Monday, May 31, 2010

Walgreens

Wags has several Free-After-RR deals this week, good for rolling RRs if you don't have any other choice. The Ecotrin had a coupon to make it a mm, but I didn't have it, and anyway, there weren't any in stock, which I figured there wouldn't be. You pretty much have to be there first thing Sunday morning to get the FARR items.

I was going for the Free-after-coupon-and-RR U Kotex items, and the Pieces candies.

$3.49 U Kotex
-1.00 IP MQ
-2.50 RR

$5.00/2 Pieces Candy
$5.00/2 Pieces Candy
-4.00 insert MQ (1.00 x 4)
-5.00 RR
= $1.00 or $0.25 per bag

The foil was a .59 filler, and the Jello was 5/$1 or 0.20 each.

Haven't done my figures yet, but it was about a $2.00 loss in RRs, and approx. $3.00 cash.
Since I didn't need a bit of this stuff, not that great a deal.

Publix

Since I was right across the street anyway, and didn't think I had any questionable coupons, I went into the Yuck Publix to grab a few things, mainly milk and eggs, using overage.

You'd think I learn. It don't matter, no matter what, I'm going to end up over-spending in that stupid store.

$3.85 + 1.26 tax = $5.11 from Gift Card
Had this gone right - like it would have at the Better store! - my cost would have been $1.22.

BTW, the Folic Acid vitamins are still $3.79 at this store. That's a big, BIG difference between the $8.99 it went up to at the other store!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Publix

Made a Publix run today.

The Ronzoni pasta is still .79, so I got a total of $1.26 overage buying 6 boxes.

Also got a couple more Grill Mates marinades, giving me .20 overage each.

The Myoplex bars are $1.99, using a Free coupon from the EAS site (not sure if still available) with the Publix Green Flyer coupon $3.00/2, gave me $3.00 overage.

Sominex is $3.19 each; used $2.00 IP MQ, and $5.00/2 Green Flyer Q, for 2.62 overage.

For other overage there is stuff like Vivarin, Phazyme, Benefiber...I forget what else, but stuff that was all out today.

One crazy thing I saw today was, last time I shopped I bought a 250 350 ct. bottle of Sundown Folic Acid vitamins for $3.79....today those were priced $8.99!!

There was a tearpad coupon in the potato chip section for Buy (2) Bags Lay's, get $2.00 off Peaches. Lay's are BOGO $3.99.
I got A peach, which I thought was $1.59 lb., so should have been like .37, but apparently I grabbed one of the Premium peaches at $2.99 lb, so my stupid peach rang up $1.05. *GASP*

The Pretzels are on sale for 2/$3.00, and I used $1.00/1 MQ from 5/23 insert (I think), so they were .50 each.

Then I got (2) gallons of milk, (2) loaves of bread, (2) bananers, and a can of Refried Beans w/ no coupons.

I also used a $5/$20 Rite Aid coupon.

Total $.98 + .75 tax = $1.73 from Gift Card
Total saved $43.52

Monday, May 24, 2010

Food Lion

YaY, I went shopping two days in a row!

So my Food Lion is one of the ones trying the new program; doubling coupons up to .60 and accepting competitor coupons...and some other new things I've forgotten at the moment.

I wanted to go give a try-out and see how it worked. I picked out some .50, .55. and .60 coupons I had that I thought might make for a good deal after doubling. But, not so much. FL is still pretty much too expensive.

I had a .55/2 Martha White Baking Mix coupon; the Cornbread mix my hubby likes was .89 each, so after coupon they were .34 each. Not too bad.

Otherwise, I saw this Buy 3, get $3 deal. I had MQs from this week's insert, plus Publix q's from the Family Reward booklet. I wasn't sure if they would allow stacking, though (I forgot to ask, and then decided I didn't want to give them a chance to say no), so I did my figures based on if I used only one or the other, MQs or PQs, although now that I think about it, I probably should have figured it using whichever were the higher value coupons.

