Monday, March 30, 2009

The End is Coming...

For anyone who shops at Walgreen's, I am reading rumors that they are doing away with their monthly program and the Easy Saver Catalog. Although I have a love/hate relationship with Walgreen's, I am sad to see this program go.

Just because I was curious, I added up my rebate earnings since I started shopping there in September. My total rebate earnings with the monthly program has been 196.80 to date. 17.91 of this rebate money is a 10% bonus given when you request your payment via a Walgreen's gift card. This total doesn't include Register Reward earnings or the weekly flier coupons that I use.

I hate to see this go, but I am hopeful Walgreen's will come up with something to replace the Easy Saver Catalog. I guess I'll wait and see...

Rite Aid Deals Week of 3/29/09

Here's the best that I see for this week. Not much to look at, but I suppose if you're in the area... Next week looks a little better.

Magnum Razor 4.99
4.99 SCR
Final Cost: FREE

Schick Intuition Plus Razor or Refills B1G1
Use 2 4.00 Coupons
Final Cost: 0.99 each

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

OH NO! Expiring Register Rewards!

Today I had a 10.00 RR expiring, and another expiring in a couple days. I ran to Bryan quick after plotting out my sinister plan. Hehehehe... I stopped at CVS for Diet Pepsi, and then to Walgreen's to spend my RR.

At CVS I used more ECB's(Extra Care Bucks) than I got back, but that's OK. I got some good sale items anyway.

I bought:
2 Post Trail Mix Cereal B1G1 4.79
Crest Pro Health Enamel 3.49
2 Skippy Peanut Butter B1G1 3.29
3 Diet Pepsi 12 pks 3/11.00

Coupons used:
2 2.00 Post Trail Mix Printable
1.00 Crest expiring 3-31 from P&G
2 0.40 Skippy
B2G1 Diet Pepsi Printable
12.97 ECB's

Total OOP 0.24 on my Gift Card!

ECB's Earned:
3.49 Crest
2.00 Pepsi

Walgreen's was actually fun! I used my expiring Huggie's RR to buy a lot of items that have a monthly rebate attached to them. There is a lot of "couponing" going on here so I will try my best to explain.

I bought:
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Natural Cleaner 2/6.00
Pledge and Multi Surface Pledge 2/7.00
Tums Dual Action 7.99
Right Guard Professional Deodorant 5.99
Walgreen's Headache Relief 2.99
2 Sambucol 12.99 each
3 bags of Easter candy 6.50 total

Coupons used:
2 1.00 Natural Cleaner
3.00 Pledge Aerosol Printable
2.00 Multi Surface Printable
3.00 Tums Printable
2 4.00 Sambucol Printable
1.50 off 3 Hershey's Easter Candy
10.00 Walgreen's coupon in the monthly booklet (took off 20.00)
1.50 Walgreen's Hershey's coupon in the monthly booklet (took off 0.50 per bag)

Will submit for Easy Saver Rebate (Monthly program)
2 1.00 Natural Cleaner
2 1.00 Pledge Products
5.00 Right Guard
2.99 Walgreen's Headache Relief

Register Rewards
Earned 3.00 for the Tums

I'll try to summarize it here. My subtotal was 62.45. After coupons at the register I owed 21.45. I then used 20.00 in RR which took my total OOP to 5.37 with tax. Not bad, not bad, but it gets better. Keep in mind I earned 3.00 RR for the Tums, and I will submit for another 11.99 in the monthly program! Including my extra 10% gift card bonus, that's a profit of 10.81 for the night!

Oh, I almost forgot! I also picked up a mail in rebate peelie for Crest Pro Health! I'll probably send that in too for another 3.25! That means I got reimbursed the cost of the toothpaste from CVS plus another 4.25 for the coupon and rebate! Thanks go out to everybody involved!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Super Double Coupons at Chief 3/19/09

Chief is having a super double event starting Thursday March 19th. During this week Chief will double coupons up to and including 1.00. This is a great time to get out your coupons with a value between 0.51 and 1.00 and see what you can do! They do impose rules, as I have listed below. If I have time to check this out I will post an update with more information on great deals! If you have any luck, please share your info with everyone in the comment section!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Workin' Meijer

My Meijer trip seemed time consuming, but I was in and out in an hour and fifteen minutes. This included bathroom breaks, repositioning a seven year old from the end of the cart, into the cart, to under the cart, to the baby seat all the while NEVER missing a beat on his Nintendo DS, checking out three times, three calls on my cell, and a frozen checkout computer. Besides making the little old lady behind me very mad, I thought it turned out ok.

Meijer will only double 2 identical coupons per transaction. I've been burned before, so I set out to work the system! And it worked! I don't buy only junk food, either. Today I bought lettuce, 6 avocados, 3 quarts of strawberries, bananas, grapes, carrots, chunk cheese, sunflower seeds, canned beans, hummus, bread, and really good looking frozen pizzas!

