Walgreens

We had some errands to run in the county north of us, where I haven't been in awhile, but knew there was a good Wags store. It used to be a horrid store, but then the manager at the best Wags store I used to shop got moved up there. But then, you know the story, I stopped shopping, didn't hardly leave home, or my own town, for most of the summer.

So I go into this Wags, and the shelf is full, got to be nearly 20 or maybe more of the Wet lube stuff. Hmm, I think. I got two to start, until I see what else there was available and be able to figure my deals.
They had alot of eggs, too, like 8 or 10 dozen. The other stores I went to this week sold out early and fast.
Plenty, plenty of Pistacios, and Top Speed polish, although all the stores I was at this week had a lot of the polish.

Anyway, the Wet and eggs freaked me out, I was like, what is going on here?? So I saw the manager and chased him down and asked him, you know, what's the deal? Are there no more coupon shoppers here? Did you stop taking coupons? What?  He looked at me like, WTH are you talking about, lady? so I held up the two boxes of Wet and said, these are free after register rewards but you have A LOT over there, like no one's even bought any.
So he says, well, we like to limit them to two.

Wow, really? He's limiting me on Friday? Even worse, he didn't even know the sale on the Wet hadn't started until Wednesday. He said he was surprised to hear that he had so much left because they usually come in on Sunday and get the deals. So he's limiting me on what he believes is like 5 days after the sale started. He thought someone - no, TEN someones - we're going to come and buy him out in one day?

I don't believe a whole lot of people knew about the starting Wednesday sale; if his shelf was still that full and over-full on a profit-earning item (even if it wasn't a mm, it's free lube!) on Friday, then they weren't coming on Saturday, either. They would have been all over that deal at 8:01 Wednesday morning, had they known about it.  I'd be willing to bet he didn't sell a single nother box after I left.

The cashier was hater, trying to claim she wasn't. There was a lady in front of me buying some Revlon makeup. The cashier was so sweet to her butter wouldn't've melted in her mouth. She was all like, "Here, let's fix you up" and whooped out a Stunning Beauty booklet and scanned the Revlon coupon. Then when she gave her the receipt she was all like, now call this number and they're giving away this money. Mention Sherry, and give all 9's okay?
But then it as my turn, and her smile turned upside down.

She wasn't outright hateful, but she didn't have much to say. Then when I used my Children's Advil coupon from the Baby booklet, she had to call a Manager over to ask if she was supposed to keep the coupon or not.  I said, it's not a manufacturer coupon....(meaning, it's no different from the coupon she just scanned from the Beauty book for the other lady, or the ones out of the sales ad).  She cut me off saying she knew that, but "those coupon sites give out the coupon codes and people try to use them without having the coupon and then Corporate comes down us...blah blah blah".
WTF? I had the freakin booklet in my hand. I wasn't even using codes from "those coupon sites" she depises so much.
She said she uses coupons herself, but those sites, they make trouble for everybody.

What I gathered from all that was, she wants to be a couponer and be able to get the deals, but she can't, so she's pissed and jealous and takes it out on people like me that can.

I did like 4 transactions with no one coming up to check out, then I had one last deal with the eggs and candle warmer, no coupons, just paying with a couple of RRs. I had the eggs out on the counter and was reaching for the candle warmer and a lady comes up behind me to check out. The cashier says, "I have a customer, so we need to hurry this up".

So she didn't consider me a customer, even though I had just spent probably three times as much as the lady waiting behind me was going to spend on the two pieces of makeup she had in her hand.

The lady waiting to check out saw the Revlon coupon in my hand and asked me where I had gotten it. I told her "This nice lady right here gave it to me", talking about the cashier. I had asked  her if she had any of the Revlon manufacturer coupons, and she gave me a Beauty booklet.

The cashier told the lady, "Yeah, we just got some more in. We had some before, and I had put them out there and those coupon people snatched 'em up by the handfuls. Like they wouldn't ever get another one!"

Nice. Real nice.

The candle warmer was $5.99. Walmart has them for $5.00, but I figured I'd pop the extra buck to be able to buy with RRs. I needed to spend them on something useful anyway. I bought this one for my son's fiance. She loves candles and scents.
I don't know about everyone else, but when I light a candle with fire, I can't smell the scent of the candle. But when I put the candle on the warmer and melt it, then it smells really good. I have a Glade gingerbread, or something like that, on mine now and when you walk into the kitchen it's like, Mmmm, whatcha cookin' Momma?  Sorry, boys, it's a candle, not sweets.

I also got some more children's Advil, the infant drops. It took all week for me to figure out that even no longer on sale, I could still get these (practically) free, pay only sales tax.
The infant drops are regular priced $5.49, so with my $2.00 MQ and $2.00 Baby Booklet Q, they come out to $1.49 each, or $2.98 total.
The deal for Buy (2) any Advil, Robitussin, and (I forget the other one) get $3.00 RR is a monthly deal through December 31st, so I paid $2.98 + tax, and got back $3.00 RR.

This coming up week there is going to be a $2.00 IVC in the ad, so I assume the children's advil will be regular price, then use a $2 MQ and the in-ad IVC to get the same deal as above.  I don't believe you can use both the in-ad IVC and the Baby Booklet coupons at the same time. I'll have to check on that, though.

Walgreens

I thought about titling this post "Walgreens-Wake-Up-Call-Woman-What-The-Heck-Are-You-Doing?"

IIRC, I wasn't planning on getting back into this game. I only started going back to shopping the sales to be able to get good deals on stuff I need and use. If there happened to be a FARR or MM deal then I would get that deal, but only to the point that the money I paid for it, turned around and paid for the items that I was actually there for.
Apparently I lost my head when there was all the MM Black Friday deals.

I made profit, but then, instead of spending it on all the good deals there are this week, I became more concerned with rolling them, to the point I was rolling on just free stuff. Which of course isn't free, since it costs me tax.

Other than the (5) dozen of eggs I managed to get on Monday, I otherwise should have waited until today to shop. Today starts a 4-day sale with more items I was looking for and a MM deal.

