Merry Beach-mas!

We'll be leaving first thing in the morning for Florida, where we'll celebrate Christmas with my parents and sister and her family, and a nice, quiet week fishing and relaxing at the beach.

There's no internet access where we're going...last time we couldn't even find a place with free wi-fi...so if you don't hear from me until after the New Year, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy, Safe, and Prosperous New Year!

Publix

Made a couple of Publix runs to use up some coupons, and get what money-makers I could before they expired tomorrow.

The first Publix I stopped at I used to love, but I guess they don't love me so much. This was the one that didn't let me use the BOGO egg coupon last week.
Tonight, the boy asked if I'd like to give him my coupons first, I said sure, I had no problem with that. So he proceeds to divide them up, and then scans my hot chocolates, and then starts scanning the coupons. I had $.50/2 mq's, which doubled to $1.00, and then I had $1/1 Target q's. Of course since I had more coupons than items, the register locked up and had to have an override. (And thank goodness I had him do my $25.00 gift card first, or it would have gone like $4.00 in the negative.)

Next he scanned a few more items, and their corresponding coupons, and again the register required an override. The CS Supervisor ended up having to stay there the whole time overriding several times. It took alot longer than usual, and she found nothing wrong with my coupons, so I don't know what the deal is. I know it was a pain in the patoot. And made me feel bad, like I was doing something wrong.

The next Publix I didn't have any trouble - rang up, checked out, Have a good night, Merry Christmas!

Haven't figured up my totals yet, but I'm pretty sure I added some overage to my gift cards.

Target

Free Swiss Miss, free batteries, free camera, free w/overage cat treats.  Cashier kept looking at the camera coupon, and looked, and I said it doesn't specify any certain type of camera - only a Kodak camera. Her problem was that the camera only cost $3.84. She said she couldn't take a coupon for more than item cost. I said yes, she should put the coupon in for $3.84. She insisted no, she couldn't do that. Rather than keep arguing, because I had alot more places still to go, I said, just take the camera off then.

She went on scanning other coupons, the $2.00 cat treat coupon beeped, so she was scrolling back, looking for the price on them, and said she'd take off the camera while she was up there.  I mentioned that the Target in Hiram takes the coupon. So she asked the cashier in the next lane, who told her yes they could adjust the coupon to the price of the item.

So then she was all sorry she had told me wrong, and entered the coupon for $3.84, and when the cat treats coupon beeped, she just hit the button to push it on through. I'm not positive but I think it beeped because she scanned the Target coupon first and it took the price of the treats down to .82 each, intead of the $1.24 they were originally.

The Tinkerbell DVD + Blu-Ray Combos I got for $4.99 each with $10.00 mq and $5 Target q.

I got really, really lucky to have gotten them.  The shelf was empty and I figured it was another deal I had missed out on. Then there was a man asking an employee to check in the back if they had a DVD he was looking for, so just for the heck of it I asked her to check for the Tinkerbell one.  Figuring no way they'd have any.

To my great surprise, she came back and told the guy they didn't have any of the one he was looking for, but did have mine, and she'd have to go in the back and get them. Yayyy!

Total cost for everything was $12.something including tax, which I paid with Target Gift Cards earned from past deals. So, $0 oop.

Food Lion

Food Lion sent me a mailer with coupons for free Folgers coffee, free Nestle tollhouse morsels, and free 7-Up. I had manu. coupons for the Folgers and Morsels I had no idea if they'd take, but can't lose anything by trying, right.
She said you gave me two coupons on this (the morsels). I said one was a Food Lion coupon and one was a manufacturer coupon. She didn't say anything else and scanned it and it didn't beep.

The cereal was a little steep, considering the last many, many boxes I've bought have been free, but you hardly ever see Post cereals on sale and with coupon and I also got a $1.00 OYNO catalina coupon when I bought 2 boxes.

The clementines were on MVP for $4.99, and I had the $2/$5 FLip.

Total oop $3.70 - $1.00 Cat = $2.70

Victoria's Secret

I had one more coupon for the Free Solid Tank with any Pink purchase, so I ran back in for one more tank shirt for my neice. Total oop $1.61

CVS

In one of those rare, perfect alignment of the stars kind of events, CVS had a $19.99 sale on coffeemakers, rotating waffle makers, and crock pots, and at the same time there was a printable coupon for $10.00 off one of these applicances, and another $5/$20 printable coupon.  If you're able to use both coupons together, it made the appliances $4.99 each!

I ended up with (3) coffee makers, (3) waffle makers, and (2) crock pots.

The rest of the items I bought either to bring the total up to the amount of ECB I had to spend, or just to burn an ECB.

Haven't figured out my totals...been too busy with Christmas stuff...but I burned all the ECBs I had wanted to except for $3.59....and, at the first CVS, the total was something like .49 or .62 or some cents like that - I used my debit card and got $20.00 cash back.  After all my shopping all day, I came home with $5.00 cash.

Walgreens

I had $20 worth of RR's expiring I knew I needed to get rid of because I'd be busy with the holiday and going out of town. But after shopping (3) CVS's, and having to switch to Wags Mode, I guess I really switched into Wags Mode! I not only didn't spend a single RR, but came out with $8 more RRs than I had went in with!

The Theraflu was 2/$10, and I used (2) $2.00 coupons, (1) $2.00 Wags q from the Healthy Savings book and (1) $2.00 Wags q from the Diabetes and You book (I think those are right amounts/booklets...not looking at my information right now)....anyway, got $2.00 overage on the Theraflu.

Then pretty much the same on the Comtrex. It was $5.99 per box, I had $2.00 mqs, and $2.00 Wags q's from two different booklets....When you use a Wags q, you only need one, but it takes off the amount on each item you have. So since I bought two boxes of Comtrex, one of the coupons took off $3.00 two times, and the other $2.00 two times. I got $2.02 overage on the Comtrex.

The rest of the items I bought were to use up the overage, bringing my oop down to .56 plus tax each time.
I got $3 RR for the Theraflus, and $2.00 RR for the Stress Therapy Bath Oil.

It was just dumb luck that I got a 2nd chance at spending my RRs, because I decided at the last minute to take a different route home, that ended up taking me by a Walgreens. I had been thinking I would come out below, way down the road, from the Wags.
This whole shop turned out to be good luck.

I had just left CVS, and wished I had bought something to drink but didn't want to go back in, so at Wags about the first thing I did was head to the fridge for a Refreshing Cola.
Then I found the Digital Picture keychains on clearance for $5.19, marked down from $29.99 - but the price marked on the package says $49.99, so that make it look like I spent alot of money, lol.
I had also been lamenting that I had neglected to buy my baby cousin a gift at one of the many CVSs I had visited that day, so I was glad to find the foam letters puzzle mat.
The bows, ribbon, and Cakesters were fillers.

