Friday, April 29, 2011

Walgreens

Managed to get all my $1.00 RRs expiring tomorrow, and $2.00 RRs expiring 5/01 rolled on the Stayfree:
$2.99
-1.00 3/27 RP
= 1.99; get $3.00 RR = $1.01 profit

For fillers I found the Indiana Popcorn stuff on clearance for .15 at one store; Silly Banz at .13 at another store, and had to buy the .25 popcorn at other store.

Had one extra $1.00 RR so I got a box of envelopes and a roll of tin foil.

(See Facebook post for Coke deal)

Total: ...One day...maybe....

Food Lion

Made my annual bi-weekly marked-down meat run.
I found Ground London Broil marked down to $9.20 and $8.08 per package: this equalled out to about $1.95 per pound for about 9 lbs, even cheaper than the regular ground beef.
These were regularly priced at over $20.00 each!

Chicken breasts weren't marked down, but were on sale for $1.99lb, so I got a package for $4.60.
The boneless pork chops were marked down to $3.28, but I had found some $1.00 fresh pork mq's in a display sign in the meat dept at a Kroger store this morning.
At first glance the coupons looked like a recipe card, and does have a recipe on it.

So my meat run was right under $25.00 this week, but I'm happy with that.

Captain Crunch Cereal is BOGO at $3.89 at my stores.
I have .50/1 mqs, which double at my stores, making the cereal .94 each.
Normally I wouldn't pay .94 for cereal (especially since I don't need any right now) but my oldest son had just asked about the Oops! All Berries cereal, so I figured I could spend $5 bucks on him.

$1.59 Country Crock Spreadable butter sticks BOGO
Used .40/1 mqs (doubled) x 2
= free

Palermo Pizza $6.99 BOGO
There were BOGO IPs, but appear to be unavailable now :-(
= free

Then I did the Meal Deal thing: Buy cheese and cookies and get deli meat, gogurt and tea free. (I think that's a lunch, minus the bread. Guess you could eat a ham-and-cheese-chocolate-chip-cookie-sandwich.)
$2.50 Kraft 16oz cheese
-1.00 IP
$2.50 Pillsbury Ready-to-bake Cookies
$0.00 Oscar Meyer Fresh Deli meat
-1.00 *I used IP from the Cooking with Kraft site that prints MQs but says Redeem at Publix only even though they start with a '5'. My FL's accept Competitor q's so it was a non-issue for me anyway.
$0.00 Go-gurt
$0.00 FL Sweet T 16 oz
= $3.00

.99 Martha White muffin mix (these were .89 a couple weeks ago) x 2
- .55 (doubled) blinkie (expiring today)
= .88/2, or .44 each

Total was $30.something.

Publix

Went waaayyyy out of the way to check some Publix stores...not a Gas-X Prevention in sight. I meant to ask a SM of one of the stores I usually shop to order me some, but with the trip and all, I forgot to. Sigh.

$5.49 BOGO Bic Razors
-3.00 mq 4/17 ??
= .51/2 overage

$1.26 Bread sticks
- .50 (doubled) Blinkie
= .26

.75 Ragu Pizza sauce

Total -.01 + tax = paid w/ Publix gift card

Kroger

I thought I had read you'd get a $2/2 Reach coupon if you bought 2. I didn't.
$1.00 floss x 2
-1.00 mq from red SS box x 2
= free x 2 + .12 tax (paid with $5.00 gift card from Gen Mills cereal deal couple weeks ago)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I'm Home

We've been in The Land of Publix - aka Florida - visting my parents and my sister and her family for Spring Break/Easter.

My sister lives in Lakeland, home of Publix Headquarters. There were at least four stores around town that I saw, with one of them being walking distance from her house.  So I'm kindof, on one hand, disappointed I didn't go more often and finish rolling the Amex cards I had in my coupon bag for profit.

On the other hand...Sun, pool, lounger, and a good book... Need I say more?


However, I didn't get a chance to finish rolling/spending all my RR's before we left, and I still had a couple of $5/Hershey Product Cat I needed to spend at Walmart, so I did drag myself out a few times to shop.

