More Surprise Money and Free Travel

Back in November/December, between getting ready for Christmas and going out of town, my concentration was more on gift shopping and burning expiring ECBs/RRs than it was on earning or profiting. I had fallen off in my Rite Aid shopping there at the end...and apparently forgot whatever shopping I had done before the Holidays.

So, Surprise! I got emails the other day letting me know I qualified for $15.00 worth of Holiday Gift of Savings Certificates.

~*~
Last weekend, a Citizen in my Husband's Zone put on a nice dinner gathering for the Emergency Services Agencies in the County.

In addition, she had a drawing for a door-prize, which my hubby won. The prize was 7 days and nights in her Beach House in Wrightsville, NC this Summer.

Very nice!!

January Final Totals

Publix January Totals
Beginning 01/06/10, I have $75.65 worth of Publix Gift Cards:

Transactions: 10
Total Spent: $10.66
*Total Increased: $29.83
Total Saved: $1,112.31
Total Remaining on Cards: $94.82

Food Lion January Totals
Transactions: 1
Value Before Savings/Coupons: $10.54
Total Spent: $0.13 + 0.04 tax = $0.17
Total Saved: $10.37

Kroger January Totals
Transactions: 4
Value Before Savings/Coupons: $291.23
Total Spent: $13.85 + 5.04 tax = $18.89

Walgreens January Totals
Transactions: 33
Value Before Sale/Coupons/RRs: $886.13
RRs Spent: $220.00
Cash Spent: $19.20 + $28.53 tax = $47.73
RRs Earned: $311.00
Final Total: +$10.27 Profit

Rite Aid January Totals
Transactions: 24
Value Before Sale/Coupons/Rebates: $937.07
SCRs:$31.97 & 35.00 GC
Rebates: $122.40
Total Spent: $25.18 + 26.17 tax = $51.35
Final Total: +$138.02 Profit

CVS January Totals
Transactions: 20
Value of Items: $482.33
ECBs Spent: $253.85
Cash Spent: $11.18 + 14.79 tax = $25.97
ECBs Earned: $318.94
Final Total: $39.12 profit

Walmart:
Transactions: 1
Value of Items: $15.17
Total Spent: $0.17 + $1.04 tax = $1.21

Dollar General:
Transactions: 1
Value of Items: $1.00
Total Spent: $1.00 + $0.03 tax = $1.03

Total Savings/Value of Items Purchased in January: $3,735.78
Total Cash Spent in January: $146.35

Total After Sale/Coupons/Rebates in January: $187.41 Profit
-$10.00 Newspapers
-26.72 Ink purchase
= $150.69 profit

*Although my Cash outlay was $146.35 for the month, my Mom had given me $20.00, $21.99 was a Rite Aid Rebate Check, and $40.00 was from the Norton Anti-Virus Rebate, so I've actually only spent $64.36 this month, which is less than $20.00 a week. WoW!

CVS

Total Value before Coupons: $158.81
Total ECBs Used: $69.00
Total ECBs Received: $99.94
Spent: $3.90 + 4.61 tax = $8.51 oop

Final Total: $22.43 Profit

Each Card:

1.50 Pringles x 10
1.00 Powerade x 10
= 25.00
-1.00 wyb Powerade and Pringles CVS tearpad MQ x 10
-5.00/20.00 CVS IP q (exp. 1/23)
-10.00 ECB
= $.00 + tax
Rec'd $10.00 ECB
Total cost approx .60 tax

6.00 Soyjoy
3.99 Oust
3.99 Oust
5.49 Dove Men's
5.49 Dove Men's
= 24.96
- 3.99 Oust BOGO MQ
- 1.25 Dove 1/31 RP
- 1.25 Dove 1/31 RP
- 5.00/20.00 CVS IP Q (exp. 1/23)
= 13.47
(- approx 12.00 ECBs)
Rec'd ECBs: $6.00 Oust, $6.00 Soyjoy, $5.49 Dove, $5.49 Dove
$2.01 profit on Oust;
$1.25 profit on Dove each;
bought the Soyjoy to get total up to $20.00+ so I could use the $5/$20 coupon: $5.00 profit.

You might also notice I got some snack size packages of Almonds (products), CVS lotion, and Scotch lint rollers. All these items were free after coupons, except tax. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use my $5/$20 coupons, and I had some $5/$30 backups, so I got these free-after-coupon items to get my totals up around $30.00 just in case. After the first couple transactions with no trouble using my $5/$20 coupons, I didn't bother anymore.

Walgreens

Total Value before Coupons: $192.82
Total RRs Used: $73.00
Total RRs Received: $131.00
Spent: $3.67 + 5.79 tax = $9.46 oop

Final Total: $48.54 Profit

Six Transactions...See Brandy's Blog for Sale/Coupon Matchups on these and more items, and Scenarios for getting the best deals.

Rite Aid

Amazing, but I managed to get the last of my Rite Aid deals done today. Three Rite Aids, six transactions. I can't believe it went so well.

Value of Items: $209.28
Spent: $6.36 + 6.55 Tax = $12.91
***********************************************************
*Update: Rebate Totals
January SCRs $31.97

SCR #551 P&G Visa Gift Card
1) 35.00
2) *30.96* - $69.04 to go

SCR #552 Heart Healthy Rite Aid Gift Card
1) *49.96* - $0.04 to go
2) *39.96* - $10.04 to go

Coors/Pepsi Rebate: $10.00
Olay MIRs total: $112.40

Kroger

Kroger Mega Sale

Spent $2.33 + 1.93 tax = $4.26 oop
and $10.00 OYNO Catalinas from buying the Kraft cheese last weekend.
Saved $128.57

*The Capri Suns and Velvetta cups eligible for $20.00 Kraft Back to School Rebate

Publix

The Green Flyer Coupons were expiring today. I wasn't going to bother going just for some more vitamins, and drove past three Publix stores in my travels. At the last minute, as I was headed home, I found myself about 4 miles from a Publix I like to shop, and those $2.00 One-A-Day MQs were calling to me "Spend me! Spend Me!". So I went.

They didn't have enough of the Scooby Doo vitamins to get them all free, so I also got some boxes of Women/Men vitamins, which made them no longer free, but really cheap. Also had no Vitamin D, for overage, but the Garlic and Folic Acid vitamins my Aunt takes were really cheap with the coupons, so I wanted to go ahead and get those.

The Aleve and Bayer was still cleaned out, and there was no Knox Gelatine.
So, I had no overage today, but since I'd been building some up on Publix gift cards, this is the kind of time I'm able to put it to good use.

Total $1.62 + 3.16 tax = $4.78 (from Gift Card)
Saved $60.36

Rite Aid

With the Olay MIR's ending tomorrow, I'm on the run to get my deals before the deadline. Had plans to go to a few Rite Aids today, but unfortunately didn't make it. I didn't much want to, but nothing chanced is opportunity lost (or something to that effect), so I went into the local Rite Aid here at home. I generally have trouble shopping with coupons there, and expected to today, with the BOGO Flex-A-Min, but had to try.

Sure enough, I handed the girl my coupons, and she hollered for the Shift Manager. I didn't have any trouble with them taking the Flex-A-Min coupons on the BOGO, but she didn't want to take the Video Values coupon because it had a picture of Nature's Bounty on it. I pointed out where it was written underneath "or Flexamin Vitamins".
She was like, Oh, you're right. I said, I promise I'm not trying to get anything over on you. (Like they act like I'm doing.)
Then she told me a story about she'd tried to use a coupon at Walmart and they wouldn't accept it because the item wasn't pictured, even though it said it on the coupon. Yeah, a bunch of idiots work at Walmart, too.

$7.99 Olay lotion
$14.99 Flex-A-Min
$0.00 Flex-A-Min
= $22.98

-5.00/20.00
-2.00 Olay 1/17 P&G
-1.00 RA VV q
-1.00 RA VV q
-6.00 Flex-A-Min MQ
-6.00 Flex-A-Min MQ
= $21.00

Total: $1.98 + 1.26 tax = $3.24 oop

$14.99 towards Heart Healthy GC
$7.99 towards P&G Visa Card
$7.99 MIR Olay

**************************************************
Rebate totals:

P&G Visa Card = $88.41

Heart Healthy = $49.96 (!Unbelievable!)

Rite Aid

So I'm trying to get back into the groove of Rite Aid's Rebates and such. All the BOGO's, overage, rebates...it's pretty confusing, so I'm hoping I end up enough to buy me a wig to cover the bald spots I'm going to have from tearing my hair out, lol. How come I'm not a bit better with numbers even after a year of this?

Last week I started going for the Rebate #551: $35.00 Visa Gift Card wyb $100.00 of qualifying P&G products.
Last week Olay was on sale BOGO 1/2 off, and there was/is Olay MIR's, and Olay is a qualifying P&G item.

This week started the Rebate #552: $25.00 Rite Aid Gift Card wyb $50.00 qualifying Healthy Heart products.
Several of the items that qualify for the Healthy Heart rebate is on sale BOGO this week, and there are good coupons making them free/nearly free/free with overage.