I figured my total at $24.16, gave her my Wags q for the bows/ribbon, and then $24.00 worth of $2 and $3 RRs. Everything scanned and my final oop total was......16 cents!

Because I'm so slow-witted, at the time all I thought was, Wow, I figured it right.  I was on down the road before I thought....wait, what?
Yes, there is no tax on my receipt. Not a penny. It doesn't even mention tax, not even tax 0.00.  Weird!

Kevin

Being that my kids are older, and I'm not much of a movie/tv watcher anyway, I haven't paid much attention to the Disney movies in the past few years.

A month or so ago, I guess, I had some extra ECBs I needed to burn, so I bought the movie "UP" at CVS. Brought it home and stuck it on my DVD shelf and didn't think of it until today.

Today I was thinking about our trip to Florida, and what movies we might take to watch on the way. I remembered I had this movie, and if nothing else it was something new, none of us had seen before. So I opened it up.

Papers/ads fell out in my lap, and one of them was a Magic Code thing I could put in at Disney Rewards and be able to get the "Baby Kevin" for free + s/h, and Mommy Kevin for $10.99 + s/h.

Well, that caught my attention pretty quickly, considering my youngest son's name is Kevin.

But then, considering my youngest son is 15 years old, and wouldn't be interested in dolls, pretty much lost it again.

But no, I'm really a sucker for stuff like this, and thought well, I'll see if anyone's listed them on ebay. Several, several years ago one of the boys wanted a POTC computer-mouse from a cereal promo, and I was able to find it for next to nothing on ebay.

Imagine my surprise when I see these Kevin dolls going for anywhere from $30 - $100 on ebay right now! $100.00!!

I thought, "Well, at least I'm not the biggest sucker out there", and went and ordered mine for $18.49 including s/h.

Mall Shopping Part 2

Went back to try Mall Shopping with Coupons again, this time at a more local mall. Still had my Victoria Secret Coupons I wanted to use, and a new Body & Bath Works Free Lip Item coupon, and was able to print (4) more Hallmark coupons.

There's only one Hallmark at the Mall, but there's another one in a shop center on the way, so we stopped in there first.  At it, we found Christmas gift bags for $.99, tissue paper $1.49, and a box of Peppermint Bark candy for $3.00.
Total $5.48 - $5.00 coupon = $0.48 + .04 tax = $0.52 oop each

At the other Hallmark we found little personalized candy cane Christmas ornaments for $3.99. My oldest son's girlfriend says she hardly ever finds her name on mass produced personalized items like this, so I was glad to find one with her name on it. So then Ryan bought his brother's name on one so they'd have a set. They also had tiny litttle gift bags, printed with the Legend of the Candy Cane on them, for $1.99.
Total $5.98 - $5.00 coupon = $0.98 + .42 tax = $1.40 oop each

At Bath & Body Works, I bought a Hand Sanitizer for $1.50, and got the $7.00 Liplicious Frozen Daquiri flavor Tasty Lip Color for Free. Total $1.61 oop

Then, Victoria's Secret. I looked around for the suckers, for anything cheap to be able to buy to use my $5 Tee and Free Tank coupons with. I couldn't find anything, and almost left again, and then, at the last minute, happened to look up and see the cardboard Christmas Tree display with the Lollipops sitting on top of the Cheeksters display cart thing. Then I was back in bidness.

I asked one of the Ladies which Pink Nation Tee the coupon meant, and she said she guessed any of the T's in the Pink section, which it wasn't. They had a special T in the back they had to get for me.  I also thought it was going to cost me $5 with purchase, but turned out it was free w/ purchase. Even better!

Total $29.50 + 1.50 = $31.00 - 29.50 coupon = $1.50 + .11 tax = $1.61 oop

The other coupon was for the Free Solid Tank with purchase.

Total $16.50 + 1.50 = $18.00 - 16.50 coupon = $1.50 + .11 tax = $1.61 oop

I also had a $10.00 off Certificate, but they said because it says "One Certificate Per Transaction and Per Day" that I couldn't also use it, and the other two coupons, even doing separate transactions...and even though it was a Certificate, and Not a coupon. They were going to let my son use it, though...even though it has my name printed on it, and I have no idea how it would be known that he used the Certificate and not me...but Whatever!

(Ryan had gone to Sears, and I doubt I would've been able to get him to come in that store anyway.) 

Oh well, that one is good until February. Maybe I'll find a good deal to use it on later.

Not at the Mall, but stopped by Staples to buy another pack of Free-After-Rewards batteries. I had a 10% Off Highest Item Price coupon which took off $1.30 = $11.69. I also had some Rewards left I needed to spend before 12/31 which took off $9.31 = $2.38 + .17 tax = $2.55 oop.
Will get back $12.99 Rewards
All in all I'd say it was a good shopping evening.
Except I forgot my Walgreens envelope, and I had planned to spend some more RRs on some more Stocking Stuffers.

Walmart

CVS

With the luck I've been having lately, I decided to not bother with trying for the early deals last night, so I got up and out early this morning, and was at the first CVS by 8:00am.  At least, my body was there...apparently my brain was still home in bed asleep.  Even though I was carrying a list, spelled out, what I was supposed to buy, I forgot the Listerine.

The boy rang up my $5/$30 first, then my ECBs, then my coupons. Of course since my total was $3.00 less than I had been planning, I had overpaid in ECBs, and then it wouldn't accept my last coupon.

Transaction #1

$6.99 Revlon Lipstick x 3

$5.99 Nivea Body Wash

$2.49 Thermacare x 5

$1.99 Aleril

= $41.40

-5.00/30.00

-2.00 Revlon x 3

-2.00 Nivea

-1.00 Thermacare x 4

-3.99 ECB

-5.00 ECB

-6.99 ECB

-10.00 ECB

Total:  -1.58 + 1.85 tax = $0.27 oop

Received: $1.00 Green Bag Tag, $1.99 Aleril, $5.00 Nivea, $12.45 Thermacare, $15.00 Revlon = $35.44

= $9.19 Profit

*I had $55.54 ECBs, and had planned to blow the remaining $29.15 left after today's purchases - since I was getting back over $35.00 ECBs to work with later on - but I couldn't find anything worth blowing them on.

Transaction #2

$6.99 Revlon Lipstick x 2

$5.99 Nivea Body Wash

$2.49 Thermacare x 5

= $32.42

-5.00/30.00

-2.00 Revlon x 2

-2.00 Nivea

-1.00 Thermacare x 5

-1.99 ECB

-3.99 ECB

-10.00 ECB

Total: $0.44 + 1.92 = $2.36 oop

Received: $5.00 Nivea, $10.00 Revlon, $12.45 Thermacare = $27.45

= $9.11 Profit

*Happened again; I had another $32.00 ECBs in addition to the ones I spent on my purchase I was planning to blow, but couldn't find anything I wanted to buy today.  Maybe later in the week.

