Walgreens

Transactions: 9
Value of items: $135.46
RRs Spent: $45.00
Cash Spent: $7.08 + 7.07 tax = $14.15 oop
RRs Earned: $71.00
Final Total: $11.85 Profit

Publix

Transaction #1
Order Total -1.18 + 1.48 tax = $0.30 from Gift Card
Saved $45.26

Transaction #2
$0.43 + 2.14 tax = $2.57 from Gift Card
Saved $74.35

Walgreens 4/18

MoneyMaker - Nature Bounty Vitamin D $5.00; Get $5.00 RR = FARR
Natures Bounty Vitamins and Supplements $1 (5/1/10) V 3/14/10 = $1.00 Profit
$2.00, $3.00 or $5.00 IP from Nature Bounty Rewards Program = $2.00 - $5.00 Profit


Here's the Walgreens deal on the Kotex U with the coupon coming out Sunday:
$2.50 RR WYB participating Kotex U Tampon Products $3.49 = Free After Coupon & RR
The following Item Numbers are participating. How to find an item number? Look on the Price Sticker it is the first set of numbers on the left hand side usually followed by a space and then the product UPC number.
479948, 479947, 479944, 479942, 479945
$1 Printable
U by Kotex Pads $1 (5/30/10)SS 4/18/10
U by Kotex Tampons $1 (5/30/10) SS 4/18/10
U by Kotex Liners $1 (5/30/10) SS 4/18/10


$2 RR WYB participating Colgate Total Advanced or Enamel Strength toothpaste, 4oz, or Wave Toothbrush $2.99 = Free after Coupon & RR
Colgate Total, Max White, Max Fresh or Sensitive Toothpaste, 4 oz. + - 03-28-10 SS $1.00/1, $0.75/1, or $0.35/1
Colgate total toothpaste, 4.0 oz or larger - All You, April 2010 $1.00/1
Colgate IP Q $1.00/1
Colgate Tearpad $1.00/1


Earth Day Special! $1.00 Ink Cartridge Refills Go here for list of included models. Thursday April 22nd Only


Next Week - 4/25 - Has Several Free After RRs for Rolling This Week's RRs!!

Insert Previews

Here are some previews of upcoming coupon inserts. Remember, coupons are regional so you may not get the same ones, or may be different values.

Feel free to add any other deals you see.

04/18/10 Smart Source
*BirdsEye .50/1; Free w/ overage veggies during 50% off Sale
*Hershey's Dark BOGO; Free w/ BOGO Sale at one of the DrugStores
*U Kotex $1.00/1; Deal at Walgreens??

04/18/10 Red Plum
*Adult Zyrtec $6.00/1; Rite Aid Allergy Rebate
*Lawry's Marinade .50/1; doubles to $1.00, last year this made for free bottles during a BOGO sale, but will probably make for Cheap bottles this time.
*Purina ONE dry cat food $2.00/1; Possible free or cheap cat food during a BOGO sale (maybe need a PQ or TQ combination)
*Temptations Treats for Cats $1.00/1; Free during Mega Sale

04/25/10 Red Plum
*Mahatma Rice .50/1; doubles to $1.00 for overage on the small .79-.89 pkgs.
*McCormick $1.00/1; usually makes for some free spices
*Pedigree Dentastix; have gotten these free at Kroger during a Mega sale, and recently at Food Lion with a $2/$5 FLip

05/02/10 Red Plum
*Nothing much looks exciting at this point

Walgreens

The way things are going, I absolutely was NOT going to stop at this Walgreens. But then I thought, well, maybe Mr. George would be working, and it'd be dumb not to spend RR's on milk that I need, and end up having to spend cash on milk, and waste the RR's on stuff I don't need really need later.

Mr. George wasn't working; an older lady was, and that usually spells bad, bad news...but I had enough un-expired RRs to cover my order in case she shot down my other ones.
She looked real close at them, fingered them around, and it seemed like she was on the verge of saying something, but then just scanned them.