Anyway, if they did allow the stacking, after the $3.00 reward, I would've had like .68 overage.
I found the Tony's pizzas on sale 10/$10 ($1.00 each), and there was a blinkie hanging right there for $1.00/2, making the pizzas .50 each.

So if I figured right, I would've owed $0.32 plus tax.

Right away I knew I was in trouble: it doubled the competitor coupons.
I was standing thinking, "Oh, sht, oh sht", but then she hands me one of my Lipton T Publix coupons back and says "You only got two of those".

Now at that point, she'd already rang up 2 coupons for the mayo, and 2 coupons on 1 box of the tea, plus one more for the tea, for a total of 3...so I have no idea where she come up with me having too many coupons for the tea. But I sure didn't argue, because at that point my total was $0.60, and had she entered that last one, and it doubled, there would have been trouble.

So basically, when I go back next time, and get a different cashier, I still have no idea if stacking is allowed, or if there was supposed to be a different button pushed for the Competitor coupon to not double.

Oh well....$0.60 OOP!!

Publix


$1.49 BOGO Knorr Pasta Sides x 10
- .60/2 MQ x 5
- .55/2 PQ x 5
= $1.70/10

$4.99 Rotisserie Chicken
-5.00 Rotisserie Chicken wyb 10 Knorr IP Q
= +.01 overage

$5.99 Infusium23 x 4
-5.99 Green Flyer Q x 2
-3.00 MQ x 4
= +.02 overage

$0.79 Ronzoni Pasta
-1.00 (.50 blinkie doubled)
= +.21 overage each

$1.09 Zantac travel size
-5.00/2 or 2.00/1
= Got total of $6.55 overage w/ 5 packs

$0.49 Whiskas x 14
-0.98 BOGO Q
= Free/2
-0.55/3 Blinkie Q x 4
= +2.20 overage

$1.99 Myoplex Bar x 2
-3.00/2 Green Flyer PQ
-3.89 IP Q from EAS site x 2
= +6.80 overage

$0.80 McCormick Marinades
-1.00 (.50 MQ doubled)
= +.21 each

$3.79 Folic Acid Sundown Vitamins
-3.00 Green Flyer PQ
-1.00 MQ
= +.21 overage

Ended up with $16.12 overage, plus my $5/$20 Rite Aid q, which I used to buy Loafa Bread, 3 lbs. Ground Beef, 2 pkgs. Cube Steak, and 4 cans of Sardines.

I still had +$0.61 overage I didn't want to try to spend, so I bought a $25.00 Gift Card so the total wouldn't go into the negative.  My ending balance was $24.38, but then I had $3.74 tax, so my groceries actually cost me $3.12.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

CVS

Not alot of deals this week (I didn't check out the montly deals again, though, so I'm probably missing out on some) but I've been getting aggrivated with myself for not going for papers some of the past few weeks, so I was determined to get out there and get some today.

The deal I did at CVS, they have Old Spice Body Wash for $4.00, get $4.00 ECB, Limit 2.
I used a BOGO Old Spice BW coupon from an insert (can't recall which), so I spent $4.00, and got $8.00 ECBs.

Woulda been a $4.00 MM, but I bought a bundle of papers at $3.00, so it was a $1.00 MM. After tax, I'm about $.70 ahead. I ain't complaining!

(I did two shops, one trans per card. If you buy 4 BWs, and use 2 BOGO q's, you will spend $8.00 and get $8.00 ECBs. Free BW, but no MM.)

Walgreens

Here's a prime example of not having the coupons I needed; the Complete could been a $2 MM, paying for most of my newspaper bundle, which rang up $2.38 here.

$7.99 Complete
$2.99 Goody Barrettes
$2.38 newspapers
$1.49 Gummy worms
- .80 Wags in-ad q
- .55 IP MQ
-13.50 RRs
= $0.00 + .70 tax = .70 oop

Rec'd $8.00 RR Complete, $3.00 RR Goody = $2.50 + .70 loss

I guess $2.50 (Wags loss + CVS profit) isn't too bad a cost for (6) sets of newspaper coupon inserts...if I get my can out there and use them before they expire!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Walgreens

The only deal I felt like messing with this week was the Free-After-RR Gillette and/or Old Spice Body Wash.