Transaction #3

*The first time I tried to do Transaction #3, I knew I was in trouble when the cashier pointed at my coupons on the counter and asked "Do you want me to scan all those?". 

The Revlon coupons beeped - as usual - so she slid them back at me. I wouldn't take them, and told her they always beep, I don't know why, but at the other CVS, they push a button and it takes them. So she called a manager, who was actually only a Shift Supervisor. Then she scanned the Listerine coupon and it beeped, too.

So the Shift Supervisor came out and looked at the coupons and the items and scanned the Revlon and it said Item Not Found. I said well you can clearly see I bought Revlon cosmestics. So she comes up with that stupid "It's only for the items pictured on the coupon" BS.  I pointed out it says ANY, but she argued with me. She was right, I was wrong, Case closed.

She offered to take the lipstick off...I told her she could take the whole thing off, I was taking my business elsewhere.

Since my $5/$30 had already scanned, it would beep as already being used at another CVS, so I had to come all the way back home and get another one. I figured she'd call the other CVSs in the area and tell them to not take my Revlon coupons anyway, so fie on her. I went to another town.

At the next one, the girl didn't even try to scan them, and entered them manually from the first, and didn't have any problem selling me my items.

I was late getting there, though, and they only had 4 Thermacare left :-(  Had to substitute with an Aleril to bring my total up near $30.00.

$6.99 Revlon x 2

$3.99 Listerine

$2.49 Thermacare x 4

$1.99 Aleril

= $29.92

-5.00/30.00

-2.00 Revlon x 2

-1.00 Listerine

-1.00 Thermacare x 4

-3.99 ECB

-8.99 ECB

Total: $2.94 + 1.39 tax = $4.33

Received: $1.99 Aleril, 3.00 Listerine, $9.96 Thermacare, $10.00 Revlon = $24.95

= $7.64 Profit

Walgreens

$14.99 4GB SD Card

$ 7.99 Aleve Gel Caps

$ 6.49 Aleve Caplets

$ 6.49 Aleve Caplets

$  .89 MnMs

$  .70 MnMs

$  .89 MnMs

$  .70 MnMs

= $39.14

-1.00 Aleve MQ x 3

-9.00 Aleve WQ

-1.62 Mars WQ

-25.00 RRs

= .57 + 1.65 tax = $2.17

I should have gotten a $5 RR back for buying $20+ of Aleve, but apparently ? because they didn't hit Subtotal before scanning my coupons, it went below the $20.00 level.  I never heard of that happening...I guess I've just been lucky everytime I shopped for the past year that they've hit the Subtotal every single time?

This whole deal has earned a cashier and a manager a complaint. Unhelpful, arugmentive, and more worried about what he's going to buy his woman for Christmas than customer assisting.

This wasn't one of my regular Walgreens...and won't be in the future, either.

Target

$1.00 Ray-O-Vac Batteries x 10

$1.24 Party Mix Cat Treats x 4

$1.78 Nestle Morsels

= $16.74

-1.00 Ray-O-Vac IP MQ x 10

-1.00/2 Purina Cat Treat TQ x 2

-2.00/2 Party Mix Treats MQ x 2

= $0.74 + .96 tax = $1.70 paid by Gift Card

Rite Aid

$9.99 Flip Remote

$3.99 Comtrex

$2.99 Chapstick

$0.99 Prell x 3

$0.99 LA Looks Gel x 6

= $25.88

-5.00/25.00 RAQ

-2.00 Comtrex RAQ

-2.00 Comtrex MQ

-1.00 LA Looks Gel MQ x 6

= $10.88 + 1.81 tax = $12.69

SCRs: $10.00 Flip Remote, $2.99 Chapstick, $6.00 Prell = $18.99 = $6.30 Profit

$7.99 Nivea Body Lotion

$3.99 4-Way Nasal Spray

$2.99 Nivea Lip x 4

= $ 23.94

-5.00/20.00 RAQ

-7.99 Nivea MQ

-2.99 Nivea Lip MQ x 2

-2.00 4-Way RAQ

-1.50 4-Way MQ

= $1.47 + 1.33 tax = $2.80

SCRs: $2.00 Nivea Lip, $1.00 Nivea Body = $3.00 = $1.53 Profit

Publix

Value Before Coupons: $28.22

Total: -2.28 + .57 tax = -1.71 profit

Walgreens

I had ALOT of RRs expiring soon, and looking at this and next week's ads didn't look good for rolling, so I decided I'd just burn them...needed to buy some Christmas presents anyway.

I did start out by rolling some of last week's $5 HDs on the Complete, and earned a $4 profit, but after that I just started spending them. I got some BOGO $6.99 toys, and a hand mixer and a watch for my son's fiancee', and a handheld electronic find-a-word game. Some Fritos and candy stocking stuffers, and stocked up on 12-packs of Cokes.

The scotch mailer envelopes, Hunts tomato sauce, and Jellos were all free after coupons, so I got them, well, because they gave them to me.

Total Value of Items before Coupons: $203.88

Spent OOP, including tax: $9.22

I started out with $143.00 RRs

Came home with $65.00 RRs

(Spent $8.00 RR at Publix)

CVS Plan for Next Week

This week only there is a $5/$20 IP coupon for CVS. But by the time it came out I had pretty missed all the free-after-ECB deals, and couldn't put together any other good deals to use it on.

But then looking ahead to next week, there are some deals. None of which appear to be 3-day sales, and therefore should start early at my CVS, which closes up at 9pm. (Sale starts at midnight at 24 hour CVSs)

So if I can get my act together and my hiney up there Saturday evening, I should be able to score next weeks deals, using this weeks' good coupon.

But if I can't, it looks like there might be enough to put together a $30 purchase and be able to use the $5/$30 IP coupon anyway.

