Coupon crazy

Update:
I ended up eating the leftover ice cream that we had saved in our fridge and it actually tasted a lot better. Maybe it just has to be put in the freezer and get more chilled for the flavor to come out?


Original post below:

I love saving money using coupons. I am all about getting stuff for free too. Last year I found out that for your birthday if you sign up in advance to get on different store/restaurant mailing lists you can get all sorts of coupons for free stuff.  So I made a little note on my calendar for this year's month of July to do just that since my birthday is coming up in August. So a couple weeks I googled "birthday freebies" and I came across this blog entry and this blog entry both of which have similar lists of all the different mailing lists you can get on.

Since we had gotten a $10 gift card to a certain national ice cream chain (let's call it "Chillyrock" Creamery), I was happy that "Chillyrock" Creamery was on the list as one of the places that will offer a freebie. So I signed up for a My "Chillyrock" Account and received an email stating that I could buy one "creation" and get one free.  It didn't even have anything to do with my birthday. So even if your birthday is not coming up, you can still sign up for different mailing lists that are found on the blog entry links above and receive offers/coupons for free stuff. I wish I had known that last year.

Anyway I convinced hubby that we had to go to "Chillyrock" Creamery in order to finally use our gift card (we got it last year after bébé was born as a thank you for when we went to speak at our Bradley Method teacher's class about our home birth experience).  We went and both got different "Chillyrock" creations. Unfortunately just like my previous experience with this particular ice cream chain, which was years ago, I was pretty disappointed in the taste of the ice cream.

Actually hubby and I both didn't actually really like the ice cream from this place last time we went (which is why I had to convince him to go this time).  I wanted to go again though since we had the gift card and the BOGO coupon, plus I thought maybe if we got one of the "creations" (their special combinations of ice cream flavors and other add-ins)  it would be different. Last time I think I just got the chocolate ice cream with a nut topping mixed in.  The description of the "creation" sounded delicious: German chocolate, coconut flakes, brownies, pecans. I am especially a fan of chocolate and nuts, with which you can almost never go wrong.

Well I was wrong because pretty much the "creation" tasted pretty bland except for maybe the taste of just sugar. But of course I kept eating it up anyway since I am still learning how to have self-control around food. Anyway I didn't feel so great after eating about half of a medium sized cup, I think all that sugar and not so great quality ingredients were getting to me. Hubby had the same experience with his apple pie à la mode "creation". Oh well, at least we didn't have to spend any money on this "Let's give it a second try" experience.

Lesson learned-Just because you have a coupon and gift card for something you don't have to use it, especially if you didn't have a good experience a previous time with the same place. In hindsight I probably should have just given the gift card away to someone who actually likes the ice cream from this establishment.

Tip- Start a separate email account (what I call a coupon account) to use when you sign up on different mailing lists.  That way all that mail won't clutter your personal email account and you can check your coupon account only when you are already going to a certain place to see if you there are any special deals/offers.