At the first store I shopped, I started by rolling some older RRs into Top Speed nail polish, which was only FARR and Beauty Book coupon.
(This is a MM deal for others who've been able to find the Revlon tearpads. My stores rarely put out the coupons anymore, choosing to keep them behind the counter so they can pick and choose who they share them with.  I asked my BA about them today and was told no, she didn't have any....well, she did, but they were only for the new items on the cases, not the stuff from back there. Since there was Top Speed nail polish in both locations I wanted to make sure it wasn't the coupon I was looking for, but she simply insisted it was not, and wouldn't bring one out.)

I was then going to roll my Top Speed RRs into a few more of the Optimum Care hair relaxer, and then roll those RRs into the Wet personal lubricant.
However, I was told they couldn't accept the Optimum Care coupons because they were "clearly copied from an original".

Long story short, a Manager, the BA, and some other employee who felt her input was valuable and neccessary insist that ALL IP coupons are a limit of one per computer.
Of course I attempted - why the hell I even bother, I don't know - they are always right - to explain to them that not all coupons are limited to one or two prints, and that these were printed from the manufacturer's website and I had not copied them.

Same with the Wet coupons. The Manager had the nerve to stand there in my face and tell me that "one of them was printed, the others are copies".

I lost my cool a little bit, but I didn't cuss (or at least I don't think I did. Her ass didn't go all up on her shoulders). I told her I would have to contact Corporate about this. She said "Go ahead", as if daring me.

After writing to both Walmart and Publix last week and getting ignored, I probably would have figured she was right about it: Go ahead, call 'em, they ain't gonna care.

But then the BA told me she had gotten in trouble for accepting the Optimum Care coupons I had used on Monday and that's BS. She didn't do anything wrong - I didn't do anything wrong. This asshole Manager is wrong, and everyone else is having to pay for her ignorance.

I will be heard this time.

Anyway, I left there, drove another nearly 30 miles away, and was able to do my deals at another store without any problems.

$5.99 Wet Lube = $5.99 RR
-1.00 IP
= $1.00 mm

99¢ Bumblebee canned chicken w/ in-ad IVC

3/$2 (66¢ each) Nice! or Walgreens snack nuts w/ in-ad IVC

$1.50/3 Nestle singles candy
- 75¢ IVC from Dec booklet = .75/3
- .79 B2G1 Tearpad
= +.04¢

$6.99 Optimum Care hair relaxer = $5.00 RR
- 2.00 PDF (no longer available)
= FARR

$3.99 Revlon Top Speed Nail Polish = $3.00 RR
- 1.00 Revlon Wags Q Simply Stunnning Beauty Book
= FARR

(Haven't done totals. Not sure I want to know.)

Tiny Treats

Remember my tiny cake from a few posts ago?

I was spending some time on Pinterest earlier and ran across a picture for Elf Donuts. How cute, and how perfect to go with all the Elf-on-the-Shelfs everyone (but me) seems to have.

Made from Cheerios dipped in chocolate and sprinkles,
confectioners sugar, and cinnamon-sugar!

I had to check out the Site where the picture originally came from, and found even more Tiny Treats.

Oreo cookies and frosting!

Tiny pizza

Watermelon made from jello, mini-choc-chips in a lime half.

All these Tiny Treats and more came from a book by American Girl called Tiny Treats. I have got to get myself one of these books. Then I guess I'll have to bring my neices up to make tiny treats with me, because my boys just look at me like I'm a loonatic. They don't know what's wrong with normal sized food. Psshh, they don't know how to have fun.

Walgreens

I went to Walgreens with $117.00 RRs I have to spend/roll this week, and no plan.  Or, not much of a plan. Actually, not too bad of a plan - roll what I could, and buy what I need/use.

Remember the Halloween mellocreme candy and candy corn I stocked up on at Halloween? It's .50¢ for the larger bag and .35¢ for the smaller bags now.  I got some more as fillers. 

I thought there would be enough fillers with all the pork&beans, Tuf bags, eggs, and sugar I planned to get, but my RR amounts were low, like $1.50, $2.00, $2.75, so I kept having to add items, then I'd have to add another RR, and so on. 

My Roll item was the Dark & Lovely hair relaxer. $6.99, get $5.00 RR. I had $2.00 IP coupons for the Optimum Care which made these FARR.  The BA had $2.00 tearpad q's for the purple box, so I got some of those, too. 

I had got a raincheck for the $10 personal blender during Black Friday and found it at another store today. So I spent (2) $5.00 RRs from the Dark & Lovely on it. 

I also spent on my (2) boxes of Christmas photo cards at $8.70 each (after 33% savings code, before tax). 

The Nestle Candy singles are 3/$1.50, and there's a .75/3 IVC in the Dec booklet, making it .75/3 cost. 

I have tearpad coupons I found at Kroger many moons ago for Buy 2, Get 1 free. 

The first store took off the limit of 79¢ as stated on the coupon, making mine free +

(Totals later)

Walmart

I had to go to an out-of-my-town Walmart to do it, but I didn't have any problems being able to use my (4) $5 off Any Hershey Product Catalina coupons to get overage today. 

I also used my last (4) $2.00 Crest Complete coupons. Boooo.

But got groceries I needed. Yayyyyy.

$.97 x (4) Crest Complete Travel size TP
$.74 x (4) Reese's/Hershey Candy bar
- 2.00 x (4) Crest Complete TP
- 5.00 x (4) Any Hershey Product
= $21.16 overage

$0.98 Hot Dog/Hamburger buns
$1.00 loafa bread
$1.68 corn chips and tortilla chips
$0.42 pizza crust mix
$1.48 chocolate milk syrup
$1.00 canned ham
$2.12 OJ
$0.88 hot dogs
$5.00 shrimp

= .04 + .99 tax = $1.03 oop

Photo Cards 33% off at Walgreens

While we were all together at Thanksgiving I had a family picture taken so I could have some of these photo cards made for Christmas. I received several of these from my family last year and really enjoyed getting them, so I thought I might enjoy sending one of our own. 

I've been with sick young'uns for the past couple of weeks and haven't paid much attention to photo deals, and I meant to order these last week, but I have trouble making decisions. There were sooooo many beautiful designs I couldn't make up my mind.

Since I plan on shopping Walgreens this week - since I have alot of RRs to spend/roll - I checked out their photo dept and found they have a code for 33% off photo cards this week.
A set of 20 4x8 photo cards is regularly $12.99, so with the code JOLLY33, I was able to get them for $8.70. That's .43/.44 per card, before tax, and I can pick them up in the store as early as tomorrow morning (since I ordered them at nearly 11:30pm tonight and they aren't open).