We needed ice and pecans for Easter dinner, and I decided to go ahead and spend the rest of my Similac coupons at Walmart in Fla because they have little or no food tax (My total tax was .21 on all this, I'm guessing ice?). They ended up paying me $14.41 after all the coupons.


At Wags, I used the overage from the tape and Gas-X to buy the boys some Krispy Kreme donuts, and spent some RR's on hair conditioner for my sis and mom, and some 2 ltr cokes for Easter dinner.



They had cute Florida Earth day reusable bags at one of the Publix stores. My sister wanted a Chicky bag, lol.

For someone who doesn't seem to do very much, I sure have had alot to get caught up on since we got back Sunday night. Hard to believe it's already Tuesday night, nearly Wednesday, and I haven't even glanced at this weeks sales yet.  I've got another bunch of RR's expiring this weekend, 4/30, so I have to get on that. I think they are mostly $1.00 ones, from buying....um, I can't remember.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rite Aid

$5.99 BOGO Purex w/ Crystals x 10
.88 Renuzit
-2.00 Purex w/ Crystals x 10
-$3/$15 survey q
= $7.83
Rec'd $10 wyb $30 Cleaning +UP
*I don't know if there's a limit (1) on these deals, I used different cards for each deal just in case.

$5.99 BOGO Purex x 8
$1.69 BOGO Airwick Spray x 8
-2.00 Purex x 8
-1.39 BOGO Airwick x 4 (Coupon limit up to $1.39)
-$3/$15 survey q
= $6.16
Rec'd $10 wyb $30 Cleaning +UP

*The cleaning deals track, and I did one of them in pieces and parts at separate stores trying to find the BOGO Airwicks.

$3.99 x 4 Nivea
-3.00 Nivea mq 4/17 RP x 4
-$3/$15 survey q
= $0.96
Rec'd $5 wyb $15 +UP
(I bought an extra bottle in a different trans to take my total up to $15 so I could use a survey q. Since it tracks, it aplied to my Nivea balance, and I'll buy some more later to finish getting the +UP)

*The Nivea Women's Touch of Bliss body wash may be on clearance for 50%, and counts for the +UP. There may be another kind also on clearance, Harmony? Happiness? Can't recall, and don't know if it counts for +UP, but free with the $3.00 mq from this weekends 4/17 RP.

$7.19 (w/ 10% disc) Biore Strips
$7.19 (w/ 10% disc) Biore Cleanser
$6.20 (w 10%) John Frieda Shampoo or Styler
-7.19 Biore BOGO mq (insert?)
-2.00 Biore mq (tearpad/coupon inside box)
-2.00 Full Size John Frieda mq (insert?)
-$3/$15
= $6.39
Rec'd $10 wyb $20 Skin and Hair +UP

$2.24 Dunkin Donuts Decaf on clearance 75%
-1.50 mq (insert?)
= .74

$2.40 (w/ 20% disc) double bundle newspapers

$0.25 Cow tails (fillers to bring amount up to be able to use another +UP instead of cash)

Walgreens


                                                   (Forgot to picture the eggs)
Deals:
$3.99 Airwick Freshmatic Compact
-4.00 mq 4/17 SS (entered at $3.99)
= Free

2/$3.00 ($1.50 each) Crayola Color/Neon/Explosion/Wonder To Go
(Buy in sets of Explosion and Wonder. Use $2.00 Explosion and $1.00 Wonder mqs. No beeps. Buying 2 Explosions and using 2 $2.00 MQs will beep for overage.)
= Free

$2.99 Reach Total Care Floss and Teethbrushes
-2.00 Floss 10/10 RP
or $1.00 Floss/Toothbrush 10/10 RP
or BOGO Toothbrush (and) $1.00 10/10 RP
= Free to $2.00 mm

$4.99 Nasogel; Free after RR ($5.00)
-2.00 pdf
or $3.00, $1.50, or $1.00 peelies from Neilmed products
= Free to $3.00 mm