So I get the item free or nearly free, while building towards a free $25.00 Gift card, and it gets my total up to $20.00+ so I can use a $5/$20 coupon, to go towards the cost of buying Olay Quench lotion.
The Quench lotion runs between $5.99-$7.99 (I get the $7.99 bottle when I can). There's a $2.00 Olay lotion coupon (1/17 P&G, I think?). Then $7.99 goes towards the P&G $35.00 Visa Card, AND there's a MIR for Free Quench Body lotion (good only through Friday 1/29).

Transaction #1:
$7.49 Olay Quench Body lotion
$14.99 Flex-A-Min
$0.00 Flex-A-Min
= $22.48

-5.00/20.00
-2.00 Olay 1/17 P&G
-1.00 Flex-A-Min RA VV
-1.00 Flex-A-Min RA VV
-6.00 Flex-A-Min 1/03 RP
-6.00 Flex-A-Min 1/03 RP
= $21.00

Total $1.48 + 1.22 tax = $2.70 oop

$14.99 towards Healthy Heart Gift Card
$7.49 towards P&G Visa Card
$7.49 Olay MIR

Transaction #2:
$7.99 Olay Quench Body lotion
$14.99 Flex-A-Min
$0.00 Flex-A-Min
= $22.98

-5.00/20.00
-2.00 Olay 1/17 P&G
-1.00 Flex-A-Min RA VV
-1.00 Flex-A-Min RA VV
-6.00 Flex-A-Min 1/03 RP
-6.00 Flex-A-Min 1/03 RP
= $21.00

Total $1.98 + 1.08 tax = $3.06 oop

$14.99 towards Healthy Heart Gift Card
$7.99 towards P&G Visa Card
$7.99 Olay MIR

Transaction #3:
$7.99 Olay Quench Body lotion
$4.99 Nature's Bounty
$0.00 Nature's Bounty
$8.99 Ester-C
$0.00 Knox (BOGO w/ Ester-C)
= $21.97

-5.00/20.00
-2.00 Olay 1/17 P&G
-1.00 Nature's Bounty RA VV
-1.00 Nature's Bounty RA VV
-2.00 Nature's Bounty IP q
-2.00 Nature's Bounty IP q
-5.00 Ester-C 1/03 RP
-4.00 Knox 1/24 RP
= $22.00

Total -$0.03 + 1.02 tax = $0.99 oop

$4.99 towards Healthy Heart Gift Card
$7.99 towards P&G Visa Card
$7.99 Olay MIR

(The Ester-C and Knox doesn't have any rebates that I know of; but they were free after coupons and I needed them to get my total up to $20.00 to be able to use the $5/$20 coupon.)

Publix

New Week

The only thing I wanted/needed from the new weeks' sale was Ranch dressing and the Tyson Refrigerated Entree'. Otherwise I stocked up on Aleve and Vitamins while I still could before the coupons expire.

I found the .99 off Hallmark cards, and got (5) free cards, just paid tax. This is probably a really good deal for someone who actually sends cards.

Then you see I had (5) boxes of Knox Gelatine. My plan was to go ahead and buy this stuff up before it gets sold out, and building up the overage onto Publix gift cards to be able to use later on, when there isn't any or enough overage when I need something. I also had some overage from the Aleve and vitamins.

Then, I don't know what happened. Suddenly I sprouted wings and started talking to myself in a language that sounded like "Bahhhhk bok bok bok".
I don't know why I was suddenly scared they wouldn't give me the overage on the gift card, but, anyway, I spent most of it, and then tax ate up the rest.

$3.50 Tyson BF Pot Roast (BOGO Sale)
-2.00 Tyson Dinner from Publix Family Style Mag
-1.00 IP Q
= .50

$3.45 HVR Salad Dressing ($1.73/$1.72 each)
-1.00 IP Q (use 2)
= $1.45 ($.73/.72 each)

$2.69 White Milk
$2.69 White Milk
$2.65 Chocolate Milk
-2.69 White Milk wyb $100.00 worth of Groceries
-2.65 Chocolate Milk wyb (2) White Milk
= $2.69

$7.69 Nesquik Powder
-1.00 Target Q
= $6.69

$0.99 Hallmark Cards
-0.99 Publix Coupon hanging on tearpad right in the cards section; expires 2/14
= FREE cards + tax

$4.27 One-A-Day Scooby Doo Chewy Multi-Vitamins (buy 2)
(Regular $5.99 or $5.39? I forget exactly)
-5.00/2 Publix Green Flyer Coupon
-2.00 One-A-Day MQ 1/03 SS (use 2)
= +.46 overage

$1.39 Knox Gelatine
-4.00 1/24 RP
= +$2.61 overage

Total: +$4.35 overage - 5.61 tax = $1.26 cost
Sabed: $138.82

Last Week

Did the last day of last week's sale. I forgot, or didn't pay attention, or something, but I got a couple of wrong things that ended up costing me. One was the Birds Eye vegetables. Only the Steamfresh were on sale; I thought it was all of it. And the New York Toast; apparently the Original New York Texas Toast wasn't included in the BOGO sale, which seems pretty darn crazy to me.

By the time I figured out what'd happened (out in my car afterwards, is where I go to check my receipt if I know something was wrong), I just couldn't go back in and return the stuff and try again. I had a headache, and the french-speaking woman I dealt with last time was in there. My head hurt even worse just thinking about trying to explain this one to her.
I just said to heck with it. You win some, you lose some. I'll recoup another day.

And, I still had the case of the Chickenitis at this store, too, and ended up spending my overage :-(
I hope I can this stuff cured before I go shopping again.

Spent: +$4.96 overage - 6.08 tax = $1.12 cost
Saved $150.35

Rebates, too

One good thing about having such a bad memory is, sometimes you get nice surprises.

Today I got a $40.00 prepaid Visa card from buying Norton anti-virus at Staples back around Black Friday.

Had forgotten about it.

Rebates

Today I worked on Rebates.

I am soooo bad about sending in rebates, but I hope to change that this year, because I missed out on a good bit of money by not sending in the rebates in a timely manner last year.

The Rebates I filled out today include:

1. $10.00 wyb Coors Light 12pack & $20.00 worth Pepsi products.
I bought the Coors at Rite Aid last week using overage, and only spent $2.01 oop.
The Pepsis was one of the many deals I did at CVS this week. The Pepsis cost $5.00 after coupons and ECBs, but then I bought the Oust, Soyjoy, and Crave that gave me $7.02 profit after coupons and ECBs.
Together, the total for both deals was $0.01 profit, so this $10.00 rebate is straight profit.

2. $15.00 wyb (2) Olay Regenerist Facial Moisturizers, Facial Treatments, and/or Facial Cleansers.
I also bought these at Rite Aid last week using overage, having paid $2.55 oop.
Rebate profit $12.45.

3. $20.00 wyb Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream AND Regenerist Anti-Aging Eye Roller.
I also bought these at Rite Aid last week using overage, having paid $1.30 oop.
Rebate profit $18.70.

4. $5.00 wyb Transformers Revenge of the Fallen DVD and (1) package of Perdue Refrigerated Breaded Chicken.
When I bought this DVD at CVS I was burning ECBs on purpose, so that's pretty much a wash. I spent a couple dollars cash for tax on the CVS and Publix purchases, but bought more items than just these.
I'm just going to say this one is all profit.

5. $5.00 wyb UP DVD and (2) bags of Birds Eye Viola!
I was also burning ECBs when I bought this DVD. I only spent $0.65 at Publix the day I got the Viola!, so that hardly counts either.
All profit rebate.

So far that's a total of $51.15 profit from sending in for rebates. (Minus a couple dollars for postage.)

I also have some $5.00 SC Johnson rebates still to fill out. I got tarred.

Kroger

After making it home from Walgreens/Publix, the weather was terrible; flooding rains, wind, thunder and lightning. I came in and took off my shoes and sat down with a book and was DONE with couponing and shopping and anything else to do with it for the day. Or, at least for a few hours, lol.

Later I made a pone of cornbread and sat down to eat some cornbread and milk, and for some reason decided to check out some shopper blogs (don't know why because I didn't plan to go shopping again until Wednesday).
Anyway, first post I read was Michelle at IheartSavingMoney saying she hoped everyone was able to take advantage of the Kraft Cheese Catalina Mega deal, ending today!
Well, no way I could let that one pass.

I grabbed my inserts and starting cutting and at 6:30 last night, rain, thunder, lightning and all, headed out of town to Kroger.