Alteril Sleep Aid 4 ct $1.99 get $1.99 eb limit 1
(Free-after-ECB)

Crest or Oral-B Pro-Health toothpaste, rinse, floss or SuperFloss $2.88 get $2 eb limit 1
-$1 ($.75 in some areas) Crest Toothpaste, 4.1 oz + or liquid gel P & G 11/29/09
-$1 Crest Premium Toothpaste: Crest Multicare, Extra Whitening, Whitening Expressions, Whitening Plus Scope, Vivid White, Sensitivity, Pro-Health Or Weekly Clean, Any 4 Oz. + - 12-06-09 RP
(Makes it  .13 or .12 profit after EBCs)

Nivea Body Wash 16.9 oz $5.99 get $5 eb limit 1
-$2 NIVEA Body Wash for Women (16.9 oz/500 ml)
-$1 Nivea Body Product, net wt 2.7oz-16.9fl oz RP 11/1/09
-$1 Nivea Body Wash for Women, 16.9 Fl oz RP 12/6/09
-$1 Nivea Body Wash for Women, 16.9 fl. oz-500ml RP 11/1/09 or RP 10/11/09
($1.00 off makes it free-after-ECB; $2.00 off makes it $1.00 MM-after-ECB)

Revlon Super Lustrous or Moon Drops Lipstick $6.99 get $5 eb limit 3
-$2 Revlon Color Cosmetic (exp 12-20-09) SS 11/15/09
(Makes it free-after-ECB)

ThermaCare Neck to Arm wrap 1 ct $2.49 get $2.49 eb limit 5
-$1 Thermacare IP
(Makes it $1.00 MM-after-ECB)

Glade get $4 EB wyb $12:
Sense & Spray or Lasting Impressions $6
Essentials oils candle 4 oz, scented oil candle refills or holder, Sense & Spray refill, fresh refills 3 pk, or scented oil refill 2/$6 limit 1
-$4 Glade Sense & Spray
(Buy 2, Use 2 coupons, makes it free-after-ECB)

Listerine Antiseptic 500 ml or PocketPaks 72 ct $3.99 get $3 eb limit 1
-$.50 Efferdent, 78ct+ or Listerine Pocketpaks, 24 ct + or any Listerine Pocketmist or any Plax Rinse SS 8/2/09
-$.50 Efferdent, 78ct+, Listerine Pocket Paks, 24ct+, or Plax Rinse V 4/26/09
-$.50 Listerine Antiseptic ,500ml V 4/26/09
-$1 Listerine Antiseptic 500ml+, Listerine Agent Cool Blue, Listerine Whitening Rinse, 16 fl oz + RP 12/6/09
-$.50 Listerine Antiseptic Or Advanced Antiseptic 500 ml+ V 10/4/09
-$.50 Listerine Antiseptic, 500 ml+ OR Plax rinse OR Efferdent 78 ct+ OR Listerine Pocketpaks, 24 ct+, etc SS 6/14/09
($1.00 off makes it free-after-ECB)

First thing I want to go for are my MoneyMakers, which are the Thermacare and Nivea. The Thermacare is Limit 5 - yay!

$12.45 Thermacare @ $2.49 x 5
$ 5.99 Nivea Body Wash
$ 1.99 Alteril Sleep Aid (ha, this something I sure don't need! lol)
= $20.43
-5.00/20.00 CVS IP q
-5.00 (5) $1.00 Thermare IP q's
-2.00 Nivea IP q
= $8.43 + tax (about $1.43 here)

Get back ECBs: $12.45 Thermacare, $5.00 Nivea, $1.00 Alteril = $19.44

Final total about $9.58 Profit after tax

Then do this one:
$20.97 Revlon Lipstick x 3
$12.00 Glade Sense & Spray x 2
$ 3.99 Listerine
= $36.96
-5.00/30.00 CVS IP q
-8.00 Glade S&S x 2
-1.00 Listerine
-6.00 Revlon x 3
= $16.96 + tax (about $2.59 for me)

Get back $4.00 Glade, 3.00 Listerine, $15.00 Revlon = 22.00

Final Total $2.45 Profit after tax

*Yes, I could do the (3) Revlon lipsticks separate and used another $5/$20 coupon, but then I would only have Glade and Listerine left, and they don't add up to $20.00. So I'd have to spend $4.01 to bring my total up to $20.00.  After coupons, my total would be $6.00 + tax, but I'd only get $5.00 ECBs back, so I end up losing $1.00 + tax on the deal.

*I didn't get any of the Crest coupons....if I had, then I could have broken the plan into (3) transactions. The Glade, Listerine and Crest, plus a $1.13 filler to bring the total to $20.00. After coupons my total would be $5.00, and then get $7.00 ECBs back. After tax it would only be like a .60 profit.  I likely wouldn't have bothered with a 3rd transaction for so little profit, and just stuck the Crest in with #1 transaction.

Rite Aid

Rite Aid hasn't been good to me lately...mainly, I think, because I missed out on the 11/29 P&G insert. Although it's labeled as the 11/29 insert, it actually came out in the 11/27 paper here, and wasn't in the 11/29 papers I got.

Anyway, I managed to eke out a couple of scenarios this week...which already need re-adjusting. One of my plans involved 5 bottles of Prell shampoo, which apparently ain't happening.

I did manage to score a Nivea deal, and found some of those coupon booklets in the store, so maybe I can find some more deals now.

$2.99 Nivea Lip x 4
$7.99 Nivea Body Lotion
= $19.95

Used:
$5/$20 VV coupon
-2.99 BOGO Nivea 11/01 RP
-2.99 BOGO Nivea 11/01 RP
-7.99 Free Body Lotion wyb (3) Nivea Lip

= $0.98 + .90 tax = $1.88 oop

SCRs: $2.99 Nivea Lip, $1.00 Nivea Body = $2.11 Profit

Publix

Maria made my shopping at Publix not such a pleasure today.

The Fresh Express salads signs said BOGO $3.19, but rang up BOGO $3.99. She brought out an ad and showed me sale price in it. I said there was some salads back there for $3.99, but the signs on THESE were $3.19.  So she sent the bagger back there to check, and sure enough he come back and said yep, they all had had signs saying they were $3.19.  Mariah didn't like that, and still wanted to argue that the sale price, in the ad, was $3.99.  So then another lady went back to look at the prices on the salads.  She came back and was prepared to give me .80 off per bag. I asked what about the policy when an item rings up wrong, I get it free?  Mariah said, well, that's only on regular priced items, isn't it?  The other lady knew it was not, and took off the price of one bag of the salad and .80 off the other.

So then Mariah hands me back my BOGO egg coupon and says I can't use it because the eggs were already free with the other coupons. I said those were store coupons, this is a Manufacturer coupon, that Publix will reimbursed for, we are allowed to use them together.  Any other time a cashier wouldn't argue and just put it through - since, yes, they will get reimbursed for it - but not Miss I'm Right and You're Wrong. She turned and asked the other cashier, I couldn't hear what he said, but Mariah still said she couldn't take the coupon.

Then she reduced the overage on my chocolate milk coupon.

I went to the Service Desk after checking out to question the egg coupons, and the other lady came running up there with my Publix Cheese/Eggs coupons....I had already told them I'd used Publix coupons that made my eggs free, however, would not the Manufacturer coupon not work like overage.
They said no, the eggs were already free, they couldn't give me anymore.

