More Than a Little

I have a lot of glucose monitors, and it confuses people.

I think quite a lot of couponers have glucose monitors coming out of their ears, unless they actively choose not to purchase them for one reason or another.  The thing about them is that they are so practical to purchase that it’s just hard to pass them by. 

Why do you keep buying them?

I know this is what people wonder about.  I was excited about the first one I got free because I have honestly wanted to use them to test my sugar before.  Diabetes runs in my family, after all.  But really, even people with diabetes usually only want one, so it’s not like I needed any more for myself. 

An example will make it easier to understand.  The Bayer Contour and Bayer Breeze monitors  were on sale during the month of May at Walgreens. For every one you purchased, you got a $5 Register Reward… except during the last week, when you got a $10 RR!  And the best part is that there are coupons out there that make them free up to $30.  I made a profit on every one that I bought!  Although the regular price is usually marked in the $60-$80 range on these devices, they’re generally on sale for somewhere between $10 and $20.  Even when they aren’t giving specific rewards, though, when you can get them free, you can use them to bring your totals up enough to use purchase-based coupons, such as a $5/$25.  In that particular case, if the monitor is on sale for $19.99, you can essentially buy $5.01 worth of stuff for free. 

What are you going to do with them?

Well, this is a question that has multiple parts.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them at first.  I’ve given a bunch of them away to anyone who has a passing interest in them.  I gave one to a woman behind me in line at Walgreens a few weeks ago!  Later, I decided to start having yard sales, and I did sell a couple at my last sale, but it wasn’t a huge hit by any means, so I started trying to figure out what to do with them to increase sales. I had planned to create a little sign pointing out how purchasing them for the ten test strips included in each box (of the Contours) made financial sense.  Strips are ridiculously expensive, and that’s all these companies will give the monitor away for free–they want you to buy their strips every month.  Even buying the monitors from me for $5 each would translate to up to 50% off regular price.  If that didn’t work, I decided to pull the remainder of the strips from all of the boxes and sell a hundred at a time on eBay. 

While I was formulating this plan, I was quizzing my mom (a diabetic) on prices for the strips, and I found out that she currently pays $60 for 100 strips after insurance.  So, new plan!  Now I plan on pulling all the test strips out of the boxes and giving them to her.  Why should she need to pay that much for strips when I have them taking up space in my stockpile?  That will save them somewhere around $438 a year!  It’s crazy. (That’s assuming I can keep up my supply of them, which isn’t a done deal… but I should have enough to keep her going for a few months as it is.)

But that’s so wasteful!

Yeah, I know.  That’s the one part of this plan that hurts, both for me and for her.  As a result, I have decided to make it a pet project to find alternate uses for the remaining supplies. 

1. My two-year-old rather enjoys carrying around the actual monitor. It turns on and she can press buttons on it–at this age, she really doesn’t care about much else. Mainly she’s been pretending it’s a phone.
   1. This clearly doubles as an exercise machine for me.  Keeping up with that thing and constantly taking it back to where it belongs should qualify as a workout! :)  I think right now it’s on the coffee pot, of all places. 
2. You could also remove the batteries and use them for something else if you have compatible items.  The Contour uses a CR2032, which is also found in some watches.  I wish this happened to be the type that I need, because I’ve been watch-less for weeks!
3. The carrying case converts to a cute little diaper bag Distraction Kit!

I put this together this afternoon and painted it with a metallic paint marker that I happened to have in my craft drawer. The color combination is a little… well, bordello for a little girl, in my opinion, but it’s what I had available that would work on black.  I think it turned out pretty cutely for something that was a total freehand whim. I intend for this to live in the diaper bag and come out at restaurants only. It contains a little electronic pinball game (I would have put the monitor back in there but I figure that it would make people look at her funny), a box of crayons, a sticker book, a post-it note pad and the log book from the monitor to write in.  Each page has a chart, and Evelyn always wants to write in her Granny’s book so I figured I might as well leave it in there!  The little zippered pocket contains these little bendable sticks that they gave her at Ted’s Montana Grill to play with. They’re fantastic little toys. I think my husband and I had as much fun with them as she did.  And yes, the crayons were given to her at another restaurant. 

I hope she enjoys it.  I will enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet while out to eat anyway.