Three of my orders were the same, I got (5) bags shredded Kraft cheese and (5) cans Rotel.
$7.45 cheese
$4.95 Rotel
=12.40
- 5.00 Mega Sale
- .30 (doubled) x 5 Rotel 1/24 SS
- 1.00/2 x 2 Kraft Cheese 1/24 SS
= $2.40 + .33 tax + $2.73 oop
Rec'd $5.00 OYNO
= $6.81 profit on (3)

$4.95 Quaker Quakes x 5
$7.45 cheese x 5
=12.40
- 5.00 Mega Sale
- .75 x 5 Quaker 1/10 RP
- 1.00/2 x 2 Kraft Cheese 1/24 SS
= $1.65 + .37 tax = $2.02 oop
Rec'd $5.00 OYNO = $2.98 profit

$4.95 Quaker Tortillaz/Quakes x 5
$7.45 Philly Cream Cheese x 5
$1.78 Bagged Salad x 2
=14.18
- 5.00 Mega Sale
- .75 x 5 Quaker 1/10 RP
- 1.00 x 5 Philly Crean Cheese Publix Grape Mag.
= $0.43 + .43 tax = $0.86 oop
Rec's $5.00 OYNO = $4.14 profit

Value of Items: $112.93
Total Spent: $9.28 + 1.79 tax = $11.07 oop
OYNO Earned: $25.00
Final Total: $13.93 profit

Publix

Ran into Publix while I was right there at it, looking for mm's, but the shelves were bare here, too. Needed some chili mix, and got some more pizza dipping sticks (I love those things!), and some more Benevia for my husband and Mom. The overage on the Birdseye and Knox Gelatine paid for that.

Otherwise I spent a $10.00 on (4) more bundles of newspapers. Turned out I didn't figure on the newspaper costing $2.36, instead of $2.50, so in the end my total was -.34, which really threw the poor guy off balance.
I hate doing that, but I was in a hurry; my husband was waiting in the car, it was coming torrential rains and I got a text alert on my phone that we were under a tornado watch, so that freaked me out, being 30 miles from home.

Walgreens

I haven't done the tallys yet - because I know it's going to hurt!
I spent alot of RRs to buy the newspapers, extra papers because of the $4.00 Any Knox coupon...and can look at the picture and know that I only made $12.00 profit between the Benefiber and Neosporin.

That wouldn't be as bad, knowing as I do that next week I should be able to make it up with the Bayer/Accucheck Meter RR deals. (*Note, call and ask to have these items ordered for me.) But, other than the Butterfinger candies and can of baked beans, which were neccessary filler items, the rest of the items - Reach floss, toothbrushs, and shavers - were results of crazy buying.

That is, I went kinda crazy buying the stuff just because it was "free", even though I didn't really need any of it. As a result, I ended up blowing most of my cash budget this week paying tax on the stuff.

Value Before Coupons: $184.52
RRs Spent: $42.00
RRs Earned: $32.00
Spent: $3.59 + $8.70 tax = $12.29 cash

Final Total: $22.29 cost

Week 3 Totals

Week 3 was a much better, more profitable shopping week than last week. There were some good deals to be found this week, and I got out there and got as many of them as I could. (Unfortunately I can't shop EVERYday! lol)

$937.50 Value of Items Before Sale/Coupon/Rebate

$31.84 CASH Spent oop

$39.69 Profit After Sale/Coupon/Rebates

I started this week with the $10.00 I was planning to spend on my weekly newspapers.

After that I really had no planned amount to spend. I figured I might go back to Walgreens and do another Pepsi deal, or two maybe. And visit Rite Aid for overage for milk and etc.
I hadn't planned on having to shop at CVS because my ECBs expired.

Then the two $21.99 Rite Aid SCR checks showed up, so I figured I could aim for the goal of spending one of those.

And I did it, with $0.15 left over to put in the left-over jar.

CVS

There are days I apparently ought not be let out of the house on my own. Just by dang luck this worked out today.

Started out good. On cards 1 & 2 I bought Oust and SoyJoy. Because I didn't know that Oust was coming up as Glade this week, and thought I'd reached my Oust limit on card 3, I used one of my Thermacare rainchecks and got 5 Thermacare, a Soyjoy, a snack pack of Almond product, and a CVS skincare lotion.

Cards 1 & 2 made $6.32 profit after oop. Card 3 made $12.80 profit after oop.
It wouldn't have been as much, but I had asked the cashier if she could print my Thermacare ECBs as 5 separate ones instead one large one and she agreed to, and then when she put in to print a $2.49 ECB, it spit out $3.00 ones instead. So I got $15.00 instead of $12.45 ECBs, YaY!

Next I went to do a Pepsi deal for each card....and I did do (3) Pepsi deals, but had another one of those brain-farts and ended up doing (2) deals on one card, and none on one card. I guess the Limit is (4)(or more?) on the Pepsi's.

The 1st time I got (6) Pepsi's, and the next time I got (6) Dr. Pepper's. The last time I was going to get (3) of each, but the boy told me they weren't allowed to mix the Dr. Pepper's with the Pepsi products, because they weren't made by the same company. So that was a little weird.

Card #1:
Transaction #1:
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust
$6.00 Soyjoy
$6.00 Soyjoy
= $19.98

-5.00/20.00
-3.99 Oust BOGO MQ

-10.00 ECB

Total $0.99 + .69 tax = $1.68
ECBs Earned: $6.00 Oust, $12.00 Soyjoy
Final Total: $6.32 profit

Card #2:
Transaction #1:
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust
$6.00 Soyjoy
$6.00 Soyjoy
= $19.98

-5.00/20.00
-3.99 Oust BOGO MQ

-10.00 ECB

Total $0.99 + .69 tax = $1.68 oop
ECBs Earned: $6.00 Oust, $12.00 Soyjoy
Final Total: $6.32 profit

Transaction #2:
$20.00 Pepsi

-5.00/20.00

-6.00 ECB
-8.00 ECB

Total $1.00 + .45 tax = $1.45 oop
ECBs Earned: $10.00
Final Total: $5.45

Total Both: $0.87 Profit

Card #3:
Transaction #1:
$6.00 Soyjoy
$12.45 Thermacare x 5
$0.99 GE Snack Size Almond Product
$1.99 CVS Lotion
= $21.43

-5.00/20.00
-5.00 Thermacare (5 x 1.00 IP Q's)
-1.00 GE Almond Product RIB Magazine
-2.00 CVS Skincare Product RIB Mag.

-2.00 ECB
-6.00 ECB

Total: $0.43 + .77 tax = $1.20 oop
ECBs Earned: $15.00 Thermacare, $6.00 Soyjoy & $1.00 Green Bag Tag
Final Total: $12.80 profit

Transaction #2:
$20.00 Pepsi

-5.00/20.00

-6.00 ECB
-8.00 ECB

Total $1.00 + .45 tax = $1.45 oop
ECBs Earned: $10.00
Final Total: $5.45

Transaction #3:
$20.00 Pepsi
$1.50 Candy

-5.00/20.00

-10.00 ECB
-3.00 ECB
-3.00 ECB

Total $0.50 + .32 tax = $0.82 oop
ECBs Earned: $10.00
Final Total: $6.82

Total all 3: $0.53 Profit

GRAND TOTAL: $7.72 Profit

Walgreens

I wasn't able to make it back to my favorite Walgreens this week, and I was going to just be done with and keep the rest of my Aviva coupons for week 1/31 and be able to earn $5 RRs instead. Lord knows I've gotten enough Pepsi between the 1st two shops I did this week, and CVS.

But as I was driving PAST the Walgreens where I was at today, my car just turned in the driveway!

Ok, I said, I can at least go in and see who cashiering. When I saw it was the older gentleman I've never had trouble with in the past, I decided to go ahead and see if I could do the deal.

They only had (2) Accuchecks, so $10.00 overage made my Pepsi's $1.00 after RR, rather than $4 or $9 profit if I'd been able to get more Accuchecks. But I ain't complaining about that.

I got (7) things of Pepsi products, which cost $21.00, because I didn't need anymore chips or dips. I decided to try some different sodas this time, the Throwbacks (which I've read alot of people didn't like) and some Code Red Mtn. Dew, just for something different.
Minus $10.00 Accucheck overage and $10.00 RR, made them $1.00 oop.

Also got (2) Wet Ones, on sale for 2/$4 and get $1 RR. I had (2) $1.50 off IP coupons, which made them free after RR.

Then I did the Theraflu/Tea deal; $3.99 + $2.99 - $2.00 Theraflu MQ - $2.00 Theraflu D&Y Q = $2.98; got $4.00 RR = $1.02 profit.

My total after overage/coupons was $14.98, and I had $15.00 worth of RRs to spend, so I found a .10 Pez Mint candy thing in the clearance section.

Total: $0.08 + 1.28 tax = $1.36 oop
RRs Spent: $15.00
RRs Received: $15.00
Final Total: $1.36 oop

And, just to make it all a little more challenging, I have $56.00 worth of RRs expiring 1/31. Meaning I have to spend/roll them this week. Blah.

Rite Aid

With Brandy's help, I was attempting to get back into SCR'ing, Rebating, and Extra Earnings at Rite Aid.
This week Rite Aid started a deal, if you spend a certain amount of money on P&G items, you earn a Visa Gift Card. There was an Olay sale, which is a P&G item, and there was an Olay MIR. I also still had a couple of $20.00 Gift of Savings Certificates left to spend, and thought it'd be a good time to turn them over, but couldn't seem to figure out for myself how to do it.
(If any of you are in Brandy's area and are thinking about taking her coupon workshop, I would highly recommend you do. I couldn't do alot of my deals without her guidance!)

