"5 For $5@5" and More Couponing

You can clearly see the "5 For $5@5" words on the receipt.
Too bad that isn't really what they mean!

I am a huge fan of Sonic---usually. I love the fact that they have Happy Hour when you can get 1/2 price drinks! My favorite is the Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper!!! I love the $1.00 menu where you can get a Jr. Burger (that is fully loaded) for just $1.00 ($1.19 in some places, but still!). Jacob loves the breakfast burrito on the $1.00 menu and everyone loves getting a $1.00 slush.  On Tuesday nights, they advertise "5 for $5@5".  That means (to me, and apparently ONLY me) that you get 5 burgers for $5 @ 5 (and after 5 too).  Since I believed this to be true, we recently went to Sonic on a Tuesday night after baseball to pick up some burgers.  I was only planning to order burgers because we prefer to take the burgers home and get our drinks there thus spending less money on dinner.  So, Ben ordered 5 burgers.  The total came to $6.44.  Ben swiped our bank card without thinking twice and then I asked, "What was the total?"  

The typical response, "I don't know, 6 something." 

 I asked him, "Doesn't that seem like a lot of tax for $5.00?" 

 After he thought about it he said, "Yeah, I guess.  Do you want me to ask when they bring our food out?"  "YES! I do!" I responded.  So, when our carhop brought out our burgers we questioned her about the total. She seemed confused so I simply asked, "Don't you advertise '5 for $5@5'?" 

 "Yes," she replied.

 I said, "Well, then why does my receipt say that the total for 5 burgers is $5.95 [+tax]?"  

"Hmm.....I never noticed that. I don't really know. Want me to ask my manager?" At this point I am thinking, "Seriously, no one has ever noticed this?"

 "Yes, I do," I told her. 

 So, the manager came out and I asked her the same question, "If you advertise 5 for $5@5, then why does my total for 5 burgers come up to be $5.95?"

"Well," she said, "we do advertise 5 for $5@5, but it isn't REALLY 5 burgers for $5.  They are really 1/2 price burgers. We just didn't think that 5 for $5.95 sounded catchy so we call it 5 for $5." 

"Wow! Don't you think that is pretty misleading?" I asked.  (And really how difficult would it be to just say "1/2 price burgers after 5?"  Not difficult, and also not misleading!!!)

 "Yeah, I guess it is," she nonchalantly said, "but that is how it is."

I was NOT a fan of Sonic on that particular Tuesday evening!

SOOOO, don't go to Sonic on Tuesday after 5 expecting to get 5 burgers for $5!

On another note, I recently went to CVS because they have Oak Farms milk on sale for $3.19/gallon and you get $1.00 in RR when you purchase one, so it is like getting the milk for $2.19/gallon which is a really good price around here right now.  There were some other things I wanted as well, so I did my shopping. Herbal Essences products were on sale 2/$5.97 with $2.00 in RR and I had a $.050 coupon, so I got a shampoo and conditioner. They also had a deal where if you spent $15.00 on Nivea products you would get $5.00 in RR. The cream I have been wanting for a while was $15.99 and I had a $3.00 off coupon, plus I got $5.00 in RR. So, the total for my first bill was $19.98 and I got $7.00 in RR. I then went and got my 2 gallons of milk. The total came to $6.48, so I just used my $5.00 RR and paid $1.48 for the milk. I still got $2 more in RR for getting the milk, so when I left I still had $4.00 in RR!   All in all I think it was pretty good! The only bad thing is I tried to use my $0.50 off coupon for Oak Farms milk, but the cashier wouldn't even scan it! She said it was in the manufacturer's limitations that it couldn't be used on milk that was on sale. I am not sure where these limitations are found because they are NOT on the coupon itself.  Anyway, since she wouldn't even TRY to scan it I still have 2 $0.50 coupons for milk that are good until December. I am excited about learning to coupon and I hope to get really good at it!!