I had a stack of RRs to spend, so I got alot of what I needed - milk and the only loaf of bread they had.

The Royal jello is .19 each this week, and I have a blinkie coupon I've had for a long time so don't remember where or when for $1.00/5. Since it was ring-up price, not price after in-ad q, and the total came up less than $1.00, I figured it would beep, so I went and got a 6th box, and paid $0.14 for all (6). Coupon beeped anyway; they just manually entered it, like the other Wags say they "can't" do.

The crackers, tuna, and package of popcorn was fillers for either I had more RR amount to spend, or for number of items to coupons ratio.

I did the Body Wash deal (6) times. One of the times I got Gillette Body Wash and used a BOGO MQ (from 5/02 PG, I think), and also a $4/2 MQ (same insert, I think). I didn't get papers that week, my son son had got one and gave me his coupons, so that was the only ones I had, unfortunately.

Otherwise I got Old Spice kind, using a BOGO q, so I got (2) for free after RR.
I only got 1 RR per transaction, even though I got 2 body washes, because you can only get 1 RR per transaction. Since it was free after RR anyway, getting one of them BOGO seemed like the same thing.

I used one of my new $4.50 RRs to buy the stuff I found on clearance; a nice tool set marked down to $2.49 (I am always needing a hammer or screwdriver or pliers in here but can never find one without going out to the workshop and trying to dig around, so these will be MY tools, anybody touching them will draw back a nub), a yellow rope marked down to $1.12, and a thing of Krazy Glue for $0.94.

I am left with $22.50 RRs for the next sale.

Publix

Attention: Free Cat Food Deal in Land of Doubles:
The Whiskas Trays are .49 each regular price.
In the 3/28 RP is a BOGO coupon.
Buy (2), and when the cashier enters .49 for the price, since it is below .50, the amount will double, making both trays FREE!!
*At my Publix today there was a Blinkie hanging right there for .55/3 trays Whiskas, so I bought (6), got them all free with the BOGO coupons, and also got .55 overage.
(Deal found at IHeartPublix)
I needed some things from the store this week (Burritos and Nesquik and ground beef), so all I needed was some things to get me up to $20.00 amount so I could use a Rite Aid $5/$20 coupon. I actually went up over $40.00 on the first shop.

The crazy lady cussing herself another blue streak was me when I realized I was carrying RA q's that had expired 4/30. Argh! That's totally like wasting 5 bucks!!

In the end I spent $4.03 on my first transaction. Not bad for a nearly $5.00 thing of Nesquik, nearly $4.00 package of Burritos, plus cat food, lightbulbs, Ritz Pretzel crackers, Fisher snacks, a carb bar, and sardines...but still not as great as being able to use the 5-off'er, either. That's what happens when you get out of shape!

The 2nd trans I hadn't even planned on doing. I had decided after last time to boycott the Publix with the Evil Manager, but I still needed ground beef, and didn't want to pay for it, and last time this store did still accept Walgreens RRs. I had a $5.00 RR, and with the other overage I got, I was able to buy (3) packages of ground beef.
Total spent on trans 2 was $0.45!!

Besides the cat food deal, which I got .55 overage for every (3) trays, other deals were:
$0.80 McCormick Grill Mates Marinades
-1.00 (.50 MQ doubled) 4/18 RP
= +.20 overage each
(I found some on clearance for .70 at one store)

$2.15 GE Reveal 10 watt bulbs
-1.00 MQ 4/18 SS
-2.00 TQ
= +.85 overage each

$1.00 Fisher Snacks
-1.00 MQ 2/7 SS, 2/28 SS, 1/10 SS, 12/13 SS, 12/06 SS
= FREE (Good for getting total up to $20 if you can use a $5/$20 Rite Aid Q)

$1.55/1.54 Ritz Crackers
-1.00 MQ 3/28 or 3/14 SS
-1.55 B3G1 TQ
= .63/4

They also have Ronzoni Pasta on sale .79, but I fergot my Food Lion envie, which is where I had stuck my Ronzoni blinkie q's during their last sale.
Those are .50, so will double to 1.00, for .21 overage.