$4.99 Gas-X products (including 20ct. Prevention)
-4.00 MQ
-2.00 IVC April book (use after all mq's and RR's)
= +1.01 overage

$1.99 Scotch tape x 3
-1.00 pdf x 3
-3.98 B1g2 in-ad q (Use after all mq's and RR's)
= +$1.01 overage

$0.39 w/ in-ad q Dove candy bars
-.75/2 mq
= .03/2

$16.25/5 12-packs Coke
-3.25 with in-ad MQ
= $13.00/5, or $2.60 each

$1.29 eggs
Eggs will go on sale for .99 sometimes, but I needed some for Easter and have ALOT of $1.00 RRs to spend. (Or maybe $1.29 is the new sale price, with the rising cost of gas and economy.)

$0.17 each Easter gift sacks or Cups (fillers)

$3.00 double bundle newspaper

Publix

Found a Publix with alot of $50 Amex cards in stock (not pictured).

$4.11 Similac
-5.00 mq
= +.89 overage

$2.49 Covergirl eyepencil sharpener
-1.50 PQ green flyer
$2.99 Covergirl eyeshadow
-1.50PQ green flyer
-2.50/2 Covergirl MQ
$0.99 Reusable Shop bag
-.99 free bag wyb (2) Covergirl PQ green flyer
= +.02 overage (mostly I'm just doing it for the free bags)

$43.15 + .29 tax = $43.44 paid w/ Amex card(s)($6.56 remaining)
*$50.00 gift card remaining
$6.56 profit (I think? Am I figuring this up right?)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Rite Aid

I read that with my 20% disc, the (men's) Nivea is already the same price at tomorrow's sale price, so I went ahead and got a jump on the sale since John loves this BW.
At the first and third stores, that was true. The reg price was $4.99, so $3.99 with my disc. The second store has a little bit higher prices, so they were $4.39 with my disc. So I only got (4) instead of (8) there.
$3.99 (or $4.39)
-3.00 RP 4/17
= .99
Buy (4), pay $3.96, get $5.00 wyb $15 Nivea
(Total before coupons is $15.96, so use a $3/$15 if you have it for bigger mm)

The Nivea Touch of Bliss women's body wash was marked 50% at all three stores. At the first store this made them $2.99 each, so free after $3.00 RP 4/17 q; they were $3.14 at the other store, so .14 each after q.  Counted for get $5 wyb $15 monthly deal.

***It's said the ad reads limit 1 on the Nivea deal, so it could be that they decide to turn a limit on tomorrow or Monday.***If you can get it for .96, or free, it's still not a bad deal, just not a good mm.*

You may find some food type items on 75% clearance (check the clearance thread for a more comprehensive list); I got a bottle of vinegar for .54, ground black pepper was .24, ground cinnamon I think was also .24, Hellman's mayo $1.57, Folger's $1.32 (used $1.00 mq), oatmeal .82 (used $1.00 mq).

There was also Taco and Brown Gravy packets for .12, Vanilla extract for I think .87, other kinds of Spices for .24, Special K and Kashi cereal at like $1.24, I think there might be coupons for those? (And some other stuff, but my mind is drawing a blank.)

I found some John Frieda hair sprays on the Clearance shelf marked $3.65 each. I used $2.00 mqs, and a $3/$15 survey q. Cost $3.60.  These only added up to $14.60, but I knew I had some balance left from other transactions and even if it wasn't enough, these would add to the balance. 
I did get the $10.00 +UP.
Since the balance amount was from previous deals where I had already received the +UP, I'm calling this one a $6.40 mm.

Walgreens

One last (okay, two) Wags runs because I wanted to buy some marshmellers for .99 cents.

I didn't expect to find any Carefree in stock this late in the week, but the first store had quite a few, 23 if I remember rightly. I asked if, since it was the last evening of the sale, could I finish off the Carefree and was told, yes and thanks for asking.
However, 23 transactions got long and boring real quick, so when I went to the next store and they had probably twice as many, I just got one and called it a day.
.99 - .50 mq = .49 + .07 tax = .56 oop/ Get $1.00 RR = .44 profit each

The Skittles (et al) eggs were on sale this week 4/$3, or .75 each. I used the $1/2 April Book IVC to bring them down to .25 each, then a $1/2 Mars mq for each (4), making them free.