I really could have used her there holding my hand today. I mess up so bad when I'm out of practice.
Except I wasn't out of practice at Rite Aid shopping - only the SCR'ing - so I don't know what happened. Terrible brain-fart!

First store I went to didn't have Benevia. Ok, no problem, I got Nature Bounty, and decided to push my luck on some extra bottles of Bayer (teenage boy cashiering. they generally don't care). I had some overage to get a gallon of milk.
Everything goes along okay, until he scans my last $5.00 Nature Bounty coupon...BEEP! Beeped because my total was only .92 + 1.63 tax. Whaaaa?
Poor guy tried scanning it again and again, and counted items and coupons to make he hadn't double scanned a coupon. He tried everything, but I knew he hadn't done anything wrong, it was obviously my mistake, and I couldn't figure out what it was, so I just shrugged and reached for the coupon back and handed him the money to pay. He was still like, are you okay with that? But what else could I be?

Eventually I figured out, in my totalling, I hadn't taken off $4.99 for the free bottle of Nature Bounty. EEERRRRRGGGGG!!!! I HATE to mess up.

Total: $0.92 + 1.63 tax = $2.55 oop
SCR: $0.00
MIR: $15.00 Olay
Total: $12.45 Profit

Amount towards Visa Card: $15.97

On the way to the next Rite Aid, I figured I'd get 4 bottles of Nature Bounty, even if I only had 3 MQ coupons left, I could still use one of the $1.00 RA VV coupons for overage on the 2nd free bottle. (Are you confused as me yet?)

At the next store, I STILL don't know what I did wrong...and I apparently wasn't the only one without both oars in the water today.

This time I remembered to take off for both the sales and the coupons, and my final total should have been $20.92, and then I was going to use my $20.00 GoS.
However, the cashier (mistakingly) thought the sale on the vitamins had already turned over to tomorrow's sale (ie. not BOGO), and she took off $4.99 for the BOGO sale, twice. According to my receipt, I only paid for (1) of (4) bottles of vitamins. (I didn't know that at the time.)

At any rate, my final total came up to $19.00 and some odd cents. So I added a pack of gum at $1.19, which brought it up to $20.64. I'm not sure but it seems like if I had figured right to start with, her taking off an extra $4.99 would have put me further in the hole than that.
I dunno!

I give her my $20.00 GoS and $1.00, and she says she needs to put the cash in first so it doesn't confuse the register. So I say well I think I have .64 change, would that be better. So I give her the .64 instead, and then she puts in the $20.00 GoS, and then my total is $1.40 in the negative!
Because the GoS is a Rite Aid certificate, not a manufacturer coupon, it reduced my sales tax.
So they had Sara Lee loafa bread on sale for $1.00 a loaf, so I grabbed 2 of those, and then owed $0.66 oop.

Total: -$0.78 + 2.08 tax = $1.30 oop
SCR: $0.00
MIR: $20.00 Olay
Total: $18.70 Profit

Amount towards Visa Card: $56.95

After that I came home and had take Kevin to play a basketball game (which they won again, YaY) and then afterwards, visited Rite Aid #3.

At which I met THE MOST IGNORANT of all ignorant Cashier/Managers in Rite Aid history!

This store had plenty of Benevia, so I got a couple of those instead of Nature Bounty - one of each kind - and the Olay products, and (3) of the Bayer aspirin.

I only tried pushing my luck with those because I had been getting away with it all week, and my total was well over $20.00 even without them, so if they argued those I could have them took off with no problem. They were just freebies I was getting while they were free, because my parents and John's Mom and several of my relatives take the low-dose Bayer everyday so I get all I can when I can.

With the Benevia overage I had I was buying some cans of beans'n'franks, moon pies, and oatmeal pies.

So I go up and checkout and hand her my coupons, and she calls "Manager to the front", and another girl comes up there, I guess a Manager? I couldn't see her nametag, if she was wearing one.
Anyway, without even having looked at my coupons, the cashier hands her the whole stack and asks her about being able to use them. The Manager says "We can take one coupon per customer"...including manufacturer coupons!!!!

She stacked the $5/$20 coupon and both the Benevia RA VV coupons (because they were different), and then ONE Benevia manufacturer coupon and stacked the other one aside to give me back. Same with the Olay products; I had 2 Olay products, she was only going to take 1 manufacturer coupon!

I stood there and watched her - shocked, I guess - until she handed me my stack back, and I said she could just give me the rest of them back, too, because thinking they were only going to accept one manufacturer coupon is THE STUPIDEST THING I EVER HEARD OF.

She whined "We're just doing what our Boss told us to do". I said well she needed to contact her Corporate, because their Boss was WRONG. As I walked out I said, that's okay, I'll contact them FOR YOU.

I've had ALOT of problems shopping at that Rite Aid before, and have contacted Corp on them before. I don't shop there much as a result of all the trouble I've had there, but tonight I had to go there to the basketball game and it's the last day of the sale and also the $15.00 Olay deadline. But even with all the trouble I've had in the past at this particular store, limiting Manufacturer coupons has never been one of them!!!

Stopped at the last Rite Aid, here at home, which I also don't much like and won't hardly shop at. They didn't have the Olay stuff I was needing for the $15 rebate. After that I didn't feel up to trying to figure out and/or fight with them about using coupons on the (free) Benevia, and my $20 GoS to get the other Olay deal, so I just left and came home.

CVS

Had to go to the Mall today to get Kev some new shoes, so stopped in some CVS's while we were there. The 1st two CVS had either this and this, but not that, or that but not this and this. Finally at the 3rd CVS I found enough for 1 deal.
At the last CVS, they had enough for several deals, plus had a way better deal on the Pepsi/Dr. Pepper...9 for $20, instead of 6!
But dummy me forgot to print more $5/$20 coupons, so used my last one on the deal I needed to do to catch up. I plan to get up and go back up there in the morning, though.

After Wednesday shopping, I was down a total of $12.92 oop.

Transaction #1:
$7.99 Crave NX
$6.00 Soy Joy
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust

Used:
-5.00/20.00 IP Q (No longer available)
-3.99 Oust BOGO Q

-6.00 ECB
-6.00 ECB
-0.50 ECB

Total: $0.48 + .98 tax = $1.46 oop
ECBs: $6.00 Oust, $6.00 SoyJoy, $8.00 Crave NX = $20.00
Final Total: +$6.04 profit

Transaction #1:
$7.99 Crave NX
$6.00 Soy Joy
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust

Used:
-5.00/20.00 IP Q (No longer available)
-3.99 Oust BOGO Q

-6.00 ECB
-6.00 ECB
-1.00 ECB (Entered at .98)

Total: $0.00 + .95 tax = $0.95 oop
ECBs: $6.00 Oust, $6.00 SoyJoy, $8.00 Crave NX = $20.00
Final Total: +$6.02 profit

Total-totals: $12.08 profit - $12.92 oop previously = $0.84 oop

Walgreens

Tried another AccuCheck/Pepsi deal at another Walgreens, but that didn't work out. They wanted to only give me $4.99 on my MQ after taking off the $5.00 Wags Q...I said Nahhhhhhhh don't think so.

On another note, I heard from the Manager at that Wags I had trouble at Sunday. He apologized that she didn't know the coupon policy and said I shouldn't have trouble again.

So there you go - if you know you're right, you don't have to take being treated like an idiot by these people.

Publix

New Week Sale:

There was only a few things I wanted from the new weeks' sale, and usually I would have put off such a small shopping trip to next week, but I wanted some extra opportunity for getting overage items/building up my overage while I had the chance (next month's overage opportunities look very sad so far).

Turned out my opportunity for buying up overage items today was also pretty sad...cleared shelves everywhere. There was only one bottle of the Vitamin D, but I was able to couple it with a bottle of Garlic Vitamins I get for my Aunt anyway, and still got a little bit of overage. Was able to find some boxes of the Vivarin, and the Birds Eye gave me some overage, but mostly what little overage I was able to get was eaten up by my purchases and the taxes on the Benevia.

$8.49 Benevia
-5.00 IP MQ
-4.00 Publix Green Flyer
= +.51 overage (about .60 tax, though. I only got these because my Husband and Mom likes them)

$0.89 Birds Eye Steamfresh Veggies (50% sale, I only got the $1.79 bags)
-0.50 (doubled) SS 1/10
= +.11 overage

$2.69 Aunt Jemima Pancake/Waffle Mix BOGO sale ($1.35/1.34 each)
-1.00/2 RP 1/03
= $1.69 (.85/.84 each)

$2.00 Egglands Eggs
-0.50 (doubled) Dec. Ladies Home Journal
= $1.00

$3.29 NY Pizza Dipping Sticks BOGO sale ($1.65/1.64 each)
-0.50 (doubled) IP MQ x 2
= $1.29 (.65/.64 each)

$2.99 Vitamin D
$4.39 Garlic Tabs
-1.00 RP or SS 1/03 x 2
-6.00/2 Publix green flyer
= +.62 overage

$3.19 Vivarin
-2.00 RP 1/10
-5.00/2 Publix Green flyer
= + 2.62 overage

Subtotal: +$5.60 overage + $5.24 tax = +$0.36 overage on gift card
Saved $101.85

Old Week Sale:

The next Publix I went to I didn't really want to go to but since they will still take a $5/$20 Rite Aid coupon, it's like throwing away $5.00 if I don't go there. They were out of most of the mm items, also, but had plenty of the lightbulbs. I think no one must have known about the overage with the Target q's.