No Schick Hydro in stock.

Kroger

Headed off to Kroger with 1-day expired coupons, hope and a smile. I got everything pictured for $1.77, of which $1.48 was tax.

I was cussing myself a blue-streak, though, to have missed out on the Lawry's marinade sale/coupon/cat deal. I had been waiting for a deal to come up again, and I BLEW it!

Walmart

Had a $3.00/5 and several FREE can coupons left, expiring today I needed to spend and wasn't sure where to get them. I needed to go to Walmart anyway to get some pool shock, so checked the prices there. They were .57 a can, so I got .15 overage on the 5 cans. Total 16 Free cans Mighty Dog.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Publix

I had some more items on my shopping list at both Publix and Walgreens, but they required coupons from this/past weekends paper, and since I didn't find those until last, as I was headed home, so this is all I got.

The coupons gave me $1.35 overage on the Hidden Valley; the Egg Beaters after coupon was $1.32, so I got a .33 clearance package of Ramen noodles. I wasn't at my usual Publix and didn't want the register to beep for going $.03 into the tax.
Spent $0.56 from Gift Card.

Walgreens

Always always with the expiring RRs. I had $13.00 RRs to spend today, but they were out of the FARR Shave cream and I didn't have some coupon or other. Anyway, I got milk and bread and a .37 microwave popcorn filler, and still had another $5.00 RR I didn't spend. Oh well, I'll take to my good Wags later I guess.

CVS

Today is Tuesday, but believe it or not I went looking for Sunday papers today. Sortof. There's a store down where my Mom lives that has a free Hispanic paper, and they have coupon inserts in them. I was down there Sunday, but we had the trailer hooked up to the car and I didn't want to have to try to get it through and around the parking lot.
Wish I had, though, because all those papers were gone today.

The CVS I stopped in on the way back home had some Sunday papers left, though, so I was able to buy them with ECBs.

The milk and sandwich baggies were fillers I needed to bring the amount of items up to the total of ECBs I had to spend after coupons.

The Right Guards were $2.49, get $2.99 ECB, limit 2. I had an IP MQ for $3.00/2, so I think I made about a $2.00 profit on that.

The Kotex U were $4.99, free after $4.99 ECB, limit 1. I had a $1.00 MQ from an insert, and a $1.00 CVS IPQ from the CVS site, so another $2.00 profit.

The Stayfree are a monthly deal, Buy 1 get $2.00 ECB, limit 5. They cost $3.79, and I had $2.00 MQ from an insert, so about a $0.21 profit, but mostly I was looking to be able roll ECBs, so that was a good deal for that.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Publix Cat Food Deal

9Lives Cat Food, 3.15 or 3.5 lb, at $3.99 ($1.99)
-$1 off 9Lives Cat Food April All You Magazine or RP 4/11 (makes it 99¢)

Other items on my shop list for this week: There's several more good deals this week, but I either don't need it enough to pay anything for it, or don't have the right coupons for the deals (it's mostly the lack of coupons).
Check Southern Savers or I Heart Publix for the rest of the deals.

