The Time I Beat Babies R Us

I'm going to start out by saying that each time I tell someone this story (and I've told a lot of people) I realize more and more that I have officially lost my mind, however, I am still patting myself on the back for this small victory. 

Let me also say that I am not a frugal person, in fact I wish I was more frugal and could actually save some damn money. However, I am tired of getting nickle and dimed all the time and I am disgusted by how expensive baby stuff is.

With that out of the way...

It all started a few weeks ago when I received a package...it was my Medela Breast Pump! An incredibly generous and amazing gift from my sister-in-law who has spent way too much money on me and this baby girl, but I've learned not to get in the way of an excited Auntie. :) 

These pumps cost $270. Yup, TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FRICKIN' DOLLARS. 

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Of course, the week after Nicole buys the pump for us I get a Babies R Us coupon book that has a 15% off all breast pumps coupon. For those of you who are mathematically impaired (like myself) 15% off a $270 pump is $40. Now $40 isn't a ton of money, but that shiz adds up....and there's a lot of things I could use for $40.

So I decide I’m going to cheat the system and return the breast pump, get the $270 in store credit and then re-buy the pump with the 15% off coupon, therefore giving myself $40 of free money to spend on diapers. Genius, right?

NOTE: I made sure with Jason that his sister would be completely OK with this plan, since really the extra $40 should go to her. 

I go BRU and try to return the pump, but, in all my excitement I had opened the box to look at my super strange new toy and because of sanitary reasons Babies R Us is unable to return a pump that has been opened. DAMNIT.

I decide I’m not going to give up that easy. I then go to a different Babies R Us and tell them that I received the pump as a gift but it was delivered to my house with the seal broken. Yes. I lied. It was a little white lie and it didn’t hurt anyone, so I feel like I’m off the hook. Or off my rocker. Either way, it worked. The adorable little cashier was appalled that the pump had been opened, but because of store policy wasn’t able to return it, she could only exchange it for the same pump. NO PROBLEM! I’ll take the unopened pump.

I then go to another Babies R Us (yes, I realize this is a lot of work, but I have several BRU locations within 10 miles of work and home, so it’s not quite as bad as it seems) and return the UNOPENED breast pump and FINALLY receive my store credit gift card in the amount of $269.99. 

ONE SMALL VICTORY.

I then have to sit on the gift card for a few days because the sale didn’t start until that upcoming Friday. While I’m waiting to execute my scheme I remember that I have my Registry Completion coupon which gives me 15% off of remaining registry items. I had written it off because they require you to spend at least $200 (dumb!) to receive the 15% off…well, guess what friends, the pump is now $230 which is OVER $200 and it says right on the completion card that there are NO restrictions. And, since I’m on a roll, I also dig out a $5 off coupon that I had.

Friday rolls around and I go to the website and add the pump and a $38 bathtub to my cart. I then go to enter my promotional code….first the 15% off the pump, then the $5 off and then the completion code. Everything works but the completion code. I try entering it first, I try a bunch of things and it’s just not letting me get away with this. WELL, I’ve come this far, I’m not giving up now. SO, I dial up the BRU customer service and talk to a ridiculously friendly lady who was most certainly from New Jersey and I’m sad I don’t remember her name, because she was the bomb. I tell her my completion code isn’t working…NOTE: this is not a lie, it wasn’t working! So she asks me for my total and I tell her $310.74 ($269.99 pump + $37.99 tub + $2.76 tax = $310.74). She then works some magic and gives me a NEW code for a $47 appeasement ($310.76 – 15% = $47).

So, I enter the new code, the 15% pump code and the $5 off code and sure enough IT WORKS! My total is now $223.64!!! That’s a savings of $87.10 people!

EIGHTY-SEVEN DOLLARS AND TEN CENTS!

I use my gift card and my order is confirmed!

Now I have a new breast pump and a new bath tub on their way to my house and I still have $46.35 left on my gift card! Not only that but I have a coupon to save $20 off of two boxes of diapers (which cost $25), so I’m almost getting a free box of diapers!

SO, for the cost of the original breast pump I am getting the same breast pump, a bath tub, 192 diapers and will still have just over $16 on my gift card!

TOTALLY WORTH IT!