I compared with Walmart, which charges .44 each for 1-hour developing, so I got the same deal, and I can pay with RRs. Yay!

Cheap/Free Batteries, Free Gifts for Christmas

(Post applies to 12/4/11 - 12/10/11 week)

Most of us deal shoppers print coupons, and have to buy ink for our printers every so often.
I used to buy my ink at Walmart because I thought it was cheaper, until I learned that even though all the cartridge sizes were the same, the amount of ink they held were not. I eventually figured out I was paying more in the end buying Walmarts cheaper inks, than the higher priced, but much longer lasting inks from Staples/Office Max.

I just bought a set of inks at Staples a couple of weeks ago. They cost me $71.13, and Staples gives me 10%, or $7.13, back in Rewards.

Used to I could spend these Rewards on other deals that earn Rewards, but now they deduct any Rewards you use, from the Rewards you earn, so they're no longer "rollable".
But if there are some good Free After Rewards deals, then you can always use your Rewards to buy ink or something else you use or need.

For instance, this week Staples has 16-packs of Durcacell AA and AAA batteries at $12.99 with 100% Rewards back (Rewards Members, limit 2, in-store only).  So if you buy items at Staples anyway, you can use the Rewards back to purchase that item instead of cash, and this is like getting free batteries.

Today I was going through some papers and stuff from my desk and ran across my Staples and Office Max cards/log in info.  I was fussing at myself a couple weeks ago for not checking to see if I had any Staples rewards before going to buy ink, so I decided to check on them all today.

Looking at my Office Max account, I was reminded that, being registered for a Teacher account (aren't we all teachers?) that I earn $10 Rewards for every $75.00 (in qualifying items) that I spend.
At Staples the other day, I spent a total of $95.25 before tax, buying ink and some SD cards that were on sale.  All I earned was $7.13 Rewards.
But had it been Office Max, I would have earned $10 Rewards.

Also I saw where Office Max still gives $3 per ink cartridge brought back in for recycling, where Staples went down to $2.00.

I also compared ink prices, and found them to be a couple dollars cheaper at Office Max.

So now I'm seriously wondering why Staples has been my store of choice when I'm just running in to get ink, when there's an Office Max right across the street?

While I'm at the Office Max site, I see they also have a battery deal. They cost 1¢ after Rewards, but the purchase amount counts towards my $75 threshold for earning $10 Rewards.
The limit is 2 per item, which I understood to mean per SKU#, which would be like (2) 10 pack AA, (2) 10 pack AAA, (2) 20 pack AA, and (2) 20 pack AAA.

I also saw this 100% back on Tablet sleeves and bags deal (appears to be online only)!
This, people, is a goldmine of FREE Christmas presents.

There are some very nice *ahem, expensive* Tablet sleeves, backpacks, and bags to choose from. If you're looking for gifts like these anyway, you can't beat free.

The Tablet sleeves are $24.99 each, and are 11" sized for iPads, Netbooks, MacBook Air 11in, and Kindle DX..
Mine and Mom's Kindle Fires are 7.5" so these aren't really suitable for us. I have a cousin that has an iPad, though, so I can gift one to her (she lucked up because she wasn't on my shopping list previously, lol!).

My total before tax was $95.54, of which I'll get back $95.50 in Rewards, plus another $10.00 in Rewards for spending $75.00+.

Now, the rules are any Rewards I spend aren't applied to the $75.00 threshold, so when I use these Rewards to buy my ink and whatever, I won't earn another $10.00 Rewards.

But that's okay, because when I went to Staples to buy my ink last week, all I got is $7.13.  No 1¢ batteries, no free iPad sleeves, no free $10.
(Okay, I could have gotten free batteries, and I likely will go and do that deal this week, too. Here's why.)

Black Friday & Chat Box

Black Friday Drug Store Final Final Totals:
Walgreens: $63.22 profit
CVS: $16.90 profit
Rite Aid: $25.74 cost
Overall: $48.27 profit

@ Seda: You should also write a written complaint to WM corp. When these people get complained on, their Superiors have to give them a "coaching" which goes on their record, and can effect them when it comes time for raises and/or promotions. Maybe if we hit them in their pocketbook they will learn their job and stop being such a-holes.

@Loki: The short answer is no.

Gluten-free marked products are expensive. I don't know if it's special ingredients they use in them, or if it's because they know some people feel like they have to buy the stuff.

My oldest son was having the same gastro- problems we were, and decided to try to the gluten-free diet. They were going to the store looking for gluten-free marked items, not finding a whole lot, and spending alot more.

I didn't do that, but I should say right up front, we don't have Celiac, so we don't have to be quite as rigid in avoiding gluten.
Basically all I did was cut the majority of bread(s) and pasta from our meals.
When we got to realizing just exactly how much (flour) we were putting away everyday, holy cow, no wonder we were sick!

For breakfast we would have cereal, poptarts, pancakes/waffles, french/cinnamon toast, muffins, sweet rolls, biscuit/gravy, or toast.
Lunch was probably a sandwich, hot dog, hamburger, Hamburger Helper, canned pasta, or if leftovers from the night before, probably included a roll or biscuit.
Dinner was generally a meat and a couple sides, or a casserole/pasta dish, and always, always, some sort of bread: bun, roll, french bread, croissant or biscuit.
Then desserts/snacks: cake, cookies, crackers, muffins, sweet rolls, pie, cobbler, etc.

So now, for breakfast we'll generally have rice or corn cereal, oatmeal (some Celiac/gluten-sensitive people can't eat oatmeal but we are okay with it), eggs, ham/bacon/sausage, hashbrowns/home fries.
Every bit of that stuff I get on sale and deals. (I bought taters on sale and cut up and froze my own home fries (and french fries). I guess I could shred up my own hashbrowns to freeze, too.)