The cashier missed one of the .50 Hall's coupons, which I normally wouldn't have went back for, but *I* messed up and didn't give $18.00 worth of Benevia coupons! My total came out be $33.42, which I knew was way, way wrong, even with the $25.00 gift card I bought. So I paid with my Debit card and went to figure out what had happened.
I went back to the service desk and told the lady I'd forgotten to use my coupons, and also the guy missed scanning one of the coupons I'd given him. Usually I have NO problem with this, they just make sure I bought them item(s), take the coupons, hand me cash, have a nice day, see you next time.
But this lady looked at the receipt, looked at the coupons....looked at the receipt, looked at the coupons...and agonized, and mumbled and looked. Finally she goes and calls someone, the Manager I guess, to call her, and she talks to her and then comes back and tells me I have to buy something else, she can't give me cash back on coupons. Whaaaa? 
I told her I had already bought everything I'd came there to buy, I already spent the money up front, had I used the coupons in line they would have come off. She tried to say no, the cashier wouldn't give me money off the coupons and if they did they made a mistake (she's french speaking or something, I think we were having a communcation problem).

Long story short, I ended up getting the $18.00, plus .50 of the coupon that he'd missed scanning (although it should have been $1.00) but I was as ready to leave as she was for me to leave so I let that go.
What a PITA! I know it was my fault for forgetting to use the coupons to start with, but the CS Staff really ought to be more knowledgeable than this lady was.

Subtotal: +$10.08 overage + $1.61 tax = +$8.47 overage ($25.00 GC and $18.50 cash refund)
Saved $43.08

My totals figures are now totally messed up because I used $33.42 from my debit card, I have too much on Publix Gift Cards, and Cash. I can put the cash back in my bank account, but I still have too much on gift cards. I don't know how to do the math on all that :-(

The last Publix store shop went fine, like they all should.
They had some Bayer left, and the Aleve were priced at $1.97, which must be on sale from before, because I was paying $0.05 a bottle before, and now I got a good bit of overage on them. I should have gotten more because it's the only pain pill my husband can take, but I was afraid they'd think I was making illegal drugs or something if I got too much of one kind of med.

Subtotal: +$14.41 overage + $4.40 tax = +$10.01 overage on gift card
Saved $116.07

Rite Aid

First of all, this week I received (2) SCR checks for $21.99 each (I know, I've been lax in my SCR shopping). Anyway, since I had been in the habit of only buying profit-after-rebate items, and wasn't counting my totals last year anyhow, this is like "free money", and I'm using one of the checks for this week's shopping (and the other for next week).

I still haven't gotten back into the swing of Rebate shopping yet, and today I went looking, again, for overage to buy stuff I needed like milk and bread.

I did get some free-after-coupon Tums, on sale for .99 this week, and Bayer, on sale for $1.99 this week. The Tums was a $1.00 IP MQ, and the Bayer a $2.00 VV q.

At the first Rite Aid I was able to find (2) boxes of Benevia for the BOGO sale deal, and (2) Nature Bounty Vitamins also on BOGO sale.
With my overage I bought a 12-pack of Coors, gallon of milk, and 5 bottles of Powerade.

At the next Rite Aid there was only one box of Benevia, so I had to get extra boxes of the Bayer to bring my total up to $20.00 so I could use the $5/$20 coupon. I probably wouldn't have tried using so many of the Bayer VV coupons at the same time at another Rite Aid, but I knew this store - or at least this cashier - is coupon-friendly.
With my overage there I bought more milk, bread, and some clearance Christmas items.

I had been resisting buying Christmas items because even at 90% off, I just don't need anymore stuff. I've been working on trying to get rid of alot of stuff out of my house.
But I had been looking at the little ceramic Nativity; it looks kinda like it was carved out of an apple, sortof. Anyway it's really pretty, and for .99 I couldn't pass it up again. I also got the flameless candle, which was .89, and will look nice on my table or buffet or mantle. Then I grabbed a couple rolls of .19 wrapping paper, to have for next year.

Transaction 1:
$8.99 Benevia
$0.00 Benevia
$4.99 Nature Bounty Vitamin
$0.00 Nature Bounty Vitamin
$1.99 Bayer Aspirin x 2
$0.99 Tums x 2
$9.49 Coors 12pk.
$2.99 Milk
$1.00 Powerade x 5
= $37.42

Used:
-5.00/20.00 RA VV q
-5.00 Nature Bounty IP q x 2
-1.00 Nature Bounty RA VV q x 2
-5.00 Benevia IP q x 2
-2.00 Benevia RA VV x 2
-1.00 Tums IP q x 2
-2.00 Bayer RA VV q x 2

Total $0.42 + 1.59 tax = $2.01 oop

Transaction 2:
$4.99 Nature Bounty Vitamin
$0.00 Nature Bounty Vitamin
$1.99 Bayer Aspirin x 4
$2.99 Milk x 2
$1.99 Bread x 2
$0.99 Nativity
$0.89 Flameless Candle
$0.19 wrapping paper x 2
= $25.17

Used;
-5.00/20.00 RA VV q
-5.00 Nature Bounty IP q x 2
-1.00 Nature Bounty RA VV q x 2
-2.00 Bayer RA VV q x 4

Total $0.17 + .81 tax = $.98 oop

Value of items: $81.56
SCRs:$0.00
Total Spent: $0.59 + 2.40 tax = $2.99
Final Total: $2.99 oop

*ETA: $10.00 Coors/Pepsi MIR = $7.01 Profit
*ETA: $1.00 SCR on Powerade I didn't know about

CVS

Yesterday, as I was planning my shopping trip for today, I thought, hm, I better check my ECBs and see what kind of deadlines are coming up on me. *Gasp!*  The expiration dates were yesterday!
I hate when that happens because then I have to use 'em or lose 'em, often at a loss.

But I lucked up this week. The expired ECBs totalled about $15.00 (each card!), so I figured if I did the 6/$20 Pepsico deal, minus the $5/$20 CVS IP, left $15.00. Then I got $10 ECB back, so (6) 12-packs of Pepsi cost me only $5.00.

Except! I did a second deal of Soyjoy, Oust, and Crave NX. Total of those items were $21.97 before coupons.  I used another $5/$20 CVS IPq and a Oust BOGO q = $12.98.
I got $6.00 Soyjoy ECBs, $6.00 Oust ECBs, and $8.00 Crave NX ECBs = $20.00.

That deal was a $7.02 profit, so covered my $5.00 cost on the Pepsis, plus $2.02 more.

At the next CVS, they did have Dr. Pepper's included in the sale, but didn't have any Soyjoy or Crave NX, so I am still $5.00 down on that deal, but will work on that later this week.

Transaction #1, spent $0.01 + .45 tax = $0.46 oop
Transaction #2, spent $0.48 + .98 tax = $1.46 oop

Transaction #1, spent $0.00 + .00 tax = $0.00 oop

Total Value of Items: $61.97
ECBs Spent: $42.49
Cash Spent: $1.92
ECBs Earned: $40.00
Final Total: $4.41 oop

*Updated: Went to another CVS tonight while Kev had basketball practice and turned over the last of my expired ECBs. This time I had $17.45 worth.
This CVS also had Dr. Pepper included in the sale so I got (6) 12-packs of those, and (3) bags of CVS .99 Smarties and Gummy Worms candy for the car.

They had Soyjoy, but not Oust...I forgot to check on the Crave NX after I didn't see any Oust....anyway, I am down $8.51 on this deal, but will make it up later.

Walgreens

or..."What $10 Will Buy" (but should have been $8)

Yes, I bought ALL of this for what I would have spent on 10 newspapers alone!

Yesterday I had planned to get up and go buy my weekly newspapers and maybe run by Rite Aid and Walgreens (I never did go to Walgreens last week, at all!).
But then I talked myself out of it. I figured there wasn't any Thermacare left in stock by then anyway. And there was a Rite Aid where we were going for Kev to play his basketball game (which his team won, btw), so I could just shop there. And Kroger. And since I was planning to go to Wags first thing this morning for the Pepsi deal anyway, might as well wait and see if I could buy my papers using RRs. If not I could always run down to the $1 paper sellers that are also out on Sundays.

I never did do another Rite Aid shop or go into Kroger, but I did get up and get to Walgreens this morning and got the Pepsi deal and my papers!

Was so excited to see the Pepsi's WERE 5/$15 afterall!