Highlights from transaction #1
Spent 69.15
Saved 81.47!
59.89 of that was Meijer promotions and sales
and coupon savings was 21.58

Transaction #2 (remember they only double 2 identical coupons!)
2 Frank's Red Hot Sauce 0.99 each
2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights 10/10
2 Aunt Millie's Bread 10/10
2 BC Fruit Stickerz 1.67 each (3/5.00)
2 Frosted Cheerios 2.00 each

Coupons used:
2 0.50 Frank's
2 0.50 BC Warm Delights
2 0.35 Aunt Millie's
2 0.50 Fruit Stickerz
2 0.50 Cheerios

Total OOP 4.44
Total Savings 20.36!

Transaction #3
2 Frank's
2 BC Warm Delights
2 Cheerios
1 Fruit Stickerz

Coupons used (same amounts as above):
2 Frank's
2 BC Warm Delights
2 Cheerios
1 Fruit Stickerz

Total OOP 2.67
Total Savings 13.08

To put transaction #3 into perspective, the usual cost of one box of fruit snacks is about 3.00. I didn't spend that for 7 items, including two big boxes of cereal! My only concern now is how to consume all of this produce in a week or so! The babies' daddy is out of town all week for work, so we don't even have his help! Well, at least the kids and I will eat very healthy this week!

Quite the motherload, if I do say so myself...

I have not REALLY gotten groceries in...quite a while. My last big grocery bill was 75.00 on -- get this, January 12th!!! I of course have been places to get some groceries, but nothing major. Needless to say, I needed to get food.

Meijer has a great 10/10 sale this week with tons of coupon matchups. If you want more details on this check out www.bargainbriana.com. I will try my best to give you an accurate picture of how I did on my next post, without typing everything out.

First, I went to Kroger while monkey boy was at a football clinic. I only went for the sale items, and I had planned most of this out ahead of time. They have a mega event going, so when you buy 10 participating items 5.00 will be taken off at checkout. Basically, you end up paying 0.50 less than the sale price for each item.

What I bought:
2 Quaker Rice Cakes 0.99 each
8 Land o Lakes Buttery Taste Spread 0.99 each
Q-Tips 2.00
Dannon Light and Fit 6 pack 2.50
2 Kroger 1/2 gallon milks 0.88 each
2 Ritz Crackers 2/5.00
Yo Plus Yogurt 4pk 2.49

Coupons used:
5.00 Mega Event (came off at checkout)
2 1.00 Quaker
8 0.50 Land o Lakes (doubled)
0.30 Q-Tip (doubled)
1.00 Light and Fit
2.00/2 Ritz
1.00 Yo Plus E Coupon

Total OOP 8.16

My receipt said coupon savings was 15.30, bonus coupon savings 4.30, and Plus Card savings 13.17. That's an 80% savings!

I'm not sure how one family can use all of this margarine without inducing a massive coronary, but I will give it my best shot! So, using the coupons along with the sale worked out great today! The 8 tubs of margarine were all free, as were the rice cakes. The yogurt was a good price, and I was completely out. Not to mention the price of the milk!

Rite Aid Deals Week of 3/15/09

Rite Aid has a few good deals this week. Not quite enough to put a 5/25 coupon to good use though. Thanks to the Cleveland Cavs, we have another 5/25 coupon good through the end of April! Check it out here.

Samy i Style Spray, Mousse, Glue Plus, or wax 4.99
4.99 SCR
Final Cost: FREE
This rebate is good ONLY 3/15 to 3/17!!!

Secret Flawless Deodorant 3.99
2.00 SCR
2.00 Coupon
Final Cost: FREE

Lexar 1GB SD card or USB Drive 7.99
5.00 SCR
Final Cost: 2.00

Bounty Basic Single Roll Paper Towels 0.99
0.25 Coupon
Final Cost: 0.74

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Huge Huggies Coupons!!!

Check out www.coupons.com for two Huggies coupons. These were up last week, and were reset. There is one for 5.00 off any gentle care diaper product, and one for 3.00 off any natural fit diaper product. I am assuming these can be used on wipes as well, which would result in some BIG packages for free or very cheap. When printing, hit your back browser button three times to print them again. I have found them on the last page of the website when going back for the second print. Print them and have your families print them too! Coupons of this value don't come around often!

Walgreens is having a promotion starting tomorrow March 8th. Through the 15th, Huggies will be on sale for 10.00 a pack. When you by 25.00 worth you will receive 10 Register Rewards (RR) which can be used like cash in the store. Remember though, you can't roll your Huggies RR into another Huggies purchase. Consider using the RR to buy free after rebate items for the month or other RR producing deals.

Try this transaction.
Buy 3 pkgs Huggies at 10.00 each
Use 3 5.00 coupons.
Receive 10 RR to use on future purchases.

30.00 (3 Huggies)
-15.00 (3 coupons)
=15.00 OOP
Receive 10 RR
Like paying 5.00 for three packs!