As far as lunch and dinner, I just made some changes in what we eat, but nothing special (or costly). For instance, when I eat tuna or egg salad I eat it with regular Lay's tater chips instead of bread. My husband eats corn tortillas sandwiches.
Where we used to eat hotdogs in a bun, now we'll just eat them with no bun, or with chili, or cut up with a can of pork-n-beans.
We eat hamburgers like steak: no bun. I even dip mine in A-1, but that may be a no-no to Celiac or more sensitive people.
Instead of BBQ on a bun, we eat it with Fritos corn chips, and instead of a french roll or Texas toast or saltines with Chili, we eat it with Tostitos chips or french fries or on a baked potater.
I started using oatmeal instead of toast in meatloaf. We're eating more veggies and rice.

For snacks/desserts we can eat chips, popcorn, chocolate candy (with no cookies or pretzel inside), ice cream, pudding, fruit.

So basically, instead of buying specialty gluten-free items, I just quit buying all the crap loaded with gluten.

Unless you need bread, cookies, cake, waffles/pancakes, spaghetti, mac 'n' cheese, etc., it still leaves a whole lot of choices.

I can't really think of anything we're eating that I have to buy especial, that doesn't go on sale and/or have a coupon at some point.
So we feel better, and it doesn't cost us anymore than usual.

And last, but not least, the answer to the What's Strange/Different About My Chocolate Cake? guesstion:

It's Tiny!

I baked them in a muffin pan, and cut little circles from cardboard covered with tin foil, frosted and piped and tossed some sprinkles on top.

I saw the idea a couple weeks ago while googling some Barbie/Play Scale ideas stuff and ran across this picture and thought, how freekin' cute is that??

Instructables: Miniature Edible Baking Scene

But when I fixed mine, I thought they looked more like something a kid made from an Easy Bake Oven :-(

Black&Blue Saturday Shopping

LOL, I heard someone call it Black & Blue Saturday, after getting so beat up trying to get the Black Friday deals.
Not me, I kept my butt-ox home and out of the fray yesterday.

Today I went out to see what was left at the Drug Stores, and maybe a little "clean up duty". I was feeling kinda bad about buying all the MM and 'good' stuff from the sale on Thursday and leaving the rest, so I thought I'd go back and buy up the FARR leftovers.
I had also read that stores that sold the most on BF got bonuses, so I figured what the heck, I made a good profit, I'll blow some on tax buying free stuff to help them out. (Mainly 'my' store, but another store, for some reason I don't know, doesn't charge sales tax, so I could shop there all night and it not cost me a penny.)

The first Wags I stopped in (the no-tax store) had quite a bit of stuff left. I found out why pretty quickly. The Manager (or whoever he was) saw me loading stuff into my buggy and then I heard him telling another guy that since it was this late, they could let up on the limits 'some'. If 'they' were 'getting ridiculous' then say something, but otherwise, it would be okay to not limit the items.
Keeping in mind, this was like 6:00pm, dark and yucky outside, last night of the sale. And he's worried about someone 'getting ridiculous' while trying to spend money in his store???

Dude had probably 20 boxes of Culturelle and that Sam-E stuff, and like twice as many of those Energy strips. Plenty of Colgate, Scunci, toothbrushes, Dentek, Children's Advil.  I could have raised his sales by several hundred dollars easily.
But I didn't want to 'get ridiculous', so I got three deals and took my money elsewhere.

Rite Aid

ETA: Final Total including tax $25.74 cost. Boooo! Not good.

CVS

ETA: Final Total including tax $10.79 profit. 


Walgreens

Not pictured is 3 bottles of A&H deterg, because they are still at the store.

ETA: Final Total including tax was 6¢ profit, so I did just exactly the right amount of deals to make my 6 packages of toilet paper and 3 bottles of A&H laundry detergent Freeeee! 

First Black Friday Deal

We attempted to go to Walmart last night for the Black Friday deals starting at 10pm and to wait on the Electronics deals starting at midnight, but we saw the parking lot and it was like OMG! Are you kidding me?!

We have never seen our little WM/Strip shopping center parking lot that full. It was completely full, people parking on the curbs and in the grassy areas at the end of the lot. Majority of them that we saw were out-of-town tags.

Once we saw the situation, I drove straight on through and back home.

It worked out for the better anyway because to be honest we didn't really have the kind of money on hand I was planning to spend all at once.  We did, but it would have put a hurting on us for several days.

Today I got online to check some sites and see what, if any deals there might be online, and just happened to be at the right place at the right time when this laptop came up on Amazon's Lightning deals.

This laptop is a Toshiba Satellite, which both J and Kevin already have, and theirs have been good ones for the years they've had them. It has 4GB RAM which can be upgraded to 8, and 640GB storage space! That's more than my desktop has :-(  They'll never use all that space.

It popped up on the Lightning Deal for $399.99. I hesitated a few seconds (because I'm horribly indecisive) but I'm also fairly impulsive, so then I clicked to add it to my cart.  That didn't mean I had to buy it.  I had 15 minutes to make up my mind for sure.  I called Ryan in here and he okayed it, so I popped for it.

It cost about $150 more than the WM one, but I think I got a better product for the money. This laptop goes for about $500 regularly.

Another good thing about it is I was able to pay with my Amazon Store credit card, which has a current 6-months-no-interest thing going on, so I'm able to put off paying for most of it until after the New Year.  That helps this time of the year.

Thanksgiving/Black Friday

Had a very enjoyable shop at a very well stocked Walgreens Thursday morning.

OOP: $7.83 + 22.01 TAX = $29.84 

RRs Spent: $152.00

RRs Earnt: $245.00

Final Total: $63.16 PROFIT

Me and J stopped into the two CVS stores we were passing on the way home anyway to see what, if anything, was left. I hadn't planned any scenarios, and was too tired and full to try on the fly, so I told him, just pay cash and I'll worry about spending the rewards later.

The nice cashier attempted to help us divide up some of the items to roll the ECBs to save on oop, but it's hard to do right there like that. It was nice that she tried.

His and her cards

OOP: $29.33 + 3.12 tax = $32.45
ECBs Spent: $15.85
ECBs Earnt: $54.41
Final Total $6.11 profit

Not the greatest profit, but I would have been happy just paying tax for the FAECB Pepto.

Walmart - Really??

Pop Quiz, Jeopardy style -

Answer: "We don't take these, it's Walgreens"
Question: What is "We gladly accept the following types of coupons*...Checkout coupons ("Catalinas")
Printed at our competitors' registers for dollar/cents off on a specific item"?