I didn't say, well, that makes perfect sense....since alot of stuff is free at some point, and yet you still give me the rest of the coupon value, ie. Overage.

Whatever. It worked out for me in the end with the free salad, and I still have my egg coupon to use at another Publix.

Value of items before coupons: $50.12
Total Spent: -.35 + 1.66 tax = $1.31

Mall Shopping

I'm not much of a Mall shopper. Generally I go about once a year when the boys need new shoes. But every once in a blue moon I enjoy going to the Mall at Christmas.

When I was younger - teens, early/mid 20's - going to The Mall then was as essential to us as going grocery shopping. We were there all the time.  At Christmas of 1986, we walked Cumberland Mall for 7 hours trying to make me go into labor (didn't work).  When I was pregnant in 1994, we had to go to Town Center Mall all the time because I craved Chik-Fil-A lemonade, and it was the closest place to get it.
Then, of course we took the kids for pictures with Santa every year.

The first year we moved into this house, my son's school took them on a field trip up to Riverbend Mall in Rome to have them visit with Santa.  We went back later and did some shopping.
But then after that Riverbend Mall closed down, and I didn't know where the new Martha Bery Mall was, so we stopped going to the Mall for a good while.

At some point I found Martha Berry Mall, but I guess we were just out of the habit by then. We'd go once in awhile. I'd take the boys and try to take some pictures of them with some of the Christmas decorations, but I'm not that great a photographer anyway.  And then alot of the stores started closing up. It never was a really busy mall anyway....don't know whose big, dumb idea it was to move the mall from down in town in the absolute center of all the shopping, to out in the country where there was nothing else around. Did they assume all the other stores would follow them? They were wrong.

Other than MBM, the last Mall we went to was over in Anniston, Alabama a few years ago. I was having trouble figuring out what to buy my people for Christmas, and I believe I was looking for some Hot Electronic for the boys that year, and we somehow made our way over there.  I enjoyed it. Most of the time I don't like crowds or lines or aggrivation. But I like the hustle-bustle of Christmas at The Mall for some reason. I really love all the decorations, and seeing everyone with their shopping bags.

These past several months since I started coupon shopping, there have been sales/coupons for Mall stores, but I've just been like, Yea, whatever, I don't care about that.  Then the other day I watched one of Collin's "Follow Me" videos at Hip2Save, where she went Mall shopping with coupons. She made it all look so exciting - and I am such a sucker for that kind of thing. She spent like $40.00 on $100.00 worth of items. Items I wouldn't have bought, but what the heck, it's only money, right.

We had been wanting to go on a family outing up to Rock City anyway, to the Enchanted Garden of Lights event. It didn't start until 6:00pm, so I thought it'd be a good day to spend carousing the Hamilton Place Mall, enjoying the Season and decorations, and seeing if I could do any good at Coupon Shopping at The Mall.

First I went into The Limited, with a $15/$15 coupon. But the cheapest item they had was skimpy spagetti-strap tops or tshirts for $24.50.  Even with $15.00 off, it was still around $9.00. I just couldn't pay that. I get those same tops at the thrift store for .50 cents.

Next we went into Bath & Body works. I had two coupons, one was Get a Signature Collections Travel size item Free with Any Purchase. So my husband got one of $5/$5 hand sanitizers, and a Signature Collections travel size Shower Gel.  Turns out when you only buy one, the hand sanitizers aren't $1.00, but the regular price of $1.50.  He paid $1.64 including tax for the hand sanitizer and shower gel.  Not too bad, I guess. Good for travel.

My coupon was for Free Item (up to $13.00) with $10.00 purchase (excluding 3-wick candles, Scentbug, and Giftsets).  I got a pair of chenille socks that I thought were $7.50, but turned out to be $5.00, and a tin of mints for $2.50. I got another tin of mints when I found out the socks were cheaper.  For my free item I got some kind of Plug-in Diffuser valued at $12.50.

So I spent $10.93 for $22.50 worth of items. Except the stuff was so overpriced, I don't feel like I really got a deal at all. Nor did I really want or need any of the items.  It was good for the experiment, though, and good if someone actually wants/needs this stuff, or has someone to give it to as Christmas presents.

Next we visited a Hallmark Store. Wished I'd known there was 2 Hallmarks in the Mall, but then again, my husband might have blown a spark plug if I'd made him do it again.
I had 3 of the $5 off coupons to Hallmark, so I gave my husband and middle son one (the other kids went off shopping by themselves), with instructions to look for something for $5.00, or right at, could be a combination of things, long as they added up to $5.00 or just over.

Right at the front doors of the store was two displays with candy and small Christmas doo-dads for around $5.00 and under. And more around the checkout counter. I got a bag of Runts for my youngest son (priced at $4.00!!! OMG) and a Russell Stover type candy for $1.25 that I could get at Walgreens for .39.
But my total after coupon was .74 cents, so can't hardly complain about that.

Ryan found himself a bag of Sour Patch kids candy and a couple of chocolate covered pretzels. His total after coupon was $1.50. He didn't think he did so well, but it wasn't too bad.

John had found himself an ABBA CD on the 40% off shelf, marked down to $5.37. He said he had found something he was going to buy, since his other one had gotten destroyed when "Someone" (Ryan) had wrecked the car. I read over the coupon to make sure it didn't exclude mark down/clearanced items, and didn't see that it did, so I said get it then.  So he paid .87 for his ABBA CD.
(Instead of being pleased with his deal, he was mad because he'd had to pay his .87 with his debit card. Nevermind it was his own fault he forgot to pick up his money off his counter before we left.)

I had gotten a coupon booklet in the mail from JCPenney, with a coupon for $10.00 off a $25.00 purchase. Normally I wouldn't have thought that a good deal, but I actually shop at JCPenney for the boys' jeans and usually buy one or more of them a Hoodie for Christmas. In a sale I can usually find Hoodie's around $25.00, so getting it for $15.00 would have been a good deal for me.

But apparently there wasn't a sale...actually I couldn't even find any Hoodies like I was looking for, with some sort of current musical group logo on it.
They had some deerhunting printed sweatshirts my husband liked on clearance for $9.99, so we got one of those, and then Ryan said he'd like another zippered hooded jacket like he was wearing, but in a different color.  We had got a real deal on it, at Kohl's. It was on sale for $15.99, and my Mom had given me a $15.00 Any Purchase card she'd gotten in the mail, so we ended up paying $1.06 for it. Not as great a deal this time. They were $19.99.