Publix

Apparently I'm the last person in the entire world to catch on about the American Express gift card deal. The (2) Publix stores I visited today was also out of the $50 cards.
I asked at the first one and they said I could get (2) $25 and use the coupon. What I didn't know was, the $25 cards charge $3.95 each processing fees. So I lost like $2.95 of my $5.05 profit.
When the other store didn't have any $50 cards, I just didn't get anything.

$47.96 + .27 tax = $48.24 pd w/ Amex card(s) ($1.76 remaining)
*$50.00 card(s) remaining
$1.76 profit (I think?)

Friday, April 15, 2011

Publix

Set out to do my Friday shopping but unfortunately had to cut it short on account of bad weather moving in.  The wind was terrible all day, like hurricane winds; I got out at one Publix and the wind grabbed three dollars stuck in the front pocket of my purse. A lady caught one of them, but the other two took a trip to outer space, I guess. Gone like yesterday.
Driving was like wrestling a bear, trying to keep the car on the road. I'd be blown off to the right and pull it back into my lane, only to find someone else half over in my lane.
My kid called and asked where I was, how many more stores I had to do, he didn't think I was going to make it back home (he's a worrier), so I aborted and came on home. Glad I did, too. It wasn't long before the crap hit the fan.

I made it to (3) Publix stores (and 2 Krogers), and no Rite Aid or Wags.

I never really paid much attention to the $10 off $50 Amex card deal before, for some reason it just didn't seem like that great of a deal to me. I didn't want to spend $40.00, not to mention a $4.95 fee, even to get $50.00.  I don't know what caught my attention this time, maybe someone spelled it out more Barney-style?
$50.00 American Express gift card
$ 4.95 processing fee
-10.00 in-ad coupon
= $44.95 cost

Use the card to buy another card, and have $5.05 left over for buying other stuff.
If you did this once a day for the length of the sale (14th - 23rd), you'd profit $50.50 in the end. 
If you could do it more, more profit. Keeping in mind, it takes an hour or so for the cards to activate, so you can't just stand there buying one after another after another.
(The last store was out of the $50 cards but didn't have a problem with me buying (2) $25 cards)

I actually made a little better on mine because I got some overage. I was able to use a $5/$25 Rite Aid q at the first Publix, and I also got overage buying Similac because I forgot about the one per transaction line :-(

The cans of some Similac was $4.11 at my stores, so .89 overage each with the $5.00 mq.

The Lay's Chips deal (ended today unless your P takes expired Yellow Flyer q's)
$3.99 BOGO Lay's Chips
-1.00 Yellow Flyer PQ x 2
- .55 mq x 2
= .45 each

Pam Spray (ends tomorrow unless your store accepts expired Slam Dunk PQs)
$3.19 BOGO
-1.00 PQ Slam Dunk booklet
- .35 (doubled) mq
= +.21 overage/2

$1.59 BOGO Dole Pineapple
- .50/2 (doubled) mq
= .59/2 (abt .30 each)

$2.69 BOGO Duncan Hines Decadant Brownies
- .50/1 (doubled) mq x 2
= .69/2 (abt .35 each)

$2.99 Covergirl eyeshadow
$2.49 CG eyepencil sharpener
$ .99 shopping bag
- .99 Free bag wyb (2) Covergirl
-1.50 Covergirl PQ Green Flyer x 2
-2.50/2 Covergirl mq
= .02 overage

Transaction #1: $34.94 + 1.20 tax = $36.14 oop
Trans #2: 41.16 + 1.73 tax = $42.89 paid w/ $50.00 Amex card ($7.11 remaining)
Trans #3: 42.63 + 1.18 tax = $43.81 paid w/ Amex card ($6.19 remaining)
*$50.00 Amex card remaining
$13.30 profit

Kroger

This wasn't the greatest deal ever. I had .50 coupons for the Chex cereal, but we don't eat Chex. After coupons and gift card they were $2.16, abt .54 each, plus tax, so I figured it was cheap enough to try out the deal and get my Mom some cereal (give it to Mom, she'll eat it, she'll eat anything).