I visited (2) Wags stores and found (3) Aviva Accu-checks at each one. Four would have been ideal, but I wasn't complaining too much! That gave me $15.00 overage with the $5 Wags Q from the Diabetes & You booklet and the Free Coupons from the (which?) insert. So my (5) 12-packs of Pepsi, (2) Bags of Tostitoes, and jar of dip costed me $5.00RR (before tax). And then I got a $10RR back, so I actually got it all free, plus $5.00 profit.

Which inturn paid for like (4) bundles of my newspapers. 2-bundle AJC = $2.50 x 4 = $10.00.

I bought 5 bundles of papers, but the last bundle was paid for with profit from some of the Neosporin or Therflu/Tea or Chips Ahoy deals.

I also bought 2 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper, on clearance for .25 each. Just so happened I was .50 short of being able to use another $1.00 RR, so these worked out great, and cheap (free) wrapping paper for next Christmas!!

Neosporin Lip Therapy 2/$8.00
-3.00 Lip Therapy IP
-3.00 Lip Therapy IP
= $2.00 oop
Get $3.00 RR = $1.00 profit

Neosporin Antibiotic Cream 2/$8.00
-1.00 MQ
-1.00 MQ
-2.00 Wags CAB (Takes off $4.00)
= $2.00 oop
Get $3.00 RR = $1.00 profit

Theraflu Sugar-Free $3.99 AND Lipton Tea $2.99
-2.00 Theraflu IP
-2.00 Theraflu Wags Q Diabetes & You magazine in pharmacy
= $2.98
Get $4.00 RR = $1.02 profit

??Chips Ahoy .99??
$1.98 (2)
-1.00/2 Nabisco Booklet
= .98 oop
Get $2.00 RR = $1.02 profit

*I'm not sure these are still good for this deal. I asked at the first Wags store if they were still on sale and the cashier said yes, it's a month-long thing. I didn't get any because my RRs wouldn't work out without me having to spend more than I wanted oop. But at the next Wags store I got them and they rang up $1.99 a box. The cashier thought there was a coupon for them, but there wasn't, but she said she knew she had seen a sign or something, somewhere....anyway she put them in for .99 each, but I'm not sure if they went off sale this week. I won't be trying this one again.

Total value of items purchased before coupons: $183.01
Total RRs Spent: $46.00
Total Cash Spent: $4.88 + 5.09 tax = $9.97
Total RRs Earned: $52.00
Final Total: $3.97 oop*

*It actually should have only been a $1.97 cost.
Remember last week when I posted about the Dollar General Neosporin coupons, and how they clearly say on the back "Redeem at any food, drug, or discount store accepting coupons"?
Well, the Assistant Manager at the 2nd Walgreens I went to claims that (1) they won't get reimbursed for coupons with another store name on it even though it says they will, and (2) that ALL coupons say that, but they still won't get reimbursed for coupons with another store name on it.

She asked me why, then, is the Dollar General name printed on it. I said it's advertisement for the store. She just smiled and shook her head with one of those "you poor stupid idiot" smirks.

That was when I asked her why, then, did it say Redeem at ANY food, DRUG, or discount store that accepts coupons, and she tells me they ALL say that, but that she wasn't able to use her Target coupon there, because they wouldn't get reimbursed for it. (Funny, I used a Target MQ with the Target Logo on it there a couple weeks ago with no problem.)

This particular AM has given me trouble before. I can just about count on any time there's a question about a coupon, she's never, ever going to see my side or hear my explanation about it and will do whatever she can to reject it.
Usually I just have them take the item off and blow her off because there's another Walgreens two mile up the street that's way, way better to shop at. I had already done most of my shopping there this morning anyway, but I go over to this other store when the first store is out of something, like the Accu-Checks.

But for her to stand there and have the utter gall to argue with me about the meaning of "Redeem at any food, drug, or discount store..." just pissed me off to high heaven!
She had no legitimate reason for refusing those coupons, which tells me she's just arguing with me to be arguing with me, for whatever reason she has against me that I don't know about. I've never done anything to her.

Ugh! I hate conflict! Why can't I just be able to use my coupons, the stores rake in the sales, and everyone be happy and agreeable about it???

Anyway. Other than that bit of hatefullness, I am so tickled I got (2) Pepsi deals and (10) newspapers - and all that other stuff - for less than I would have paid for the (10) papers by themselves otherwise.

I always say I'm going to start trying to plan it where I go on Sunday mornings and be able to use my RRs for papers, but then somehow it never works out. And, too, they don't bring alot of papers. I was there when the paper guy delivered the papers and he only left (4) of the bundle packs. I had to get the other one at the other Wags. One time before when I went I wasn't able to get but a couple bundle packs and the other Wags was out altogether. (I only buy the bundle packs because they cost $2.50, whereas buying (2) separate papers costs $4.00! No way, Hozay!)

(BTW, Dr Pepper is apparently NOT part of the Pepsi deal here, but the cashier put it in as $3.00 anyway, because the display is pretty misleading, since they are all stacked up together...you assume they must be Pepsi Products.)

*And the Pepsi 12-packs all rang up at $3.00 each, even the first ones, so it wasn't some funny mathematics where you pay more and less, and can't figure out if you were charged rightly or not.

Total Week 2 Shopping

I didn't do as well this week, partly because of my bad shops at the one Rite Aid and Kroger, but mainly, I believe, because I didn't go shopping more. There were profit opportunities at CVS and Walgreens that I didn't take advantage of (no reason why I didn't...just wasn't feeling it, I reckon).

$380.71 Value of Items Before Sale/Coupon/Rebate

$27.63 CASH Spent oop

$3.31 Cost After Sale/Coupon/Rebates

The 1st week I spent right at $30.00 cash, not counting newspapers. (My Aunt bought my papers for me and wouldn't let me pay her back, so I put the $10.00 towards shopping.)

This week I bought my own papers, but the sales didn't appear as great this week as last week, so I was undecided whether to attempt a $40 budget, or a $30 budget again.

Luckily it's not a do or die situation, so I could aim for $30, but spend $40 (or more) if neccessary.

I did, however, stay under $30 cash, including my newspapers.

GAS
Because I drive a *minimum* of 40 miles (usually more like 75+) to/from shopping, alot of people (smart-ellecks) like to ask in that supercilious tone I hate, "How can you really be saving anything having to drive so far to shop?"

So I thought I'd try figuring my gas/milage.

Well, that's not happening.
The first week I thought about trying to figure out how much gas I use going shopping, I didn't really realize how much other driving we do besides my shopping trips.
I pick up my youngest son from school after soccer practice everyday, plus it's a 40+ mile trip to/from his basketball practice/games twice a week.
Last week my husband used my car to go pick up his Dad and drive him to Canton, a couple hour trip one way, for eye surgery.
My middle son used my car to go to his weekly fire dept. meeting.
I went to visit my Mom, 26 miles one way, a couple of times.
And we had to go to my oldest son's to repair some water pipes that had frozen and burst during the awful cold snap we've had the past couple of weeks. That took awhile, so I had to leave and drive home, 22 miles, to pick up Kevin from school, and then drive back down there to help finish up and get my husband.

Over the past week and a half, since January 6th, we've put approx. $90.00 worth of gas in my car, but very little of it has been used for my shopping trips.

Kroger

Made a quick Kroger stop while I was out running around.

Was able to use up the rest of the Birdseye coupons expiring 1/17; I had 13 of them. Got all the Mixed Veggies they had - we like to use it to cook veggie soup and homemade chicken pot pie, then some broccoli cuts and corn. On sale for 10/$10.

Also had 3 coupons from a paper mailer my hubby got at his fire station for Colgate Wisps. They are on sale at Kroger this week for 10/$10.

They were all out of the Oinkos yogurt. Hopefully I can find them tomorrow at another Kroger I have to go by taking Kevin to play basketball.

I didn't get anything else, so all my coupons made everything free, and tax was only $0.31

Value of Items: $16.00
Total After Coupons: $0.00 + $0.31 tax = $0.31 oop

Publix

Oh well, while I was pushing my luck anyway, I decided to go in the Publix that had recently been giving me a little trouble...asking for my coupons up front and scanning them as they scanned the items, having to override and taking an extra long time to check out.

One of the CS girls checked me out, and I didn't have the problem today. She scanned everything then took my coupons and started entering them. She had to go do something else but another CS girl came and took over and finished. She missed 2 coupons for a total of $1.55 I should have gotten more off, but oh well. It happens.

I would detail, but today was the last day of the sale, so wouldn't help anyone anyway.

Usually I would have gone to the other Publix up the street whose sale starts today, and then could have detailed that, but I coudn't find much this week to buy, so I decided to wait and hope the sale gets better as the week goes along and new coupons come out this weekend.

If you look at my last Wednesday 1st day of the sale shop, you can see it started out fairly different than it ended up. The Special K bars coupons were new, I believe, and the Gatorade and Chobani coupons came out this past weekend, and someone figured out the coupons to get the Emerald Trail mix free.

So hopefully the sale will get better and I can have a good last day of the sale shop next Wednesday. (And hopefully next week's sale will be better starting out.)