Total spent $22.00 after coupon

I also had a couple of coupons for Victoria's Secret, which I was looking forward to using to get some things for my 19-year old neice. I had the Free Solid Tank with Any Pink Purchase, $5 Pink Nation T with Any Purchase, and $10.00 Certificate.
According to others' reports, they had found $5.00 items to buy, got the Tank free, got $5 T and spent the $10 on all of it. But I was told I couldn't use all the coupons together.
Well, okay, I really kind of expected that anyway. But I couldn't find any $5 items. No $1.50 pink lollipops. No $5 panties.  They were having a 5/$25 Cheeksters sale, but if you only bought one it was regular price.

I got confused and frustrated, so just left. I can go to the VS at MBM one day next week and see if I can do any better without a crowd and my family waiting on me.

I also had a $10/$20 Yankee Candle coupon, but I didn't even go there. I decided I didn't need to waste another $10.00, even for my experiment.

We got some PretzelTime pretzel bites - no coupon - but these were a treat...we don't get them anymore since the one at MBM closed up!

I had wanted to check out the new Earth Fare store, and had my coupons for a free Poinsettia, but we didn't know we were going around there, and there was so much traffic, and the weather was so nasty. So we just went on our way.

Food Lion

My Food Lion plan didn't go as planned. 

The boneless chuck roast was on sale this week for $1.79lb. They only had large size packages, 4-5+lbs. I asked the butcher to grind mine up into approx. 1lb packages, which he did, but instead of pricing them individually, he put the original price sticker on one of the packages, for all of them.

I asked him about pricing them separately, but he said no, not for that price. (Even though the sale ad doesn't specify Family or 5lb or any certain size.)

Had the plan worked out, I would have been able to do 2 transactions of approx. $10.00 each; minus $2.00 FLip, minus approx. 4.92 MVP sale; spending about $3.00 on each 2.75lb.

But instead the total was $9.88 after MVP, and $2.00 FLip, so I paid about $3.94 per 2.75lb.

Still a good price for ground chuck, though.

The Pecans rang up 4.99, instead of 2.99...I didn't catch it until I was checked out, but the CS Manager gave me a $2.06 refund.

Final total $9.58 + .61 tax = $10.19

Walmart

Went to Walmart looking for the Connect 4x4 game, but they didn't seem to have any. Got some dominoes instead. We played dominoes at Mom's at Thanksgiving and had a good time, so I thought we might enjoy some of our own.

Also wanted to try n see if I could get free Snuggle dryer sheets.

I spent about 15 minutes lurking around the checkouts trying to figure out which line to go in. Finally ended up in the self-check with a young guy working them.

My Hormel party tray coupon worked, the Ore-Ida coupon beeped, so the feller came and typed in his code and put them through, along with the Snuggle and Adams coupons.

Total $1.35 + .86 tax = $2.21

Walgreens

Did three transactions at Wags today. I didn't get around to printing any more coupons for some of the FARR deals, and I didn't really want to get them without being money-makers. The Conair brushes and Neutrogena I ended up getting was to be able to bring my total up to/over $25.00 without spending money (I spent the money, in RRs, but got them back since the items were free after RR).

They didn't have any of the Theraflu or Comtrex, and this store has a limit of 1 RR deal per day so I couldn't get anymore Triaminic.

Trans #1

$14.00 ALL x 4

$10.00 Triminic x 2

$2.00 Conair brushes

-2.00 ALL x 4

-2.00 Triaminic x 2

-4.00 Triaminic Wags Q

-10.00 RR

Subtotal = .00

tax = 1.56

Received RRs: $5.00 Triaminic, $2.00 Conair, $5.00 Wags Holiday Dollars

Final Total $0.44 profit

Trans #2
$10.00/3 Coke 12-pks
$14.00 ALL x 4
$2.49 Peak Window Wash liquid

-2.00 ALL x 4
- .99 Peak Wags in-ad Q

-17.00 RR

Subtotal = .50
tax = 1.13

Received RRs: $2.00 Coke, $5.00 Wags Holiday Dollars

Final Total $11.63

Trans #3
$10.50 ALL x 3
$4.99 Neutrogena Shave Cream
$4.00/3 Choc Covered Cherries
$3.16 Wags Root Beer x 4
$2.49 Peak Window Wash liquid
$  .78 Nerds x 2

-2.00 x 3 ALL
-1.60 Root Beer in-ad q
- .99 Peak in-ad q

-17.00 RRs

Subtotal = .33
tax = 1.15

Received RRs: $5.00 Neutrogena, $5.00 Wags Holiday Dollars

Final Total $8.48

Target

Made 2 different trips to Target today; once going, once coming.

Both times I got:

$.97 Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate

-.97 Swiss Miss Target IP

= Free

$1.89 Mott's Apple Juice

-1.00 Mott's Apple Juice Target IP

= .89

$.47 Contadina Tomato Sauce x 3

-.75/3 Contadina MQ IP

= .66 or .22 each

$1.24 Purina Cat Party Mix x 2

-1.00/2 Target IP

-2.00/2 MQ

= -.52 overage

In my first transaction I tried getting the Kodak Single-Use Camera with the $5.00 Target coupon.  The guy tried a couple of times, but said, "Unfortunately, this coupon is for 'actual' cameras. It won't let me take it."

I told him to just take it off and I didn't get it.

But as I've learned in my time of coupon shopping, just because it won't work one time, don't mean it won't the next.

In the first transaction, I had assumed the coupon would self-adjust itself down to the $3.85 price of the camera and work without beep. Since it didn't, I knew IF the next cashier allowed it, there was a good chance it would go through as $5.00 instead of $3.84. So I grabbed a pack of gum.

And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. It beeped, he pressed the key to take it anyway, and it took it.

My balance on the first order was $1.03, but the difference between the $5.00 coupon and the $3.84 camera price is $1.16, so I think what happened with the first order was that it tried to go into the negative, and wouldn't allow it.

Final Total Both Transactions: $2.18 paid from Gift Card

(I forgot to print my batteries coupons to get free batteries, boohoo)

Lovely Pink Cookware

My pretty pink breast cancer cookware arrived today. Got this free from a P&G rebate back in October.

Rebates can be a PITA to get submitted, but they pay off in the end.

Publix

They were plenty stocked with Benevia....way it goes. If it was something I wanted/needed to buy this week, they would've ran out the first day.  It's the last day of the sale, I had 10 coupons in my folder, so I went for broke. No problem.

I also used a $5/$50 Target card I got on a mailer last week.

After all the overage and what I bought, my balance was -2.93.

What I didn't figure on was over $6.00 tax. Ouch!

Oh well, $3.10 for everything I got, can't complain - especially since I racked up over $20.00 overage on my gift card(s) earlier this week.