Answer: "It doesn't specify a specific size. If you were buying a big bag we would take them"
Question: What does "ANY" say to you?

Answer: "Otherwise we would be giving you back money on a 50 cent candy"
Question: What is "If coupon value exceeds the price of the item, the excess may be given to the customer as cash or applied toward the basket purchase."?

It pissed me off to have to deal with the ignorance of management and this kind of BS six months after the coupon policy has been in effect, but that "we'll be giving you money" comment really burns my buns.
They aren't giving me crap. They get reimbursed every cent plus some for MQs.
Stupid eff-ers.

And another question: Was there some sort of disaster or shortage or run on Appliance Light Bulbs I'm not aware of??

One More Look

The frosting is just regular Pillsbury chocolate. So is the cake itself. Nothing hidden inside. You can see what's different about it.

Walgreens

I was looking for something in my messy stack of coupons...can't recall what at the moment...but then ended up finding something else (?)...anyway, the result of it all was I ended up looking more into the Black Friday deals than I had been planning to. I was happy with the FARR Naproxin, I didn't want to fight with Scenarios and Rolling and all that stuff this week.

But I was also planning to buy some of the $3.99 Cottonelle 12 pk. toilet paper because that's a good price, and then I saw all these other FARR deals with coupons making $2.00 and $3.00 profit and suddenly Free toilet paper started looking a whole lot better.
The Dentek has $1.25 pdf coupons, the Prep-H has $2.00 IP coupons, the Culturelle has $3.00 pdf coupons.  (Seems like there was something else, too, but I can't remember at the moment.)

The thing that started it, though, was that I realized I had both the tearpad and baby booklet coupons to do this Childrens Advil deal, which is going on all week, not just for Black Friday.
They are on sale $4.99 each, buy (2) and get $3.00 RR.
Not such a deal at first sight, but when you use (2) $2.00 off tearpad q's, and the baby booklet wags q takes off $2.00 each, you end up only paying $1.98 + tax and getting $3.00 RR back.
Dollar profit!

Well, not really. It cost me $2.65 with tax, so only about a .35 profit. Almost not worth doing the deal, but I was going by there anyway on the way to Food Lion, and besides, I have a sick baby (he's 21, but still my baby) this week, so I'm feeling compassionate and think I will donate it to help others with sick babies and little kids.

The Vicks drop were .99, and I had a $1.00 Any Vicks product from one of the October P&Gs.

The Nasbisco deal is still trying to do me all in. I found some more $1/2 Nabsico cookie. cracker coupons, so I decided I'd get crackers this time, and be able to use the Wags Dec booklet q to get them free. But it's for crackers 6-something-ounces and up, and these were all around 4oz, so no dice.
I decided to get some Cheez-its and Saltines anyway because 50¢ a box isn't bad.

My MQs beeped, I don't know why. Turned out they were for 4.4oz and up, and the Saltines were 4.0oz, but the coupon still didn't work for the Cheez-its either. (The same coupons also beeped at Food Lion on my big size boxes of Ritz, so it doesn't make sense).
Anyway they put the coupon through, but the final cost came up a couple of dollars more than I was expecting.
I couldn't figure it out, and I needed to go because it was fixing to come storms, but thinking about it, I think maybe the Saltines weren't included in the BOGO sale even though they were the right size, because they were reg priced $2.29, not $1.99.

Oh well.

Food Lion

On one hand, I say this is not one of my better shops/deals. Mostly because I pretty much shopped and tried to deal on the fly and feel like I might have been able to do better had I spent a little more time on it.

On the other hand, I will use every single thing I got (ok, except for maybe the recipe book mag) and considering the original cost of alot of this stuff, I really didn't do too bad.

First off, I was planning to go to Rite Aid for my milk, but then I recalled I get milk cheaper at Food Lion and I was going there anyway - duh!
So I would have paid $2.96 at Rite Aid (if they had any in stock, or $3.18 at Walmart). I usually pay $2.53 at Food Lion, but today I found some marked-down milk for $2.09. It's 1% milk, but we don't care.
So I saved like $4.00 on just milk.

Some Post cereal like Pebbles, Honey Comb, and Raisin Bran were on sale for BOGO (and I'm hoping it still is this week, since it might be an extended until after Thanksgiving sale), but also there's a Post Catalina deal going through the 28th, if you buy 4 boxes you get $2.50 back, if you buy 5 boxes you get $3.00 back.

I already spent my coupons at Rite Aid the other week, but after I figured the BOGO sale and catalina, the cost was cheaper than when I bought it at RA using a coupon, so I bought some more.

There's a Printable coupon for some Post cereals like Raisin Bran, but we can't eat it anymore with our Low-Gluten diet.

The Orville Popcorn is on sale for BOGO, which makes it $2.something a box, then I had .55 MQ which doubles to $1.10 at my Atlanta area store, making it $1.55.
Awhile back a paper printed from the Blue Machine telling about an Instant Savings, get a free 2ltr Dr. Pepper when I buy Orville microwave popcorn, so I thought it was a pretty good deal for a 10pack of popcorn and a 2ltr.

The Cranberry sauce is on sale for .99 and I used $1/2 IP q's to pay .49 each.
The OJ was $2.29, no coupons, just needed it.
Birdseye Steamfresh is $1.00, used a .50/2 MQ from (what insert?), which doubled, making it 50¢ each.

I believe most of the rest falls under the Turkey deal(s).
First I had to buy $35.00 worth of stuff to get the turkey at .59lb. No problem!
Then there was a Buy $30, get $10 off a Turkey Unilever deal. Not as easy. There were very few Unilever products coupons available that I could find.
I had $1.50 off ICBINB sticks (which were $3.59 reg. Ouch!), and .25 off Country Crock, and some off the Lipton tea, I forget how much. Someone left behind their coupons from the big machine and I found a 50¢ off one Breyers, which is on BOGO this week, and another for 75¢ off fresh lemons when I buy Lipton tea, so my lemon cost me 04¢. The rest I bought like 9 bags of Knorr noodles on sale at $1.00 each. I didn't have any coupons for those, but they were about the cheapest thing left and my kids eat these like Ramen.

