I appreciate all the people out there who consolidate and post the best deals at the various national/regional stores, I do.  I would never find some of my best buys without them.  But I have a bone to pick.

In every list there’s inevitably at least one - and often many - “free after...” whether it’s after ECBs (CVS), RR (Walgreens), rebate, whatever.  I understand the math, and the desire to get anything free.  But it’s misleading.  A $4 item with $4 ECB isn’t free - you have to pay $4 to get it.  Sure, you now have $4 ECB to spend on something else, but you still laid out $4 in the first place. 

I’m a little bit at a loss as to how I would prefer to account for this peculiar bit of shopping economy.  I’m loathe to include it in the net cost of the item, because I most often don’t realize the savings of that rebate (in whatever form) until a later date, when I redeem the ECBs the following week, or when the rebate check arrives in the mail the following month.  On the other hand, it seems odd to apply an ECB next week to some other random item that would not have had the savings otherwise, and a rebate check just doesn’t show up on the sheet anywhere. 

So I understand why it’s phrased that way, and I understand why some people calculate that way.  But sometimes things are just tight enough that I can’t spend $12 on extra “free” things, you know?  And those are the times when I find it most annoying to read the deals lists.  I’d rather find something that has a net cost of 50c at the register than something with a $5 overage after all the rebates but costs me $2.50 up front.  Unless it was something I was absolutely going to buy anyway...but that almost never happens.  I keep looking though, so keep on posting those lists, ladies.  I may gripe about the details, but I appreciate all the work that goes into it.  Now, anyone want to move to this area and do that work for our only decent grocery chain?  :)