Today and Yesterday and a couple of days after tomorrow

Today my husband David and I got together with my father-in-law Shel, and Shel’s lady-love Linda for lunch. We had dinner together last night at Bahama Breeze, because COUPON. And we’re having dinner with them Wednesday for the purpose of congratulating my niece Naomi on graduating (early) from high school. I’m not sure where we’re eating, but I bet a poo-kon will be produced at the end.

Such an exciting life I lead! We eat out based on whichever of us has the best restaurant coupon!

It’s not that we can’t afford this stuff; we count ourselves lucky on that score. It’s that using a good coupon is one of our little family jokes. We’re not “extreme couponers;” we throw away grocery coupons although we do pay attention to in-store deals. We just keep an eye out for good deals from restaurants and some retail places that we actually visit frequently.

I’ve got a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon that’ll be used for something or other shortly. It’s our go-to place for housewares (kitchen) and soft goods (bedding and towels). I’ve got something from The Container Store that may lapse before I get around to going there; I usually reserve a trip there for Christmas gadget-shopping and my occasional “get organized” kicks.

A couple of months back, we met Shel and Linda at Texas de Brazil because Dad had a coupon good for half off for at least 2 entrees in a party of 4. But when the check came, he realized he’d left the “poo-kon” (my word) at home. As TdB isn’t an inexpensive place, there was dismay and anguish generally. But I saved the day, because I’d received the same email offer and it was still buried in my stack of emails that weren’t important enough to read, but important enough to not delete (most coupon deals I mark as spam and delete, but I give businesses I actually patronize a “pass”).

Last year for Shel’s birthday, we produced an edible “coupon good for 1 happy birthday” That was a pretty good prank, and also delicious. So redeeming it was… a piece of cake.