In the end I spent $22 and some change for $30 worth of Unilever products, and got $10.00 off my Turkey which only cost $10.08 before the deal, so only 08¢ final. (They had turkeys for less, but I was afraid it would only take off the amount of the turkey and give no overage, so I got my $10 worth.)

The $10 off wyb $30 Unilever was an Instant Deal at the register, no coupon needed (and no alerting the cashier). At the same time I also had the $10.00 off your turkey when you buy 12 particpating Kraft items coupon from the Food Depot ad.
That included Oscar Mayer bacon, which is BOGO at $7.59 or something like that this week (ouch!). Anyway, I had a $3/2 pdf coupon, which brough it to $4.59, or about $2.30 each, which is a pretty good price for bacon. We love bacon and I'll buy it on sale or not, so Oscar Meyer for $2.30, heck yeah. Got (4) of those.
Also got (4) Cool Whip, on sale $1.00 each. There's been better prices, I know, but I was here and I needed them.
Then I got (2) jet-puffed marshmellows, used .40 IP coupons, which apparently didn't double to .80. Boy cashier was imputting them by hand without even trying to scan, simply because the Oscar Meyers didn't scan, so I don't know if that was why. He told me IP coupons don't double, only the ones from the newspaper.
Really?
Then I got (2) Rita crackers, BOGO $4.something. Used $1/2 coupon (beeper).

I forget exactly but I think my Kraft products deal came up to $12-something, and then I got the $10.00 off with the coupon.

In the end - 4 milks, OJ, a huge turkey, Oscar Meyer bacon, and everything else - I only spent $53 and some change including tax.

I'm okay with that.

Walgreens

I had $60.00 worth of RR's ($10.00 x 6) with which I had planned to buy Hershey's candy 6 times (4/$10), receiving back $5 RR on Your Next Hershey Purchase RRs to be able to use at Walmart.

In the meantime, I decided to buy the Breyers ice cream because at $2.99 sale price, minus $1.50/2 printable (coupon at bottom of page), made them $2.24 each, which is even cheaper than Walmart's Great Value brand that we buy when there's not any better deals.

So I figured instead of paying around $18.00 cash for ice cream, in order to be able to buy the candy to get RR's for overage at Walmart, I'd just spend a couple of the $10 RRs on the ice cream.
I only have (4) $5 Hershey RRs to spend at WM now, but I also still have my $18.00 in my pocket.

I did do the candy deal (4) times, 4/$10, paid with $10 RR from last week, got back $5 RR OYNHersheyO.
8 bags of Kisses, 8 bags of Reese's for Christmas.

The Nabisco cookies were BOGO $1.99, or about $1.00 each. Used $1/2 printable to make them 50¢ each.
I did attempt to use the $1/2 Wags Nabisco crackers coupon from the Dec. booklet, but as I figured it didn't fly with the cookies.
Free would have been great, but I was happy with 50¢ a box. I am required to make white-chocolate-dipped-Oreos for Christmas, so this is better than paying $3.00 or better for a package.

The two little gift bags were fillers for when I bought the Breyers to be able to use (2) RR's to pay with. They're 8/$1 with in-ad coupon, so about .13 each.

As we were leaving, the Cosmetics cashier where we checke out said she had something for me, and reached under the counter and gave me a 3-pack of Free Hallmark cards, and she gave my son a trial size of Neutrogena Men's face lotion. Nice!

Only thing left on my list is going back on Thursday to stock up on Naproxen, $2FARR.

Staples

I wish I could tell you what super-good deals I got at Staples today, but Staples is another store I fell out with this summer. I have a bag full of used ink cartridges I can never remember to take along, and I forgot to check my Staples Rewards online before I left. If I had any, they probably expired by now anyhow. 

I bought these 4GB and 8GB memory cards that were a seemingly good sale price: $6.99 for the 4GB and $9.99 for the 8GB. They are regularly $19.99 and $29.99, which is why we don't have very many of them and are always 'borrowing' them from each other. J has three electronics and one memory card. I have two digital cameras and one memory card. I don't even know at all gadgets the boys' have.
I'm not opening them yet, though, because if I find a better deal during Black Friday sales then I'll return these.

Publix, Salvation Army, Goodwill

As we were leaving town last week, I spotted a Salvation store I hadn't known was there before, so while I was in that town again on Friday, I stopped in and found a couple of deals.
Purse $1.50
Gloves 50¢
Retro-style eggbeaters 50¢

At the Goodwill I found the red-haired Barbie, with outfit and shoes, for $1.51 + tax.

Then we visited four Publix stores, where I stocked up on sodas. I shouldn't need coke for quite awhile.

Also grabbed another couple bags of chips, I ended up volunteering to bring chips to a hot dog banquet next week, so good thing they are on sale this week. And a thing of OJ because I was feeling the need for some Vitamin C,

Walgreens

You'll be glad to know (or not really give a toot) that I learned my lesson last week when I missed out on that fantastic Smartwater deal becuse I didn't check the ad until late in the week. I checked this weeks' ad earlier, but today was the first day I was going by any Wags. I figured the AZO and Estroven would be gone quick and it would be a wasted for me to make a special trip to not find any in stock.
Turned out the two stores I visited had plenty of both.  I reckon it's a combination of the stores stocking plenty of FARR items, and apparently alot of couponers around here didn't save their .pdf coupons for the stuff awhile back.
Good news for me...except it makes me want to turn more money into RR's that I don't need to. Even though I make profit, I have to spend it in Walgreens (dang you, Walmart!).  (Or wait...was it ever decided if Publix takes RR's or not? I should call and ask. That'd be awesome. Though not as awesome as if WM did, dang it.)

I did like 14 transactions today, so I won't into details on every one of them, but my plan was this:

Do (2) Azo transactions:
$4.99
-2.00 pdf q
+ .21 tax
=$3.20 oop
Rec $5.00 RR

Buy (4) Boxes of Choc Covered Cherries:
$10.00/4
Pay with (2) $5.00 RR's from Azo deals
+ .21 tax = .21 oop
Rec $5.00 RR

Buy (1) Estroven
$9.99
$ .25 votive candle*
-3.00 pdf q
-5.00 RR
+ .61 tax
= $2.85 oop
Rec $10.00 RR

*Amateur mistake, I forgot about needing a filler for this one, so at the first store I ended up grabbing a caramel and some .39 candy, but at the next store I checked the ad and the candles were cheaper at .25 cents.