Total: +$12.09 overage + 6.74 tax = $5.35 overage on Gift Card
Total Saved: $218.48

*Oops, I made a mistake. The Chobani coupons came out in the 12/13 SS. I think the 10/$10 Sale in the Yellow Flyer that came out in this past Sunday's paper. Or maybe it was already on sale but I just saw it the first time this weekend.

Anyway, the deal is good thru Feb. 5th.

Kroger Blah

This Kroger is a smaller, older store and didn't stock some of the items I was looking for, and was out of others. I was glad to find some of the Ester-C at $4.34, and I had $5.00 coupons for a little overage.

I went to the self-check where I usually have good luck checking out since the cashier is watching 4-6 lines at a time, and especially today, the store was packed, it being Sr. day.
I scanned everything and the total was too low. I had TRIED to figure the tax on the Ester-C, but obviously screwed something up. I knew I had more coupon than amount, so I grabbed a pack of gum there at the register to bring the total up.

Hit Finish and Pay, and Coupons, and the girl came and took my coupons to her station. She scanned them all and they all went through with no beepage or problems. She hit total, but before I could choose a pay method, I guess she thought my total was too low and looked closer and locked my register up.
People were asking her questions and she let me standing there. Then she came back and took off the $5.00 coupons, and then went off to help someone else again. Then came back and - eventually - put the coupons in for $4.34 and hit total.

I paid and started to go and she turned around to tell me what she'd had to do. I said, what you did was cheat me out of my coupon value - Kroger gets reimbursed for the full amount of that coupon, and it's illegal to change the amount of a manufacturer coupon.

I know, I know...but this was just after the first Rite Aid fiasco and I was so irritated...
I didn't stay and fight, I just had my say and left.

After that was when I was fixing to say to heck with it and go home, but decided not to. (Which was probably the wrong decision, since I should have walked out of all three stores I had just visited and decided not to).
But luckily things changed after that and got better.

Value of items $33.73 (Before sale prices)
Total Paid $2.24 + 1.01 tax = $3.25 oop

Rite Aid

Next I headed to Rite Aid to do my deals that were supposed to get me $8.00 (or $10.00) worth of items I needed/wanted, namely milk and Hershey Kisses.

The deal looked like this: (Thanks, Brandy!)
1 Nature's Bounty Vitamin $4.99
1 Nature's Bounty Vitamin $0.00 (bogo sale, rings up $0)
1 Contac Cold and Flu $4.99
1 GE Soft White Bulbs 2 pack $2.00
$8 worth of things you need!
=$20.00

Use
$5/20 Rite Aid Video Values coupon
$5/1 Nature's Bounty mq ip (see info HERE about getting the $5 coupon)
$5/1 Nature's Bounty mq ip
$1/1 Nature's Bounty Video Values coupon
$1/1 Nature's Bounty Video Values coupon
$2/1 Contac 1.10.10 RP
-$19

=$1.00 oop+tax

earn $4.99 scr for Contac, $2.00 SCR for GE bulbs

So at Rite Aid #1 I got (2) Nature Bounty Cod Liver Oil, Contac, Light Bulbs, (2) gallons of milk, and (2) bags Hershey kisses.
After coupons my total should have been $2.95 plus tax.

The cashier didn't push a button or something after scanning my items, I know she didn't because the credit card screen thing wasn't showing my transaction. She scanned all my coupons except the last one, I saw her NOT scan the last one, the 2nd of the Nature Bounty MQs.
She stopped after scanning all the coupons except that one and asked if I had more coupons...I was holding in my hand some "Instant Win 2 Game of Life" tickets, so then she took those and gave me my free game tickets.

Then she went back to my coupons and told me that last one wouldn't scan. I didn't say anything at that point, because I knew she had not scanned it, not that it would not scan. Then she tried to tell me it wouldn't scan because one of the vitamins was free, and I couldn't use a coupon on a buy one get one free item. I said that I have always been able to, so she kind of shrugged and said well we can try, and always void it if it don't work. (Wouldn't be nothing to void if it didn't work.)

So she scanned it and nothing happened, because she hadn't pressed that button on the register. So she pressed it, rescanned the coupon, it took it, and she cheerfully told me I owed her $18-some-odd.
I said but only that coupon came off, none of the others did, because she hadn't pressed that button to start with, so she needed to rescan those other coupons.

No, she decides to void the entire transaction and start over. So she calls a Manager to come to a void, and then she tells the Manager I have "all these" coupons for the Vitamins, when they only cost $4.99, so she can't take the coupons, right? Manager says yes she can, up to $4.99. Cashier continues to argue, but one of them is free. Manager says it's okay, she can still use 2 coupons. Cashier continues to argue, and brings the RA VV coupons into it. Now the Manager says well I can't use both (the MQs and the RA q's) because that would mean she'd have to pay me a dollar, and she couldn't pay me a dollar, so I can use either one or the other.

I was going to ask her why she thought she'd have to pay me a dollar for using those, but not $5 on the free Vitamins? It doesn't make alot of sense, the way it went. She had to know I was getting overage, using the $5 coupon on free vitamins, and that was okay, but not okay for the RA coupons. Yet had I been paying cash, then I could have used the RA coupons with no problem. They can't seem to get that manu. coupons are a form of payment the same as cash or check or credit card.

But the cashier was STILL arguing with her about me being able to use a coupon on a free item, so I just paid, took my stuff and left.

Total $4.95 + .79 tax = $5.74 oop
SCR: $4.99 Contac, $2.00 GE bulbs = $6.99
Final Total $1.25 Profit

After this I went to Kroger and didn't have a great shop. I was disappointed and just about gave up and went home. But then I remembered today was the last day of last week's Publix sale, so I had to buck up and push on.

At the next Rite Aid, I guess I was feeling rebellious...I decided to buy a 12 pack of beer instead of milk. (Really, I was only planning to buy 4 gals of milk anyway, and didn't want to get the beer at the last Rite Aid after I found out last week that the SM is my brother-in-law's 1st cousin.)

So I got the beer, vitamins, Contac and lightbulbs, and didn't have a bit of trouble checking out and using all my coupons.

Total $2.47 + 1.15 tax = $3.62 oop
SCR: $4.99 Contac, $2.00 GE bulbs = $6.99
Final Total $3.37 Profit

And then at the last Rite Aid - just my luck - they only had 1 gallon of of milk in stock. I filled in with 2 more bags of Hershey Kisses since it was something I was looking to stock up on anyway (thought I had plenty still from Halloween, but apparently I already ate 'em all up. I am addicted to Kisses.)
I skipped the lightbulbs this time.

Here the cashier was laughing and making a big production of my low total. I told her I was glad that didn't make her mad. She was like, why would it? She thought it was neat, and has a few people that come in shopping with coupons and she gets a kick out of seeing how low they can go. I told her I didn't know, but I had had another cashier earlier that just couldn't stand it, and did everything she could to not take my coupons, and was STILL arguing with her Manager about it when I left the store. She said people like that just had a problem, and I should bring my coupons to her.

Total $1.95 + .52 tax = $2.47 oop
SCR $4.99 Contac
Final Total $2.52 profit

Grand Total:
Value if Items: $96.30
Total Spent: $9.37 + 2.46 tax = $11.83 oop
SCRs Earned: $18.97
Final Total: +$7.14 Profit

Dollar General

Where it went wrong.

I'd heard or seen somewhere I can't now remember that Dollar General had some coupons available this month, and that one of them was a MQ for Neosporin.

I felt weird going into the store for coupons and nothing else...the place was empty and dead so it wasn't like I wouldn't have been noticed...so I figured I'd buy a pack of gum and be like "Oh, coupons" on the way out the door.

So I went in and, they didn't have a pack of my kind of gum, so I had to get a 4-pack, anyway got my gum and went to the register. And no one was there, or even apparently anywhere near. I stood there and stood there. Someone else came in the store and came to the register (she just wanted to use the phone) and still nobody.

I don't know why I didn't just leave the gum and go, grabbing the coupons on the way out since they were right by the door.
But I waited, and wasted $1.03 on gum. I'll chew it, and will make the dollar back the next Neo deal I do at Wags, but still.

Anyway, not only does the sheet have the $1.00 Neosporin coupon, but also a $1.00 off Any 1 Johnson's Baby Product, and no Size Exclusions. (Think free Trial size baby shampoo and powder at Walmart and Target.)
Also there's a $1.00 off Any 1 Carefree Product, which makes for free Pantyliners at many stores.

The coupon does have Dollar General printed on the front, but on the back it reads "Redeem at Food, Drug, or Discount stores accepting coupons." So Walgreens, Walmart, Target, CVS, Rite Aid - none of them have a leg to stand on if they argue these MQs.