Total Value before Coupons $121.32
Total Spent -$2.93 +  6.03 tax = $3.10 oop

Walgreens

So, headed off to Wags to see if I could pick up a couple of the "Get $5 RR wyb $25" deals. I didn't really go with a plan, not knowing what would be in stock, but was prepared for 2 deals, of the FARR items.

With the Triaminic and Theraflu deals, I managed to stretch it into 8 deals.

Not pictured are (2) boxes of Renu, and (2) packages of Stayfree pads, because I gave them to my very wonderful Wags cashier.

Total Value all items: $238.54

Total RRs Spent: $129.00

Total Cash Spent: $21.31

Total RRs Earned: $195.00

Final Total $44.69 Profit

The above totals include some gift items I bought that didn't give RRs:

$4 Connect 4x4 at Walmart

I wasn't paying too much attention to toys and games this year, since the boys are too big for toys, and we have a closet full of games. Then Ryan mentioned we "need" the new Connect 4x4 game, for up to 4 players, that the whole family can play.

My first thought was, oh dang, I already missed the sales/coupons.

But my Shopping Angel was listening, and in today's paper was Walmart's sales ad, with the game on sale for $9.00.

But even better, Collin at Hip2Save blog reminded me that there were some games printable coupons here.
I checked, and found a $5.00 off coupon for Connect 4x4! 

Makes the game $4.00! Yay!

Apparently I was paying even less attention than I first thought. The game at Walmart was the classic Connect 4, in a new packaging from what I'm used to, so I thought it was the Connect 4x4. It wasn't.
I couldn't find the Connect 4x4 at all to see what it cost, though.

Walgreens

Stopped in at Walgreens to grab some of the Triaminic. Had enough coupons for (5) deals, but this Wags has given me problems in the past, deciding to put a limit on stuff after they see me getting several deals, so I went for (3) today.

First off, only the pink box, Day Time Cough & Cold, rang up $5.00 a box, even though the sales ad writing doesn't specify only it (even though it is pictured in the ad), but back on the shelf all the spaces had tags reading 2/$10.00. 

So they price modified it for me, but had I not been paying attention, I'd have paid $6.99 each for the things.

I didn't think it would matter with the coupons, the Wags coupons aren't supposed to count towards item/coupon count, but she insisted on scanning my Wags coupon first, then my MQs. All the MQs beeped. But since they say for any Triaminic Thin Strips, she pushed them through manually.

So my deals worked out...but not without aggrivation.

Paid .70 tax on each....Got a $5.00 RR on each =  $12.90 Profit

CVS

Card 1 (Mine) - Transactions #1 & 2 went...okay. I found everything I was looking for, so that was good.

My $5/$30 coupon didn't scan or work, but they never do, the cashiers always put them in anyway.

Then of course the Meter coupon beeps wanting price, or Manager approval, or something.

Some or all of my other MQs beeped, they had to press a button for it to go through, don't know what was going on there.

Then, of all things, my ECBs beeped as not being to issued the card that was scanned. They certainly were!

So they had to manually enter those, too.

Trans #1

$14.99 Bayer Meter

$8.99 Zantac

$3.99 Santa Hat

$1.99 Mini Ornaments

= $29.96

-5.00/$30.00

-14.99 Meter

-2.00 Zantac

= $7.97

-4.00 ECB

-3.00 ECB

-  .89 ECB

Total .08 + 1.05 tax = $1.13

Received ECBs: $5.00 Meter, $8.99 Zantac, $3.99 Santa Hat, $1.99 Mini-Ornaments = $19.97

$10.95 Profit

Trans #2
$9.99 Complete Solution
$8.97 Huggies diapers
$3.99 EmergenC Immune Drink
$3.99 Santa Hat
$1.99 Mini-Ornaments
= $28.93 (I was supposed to have gotten another $1.07 worth of something to bring my total up to $30.00, but I forgot, and they didn't mention it.)
-5.00/$30.00     
-1.00 Complete
-2.00 Huggies
=$20.93
-19.97 ECBs (from Trans #1)

Total .96 + 2.03 tax = $2.99

Received ECBs: $9.99 Complete, $3.99 EmergenC, $3.99 Santa Hat, $1.99 Mini-Ornaments = $19.96

$3.00 Cost

Total for both transactions $7.95 Profit

Card 2 (Hubby's)....Ugh. Starting with the $5/$30 coupon that wouldn't scan, I got her to enter it manually. Then she started to take $30.00 off my Meter - which would have been great, had I $30.00 worth of other stuff to take up the overage, but since I didn't, that would have been a disaster. I explained to her the coupon was for "Up to" $30.00, but the meter only cost $14.99, so she needed to put in $14.99.  Wellll, she didn't think I could use a $30.00 coupon on something that only cost $14.99. The register said "Exceeded limit", or something to that effect. I said I'm pretty sure that's because the amount of the coupon is over $10.00 and it wants a Manager approval. 
She wasn't sure about all that, and asked another lady working there, who had no clue either. Well, it took it when she scanned the manager card or whatever, so they let me have it.
Then my darn ECBs beeped as not being issued to the card scanned again. I am positive I was using the right ECBs with the right cards. I keep them separated, and anyway we checked the numbers and they matched.

Transaction 2, coupons still beeping - maybe because my Huggies coupon was for 48 ct. or larger. People, you really should read your coupons before trying to use them, so you won't end up blowing all your plans and/or looking like an idiot, like me! 
I told her to just take off the diapers, and I'd have to refigure my plan...hoping she'd just take the diapers off, but leave the $5/$30 coupon on there anyway. But no, she voided the whole transaction and started over.  I figured I'd have to tell her to void it again and nevermind transaction 2 after she told me she couldn't use the $5/$30 coupon now, but no, she used the $5/$30 anyway.  She wouldn't take a $2.00 coupon on the diapers they would get reimbursed for anyway, but would take a $5/$30 off a $15.97 transaction. Okay, you're not going to hear me complaining.

Final Total for Card 2 - $16.01 Profit

Card 3 (Son's)....Gathered up my purchases for Transaction #1, but then they were out of Complete Solution, and I didn't know what was available to take the place of $9.99/$9.99 ECBs, and didn't care to stand there and try to figure it out.  Transaction 2 was always pretty optional anyway.
Transaction #1 always comes up to $29.96 before taxes. I think usually most of them look at after tax amount, but this lady said something to me about needing to spend 4 more cents. I told her they usually let me use it when I'm within a few cents under, but....So she took it. She entered it manually anyway, assuming it wouldn't work to scan it because I was under $30.00, so no issues with it not scanning.
She also didn't know what to do with the Bayer meter and I had to tell her about it wanting the $14.99 price, and/or needing an manager's approval for the amount of the coupon being over $10.00.  She said "I am a manager". Well, even better then.
AND, my ECB beeped as not issued to card.  It has got to be a CVS thing.