Some kind of cereal bars was included, but not the kind I wanted or had coupons for, so no cereal bars.

I eat Cheerios like popcorn or tater chips, they're my main snack food, so I keep a stock of boxes of them. I only had $1/2 coupons for them so after coupons and gift card they were $4.16, or $1.04 each, plus tax.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Walmart

Yay, I survived Hellmart.

I did the Similac transactions first; told her up front I had several transactions to do. She said Ok, but said she didn't understand why they made it one per transaction, but wasn't fussing or anything, just saying.
I got back $1.04 each time; total $5.20/5 transactions.

I thought I was going to have trouble but turned out it wasn't the cashier; at first she said, it'll be 1.04, then, no wait, she owed me $1.04. She seemed confused, and pressed buttons, and printed the journal thing.
I asked, do you know about the overage/cash back thing?
She said she did, but *it* is wanting a manager approval when she asks for the cash back. So I don't know what was up with that.
The CSM that came over was a girl I used to work with there at Walmart, so we joked about me causing trouble ('cuz I'm so good at it), but she just kept approving them without giving me a rash of crap, then the cashier didn't give me any problem with my Walgreens Cats. Don't know if she would have anyway; I kinda figured this store would say Wags isn't a Competitor since there's not one within 30 miles of here.

The last transaction I got a Similac and the rest of the stuff.
Can't remember the total before coupons right now, but used $5.00 Similac, and (2) $5.00 Hershey Product Catalinas. I owed $1.09 in the end, which I paid out of the $5.20 I got from the other Similac transactions.

Rite Aid

Stopped into Rite Aid for some milk. They were out of the Fieldcrest milk I usually buy for about a dollar cheaper (who buys milk at Rite Aid?!) so I had to get a jug of Mayfield to tide us over until Friday.

Grabbed another SCR Complete.
Apparently the new wave of Couponers aren't doing the SCR deals; this store had about 10 boxes of this stuff Sunday, and pretty much the same many today.

(Totals later)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Rite Aid

Hahaha, I confused everyone because I wasn't running in for the Big John Frieda deal today.
(If you need to know that deal, it's 4/$20, use (4) $2.00 insert q's and the $2.00 video value one for watching 10 videos. Pay $10.00, get $10.00 +UPs = Free)

First thing I was looking for was the Rite Aid brand 80 count dryer sheets. They were ringing up .99 at sme stores, and giving $1.00 +UP back.  So I price-checked and sure enough, they were .99 cents. So I tried one to see if gave the $1.00 +UP and sure enough it did.
At two other stores they rang up $1.12, so .12 after +UP.

Also, the Rite Aid brand packs of cough drops (like the size of a Life-saver roll) are .50 each, and you get $1.00 +UP wyb (2).
I got a little carried away...lol...ended up with 96 of them. Believe it or not I didn't clean out the stores I shopped at. They have them at the front registers, in the Cough/Cold aisle like under the bags of Hall's and such, and back by the Pharmacy register. So there appears to be plenty in stock (for the moment, anyway).

$2.99 Gillette or Old Spice body wash, get $2.00 +UP, Limit 2 per card
Buy 2, use BOGO PG 4/03
Pay $2.99, get $4.00 +UP
(I found them on clearance and the OS worked. The Gillette didn't, but I read where they weren't printing for other people who bought the Sale priced ones. I'll email CS and see if I can get them mailed to me.)

$4.99/$5.29 Visine AC (different store prices)
- 20%
-2.00 in-ad Q
-2.00 RP 3/13
Pay free or .23, get $1.00 +UP

$7.99 Complete contact solution (Limit 1 per SCR account)
-1.00 SS 4/03Pay $6.99, get $7.99 SCR

$5.00/2 Stayfree
-1.00/1 RP 3/27 x 2
Pay $3.00, get $2.00 +UP wyb 2
 = .50 each
(My husband's cousin requested these, otherwise I probably wouldn't have *paid* for them.)

