I must be getting greedy

How much do you pay for cereal? What would you consider a good price? Just two months ago, I would have considered a box of cereal for under $2.50 a good deal. Have you looked at the price of those boxes lately? It's outrageous how much cereal is these days. I was clued into a great deal on Kellogg's products this week at Safeway. The ad stated that if I bought 10 boxes of various Kellogg's products, I would get a $10 Catalina coupon good on my next purchase at Safeway. This is like getting $10 back! The items that I purchased were all priced at $1.99 each. That's a great deal, right? Anyway, I bought 6 boxes of Pop Tarts at $1.99 each. I then used three $1 off two boxes coupons which made each box $1.49. I also bought 4 boxes of the new Cinnabon cereal at $1.99 per box. I had 4 $1 off 1 box coupons for these. So $8.49 for Pop Tarts and $3.96 for cereal. Total was $12.45. Kellogg's is also offering a $10 rebate when you buy 10 products. So the deal was supposed to go like this. Pay $12.45. Get back a $10 Catalina coupon and then submit for a $10 rebate thus ending up with $7.55 more than I started with. How sweet is that!! However, my Catalina didn't print, boo. I wasn't paying attention at the time so didn't notice. Now I'm bummed because I'll only get back the rebate and had to pay $2.45 for 6 boxes of Pop Tarts and 4 boxes of cereal. How greedy is that!? I have to keep reminding myself that I'm paying less than I used to pay, even if there are gliches with the deals. But there is always a learning point to be made. Currently, when I go shopping, I have my shopping list, the prices I expect each item to be, how many of each I will buy, which coupons I plan to used and what the approximate total I expect to pay is. From now on, I will include any Catalinas I expect to get back. Then, if one doesn't print, I can try to find out why while I'm still at the store where they can help me. It doesn't work if I get home and then realize I didn't get my Catalina. By then it's too late. And I will continue to try to be grateful for any deals I get, even if they aren't the ones I had been expecting. Any saving is better than no saving!