Total for Transaction #1: $11.13 Profit

They were having a sale on Dr. Pepper, 3/$7.00 with coupon the Cashier had at the register. Last week I paid 3/$8.00 for these.  They rang up like $5.69 each, which, even with the $1.00 off coupon the cashier was scanning wasn't the right price. So she had to price modify them, and put in $2.33 each, which actually adds up to $6.99. I gave her $6.99 in ECBs, and paid .21 tax cash.

So I got everything free, and still come out with $3.93 more than I spent (in ECBs and Cash).

Toys R Us

No luck at Toys R Us.

I left home at 7:30 and got there shortly after opening. The place was dead. The cashiers were sitting on the counters swinging their legs.

I showed my sales ad to one of the girls and told her I was looking for "this Ipod Touch deal". She said, "Ipod Touch?", and reached for my paper to see what I was talking about.
That told me right there they hadn't sold any Ipods this morning, with or without the Gift Card deal.

Then another lady, a Manager, I guess, popped her head from around a display and said "We're out of Ipod Touch-s". 

I said, but the sale just started.  She said, "I know, but..." Shrug.

I knew how all those people at the CVS's felt when they couldn't find any of those Rats that were supposed to be on sale this morning :-(

Saturday Shopping

Sorry, no Pictures....I left most of what I bought at Mom's.

Went for the newspapers first.  I had been waiting and buying them on Sunday at Walgreens or Publix with RRs or Overage, but I needed to see about the Triaminic coupons today, so I went ahead and got them with cashola.  $10.00 for 10 papers.  If my deal works out right; buying the Triaminic so I can get Diapers free, and selling the diapers for $5.00 each...I will make my $10.00 back, plus another $15.00 profit.
And that's not even counting all the other savings/profit from all the other coupons in this weeks paper. Looks like there's some good ones.

I went into Target hoping for some more Free Toddler wipes since the coupons expired today. Of course they were out.  Also no Ipod Touches.  I got 5 Glade candles, free after gift card, but actually better than free since I'm using gift cards earned from previous deals to pay for them.  No way I can figure out that math.

Then I went in Walgreens. They didn't have any of the Natrol Acai, darn it. That would have been some nice $3.00 overage.  I did get more Complete, some Dentek picks and floss, some Scunci elastics. Fillers were Christmas pencils and a box of Chocolate Covered Cherries.  Made $2.06 profit

Lastly I went into the Publix by my Mom's. Never been in it before, but now that I'm in that area more since my Mom moved there, thought I better check it out.
It was busy, but pretty cool - they fed me lunch!  They were having some sort of Festive or Festival or something...anyway, each department had a table set up with samples.

I got dessert first at the bakery...way every meal should start out...some kind of strawberry cake and chocolate-caramel cake. Yum!  From the Deli I got a chip with some Hummus on it. First time I ever had Hummus. Still don't know what it is. It was pretty good....I was really hungry, though.
The Produce department had mini-carrots and dip. Ew. I was hoping for some fruit.
Next a lady gave me a cup of Eggnog.  It was okay, a bit thick, or rich. The seafood dept had some kind of seafood dip on crackers, and I guess it was the Wine department? was having non-Alcoholic Sparkling juice tasting.

My goal was to find out the store's coupon policy, and to - hopefully - be able to get Benevia rainchecks. The CS Manager didn't seem sure - said it changed so much - but he believed at this time they were only taking Kroger and Publix coupons. They do allow overage on coupons, though, which is the main thing.

They had plenty of Benevia, so I went ahead and bought five, and 4 bottles of vitamins. 

Total before coupons $51.91
Total after coupons -4.09 + 3.11 tax = + .98 overage

Some of my overage went towards the Vitamins I bought for my Dad and Aunt. And the rest on tax. Ouch!

Staples

Free Batteries and Cheap Paper

The 100% Rewards Back on the Batteries continues this week.

If you use the .75 Duracell coupon from the 11/22 SS, you come out .75 to the good after Rewards.

Also on sale this week is Hammermill CopyPlus copy paper, 500-sheet Ream.
You pay $4.99, and get $3.99 Easy Rebate, making the paper cost $1.00 after Rebate.

Combined with your .75 profit on the batteries, your paper actually works out to cost only .25 after Rewards and Rebate.

There's a limit of 2 on both, so you can get 2 packs of batteries and 2 packs of paper, for about .50 plus tax.

CVS Plan 12/6 - 12/12

Check Southern Savers for the whole CVS sale for next week.

Here's my Plan:

$14.99 Bayer Meter
$8.99 Zantac 150 24-ct.
$3.99 Santa Hat
$1.99 Mini Ornaments

-$5/$30 Quiz Q
-14.99 Bayer 10/25 RP
- 1.00 Zantac SS 11/15, 10/18
-2.00 IP

- 6.99 ECB from last week

Total 1.98 + 2.10 tax = 4.08 oop

Receive ECBs: $5.00 Bayer, 8.99 Zantac, 3.99 Santa Hat, 1.99 Mini Orns = $19.97

Final Total $8.90 Profit   $9.90 Profit

OR I could do this:

$14.99 Bayer Meter
$8.99 Zantac 150 24-ct.
$9.99 Complete

-$5/$30 Quiz Q
-14.99 Bayer 10/25 RP
- 1.00 Zantac SS 11/15, 10/18
- 1.00 Complete RP 10/26

- 6.99 ECB from last week

Total 4.99 + 2.28 tax = 7.37 oop

Receive ECBs: $5.00 Bayer, 8.99 Zantac, 9.99 Complete = $23.98

Final Total $9.62 Profit

*Since I don't really need neither the Santa Hat/Ornaments or the Complete, I decided to go for the lower OOP, rather than the One More Dollar profit after ECBs. But if you need/use Complete, this is really the better deal.

THEN I could go on and do this:

$8.97 Huggies
$9.99 Complete (but not if I did the Plan B of Trans #1)
$3.99 Santa Hat
$1.99 Mini Ornaments
$3.99 Emergen-C
($1.07 item)

-$5/$30 Quiz Q
-  2.00 Huggies Parade Magazine 11/29
-  1.00 Complete RP 10/26

-19.97 ECBs from Transaction #1

Total $2.03 + 2.10 tax = $4.10 oop

Receive ECBs: $9.99 Complete, 3.99 Santa Hat, 1.99 Mini Ornaments, 3.99 Emergen-C = $19.96

Final total: $4.11 oop

Transaction #1 = $8.90 Profit
Transaction #2 = $4.11 OOP
                       = $4.79 Profit

Plus I can sell the diapers on craigslist for $5.00 or so.