The Robin's Eggs got me. They were in a display marked "50% Off", and had .99 orange stickers on the bags. Every, every, every other time I've bought clearanced candy like that, they either rang up the price of the orange sticker, or "Item Not Found" and then the price on the sticker was entered. Not today....they rang up .50 a bag. Not that I'm complaining about getting them even cheaper - that's great! - but there I was at the register trying to do mental math to figure out how much RR's to pull out, and not have to be stuck with a large oop.
I didn't figure right, and my last $1.00 off milk coupon wouldn't go through.

$2.99 Schick Hydro Shave Gel
$0.50 Robin Eggs x 5
$1.29 Velveeta Cup - 1.29 BOGO IP [smartsource.com?]
$1.29 Velveeta Cup - 1.29 BOGO IP
$0.42 Velveeta Cup
$1.00 Velveeta Cup
$1.00 Powdered Drink Mix Singles x 5
$1.99 Zip Sandwich baggies
$1.01 Zip Sandwich baggies
$2.39 Burger Buns
$1.79 loafa bread x 2
$2.99 Milk x 3 - 1.00 off milk wyb Sara Lee Bread x 2
= $32.43BC/$27.85AC

-$27.00 RRs
= $0.85 + 1.22 tax = $2.07 oop

Rec'd $1.50 Velveeta, $3.00 Schick Hyrdo
Final Total $24.57

CVS

The first CVS I visited used to be one of my favorite ones, but after today and the last shop (I can't find where I posted anything about the last shop; I ended up not buying anything, so I must have just not said anything about it)...it has dropped so far to the bottom of my Stores to Shop List, it's pretty much laying in the floor.

I scanned my card and got a slew of good CRTs. I used them all except the $2.00 off Zantac 24ct or more.
There was a FREE Simply Divine Candy Bar, $2.00 off any Huggies Wipes Tub or Refill, $1.00 off CVS Paper Product and $1.00 off CVS Skin Care. I also got a $1.00 ECB, I guess for my Quarterly Spending Reward thing, I'm not sure.

I wanted to buy the CVS Reinventing Beauty magazine with the Paper Products CRT, but they didn't have any. I ended up getting the 2/$1.00 single roll toilet papers.
The CVS Baby Oil I got was marked $0.99, I know it was, I read and checked and re-checked to make sure...now I see it rang up $1.49, I didn't notice at the store.
The Huggies Travel wipes were 2/$3.99, and rang up $2.00 exactly.

Otherwise I got Dove Conditioner, Dial Nutriskin BW, Hydro 5 razor, (5) Thermacare Heat Wraps, and tried to buy 18 pack Bud Light.

The Thermacare rang up $2.79, instead of $2.49, like I thought the price was marked. Anyway I had a raincheck so she price modified them to $2.49. She stuck the RC in her drawer and I said, very meekly, trying to be very, very nice, that I was sorry but I wasn't sure if she noticed, but the RC was actually for Free After Extra Care Bucks.
She asked, If you buy so many? I said no, each one. She said No, there is only a limit of 1 on their items. I said well, not always.
She got the RC back out and looked at it and pointed at the bottom where they write in the ECB price and code and said that it was only for 1 item. I pointed to the Quanity line where it was written Limit 5. She said that just meant I could buy 5 of them, but I'd still only get 1 ECB. I said, nooo....
So she called her Manager and asked him and sure enough I was right. She didn't tell me I was right, or apologize FOR CALLING ME A LIAR, but she was still cheerful and polite, so I just smiled friendly-like.

Next it was that she could only take one of my Thermacare coupons because it said "One Per Purchase". I said, do you know what a purchase is? She said Yes, it was the total. I said no, that's a transaction. She said No.... I asked, then what is a transaction? Same thing as a purchase.
So by now I'm losing what little civility I managed to scrape together this morning anyway, and I asked her, How long have you been coupon shopping? She said let's see, she was 38 now, so...24 years. I said, that long, and you don't know the difference between a 'purchase' and a 'transcation'? So then she just started scanning them, saying she wasn't going to argue with me (too late for that lady!).

