The Tenth Commandment

Thou shall not let any store's obstacles stop you!

Some stores impose coupon limits for each visit, and that's no problem. Just have your kid, friend, spouse or partner go through another line with the other items to take advantage of deep discounts. Consider splitting large bounties with the person who helped you buy at a discount.

This one reminds me of a story my Grandma used to tell me about working in a grocery store during World War II.

Nearly everything was rationed, and for the most part, no one really wanted to buy the things that weren't. Well, my grandmother's boss was a crafty businessman and he had all sorts of tricks to get people to part with their money.

One day, the store got a huge shipment of canned pineapple chunks, and he was having trouble selling them. My grandmother didn't know how Mr. Hammond (her boss) came up with the idea, but he decided to put a huge sign up saying "Canned pineapple chunks! Absolute limit 2 cans per customer!"

Believe it or not, according to my grandmother it worked like a charm. Everyone thought the pineapple chunks were going to be rationed or something, so they better buy as much as they could while they could. They would buy two cans, send each of their children in for two cans, get their husbands, brothers, sisters, (you get the idea) in for two cans. Faster than anyone could have anticipated, the pineapple chunks were sold out.

But I digress. Look at it this way, if the store is going to play tricks on you to get you to spend money, you have every right to play tricks on them to save money.