A cautionary tale about Target offers and Target Circle bonuses (copied and pasted from my money-saving Facebook page out of laziness, but I’ve deleted all links so as not to run afoul of any Dis rules!)
What I Saved Money on Today: Target
(Also - bonus cautionary tale! Let my pain be your gain!)
I’ve previously talked about saving money at Target here: (link deleted) And recently I talked about the ongoing Target Circle bonus here: (link deleted).
Well, today I got the heads up about another great Target deal - lots of Target Circle members (it’s free!!! Sign up!!) are being targeted (no pun intended) for a $20 off a $120 in-store or online purchase. Some exclusions, including gift cards (sadly), but it’ll work on most of your normal Target necessities. To find out if you were targeted, go to the Target app and click Wallet at the bottom. At the top of the next screen, you’ll see your targeted offers, which you have to click to activate.
So I clicked, and bought a bunch of stuff online for curbside pickup. This was also an excellent opportunity to use the $30 in Target Circle earnings that I earned from the (still ongoing!) Target Circle bonus promotion.
Now, here’s where the cautionary tale comes in, and I will definitely think twice before using a valuable offer like this (much less TWO valuable offers!!) online. Here’s what happened. I placed my order, which was well over the $120 minimum (come on, it’s Target. OF COURSE it was over $120). My $20 discount was applied as well as my $30 in Target Circle earnings.
A little while later, I got an email saying my order was ready for pickup, but one item was out of stock. Did I want to pick it up at another store? Or cancel it? I knew that without this item (a stupid $17 trash can), I’d still be well above the $120 minimum, so I just cancelled it.
LITTLE DID I KNOW THE MISTAKE I JUST MADE.
I knew that, with both offers like the $20 off, as well as with Target Circle earnings, a portion of those discounts are applied to every item you buy. It makes sense, because they don’t want someone buying $120 worth of junk to get the $20 off, and then returning $100 of it, but keeping the whole discount. What I didn’t realize here is that Target had already allocated part of the $20 off and part of my $30 Target Circle earnings to that stupid trashcan. So when I canceled it, POOF, there went those “free” dollars along with it. In all, I lost out on $6.85 of my discounts, which makes me very sad.
So. Lesson learned. I’m only going to use these stupid (wonderful awesome) offers in-store. Fool me once….
So ANYWAY. That part was sad. But I still did save a good chunk of the $20 and my Target Circle earnings, and there had also been a Target Circle offer on chips that I added to my order. So despite the heartache and pain of the lost $6.85, I still had…
Total Savings: $44.41