Then she came to my ECBs. I had a stack of those babies. Some of them were manually issued ECBs, like when I used rainchecks, and for some reason those don't have my card number on them. They beeped Not For Card, apparently, so she gave them back, saying they didn't belong to that card. I said they most certainly do, and read them and figured out they were manually issued ones. So she took them, muttering about she was going to wrote up "for all this".

Then the register beeped something like "Coupons Exceed Limit", and wouldn't take my last 3 ECBs.
There was over $16.00 subtotal left at this point, so it wasn't because I went in the negative. I was - still am - pretty sure it was something to do with the amount of items/coupon ratio, but she insisted it was because I was trying to buy beer, and I couldn't use coupons on Alcohol.
I said okay, just take it off then.

At that point I could have just paid, and left, and that would've been that. But SHE had to keep agging it on, telling me I wasn't "allowed" to buy beer with Extra Bucks. I said, quietly, non-confrontationally, because I knew I was in the wrong, "well I have before" and she YELLS, "No, Ma'am, You Have NOT, NOT at CVS!"
I lost my temper and yelled back at her, and she says "Well, you got your Extra Bucks anyway." (what?) I said, Not my Thermacare ones.

So she went to printing out my Thermacare ECBs, and oh man was she pissed when she was typing in $2.49, and it was spitting out $3.00 ECBs. She told me I was "making out", in an accusing tone, indicating that I had done something wrong, was getting away with something. (and BTW, the ECBs she manually printed out still didn't match the last 4 digits of my card number, even though she scanned my card to print them.)

After sitting in the car crying a bit, and thinking about just going back home, I bucked up and pushed on.
At the next CVS, I used the (3) ECBs I wasn't able to use at the other one to buy the Cokes. They are 4/$13.00 and get back $3.00 ECB, so 4/$10, or $2.50 each.  The (3) ECBs I had happened to equal exactly $13.00, and it didn't charge me any tax, so that was $0.00 oop order. I like those!

Same CVS, different card, the Red Machine gave me $5.00/2 Revlon, and a $0.50 ECB.
It also gave me the Paper and Skin Care; they also didn't have the RIB magazine, so I got toilet paper, and $0.99 cotton balls for the skin care.

Then I got a razor, Dove Shampoo, loafa bread, 20oz Coke, and....um, nothing.

Trans #1
$4.49 Dove Conditioner - 1.50 MQ 3/28RP (I saw there was still  few $1.50 peelies)
$5.49 Dial Body Wash - 1.00 IP Q [coupons.com]
$8.97 Hydro Razor
$2.49 Thermacare (raincheck) - 1.00 IP Q x 5
$0.50 CVS toilet paper x 2 - 1.00 CRT
$1.49 CVS Baby Oil - 1.00 CRT
$1.99 Simply Divine CandyBar - 1.99 CRT
$2.00 Huggies Travel wipes - 2.00 CRT
= $37.88 BC/$24.39 AC


-$24.00 ECB
=$0.39 + 1.42 tax = $1.81 oop


Rec'd ECBs: $4.50 Dial, $6.00 Schick Hydro, $4.49 Dove, $15.00 Thermacare
Final Total $4.18 Profit

Trans #2
$13.00 Cokes x 4
-13.00 ECB
= 0.00 + 0.00 tax = $0.00 oop

Rec'd $3.00 ECB
Final Total $10.00

Trans #3
$8.97 Razor
$4.49 Dove shampoo - $1.50 MQ 3/28 RP
$0.50 CVS toilet paper x 2 - 1.00 CRT
$0.99 CVS Cotton balls - $1.00 CRT
$1.99 Loafa Bread
$1.59 20oz Coke
$13.99 Nothing
= $33.02BC/$29.52AC

-27.99 ECBs
= $1.53 + $2.05 tax = $3.58

Rec'd ECBs $6.00 razor, $4.49 Dove
Final Total $21.08

Still had some more ECBs to spend but just wasn't up to another round, so even though there were 3 other CVS in the vicinity, I didn't go to any of them.

