Emotional Rollercoster

I can't believe it is already spring break! This year has been flying by. So the kids and the hubby are off this week so my shopping and routines are way out of whack. I switched up the shopping a bit this week. Instead of spreading it all over the week I got it done all in one day - one very long and exhausting day - but it is all done.
I started off this week by clipping, printing and sorting all my coupons on Sunday. We get 5 papers so I get the whole family in on clipping and getting them ready to go. This week for some reason I only got one paper delivered - More to come on that later though. So my wonderful hubby ran to The Dollar Tree and  grabbed 4 more for me.
After we got all the coupons clipped and sorted I was ready to go for Monday. (I did stop to send an email to my news carrier that we were missing 4 papers though.) So my older two daughters and I got up and were ready to head out for a day of shopping on Monday. We went to pull out of the driveway and saw a garbage bag sitting in our driveway. I got out, checked it out and realized it was my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... ok it was really just a sack of newspapers but to me that is a sack of money! Stuck the car back in the garage - Major smile on my face and headed back inside to check out what I had. This was like Christmas morning and I just got my "Red Rider BB Gun" - Ok not that exciting but you get my point.  After laying everything out on the dinning room table we got a grand total of 14 coupon inserts and 3 news papers. I don't know where they came up with all of them, but I will not complain. So we clipped and sorted again and replanned our day. This was great! This meant the items that I was going to get 5 of for free or discounted we were now going to get 19 of! - That's some stockpiling for ya! 
So with a huge smile on my face and a super great mood we headed out. Target was our first stop. I don't know about you but when I get to a store it's like game time for me! I'm on a mission, pumped up and ready to Save!! When I start headed to the checkout I find myself scanning the registers for what cashier will be the best. (You find some that HATE coupons and others that love you and are rooting you on.) I notice when I start the checkout process I get nervous. Palms sweaty, heart pounding kind of nervous. Then when the numbers start rolling, I get happy. The woman at Target yesterday was AMAZING!!! She did not have one problem at all - except over the amount of excepted coupons so we had to have a manager's code. But she was asking how to save, where she could get coupons ext. She was super sweet! (I am a big customer service person, so I get so happy when I find there are still people in the world that treat people with respect and still have good customer service.) Our grand total at Target was $15.75 with a savings of $64.68 - Score! Our next store was Walmart... on we went. We had to run to Walmart for only a few things. I had $5.00/1 Similac coupons (Walmart had it on sale for $4.17 each - I got .83 cash back on each one!)  so I would be paid to buy formula - which I love being paid to shop! We also picked up 20 individual string cheese (3 for .99 and I had .40/1 so I got paid .07 each to buy these also.) I also picked up some Kraft Cheese (2.00 each and we had 1/1 coupons so we got these for 1.00 each) Needless to say it was a pretty quick trip. We had everything done in about 15 minutes. Then came the checkout. I knew I had to pay - well be paid - for the Similac each separately so I start to separate it all out. The woman said we didn't have to do that and she could over ride everything. I showed her the coupon and showed her it was $5.00 off each transaction. She pretty much knew way more then me so I let her show me..... it didn't work. So 5 minutes later she was confused on what to do to get around it. 10 minutes later, I was trying to explain to her she needed to take all of the Similacs off and do each one in its own transaction. 15 minutes later - and a million apologize to the people behind me and 100 telling my kids "we are almost done, just hang in there" - she still did not understand. Now mind you, I really didn't need any of this - but its nice to have cheese around our house since we go through so much of it. And the Similac, I was just going to donate to a shelter. So I soooooo badly at 20 minutes wanted to just say forget it and walk out. But I figured this happens, just hang in there and it will be done soon. Well you know that saying go with your gut instinct? Yeah should have done that! 45 minutes (I'm not kidding or exaggerating at all!!!!) 6 Walmart Associates later, it was done. We had paid, well be paid and were leaving. Now, I think it is bad karma to bad mouth someone or something but I think that there is an exception for EVERYTHING! This is one of them - I vow to NEVER set foot in Walmart - (South Hill 165th and Meridian) never ever again!!!!!! This experience alone should show them they need to hire people with a few more brains then a stuffed monkey  train their associates a little bit more!!! Needless to say, this broke my spirt for the day. I was mad, sad, everything but happy and excited like I was earlier. But I got the rest of the shopping - which went wonderful! I had a total spent of $74.92 and a savings of $426.81.(plus 6 catilinas for free milk up to $3.99, $16.00 in catilinas from Walgreens, $25 in Target gift cards and $20 in rebate checks from RiteAid) So if you add that to what I spent I got paid $11.01 to take home all that. Pretty good for a full day of shopping.
I know there will always be good days and bad days of shopping or anything in life. So if you are new to couponing, and you have a bad experience like this keep plugging along! The good - and savings - FAR out weigh the bad days. There will always be a employee that does not like to take the time to ring up the coupons, a rude customer, ect but when you see all the savings adding up, its worth it!
Have you ran into a situation like mine? What did you do? Did it make you want to stop couponing?
I hope that you all have a good spring break! Enjoy all the savings this week!!!