An Open Letter to vrylmkt

If your intention, with this coupon fiasco, was to get your name out there, you've done a tremendous job. However, I don't think you've gotten your name out the way you wanted to. Couponers are a large group, and yet they're tight knit. Word of your coupons got around like wildfire, well guess what, word of how you've made all couponers look like frauds is getting around faster than your coupons did. Had anyone at your company done ANY research, they would've known about the couponing community, and what safe guards to put in place. Instead, you’ve not only made the couponing community look bad, you’ve given yourselves a black eye that will linger for a very long time. Couponers have shown themselves to have long memories, and will retell the saga of this fiasco for a long, long time. Worst of all, for your company, couponers spans all ages, races, and socioeconomic strata, the repercussions of this will linger for quite some time.

I find it ironic that a company called vyrlmkt has fallen “victim” to the very thing they’re trying to sell. I wonder how your customers will feel about hiring a company that purports to provide them with viral marketing, but who has fallen victim to it, and hangs the consumer out to dry?

Only time will tell.

Look who's come for lunch!

It always amazes me the people that show up where I work. Part of dealing with the public, I'm sure.

We deal with all sorts..... from people who are working poor, but the sweetest, nicest possible customers. To the ultra-ultra rich who expect to be catered to completely, expect us to be grateful for the opportunity to cater to them, and expect us to do it for free. Today.... we had a different sort in the office. I can't really call him a customer as he wasn't buying anything.
Here's a hint......





no, we didn't have the cast of CSI come by, although, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me if they did.

We had a member of the major case squad stop by and see if we could help him. We spent quite a bit of time with him... I'm not sure we really helped him, but it's nice to think we did.

So that's our excitement for the day...

p.s. I didn't write much about him, or what he's looking for because it's (obviously) an open and active case. And while I doubt seriously that the criminals are reading this blog, they might be googling key words about the crime, and I'm not gonna help them. If I hear it's been solved, I might come back and add more info.

What can I say?

I suck at blogging. At least, I suck at regular blogging.

I wish I had the time, and the schedule to blog regularly, really I do.
I like the whole idea of taking time every day and writing something. What I lack, is the time, the self discpline.... that whole thing.

However, I'll be in and out blogging as time and creativity permit.

I'm learning to love CVS

Before I found Crystal's blog, I would only go to CVS when I had no other choice. But now, now I go to CVS a minimum of three times a week.

Why the change you may ask? Crystal has shown me how to have CVS pay me to go to their store. And if they'll pay me to take stuff out of their store, I'm willing to do so.

So how have I done lately? Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Let me see if I can remember some of my better deals.

This month, I've managed to stock us up on approximately a years supply of coffee, which we use quite a bit of. I also managed to score 10 cans of tuna for free! Then there's the M&M's... I scored about twenty-six bags of M&M's. I've got enough shampoo to last me several months (and I don't use a quarter sized dollop, I use a lot, I've got long, thick hair.) I've managed to add to my baby gift for one of my co-workers. I think I now have six packages of diapers and eight or nine packages of wipes.

All of this for an out of pocket of maybe ten dollars; total. The best part? I still have over $100.00 in ECB's to spend on future trips.

The problem I'm running into now is, I don't wanna buy anything that they don't pay me to take. And I'm fast becoming stocked on most things I'd want from there. Oh well.... if it comes down to it, I'll go on a shopping spree and donate everything I buy.

Trash pickin'

I was reading this blog, and she was writing about some trash picking she did this week. I have to say, I was impressed with her haul for the week. Two tables is pretty good.

And it made me think about my nephew's best lot of trash picking. When J was 12 he and some friends were out and decided to do some trash picking. They found "the motherload" in the form of several years worth of Playboys. Now, to a 12 year old, that has to seem like manna from heaven. Not wanting to question their luck, they grabbed the magazines, and left. Not really checking them out until they were safely home.

Imagine their horror to discover that all of their "motherload" haul was braille. Not a single picture other than the cover. Luckily, their horror was changed to delight when they checked ebay, and found out that they can be worth some money.

What can you get for $.61??

Well, if you read here, and use your head a little, you can get
2 Hershey's Pot of gold (like these)

2 bags of jelly beans


2 bags of plastic eggs



oh, and one of these, for the ride.


all for $.61 cents. Not too bad. And I got a total of 11.96 in ECB's to spend next time.

Now I've really got a dilemma.

Not really, but I am working on a balancing act.
As I've said before, I've been inspired by Chris to clear out some of the clutter and scale back on some of my shopping.

But then I stumbled upon this site . And while some of the people there aren't exactly the type I would chose to hang out with. There's some really good information on how to save money.

Here comes the balancing act... one of the girls I work with is pregnant, with her third child. My thoughts on this not withstanding, I need to give her some sort of gift for the baby. But quite frankly, I'm really not feeling the love or the desire to spend the money on this. So, I thought I'd play this CVS game and see if I couldn't get some free or really cheap diapers, wipes etc. So now, I'm balancing doing deals that make me money and not wanting more clutter. So far, I've been reasonably successful. I've stocked up on razors, because while, technically they could be considered clutter, they will eventually be used. I've also stocked up on soap, which, again, I didn't need right away, but will be used. I've also given away about six bars of soap, some toothpaste, toothbrushes, and cheese (lots and lots of cheese). I've stocked, and restocked work with candy. And this week I plan on stocking work up with air fresheners. Oh... and I managed to get myself some of those flameless candles and got paid to take them out of the store.

It should prove to be an interesting experiment, balancing my desire for a cleaner, less cluttered life with my packrattedness.

Quandary

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I've been reading this blog . Chris has really inspired me. I've really cut back on my shopping. Not completely cut it out, the way she has. But I've cut waaaayyyy back. And I now think long and hard about whether I want a particular item cluttering up my house.

I've also begun purging the house of extraneous crap. One of the major obstacles I face, is when people hear I'm purging, they all tell me not to throw anything away. That they'll take it and use it, or donate it. The problem with this is, people have terrific intentions, and not so good follow up. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. But it makes the current purge a tug of war between my emotions. On the one hand, I just want the crap outta my house. On the other hand, I have a lot of stuff that other people could put to use.

My solution so far has been to toss the real garbage, and put the "good crap" in a pile to be sorted. I'm just about ready to start sorting through the "good crap". But I'm undecided on what I'll actually do with the crap I don't want. I could pack it up and send it to Jibii. But I don't think she'd appreciate it. I could throw it all away, but then I'd have to deal with feeling guilty about throwing away good stuff.

Any suggestions?