Rite Aid

It's been a bad week...I'd rather have just stayed holed up at home like I have been and ignore the world...but No, One has to Pick Themselves Up and Get Out There and Face the World. Bahhhh. FTW.

I had no real plan going into Rite Aid. I had an idea I was going to buy Zyrtec, but then decided I didn't need to, and they'll have the RA Brand Zyrtec BOGO again week after next. (Had it last week, too, but I wasted the opportunity.)
I figured I'd get the Complete Eye stuff, and maybe the Crest.

There was a good deal posted about Pure & Natural Soap or Body Wash. If you see in your ad where the Dial and some other soap and Pure & Nautral is BOGO this week. The price starts at like $4.00-something, and there are (or were) $3.00 off Pure & Natural March Video Values coupons. (Ask me if you need them.)

Then I had $2.00 coupons for Sudafed and Visine, and there were $2.00 in-ad coupons on both, so I had those if I needed to reach $20.00.

Sure enough, the 1st Rite Aid I visited didn't have the P&N Soap. So I got the Sudafed to take me up to $15.97, and the water took me on up to (nearly) $20.00.

Well, I hadn't paid attention and the Sudafed coupon was for 24ct. or more, and I only got 10ct. Register wouldn't take it. Dang it, why didn't I happen to get the Visine instead??

I guess I could have stopped it and switched them out, but I just let it go. I didn't want to cause anymore trouble than I was already expecting today.

$7.99 Complete
$2.99 Crest
$4.99 Sudafed
$3.99 Aqua
$1.00 CMN Balloon thing (trying to cop some good karma points)(it didn't work)
= $20.96

-5.00/20.00
-0.75 Crest
-2.00 Sudafed in-ad q

-10.00 Zyrtec Certificate

$3.21 + .89 tax = $4.10 oop
SCR $7.99 Complete, $2.00 Crest

The next Rite Aid I visited - a larger store - also didn't have the P&N soap, so I guess it's not carried in my region.

Another One of Those Weeks

It's been another of those weeks, I couldn't seem to get out and go shopping. We went out of town over the weekend, it rained one day, or maybe two...the other days were too nice to go, I stayed home and worked on some projects around here.

I was absolutely going to Rite Aid today....but I didn't.

So now I have a stack of expired ECBs and expiring RRs, I have to use tomorrow. And of course the deals aren't that great.
If I was interested, I could probably find enough deals to roll them with a little loss, rather than just blowing them all away.
For some reason, when I start looking at the deal threads, my eyes go unfocused and my mind wanders.

I need some Shopping Aphrodisiac.

Did y'all see this Angel Lush cake recipe in one of the March coupon inserts?
I just saw it a little while ago, when I was looking for coupons for some CVS or Walgreens deals. I hadn't paid attention to it before now, but my Mom made this for dessert when we up for Easter. It was really good.

And soooo easy to make.

Angel Lush with Pineapple

Ingredients:
1 can (20 oz.) DOLE Crushed Pineapple in Juice, undrained
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
1 pkg. (10 oz.) round angel food cake, sliced into 3 layers
10 small fresh strawberries

Directions:
Mix pineapple and dry pudding mix. Gently stir in COOL WHIP.

Stack cake layers on plate, spreading pudding mixture between layers and on top of cake.

Refrigerate 1 hour. Top with berries.

Free Garbage Disposal and Potting Soil

I'm not really a "Greenie" or environmentalist or such like that...but I am, most of all, Cheap, and also I enjoy unique, out of the ordinary things, that not everyone else is doing. So when I first read about worm composting (aka vermicomposting), I knew that was something we'd be interested in.

