Rain Checks

When it comes to shopping my general consensus is I would prefer not to, at least in the conventional manner.  You definitely would not catch me shopping for something to do or even weekly grocery shopping.  I tend to shop if and when I have to, usually if I need or want a particular item.  Then it tends to be the sales. 

We get the local sales flyers each week.  I sort them into two piles - interested and toss.  Those flyers going into the interested are grocery stores, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire and sometimes the lumberstore.  I compare prices in the grocery store flyers and if there is a few item to make it worthwhile to drive 20 minutes each way, I set that particular flyer aside.  Other than that most weeks the grocery flyers are tossed into the recycle bin.  Home Hardware and Canadian Tire are two of my favourite places for any necessary household appliances which are few and far between, home canning supplies and other necessary household items.  Most weeks those flyers end up in the recycle bin as well.  This week I had my eye on a Hamilton Beach programmable slow cooker at Canadian Tire to replace my slowly dying, ancient Rival with the spliced cord where it got burned.  With the new TOU and HST on the hydro bill I need to replace my old energy sucking Rival slow cooker with a new, a bit more energy efficient model.  This particular slow cooker performed nearly as well as the top slow cooker when tested by Cook's Illustrated.

This morning I called one of our kids to pick up the slow cooker for me as I had too many things to do to go into town today.  The main problem with shopping in smaller communities is there is less demand so the stores don't bring in as many sale items.  What they do instead is issue a rain check if the item is not available during the sale and while you have to wait for the item to come in with the next shipment, you still get it at the sale price.  Depending on the store this may take a week or two but most times they are fairly good.  A rain check resembles a hand written fill in the blanks coupon with a teller's stamp and expiration date.  Most rain checks are good anywhere from a week to a month depending on the store and expected time of arrival of the item.  Many people don't think to ask for a rain check but the beauty is you still get the item you want at the sale price simply by waiting a little longer.  Even the grocery stores in our area issue rain checks unless specified in the flyer.  Rain checks are in my opinion an excellent way to shop frugally!

Garden Gnome
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