Final Tally of this deal:
Spent total of $6.40 on Azo
Got back $10.00 RR
= +$3.60 profit

So I technically spent the original $6.40 + .21 for tax on the Cherries
Got back $5.00 RR

Which makes my Cherries costing me $1.61/4, or about .40 per box

Then I used the original $5.00 ($5 RR) and paid $2.85 for the Estroven
Got back $10 RR
= +$2.15 profit

Next week they're having 4 bags of Hershey Kisses, Reese's, etc. 4/$10, Get $5 on your next Hershey's purchase RR.
After previous profit and the $5 Hershey's RR, if I figured right, (4) bags of candy should cost me $2.85, or about $ .71 each.

Because the $5 Hershey's RR will be for a specific product, I can take it to WM and buy a Hershey's candy bar for about $ .50, then rest will be overage I can use to buy stuff I need like milk and eggs and such.

At this point I'm not entirely clear on the Mathematics of it all, but it kind of looks like I'm going to end up with $60.00 worth of candy and whatever I get from Walmart, for a cost of $42.51. ($17.49 free money)

I love free money, but it seems like it costs me alot to get it.

Publix

Hit the Publix that starts its sale on Wednesday to get a bit of a head start.
I need to stock up more on 2ltr drinks and/or rainchecks for them. (I know we don't need them, but we're going to drink them regardless, so might as well kill ourselves more cheaply.)

Lay's chips are BOGO at $4.29, so $2.14 each.

Wesson oil is BOGO $4.59, or $2.30 each. Used .30 (double) SS 11/13 to get it for $1.70.
I didn't really need any at the moment, but I sure as heck didn't want to wait until I needed some and end up having to pay over $4.00 for it.

Same with the Pam spray. It's BOGO $3.19, or $1.60 each. Used .50 (doubled) Printable to get it for $ .60 each.

Also bought some butter for the freezer while it was cheap: I Can't Believe It's Not Butter BOGO $2.47, or $1.23 each. Used $1.00/1 Printable and paid $ .23 each.

The rest of the stuff I pretty much bought just because. Mainly because I had coupons, and the items were pretty cheap.

Carnation Evaporated Milk BOGO $1.36 ($ .69 each)
- $ .50/2 (doubled) RP 9/25 and RP 10/30
= $ .36/2 or .18 each

Swanson Chicken Broth BOGO $1.15 ($ .58 each)
- $.50/5 (doubled) SS 11/6
= $1.88/5, or .37 each

LaCroix Natural Sparkling Water 12 pack BOGO $4.49 ($2.24)
- $1.00 Printable (FB)
= $1.24 each

Total $19.80 + .71 tax = $20.71
Paid w/ $20.00 Publix gift card from ConAgra deal earlier in the year (that I just found again in a stack of papers on my desk).
Saved $45.81 (I believe I saved 69%, but you know, with my math skills, I dunno for sure.)

CVS

I stopped into two CVS stores as I was driving past anyway to look for cheap cranberry sauce and to see if the red machine would give me any cool coupons like others were getting.
The cranberry sauce was priced at $1.00, not .88, so I'm not sure about that and came home to check on it.
The red machine gave me dumb coupons, as usual.

I bought the Dawn dishwashing liquid because it's always good to stock up when something is cheap, rather than when you run out.
$ .99 Dawn
- .50 P&G 10/30?
= .49 + .07 tax = $ .56 oop

I wasn't expecting it, but I guess it was my lucky day, I got a $1.00 green bag tag ECB back.

At the next store they had the smaller 2.5 ounce cans of Gillette Fusion Shave Gel marked for $2.37, get $2.00 ECB= $ .37 after ECB!
$2.37 Shave gel
-1.00 P&G 10/30?
-1.00 ECB
= $ .37 + .10 tax = $ .47 oop
Rec'd $2.00 ECB

Final Tally Spent $1.03, Rec'd $2.00 = $ .97 profit

*Apparently the cranberry sauce sale is a regional thing, and I'm not in the *special* region. Humph. Bah humbug, CVS.

Rite Aid

Milk day!

Since I didn't want to spend alot of cash oop and end up with +UPs left to roll later (since I might not), I did several deals, rolling the +UPs as I went along.  

I didn't go in with a plan, and worked it out on the fly, so I don't know if I did my best deals or not. It sort of seems to me like I still spent an awful lot of cash for what I got, considering the gum and LA Looks was free, and the coupons I had, and rolling +UPs. 

Card 1: (Starting with $2.00 +UP from last week)

Trans #1:

$1.00 Orbit gum x 3

.09 tax

-2.00 +UP

= $1.09 oop 

Rec'd $1.00 +UP x3

(Points?)

Trans #2:

$2.95 Milk (w/ 20% disc. Is cheaper than WM. But won't be soon b/c I won't have 20% disc anymore)

$2.99 Crest Complete w/ Scope

-2.00 Crest (insert?)

-3.00 +UPs

.30 tax

= $1.24 oop 

SCR $2.99

(Earned 0 points)

Final Tally $1.34 cost after SCR

Card 2: 

Trans #1:

$2.99 LA Looks

-1.00 RP 10/9

.21 tax

= 2.20 oop

Rec'd $2.00 +UP

(Earned 2 Points)

ETA: CVS will have LA Looks Free after ECB on Black Friday. I shoulda saved this q for $1 profit. Booo!

Trans #2, 3, 4, 5: (Rolling $2.00 +UP)

$5.83 Aleve (w/ 20% disc)

-1.00 RA in-ad Q

-2.00 IP Q

-2.00 +UP

.41 tax

= $1.24 oop

(Earned 0 points)

Trans #6: 

$1.00 Orbit gum x 3

.09 tax

-2.00 +UP

= $1.09 oop 

Rec'd $1.00 +UP x3

(Earned 0 points)

Trans #7:

$2.50 Cocoa/Fruity Pebbles x 4

$2.99 Crest Complete w/ Scope

- $1/2 Post Cereal x 2

- 2.00 Crest (insert?)