We have worms all over the yard here; whenever we'd move the garbage can or pick up a rock, or when it rains they come out on the driveway. The boys go out and dig them up when they're going fishing.

With worm composting, I realized I could put those worms to work.

Some of you may know that I am slightly paranoid. I don't throw papers or mail with our names on it in the garbage can. We got a shredder, but apparently indentity theivers can put the pieces back together like a jigsaw puzzle. So even after shredding the stuff, we'd save it up until a day we could get out and burn it.
Well, worms love to eat shredded papers.

They also love to eat kitchen scraps like used tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, egg shells, fruit and vegetables.
I keep a plastic Publix shortening can I washed out to put scraps in:

This also brings back pleasant memories for me of summers spent on my Great-Grands farm, when they'd throw food scraps in a bucket to take out to the hog pen. Bonus! lol

And then they like yard scraps, like dead leaves and grass clippings.

When they finish eating all this stuff, you get a bin full of Free, organic potting soil.

You don't need a big yard to have a worm composter; I read that some people even keep theirs on their kitchen windowsill or table. I don't think I could do that, but a back porch or patio would be suitable. They really don't stink as long as you put the right stuff in them.

This website tells you about how to make a worm composter using some Rubbermaid tubs. Easy and clean.
Worm Composting

This book, "Worms Eat My Garbage" is what got me started with my worm composting.
Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System

You can also order worms from online, if you don't have any to dig up or a bait shop nearby (Walmart usually keeps them in their Sporting Goods section):

Greetings, Mes Amis

Or as Paula Deen would say, "Hey Y'all!"

I hope everyone had a Wonderful Easter.

We went to my parent's house, up in the North Georgia Mountains, where my Dad is from originally, and where I spent my summers as a kid with my Grandmother...and great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

The weather was gorgeous, and Mom made a nice dinner of ham, biscuts, potato salad, and a broccoli casserole that even I liked, and I don't usually like green veggies.

I asked Mom for the recipe because I have a good many bags of Birds Eye Broccoli in my freezer from all the Publix 50% off/Free-after-coupon sales.
Thought I would share it with y'all, in case you have broccoli to use up, too.

Ingredients:
1 bag Broccoli florets
1/2 to 3/4 cup mayonaisse
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 egg
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Cook broccoli (Steam in microwave according to directions on pkg.)

In retangle baking dish, mix all other ingrediants together and add broccoli; mix all up together.

Toast 3 pieces of bread and crumble into bread crumbs over the top (or use Progresso bread crumbs).
Top with more shredded cheddar cheese and a few pats or teaspoons of butter.

Bake at 350* for 25 minutes or until browned.

Food Lion

I took my Food Lion coupons along with me over the weekend, thinking there were more Food Lion stores up towards my Mom's. The Taco Bell Catalina deal was ending Sunday and - crazy as it was - I wanted to be able to do it a few more times and stock up on ground beef and cube steak.

Turned out there was ONE Food Lion between here and there, in Ellijay, and I missed it on the way up because it's sits back off the road and you can't see it if you're not looking for it.
Mom told me where it was, but I was sure it'd be closed on Easter day, when we were headed back home. It was open, though, so I ran in for one last deal.

I got the same two boxes of Taco Bell 12 ct. hard shells as last time, which gave me a $3.00 OYNO...this time I got a $1.00 OYNO for the exact same things!
Oh well, I'm not complaining too much, it meant I got 2 taco dinner kits with 24 shells and a package of cube steak for less than $3.00.

Also did a $5/5 deal, getting 4 packs of shredded cheddar and a box of Crystal Light drink mixes.
The cheese was $2.50 each, or $10.00 for 4 packs. I used (2) BOGO blinkie coupons, taking off $5.00 and then $4.00 came off of the $5/5 deal, leaving $1.00 cost for 4 packs of cheese.
The Crystal light was $3.00, minus a $1.00 MQ, and $1.00 for the $5/5 deal, leaving $1.00 cost.
So the total for 4 packs of cheese and a box of Crystal light was $2.00.