$5.00/2 L'Ore'al Vive Pro Shampoo
-1.00/1 RP 2/20 or 4/10 x 2
Pay $3.00, get $2.00 +UP wyb 2
= .50 each
(Sometimes, when shampoo is this cheap I just think I need to *buy* some, don't know why. Not sure why I thought I needed to *buy* (8) of them though!)

$4.99 Flex 3 or 4 Razors (Buy 2)
-3.00 4/10 (Rp?SS?) x 2
Pay $3.98, get $2.00 +UP wyb 2
= .99 each
*I had enough coupons to do this deal 3 times, but I was only able to do it twice before the "other customers" bought the other stores out before I could get to them.

Gloves, Cow tails, Andes were fillers to kick me up a few cents to be able to use another +UP, and less cash oop.

(Totals later)

Walgreens

.99 Carefree
-.50 3/27 RP
Pay .49, get $1.00 RR = .51 profit each

$4.99 Luster White Toothpaste
-1.50 4/03 SS
Pay $3.49, get $4.00 RR = .51 profit each

$5.00/2 Candy {Hershey's, Reese's, Cadbury}
Buy 4 = $10.00
-$1/3 (?insert?)
-$3.00 OYNO Herhsey Easter Candy RR from buying Twizzlers awhile back
Pay $6.00, get $5.00 OYNO Hershey Product RR - $1.00 cost

.99 Kleenex w/ IVC
-1.00 (?insert? - expired today)
= +.01 overage each

.29 w/IVC Betty Crocker Cornbread Mix or Muffin Mix (filler item)
*The IVC wouldn't work on the muffin mix, so they price modified it, which messed up my tally (long story). Anyway I didn't want to bother with trying to figure out deals around it, so I just got the cornbread mix.

.29 Snickers eggs x 7 = $2.03
$1/2 RP 4/10 x 2 = .03/7

(4) Double-bundle Sunday papers at $3.00 each = $12.00
*I could have gotten these for $8.00 had I spent cash to buy them from the $1.00 sellers. I continue to go back and forth between whether it's better to be able to spend my RR's on them, or to spend cash and not waste money (RR's are money).

And I flat out popped $10.00 RR's for (4) bags of Hide-n-Seek Easter Eggs. TEN DOLLARS! OMG! I thought were like $1.00 a bag.
But I love H-n-S eggs, and said I was going to get me some for Easter. But then I looked at other stores this weekend and they were all gone! I found the last four bags at one store and impulsively bought them all.

(Totals later)

I returned to the same store where the hateful cashier made me cry a few weeks ago...I have actually shopped that store a couple of times since then but she was never there (I had hoped she got fired), but no, she was there today, in all her a$$hole glory.
A lady and her son came in the door behind me, looked like they were dressed for a day at the lake, and wanted to buy a case of waters. She said, "Oh, are these waters not on sale anymore? They were $2.29 yesterday.", and that hateful cashier told her, "That was yesterday, Today is a new day".

Even after what happened with me, I was still shocked by it. I turned around, and my face must have shown my shock. The customer lady looked at me and muttered "Nice", as in NOT nice.

Seriously, what is that cashier thinking, talking to customers like she does?

So I did my shopping and the only register open is the front register, with hateful-ass running it. I asked her if anyone was working in Cosme - "No one is working cosmetics" she interrupted me.

I seriously thought about demanding for someone else to come check me out, and not have anything to do with that biddy, but I didn't want to pizz off a Manager before I even got started, so I just pulled up my big-girl panties and dived in.
To make it even more interesting, I was doing (13) transactions. (Or was planning to try anyway, figuring for sure they'd say Heck no!).
She didn't have a problem with the (10) FARR Carefree, but pointed out that the coupon limit was 3 on the Kleenex and if I wanted to buy anymore I would have to talk to the Manager about it. I didn't say anything and just put my first transaction on the counter.
She throws up her hands all dramatically and says "Okay, you tell me how you want me to do this, because last time, it don't go good".  I told her I just wanted her to scan the IVCs last was all, and I was holding them in my hand separately.