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, 16 oz, at $3.39 ($1.69)
-$1 off Hidden Valley Dressing printable (makes it 69¢)
-$2 off Hidden Valley Farmhouse Originals SS 3/14 (regional)(makes it FREE)

Ken’s Steak House Marinade & Sauce, 16 oz, at $2.79 ($1.39)
-$1 off Ken’s Marinade SS 5/09 (makes it 39¢)
(This coming Sunday's coupons)

Peter Pan Peanut Butter, 13-16.3 oz, at $2.49 ($1.24)
-$1/2 Peter Pan peanut butter April All You Magazine (makes it 74¢)
-$1/2 Peter Pan peanut butter “Rediscover Your Balance” home mailer
-$1.50/4 Conagra items including Peter Pan printable

Egg Beaters, 15 or 16 oz ctn, $1.67
-$1 off Egg Beaters April All You, Magazine or Rediscover Your Balance mailer (makes it 67¢)

Purina Beneful Prepared Meals Dog Food, 10 oz pk, $1.50
-$1 off Beneful Prepared Meals Pet Flyer or printable (store coupon)

Schick Hydro 3 Razor, $5.99
-$1 off Schick Hydro Razor, Refill, or Shave Gel Adv Buy Flyer
-$5 off Schick Hydro Razor SS 5/09 (use both makes it FREE)
(This coming Sunday coupons)

Schick Hydro Shave Gel, 8.4 oz, $2
-$1 off Schick Hydro Razor, Refill, or Shave Gel Adv Buy Flyer
-$1 off Schick Hydro Shave Gel SS 5/09
(use both makes it FREE)
(This coming Sunday coupons)

Carefree 16 or 22 ct, 99¢
-$1 off Carefree Product, Any SS 4/25 (makes it FREE)
-$1 Peelie
-.50/1 Carefree product printable

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Walgreens

As usual I needed milk & bread. I used a save $1.00 off milk wyb SL bread coupon.

The only deal I did was the Hallmark, buy (8) get a $5 RR deal.
Last week I had managed to find (8) of the .29 In Memory insert cards, but this week they only had (4) of those. The next cheapest cards I could find were .89, but I figured it up and was still coming out a little ahead so decided to go ahead. As I was digging through some .89 cards, I happened across (2) .49 cards mixed in with those. So I scoured the rest of the card sections best as I could, but no luck, so I ended up having to get (2) .89 cards.
My final total was $3.92 for the cards, and I got back a $5.00 RR.

CVS

(Not pictured; 9 more packs of Cokes I left in the car for the boys to unload for me)

Ok, I got out shopping today. There weren't many deals (for me), but I had a boatload of expired ECBs and RRs I needed to unload. Luck was with me today, and I didn't have too much trouble using them.

The CVS deals I did this week were:
$6.99 Depends Women's Underwear
-2.00 IP Q
= $4.99; Get $6.99 ECB = +$2.00 profit

$2.99 Colgate Total
-1.50 Colgate Tearpad found many moons ago
= $1.49; get $2.00 ECB = +.51 Profit

Otherwise I bought Cokes (5/$13.00), Saltines, Peanut Butter, Parmesan cheese, and....Nothing.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Used Book Store

I have a reading/book addiction, so I used to buy books at Walmart when I did my grocery shopping, books being as vital to my survival as food. I didn't use the library because I wanted to own and keep all the books. I kept the books in boxes and containers, with plans to one day have my own in-home library.

And then, one day, I saw pictures of other book addicts who already had their own in-home library room. It looked like a used book store, and I didn't like it.

So I picked a few of my more favorite authors/books to keep - which was about a quarter, or less, of all the books I had - and then carried alot of the others to the Used Book Store. (I still have alot more still to take, but didn't want to overwhelm the Store.)

The first load I took to trade in I earned $144.72 worth of Store Credit to be able to buy more books in the store.
I already went through that.

One of my favorite authors is Johanna Lindsey. She was actually the first Romance writer I read. I used to be a Romance snob, and would only read Horror.
I have a large of stack of books I haven't read, but I'm really kinda disappointed in modern romance novels, so they weren't interesting me lately.
It's been so many years since I read the older Johanna Lindsey books, I decided last week to read them again.

When I went upstairs to my bookshelf to look for the books I wanted, I discovered some of the ones I thought I had, not there. I can't imagine where they've gone to.
Anyway, I made a list of the ones I was missing, packed a couple more bags of tradables, and headed to the UBS.
This time I got a $44.00 credit, and bought $35.00 worth of books.

I've read 9 books in 6 days so far.

