Waiting For Discounts

I've become quite the bargain shopper lately. I check the weekly circulars, do price matching at Walmart and even check out that television show called Extreme Couponing for any inside tricks or tips that I may be missing. Money is still hard to come by for some folks so why not save where you can is my motto. One trick I have learned is never buy special occasion candy or gifts before the special occasion---if you can help it. You may be accused of being cheap, but it's definitely worth it to wait until the day after. Why? Because everything is usually 50% off or more; you can get twice the candy or gifts for the same money you would have spent the day before. Smart, right? I found myself at one of the local drug stores the day after Valentine's Day getting my mom her annual box of candy in the heart-shaped box. After walking to the aisle where I thought the candy was located I was shocked and annoyed to find that there was hardly anything left. Maybe, one box of sweethearts and a couple small boxes of dark, orange-flavored candies was all that was left on the shelf. Yuck! Who in the world would eat that? "Can I help you find anything?" a store associate asked. "Yeah, I was looking for the leftover Valentine's Candy," I replied. "I'm sorry; we got ravished last night," she said. 'This is all we have left." "Oh, okay. Is it 50% off?" I asked. "I'm not sure. Let me ask my manager, she said. While she was asking her supervisor, a young man, I was still checking out the non-existent candy aisle--talk about disappointing. I was still standing in front of the empty shelves when the manager went to check somebody out at the register. He could see me eyeing the shelves and I'm sure sensed my disappointment from halfway across the store. "Yeah, we got slammed last light; there isn't much left. Why are you looking there?" he asked. "I thought this was where the candy was supposed to be." "No, ma'am. We moved it to Aisle 15 at the back of the store," he said. "Really? I better head back there." I started walking to the back of the store and had just reached the discounted candy--there was still a large selection of colorful, heart-shaped boxes to choose from when I heard someone approaching at a hurried pace.  It was the manager and he was heading right to me. "Oh, good, it's still here. I saw this earlier and thought it was a good price," he said grabbing a large box. "No sense paying full price for something like this---especially in this economy." It was one of those super large boxes of chocolates.  The last one.  (Sorry, Mom) A man after my own heart…