able to buy the other things she needed with the other WIC and food stamps but there were a lot of things she was buying that were BOGOF: cereals, milk, eggs, cheese, bread etc.

While the cashier was trying to sort which coupons stuff went with what, I asked the customer if she knew about the BOGOF offers she had in her purchase. She didn’t realize that she could partake in that even if she was on food stamps. The cashier was upset I was telling her about this and said so and called the manager. I asked the manager if there was anything wrong with the BOGOF if she is on food stamps. The manager said no and it was a good idea to make the little amount she had (started after the first so only like 60% of the full benefits). I asked the cashier to wait and took the woman through the store for over an hour showing her the offers and explaining how the BOGOF or other offers make the programs money work for her family, now and in the future. She ended up getting over 175 dollars worth of food for only 80 dollars.

There were lots of things at Safeway and it felt good to be able to help her make the right decisions. If there was a question about if she could buy it with the stuff she had we just walked up and asked the manager. She eventually started going with us when she realized that if I didn’t get some help from the store to help this poor woman I was not going to buy my products either. The woman was so happy and said she had no idea the best way to go shopping and how to make this opportunity to get back on her feet work for her and her two kids. She had been struggling for a while and really did not want to use WIC or food stamps but recently she had no choice. She was to embarrassed to ask for help. I told her to buy the paper on Wednesday and Sunday to see what the sales are and to plan. And I reminded her to take some time when she is going through the store as there might be a special (like the bread we found that she bought three loaves and got three free to freeze) that would help her stretch her money each month. It was amazing to help her.

She could not get the formula issues straightened out so I bought her the large size to help until the 14th. I said that since she was willing to allow me to help her, consider it a late Christmas present for her baby. I remember growing up when we had nothing left and it was PB&J or macaroni cheese for dinner, someone always came by and gave us something. My mom was incredible raising 4 kids with out every using public assistance but it was hard. If I was able to help one woman today, maybe she will think of me in the future. The manager also said when we were leaving that if the woman had any questions at any time to come and find her, she is always there on Tuesday nights.

I talked to the manager as my purchases were being rung up and she mentioned that they are getting more and more customers right now on public assistance. It was just great that she was able to help me help the young woman. I can admit right now that I am the kind of person that if I received no help from the manager I would have written a letter to corporate with a copy of all my grocery receipts to show them how much business they would have lost from my business being taken elsewhere.

Spending for the day 7 dollar parking, groceries 37.29.