Other Manufacturer Coupons are:
$1/1 Tylenol Rapid Release Gels, Tylenol Arthritis Pain, Tylenol 8 Hr. (24 ct. or larger)
$1/1 Tylenol PM or Tylenol PM Caplets (20 ct. or larger)
$1/1 Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom Severe Caplets (20 ct. or larger) or Tylenol Severe Cold Multi-Symptom Liquid (8 fl. oz)
$1/1 Tylenol Sinus Congestion & Pain Severe Daytime Caplets or Tylenol Sinus Congestion & Pain Day & Night Caplets (20 ct. or larger)
$1/1 Sudafed PE Severe Cold or Sudafed PE Nasal Decongestant (12 ct. or larger)
$1/1 Children's Tylenol, Children's Tylenol Plus Multi-Symptom COld, or Children's Motrin
$1/1 Motrin (24 ct. or larger)
$1/1 Pepcid, AC, Mylanta, Imodium Multi-Symptom, or Rolaids (except Rolaids 3 ct. roll pack)
$1/1 Stayfree Product
$1/1 Carefree Product
$1/1 Band-Aid Tough Strips, Band-Aid Flexible Fabric, or Neosporin Antibiotic Cream
$1/1 Listerine Antiseptic or Listerine Total Care Anticavity Mouthwash (500 mL. or larger)
$1/1 Visine Product
$1/1 Johnson's Baby Product
$1/1 Neutrogena Product
$.50 Eight O'clock Coffee

There are also about 14 Dollar General Store Coupons. None of the stores I visit consider DG a competitor so they're no good to me, but if anyone needs me to list them out let me know.

All expire 1/30.

Walmart

Because I despise shopping at Walmart, I tend to end up like I was today...still having several good coupons expiring today...and it comes down to Use 'em or lose 'em.

The Snuggle dryer sheets are $1.87 at Walmart, and I had (7) $2.00 off Snuggle coupons.
When shopping at Walmart, you never know when you'll get overage, or just free, or refused altogether.
In such a case, since I MAY get overage, I have to buy something to eat the overage. In that case, if I don't get the overage, I'm stuck buying something I really didn't need.

Anyway, luck was with me today, and I got my full coupon value.

I bought:
$13.09 Snuggle x 7
$ 1.50 Duckbrand Packaging tape
$ .58 Chocolate Frosted Donut

Used:
-14.00 Snuggle MQ x 7 12/06 RP (expires today)
- 1.00 Duckbrand MQ 11/22 SS

Total $0.17 + 1.04 tax = $1.21 oop

When buying the Snuggle, I figured if I got it, I'd end up with $0.91 overage.
I looked for the Duckbrand tape because I'd read that someone else had found it at their Walmart for $1.08, and would be .08 after coupon. At my Walmart, it was priced $1.67, and normally I wouldn't've bought it for even .67 after coupon because I didn't really need it, but I was ready to go and didn't want to try to come up with something else to use the overage on.
Even after spending that overage, I still had .24 more cents to spend. I went for fruit, but I can't accurately figure weight on fruit, and didn't want to mess up...I figured going in the negative at Walmart would set alarms and lights and sirens off, and for sure they'd deny my coupons...so the donuts were priced at .58 cents, so I grabbed one of those.
Turned out the Tape rang up at $1.50 instead of $1.67, so good thing I had got the more expensive donut.

I've had some good luck checking out at the self-checkers with coupons (the coupons beep, but generally the cashier doesn't scrutinize the coupons/prices as much), and today I couldn't find any guy lines to get in, so I went for the self-check out again.
A younger girl was running them; a young guy was standing at her podium chatting with her. When she came to help me with my coupons, the register told her it needed verification, and she verified them on through.
When my total came up she was like "Wow, that's great" as she was headed back to her podium to finish chatting with her friend.

CVS Plan & $5/$20

A new $5/$20 CVS Printable coupon is available, expires 1/16/10:

CVS $5/$20

Total 1st Week of the Year

$824.02 Value of Items Before Sale/Coupon/Rebate

$28.69 CASH Spent oop

+$30.87 After Sale/Coupon/Rebates (This would be increasing my amount of RRs, ECBs, Rite Aid SCRs, and Publix Gift Card)

Walgreens

Total Value of All Items: $144.57
RRs Spent: $14.00
Cash Spent: $3.47 + $4.58 tax = $8.35
RRs Earned: $33.00
Final Total: +$10.65 Profit

Rite Aid

$2.99 Nivea Lip
$0.00 Nivea Lip BOGO sale
$2.99 Nivea Lip
$0.00 Nivea Lip BOGO sale
$2.99 Nivea Lip
$0.00 Nivea Lip BOGO sale
$3.99 Stayfree
$0.00 Stayfree BOGO sale
$3.99 Stayfree
$0.00 Stayfree BOGO sale
$3.62 RA Vitamin E Clearance
$1.50 Mug Root Beer
$1.50 Mug Root Beer
$1.50 Mug Root Beer

Used:
-5.00/20.00 Video Values q
-2.00 in-ad Q 2 ltr. sodas*
-3.99 Stayfree BOGO mq
-3.99 Stayfree BOGO mq
-2.99 Nivea Lip BOGO mq
-2.99 Nivea Lip BOGO mq
-2.99 Nivea Lip BOGO mq

Total $1.12 + 1.23 tax = $2.35 oop

*The sign on the drinks said 3/$1.99 with in-ad q, but the only in-ad q there was was off 7-Up and Canada Dry. She scanned it and it worked, but only took off $2.00, which left me paying .51 more than I should have.
But I wasn't going to go back in and argue over .51 when I already have trouble enough at this store.

CVS

Transaction 1: Started with $12.45 ECBs
$6.99 Starbucks Coffee
$6.00 Soyjoy Bars
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust
$2.99 GE Light Bulb
$ .88 Sweethearts

Used:
-5.00/20.00 CVS IP
-1.50 Starbucks Jingle Rebate Booklet
-3.99 BOGO Oust 1/03 SS
-1.50 IP MQ

-12.45 ECB

Total $0.40 + 0.94 tax = $1.34 oop

Received ECBs: $2.00 GE, $6.00 SoyJoy, $6.00 Oust

Final Total $0.21 Profit

Transaction 2: Started with $10.00 ECBs
$6.99 Starbucks Coffee
$6.00 Soyjoy Bars
$3.99 Oust
$3.99 Oust

Used:
-5.00/20.00 CVS IP
-1.50 Starbucks Jingle Rebate Booklet
-3.99 BOGO Oust 1/03 SS

-10.00 ECB

Total $0.48 + .73 tax = $1.21 oop

Received ECBs: $1.00 Green Bag Tag, $6.00 SoyJoy, $6.00 Oust

Final Total: $1.79 Profit

Today's Total

$358.04 worth of items = $4.85 Cash

Publix

I did the New Week's sale first, which involved alot of items for my Stockpile: cereal, juice, soup, and noodles. The chips were on bogo sale for $3.99, which is the price I usually buy them at, but was also able to use $1.00 Rite Aid Video Value coupons to make them $1.00 a bag. The Banquet Heat & Serve Sausages were supposed to have been a good deal...had I remembered to get my coupons out and use them :-(
Got a good bit of Overage on the MM's this trip, but tax and my purchases in my next shop ate most of it up.

$3.99 Lay's Chips BOGO sale x 2
-1.00 Lay's Chips Rite Aid Video Value q's x 4
= $1.00/.99 each

$3.65 Juicy Juice BOGO sale x 2
-1.00/2 IP MQ x 2
-1.00 Target Q x 4
= $0.33 each

$3.99 Special K (Original) BOGO Sale
$ .89 Grapefruit
$ .19 Banana
-2.00 BOGO IP MQ (No longer available)
- .50 Target Q x 2
- .50 (doubled) Fruit wyb Special K IP q x 2
= $0.07 for All

$3.99 Special K (Granola) BOGO Sale x 4
-5.00/4 IP q (Target Site) x 2
-1.00 Target q x 8
= +$2.04 overage

$1.19 Lipton Secrets Soup x 5
- .50 (doubled) MQ
= $.19 each

$0.79 Yakisoba Noodles x 5
- .50 (doubled) MQ
= +$1.05 overage

$1.89 Banquet Sausage Patties BOGO Sale
(Forgot to use .35 - doubled to .70 - coupons, Boooo!)
= .95/.94 each

$3.55 Aleve x 2
-5.00/2 PQ
-1.00 MQ x 2
= $0.05 each

$2.37 Bayer Aspirin x 4
-5.00/2 PQ x 2
-1.00 MQ x 4
= +$4.52 overage

$1.47 J&J 1st Aid Kit x 3
-2.00 PQ x 3
-1.00 MQ x 3
= +$4.59 overage

$0.99 Schick Razors
-2.00 MQ
= +$1.01 overage

$2.99 Vitamin D x 5
$4.99 Cod Fish Oil
-6.00/2 PQ x 3
-1.00 MQ x 6
= +$4.06 overage

Then I went down the street to hit the last day of last week's sale. I thought I had earned my overage goal for the week during my first shop, so I could use my overage here to buy the Nesquick. But then I found the Koolaid packets on clearance 2/$3.49. Not the best price ever, buy my son had been asking for some of these again (I used to buy them before I coupon shopped), so half-price got me 2 boxes for the price of one.

Tax ate up most of the rest of it.

Shop 1: +$8.98 overage + 3.58 tax = +$5.30 overage
Shop 2: $0.68 + 2.82 tax = $3.50 oop
Total: +$1.80 Overage on Gift Card
Total Saved: $196.02