The dogfood is 10/$6.00; I got 5 free with a $3/5 MQ.

Used a $3.00 OYNO from my last purchase.

Value of items $24.69
Spent $2.79 + .63 tax = $3.42 oop
Rec'd $1.00 OYNO = $2.42

My Mom also gave me a recipe that she tore out of the Ingles sale paper, that was advertising Taco Bell Home Originals, that goes very well with our Taco Bell dinner kits this past week.

Cheesy Enchaladas

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (8 oz) Philly cream cheese
1 pkg. (8 oz) Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/4 cup Sliced Green Onions (optional)
6 Flour Tortillas
1 cup Salsa

Directions:
Preheat over to 350*

Beat Cream Cheese in small bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy.
Add 1 cup Cheddar Cheese and Onions, mis until well blended.

Spread 1/4 of of the cheese mixture down the center of each tortilla; roll up.
Place seams side down in 11x7-inch baking dish.

Pour Salsa over tortillas. Sprinkle with remaining Cheddar Cheese.

Cover with foil; Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

Food Lion

This would look even more impressive with the 10 cans of Mighty Dog food I gave my son, and the 3 boxes of Snuggle Dryer Sheets I forgot to put in the picture.
Everything pictured, plus the dog food and Snuggle, only cost me $5.30 today!

$1.67 Taco Bell kit
$1.67 Taco Bell kit
$2.46 Cube Steak
-2.00 Ground beef wyb (2) Taco Bell kits tearpad in store
-2.00 OYNO from previous purchase
= $1.80
Rec'd $3.00 OYNO

$2.99 Nilla Wafers
$2.99 Nilla Wafers
$1.78 Milk
$1.78 Milk
$2.50 Shredded cheese
$2.50 Shredded cheese
$2.00 Sliced cheese
-1.50 Milk/Cookies tearpad q (Thanks, Brandy!)
-1.50 Milk/Cookies tearpad q
-2.50 BOGO Cheese blinkie
-1.00 Cheese blinkie (expired 3/31, oops!)
-5.00/5 Food Lion Sale
= $5.04

$6.00/10 Mighty Dog food
-3.00/5 MQ 3/28?
-3.00/5 MQ
= FREE/10

$2.99 Snuggle x 3
-3.00 MQ 3/28? x 3
= +.01 x 3

$0.67 Ronzoni Spagetti *Closeout* x 3
-  .50 Blinkie q hanging in front of it x 3
(Other Ronzoni pasta is on sale for .99)
= $0.17 x 3
Didn't see a Buy 3 get a Free Ragu deal?

Value of items $51.59
Total $6.71 + 1.59 tax = $8.30 oop
Got back $3.00 OYNO = $5.30

Kroger

Value of items $34.12
Spent $2.09 + 1.40 tax = $3.49 oop

This shop messed up. I got the wrong size Fruity Pebbles; it gave me the $4/4, but they cost $4.49. The CS gave me $2.06 back. I see now one of the $1.00 Promise coupons was missed.

I didn't get any OYNO on Promise or Post.

Oh well, still not a bad price for (4) boxes cereal, Coke, and Reeses. And the other stuff.

Publix

Ooh, wow, shopping at Publix was hard today. Nothing in stock. There wasn't any Choc Cheerios at first, but the truck came in and they got some. But no Pound Cake or Greek Yogurt...or travel size stuff. I had a raincheck for the cat food.

Total $0.07 + 1.66 tax = $1.73 from Gift Card
Saved $47.45

Walgreens

(4) Transactions:
Value of Items $64.30
RRs Spent $29.00
Cash Spent $0.99 + 3.36 tax = $4.35 oop
RRs Earned $44.00
Final Total +$10.65 Profit

How is this stuff worth almost $65.00 retail?