Publix

(Not pictured: 7 more jugs of litter)

Also dropped in at Publix last week, 4/28, for some cheap kitty litter.
Stupid Manager at the first store screwed me AGAIN. Jerk. I stopped shopping the store he used to be over months and months ago because of his jerk self. This is the kind of manager that changes the rules weekly, and you don't know it until you're checking out. Jerk.

Transaction 1:
$6.05 + .72 tax = $6.77 from Gift Card
Saved $30.52

Transaction 2:
-0.56 + 1.50 tax = $0.94 from Gift Card
Saved $47.41

Walgreens

Also went to Walgreens a couple of times last week, 4/26 and 4/28:
$2.32 Hallmark Sympathy Cards @ .29 each x 8
$2.00 Plackers
$2.99 Skintimate
$2.99 Stayfree
$3.49 Scotch Pkg. tape x 2
$2.99 Milk
= $20.27
-0.50 Plackers
-2.00 Stayfree
-1.00 Scotch Tape x 2
-5.00 Scotch Tape IVC
-10.00 RRs
= $0.77 + .95 = $1.72 oop
RRs Earned: 2.00 Plackers, 3.00 Skintimate, 3.00 Stayfree, 5.00 Hallmark
= $1.28 Profit

(4 Transactions)
$2.00 Plackers x 4
$2.99 Stayfree x 4
$0.39 Nestle Candy x 3
$3.49 Scotch Tape x 7
$2.99 Skintimate x 2
$4.99 Clio trimmer x 2
$3.99 Summers Eve
= $65.51
- some coupons and $25.00 RRs
= $2.01 + 3.07 tax = $5.08 oop
RRs Earned: 8.00 Plackers, 12.00 Stayfree, 6.00 Skintimate, 10.00 Clio
= $5.92 Profit

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Rite Aids

Not pictured, because I was aggrivated, but I visited a Rite Aid last Friday, the 23rd. They shot me down on using (2) Benevia MQs. They took (1)MQ and (2)Vv q's, but said that's all they could take, up to the price of the item. So I ended up paying $5 more on the Cokes I was buying. And the TGIF q's beeped and they wouldn't take them at all, said they could even adjust them down. So they kept those.

In the picture above is two more shops I did, on Monday, to finish an allergy gift card. The Cetirizine is/was BOGO, and I used the Benevia overage to pay for most of them, and Nature Bounty is BOGO, and I used overage from that to buy milk & bread & baggies.

4/23:
$12.96 Cokes (3/12packs)
$ 8.99 Benevia x 2
$ 3.49 Kotex U liners
= $25.44
-5.00/20.00 Vv Q
-5.00 Benevia MQ
-2.00 Benevia Vv Q x 2
-1.00 Kotex U MQ
= $10.44 + .66 tax = $11.10 from Gift Card

SCR: Kotex (amt ?)

4/26 #1:
$18.99 Cetirizine x 2 (BOGO sale)
$ 6.99 NB Vitamin x 2 (BOGO sale)
$ 1.43 Bread
= $53.39
-5.00/20.00 Vv Q
-5.00 Cetirizine RA Q x 2
-5.00 NB IP Q x 2
-1.00 NB Vv Q x 2
= $0.41 + .81 tax = $1.22 from Gift Card

4/26 #2:
$18.99 Cetirizine x 2 (BOGO sale)
$ 6.99 NB Vitamin x 2 (BOGO sale)
$ 8.99 Benevia x 2 (BOGO sale)
$ 2.99 Milk x 2
$ 1.00 Baggies
= $76.92
-5.00/20.00 Vv Q
-5.00 Cetirizine RA Q x 2
-5.00 NB IP Q x 2
-1.00 NB Vv Q x 2
-5.00 Benevia MQ x 2
-2.00 Benevia Vv Q x 2
= -1.05 + 1.15 tax = $0.10 from Gift Card
(Wasn't suppose to have gone into the negative like that, I misfigured something!)

SCR $25.00 gift card Allergy