I'm trying to be helpful here

I'm supposed to be working on making my grocery shopping list right now. I so severely hate grocery shopping that instead I think I will write a blog entry. What's a little more procrastination in my life?

Anyway, a few months ago (March, I think it was), Alyssa brought home the monthly newsletter her school puts out. In it was a plea from one of the fundraising people to get and use a guest card from a certain chain grocery/discount store. Since I do about 98% of my grocery shopping at this particular store and go at least once a week (and had actually intended to get one of these cards a long time ago but never got around to it), I first emailed the guy so he could send home an application. That took a few days (and me accidently finding it in Alyssa's backpack). It took me a few more days to get around to filling it out. Then I had to mail it in with the promise that I would get my card in about two weeks. It took at least that long. I finally got the card somewhere around the beginning of April.

So the deal was that whenever I did any shopping at that store, I was to have the cashier scan my card and whatever money I spent there would be kept track of. According to a complicated formula in which a certain initial amount of money was subtracted out, the remaining amount would earn credit for Alyssa's school at different rates depending on how much I spent total in a month. Confused? I didn't really understand where or why they had to use so many different figures and percentages, but whatever. All I had to do was remember to hand over my card before I paid for my purchases. Which isn't exactly that easy for me because by the time I'm done shopping I usually have a tired baby in need of a nap who also wants to stand up and climb out of the cart and/or throw everything he can get his hands on (plenty) on the floor and his big brother who is perpetually in someone's way (I say "watch out!" at least 100 times per shopping trip) and bugging me about riding the horsey on the way out.

But to earn some free money for Alyssa's (and soon Brendan's) school, I did it. Well, I did it a few times, for about three weeks in April. Then I went shopping on May 1 and used the card. The cashier asked me if I had reregistered my card. Huh? I hadn't heard anything about doing that and I had just gotten it only a couple weeks before so surely she must have been mistaken about that. Well, I checked my earnings a couple times online after that and nothing was showing up for May. Hmmm.... The next week I went shopping again and again it didn't appear to work. This time the cashier told me that as of May, in order to earn credit with the card, you had to use the store's credit card. Nice. I do not have nor do I want this store's credit card. The one I have works just fine, thankyouverymuch. And I swear no one ever told me the rules were going to be changing in May or I never would have wasted my time in the first place.

So for all my troubles, I have earned for Alyssa's school (drum roll please).... a whopping $1.55! That should solve the budget crisis!