My other tip is to do this only once per transaction. RR won't print out multiple times for the same deal in the same transaction. Simply check out more than once if you have enough coupons!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Walgreens and CVS

I don't take the time to blog weekly about Walgreens and CVS. Mainly, because I don't have time, and because we don't have them here in town. If you want to shop these stores for their sales, check out a couple of great blogs.

http://www.thethriftymama.com/ and http://www.dealseekingmom.com/ both have weekly sales and deals posted. They also continually update if new deals pop up. They are a great resource for figuring out sales and deals! Some blogs give tutorials on how to work the ECB's and RR's also! Each store is different, and it can get quite confusing (see Walgreens post below!). Use these ladies and their wealth of info!

Walgreens 3/4/09

Walgreens tonight was kind of frustrating, but, in the end, turned out OK. They were out of most of the Register Reward (RR) items that I wanted, and don't get a truck in until Friday. Well, of course, I can't go again this week, but I am sure I will survive.

I couldn't quite figure out how to put this together, and I am sure I could have saved a bit more. I also screwed up my Vaseline deal by buying four bottles of lotion in one transaction. Instead of getting 8.00 in RR, I only got 2. It would have been a BIG moneymaker. I should have split them up into single transactions. Lesson learned: RR will only print for one item, not four. Buy one at a time. By the way, you can't use a RR to turn around and pay for the same item again.

Transaction #1
2 Colgate Total 4 oz. 3.49 each
Colgate MaxFresh 3.29
Gillette Fusion Gamer 10.49 (I thought this was on sale, with better RR. Guess not.)
6 Nabisco Ritz Crackers 2/1.99 (just little fellas, one sleeve each)

Coupons Used:
2.50 Colgate Total in the EasySaver Catalog (takes 2.50 off each tube)
4.00 Gillette Fusion
2-0.75 Colgate
1.50 Colgate
3-2.00 off 2 Ritz

Total OOP: 10.20 with tax
Used GC for 9.30
Paid 0.90 OOP

Earned 4.00 RR for Fusion Razor, 3.50 for Colgate MaxFresh (even though price is only 3.29)

Transaction #2 aka, the big screwup!
4 Vaseline Lotions at 2.69 each
2 Extra Gum 8 pk 2/2.49

Coupons Used:
3-1.50 Vaseline Lotion
0.55 Vaseline Lotion
In ad coupon for Extra
7.50 RR from Transaction #1

Total OOP 1.45

Earned 2.00 RR for Vaseline :( Should have been 8 RR had I thought it out a little better.

After I figured out that I screwed up, I went back to the pharmacy to redeem myself. I wanted to get the diaper coupons in the Pharmacy Savings Plan booklet. I did get a booklet, but without the diaper coupon. Then, I transferred a prescription, and got a 25.00 GC from the pharmacy for the transfer! That made me feel a little better. All in all, not a bad night. 7.35 OOP for 48.84 worth of products and a prescription. Plus, I came home with the 25.00 GC!

CVS 3/4/09

Tonight I went to Bryan while the kids were in church, all by myself...again. I wish I had company to go with me. If anyone ever wants to give it a shot, let me know! I went to Walgreens too, but I will post that separately.

Transaction #1
Gillette Fusion Gamer 7.99
SlimQuick Energy 2 pk 4.99
Cascade Liquid 2.99
Act Total Care 3 oz 0.99
CVS Vitamin D 100 ct 2.99
2 Reese's Whipps 1.00

Coupons used:
4.00 Gillette
1.00 Reese's Whipps
1.00 Cascade
13.97 in ECB's

Total OOP: 1.40

ECB's Earned 12.97
4.00 Gillette, 4.99 SlimQuick, 0.99 ACT, 2.99 Vitamin D

Transaction #2 (I had to ask where to find this. That's my only reason for 2 transactions.)
Carnation Instant Breakfast 4.99

Forgot to give my coupon, but oh well.
Paid with 4.99 ECB's from previous transaction.

Total OOP: 0.00 I like seeing three zeros in this category!

ECB's Earned 4.99

Not bad, 1.40 out of pocket for 25.94 worth of items, and only lost one ECB!

Rite Aid Deals Week of 3/1/09

More freebies at Rite Aid this week. Six, to be exact. If I wasn't such a procrastinator, I would have had these up for you by now. Better late than never, I guess.

I'm not sure if Rite Aid will come out with another 5/25 for this weekend, but I did find a link for another 5/25 here, good anytime through March 13th. Compliments of the NBA. Thanks!

SnoreStop 8.99
SCR 8.99

SnoreStop Extinguisher 12.99
SCR 12.99

Soothe Eye Drops 7.49
SCR 7.49
Use 3.00 Soothe Eye Drops Coupon

Novitra Cold Sore Treatment 7.99
SCR 7.99
3.00 Rite Aid Printable

Sinus Buster 8.99
SCR 8.99

Ocean Complete Nasal Rinse 8.99
SCR 8.99

Cascade ActionPacs 15 ct. 2.99
Use 1/1 ActionPacs from P&G insert
Final Cost 1.99

Lexar 2 GB SD Card 7.99
SCR 5.00

I will probably be picky about what I buy this week; I'm out of GC money right now, and I'm not sure that I would use most of these products. Use your own judgement, and have fun. By the way, go ahead and request your February check if you haven't already. Get it going, so you can use the check to buy more SCR items!