- 3.00 +UPs

.51 tax

= $6.50 oop

Rec'd $1.00 +UP x 2

SCR $2.99

(Earned 0 points)

Trans #8:

$2.95 Milk (w/ 20% disc) x 2

- 1.00 +UP x 2

.18 tax

= $4.08 oop

(earned 0 points)

Final Tally: $15.84 cost after SCR

I guess maybe it's not too bad, considering the milk would have been over $9.00 at WM, and the Aleve's were originally $7.29 each. Plus cereal and gum. 

And toothpaste and hair gel, but I'll probably give that stuff away, so I don't count it.

Got my Free Photos without any problem. Since they were free, I got a bunch of my husband doing his fire department physical agility testing last week for his scrapbook (that I'm going to make one day, haha). 

I don't get too many pictures of him at work so I love these.

Free Photos at Rite Aid

25 4x6 Prints code FREEPRINTS
1 Free 8x10 wyb 25 4x6 code FREE8X10

*I entered the 4x6 code then the 8x10 code and it made my whole order free.
I'm picking it up at my local store in a couple of hours, free shipping.

Also, 15 free 4x8 Photo Cards code FREECARDS

*I haven't done this one yet because I need to take a picture to use for a card. I don't know how long the code is good for, though. I saw it was posted about 6 days ago, so it may already be expired, or may go longer. Just have to try and see.

Wags, Rite Aid, Local Grocery

So I post about how I'm not out shopping, and then I go out shopping. Ha.

I'm going on a little trip this weekend and needed a gallon on milk for the boys to have this weekend.

I finally talked myself into going back to Rite Aid, if nothing else but to buy milk. The cheapest milk locally is $3.18 at Walmart, but if I remember rightly it's $3.69 at RA but $2.96 with my 20% discount. I would be getting the milk cheaper, and earning the points I need to keep my 20% (which I don't think is going to happen at this point).
So I looked up the RA deals for this week....I figure if I was going to spend money to buy milk anyway, might as well see if I can get any freebies or great deals while I'm there.

Then I figured, while I'm going out anyway, might as well check Walgreens sale this week - it's *only* 20 minutes down the road, haha.
Saw Wags had a killer deal on Smart Water and Vitamin Waters. Wish I'd looked earlier in the week.

$3.00/3 Smart water or Vitamin Water
Get $2.00 RR
= $1.00/3 or .33 each. Great Deal!

The Arizona drinks were 2/$1 again, so I spent my $2.00 RR's on those.

But. I saw the expiration date on the RR's today was 11/25, Black Friday.
I was moaning and groaning that I hadn't gone earlier/more and gotten more of the waters, but on the other hand I didn't really want to put out that much on Arizonas. Then I thought about, I wanted to go to Wags on Black Friday for the FARR Naproxen Sodium, which will be $2.00.
So I hoping to be able to stop into a/some Wags tomorrow during our drive and stock up on some more of the waters, then save my RR's for the Naproxen on BF, since I was going to buy them anyway, it would just be like paying for them now and getting them later.

After Wags, I did go to Rite Aid. I still hate our tiny, old, useless Rite Aid. They get maybe 2 of anything, and don't get deliveries but every two weeks.
Of the sale stuff I was looking for - Colgate, Keri, reading glasses, Boogie Wipes - they only had Stayfree pads.
And NO milk to spend the +UP I got back on.
She said milk is delivered on Tuesday, so I plan to take my +UP back and get a jug of milk next Tuesday.

$3.00 Stayfree Pads
-1.00 11/06 SS (I think?)
Get $2.00 +UP
= Free + .21 tax

While I was at Rite Aid, I noticed the sign of the local IGA grocery next door had ground beef on sale for $1.79 pound which is about as cheap as it comes, so I went in for some, and just got milk there. It was $3.29, but it wasn't worth saving .11 cents to drive up the hill and get out at Walmart.

Not Dealing

It's been awhile since I've been anywhere further than maybe 6 miles from my house (mostly just taking the kid to and from school), so since I haven't been going by there anyway, there's been no trips to Wags or Food Lion or anywhere else really.
There's a grocery store over in the town where J goes deerhunting that sells 2-liter cola for .75 so he stops and picks me up some whenever he comes back, otherwise he'll grab a jug of milk from Wally World when he goes to buy his dip.
We haven't needed anything else lately. It's possible we've just stopped eating?

LOL, not really. J's been working alot, so when he isn't home I don't cook full meals. Me and the boys will eat frozen dinners, soup, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, cereal, stuff like that.

We had a pretty boring Halloween. J and Ryan worked a shift on the ambulance, and Dan was working as a spook in a local Haunted House, so it was just me and Kev.  He doesn't care anything about dressing up or doing anything, and we don't get trick-or-treater's here, so I wore my green/black striped tights and witches' hat, set us out a bowl of candy, and spent the evening in the kitchen making goodies.

I made some chocolate-oatmeal-peanut-butter-no-bake cookies, aka bat-splats, and chocolate cake.

There's something strange about my cake. Can you guess what it is?

In September, we planted a Fall Garden of collards and cabbage.  The plants are still alive, though not very big.
I'm not sure if this is normal, or if they aren't going to make it.
And I still can't tell them apart:

Cabbage or Collards?

Cabbage or Collards?

?

I have been on Black Friday watch at SD; me and J are wanting a big, flat-screen TV to hang over the fireplace, and were looking to upgrade Kev with a new laptop.  His is a couple years old. It has some software conflict issues and some other minor things wrong. He works around it, but it could crap out at any time and then I'll be mad I didn't get one at BF when the getting was good.
Also, Ryan wants a GPS to help him find some of the more desolate addresses he gets sent out to on emergency calls as a volunteer firefighter.

Walmart has released their BF ad really early this year. Kewl beans. I was afraid I'd have to wait until the last minute and I like to be ready sooner.  Wish Amazon would post their deals. They may end up having a better one than WM.

So far I'm looking at an Emerson 40" LCD for $248.00, an HP laptop with 3GB/320HD for $248.00 and the Magellan GPS for $69.00.
(I see they are offering the new Kindle Fire for $199.00. Me and my Mom already pre-ordered from Amazon a couple of weeks ago.)

There's lots more BF out, I've looked over the CVS and Wags, but not sure if I'll try for those. Maybe the Wags, I want to stock up Naproxen Sodium. It's the only pain reliever J can take and we're nearly out.