Everything goes along fine until the last coupon, the Betty Crocker IVC beeps. So the Manager comes and checks it all out and she says to just price modify it. In that case, the MQs and RRs had already been scanned, so it worked out.
But in the next order, she went ahead and entered .29 for the price, so it ended up making me like 1.42 short of being able to use the $4 RR I was trying to use.  So I just paid with cash and then afterwards pulled away to look at the receipt to try to figure out what had happened. I need to know what happened so if I messed something up I could make sure to fix it before the next transactions.

As I was standing there looking at the receipt that cashier says "It's the order of the coupons, That's what happen".  No it wasn't, but I didn't argue with her about it.

A Manager walked by so I hailed her and said that the cashier had said there was a Limit of 3 on the Kleenex, which had always before meant Limit 3 per Coupon, not transaction, and I'm only getting 1 per transaction, so I didn't believe I was going over the Limit.
She starts telling me about how they're having to start enforcing limits because they're running out of things early in the week, not leaving enough for other customers...(That "other customers" thing still crawls all up under my skin. I have been waiting until later in the week to do my shopping, at which point I am the "other customer" they are so worried about, and they don't seem to save crap for me to buy later. But if I get off my butt and get there early, then I still can't buy anything because they're saving it for "other customers".)

Anyway, I explained to her that I usually don't even shop on Sunday but that my coupons were expiring today so I have to use them today. So she said I could go ahead and buy the ones I had, but for future reference....
Yeah, yeah, they all say that. Truth is, they only limit who they want to, and my picture is probably on the dart-board in their breakroom after the complaint I wrote on them. But when I go other days besides Sunday I don't have any problem with the other cashiers (knock on wood). 

The next store I went to was one I never shopped before. It's a pretty long ways away, but there's a Rite Aid and a Kroger I go to sometimes over there, and a Publix I went to once, but I always forget the Wags is there. OMG! What a great experience. They had everything in plenty of stock, and the young male cashier wasn't an idiot and wasn't all put-out with all my transactions even though he was working one-handed, his other hand was injured and wrapped in a bandage. I just didn't want to leave there ever! Seriously, I sat in my car in the parking lot afterwards cutting coupons from the new inserts. I wanted to go back in and shop somemore. But I didn't want to wear out my welcome first thing, so I refrained, lol.

CVS

Stopped in a CVS to see if they had any Right Guard body wash, but they didn't. I just got the FAECB deals; paid tax.

.74 Russell Stover candy, get .74 ECB
1.99 Super Miracle bubbles, get 1.99 ECB

I didn't do any drink deals yet, but I saw my inserts today had a $1.00/2 Fuze, which - if I cyphered it correctly - would make them about .33 each after ECB.
I didn't like to pay .33 for Powerade when I just got so many for free at Krogers mega sale, but the Fuze might be worth it.
Unless Kroger is going to have them on mega-sale again soon. ?? Decisions, decisions.

Publix


$0.69 Matahama rice (19 total)
- .50 (doubled) ?/?? insert
= +.31 overage each

$5.49 BOGO Banquet bagged chicken ($2.75/$2.74)(10 bags total)
- 1.00 PQ Slam dunk savings book
- .50 (doubled) from inside Banquet meal box
= $.75/.74 each

$2.65 Crest BOGO ($1.33/$1.32 each)(2 total)
-1.00 PG 4/03
-1.00 PQ Stocking UP (Mail request booklet)(Don't know where from, I didn't even remember ordering the ones I got)
 = +.67/+.66 overage each

$2.99 Cover Girl eye shadow
$2.49 Cover Girl Wedges, Puffs, or eye pencil sharpener
- 2.50/2 PG 4/03
- 1.50 PQ Green Flyer x 2
= +.02 overage
PQ Green Flyer: get free Shopping Bag with purchase of two of the following items {Cover Girl}

(Totals later, but it was around $1.00 or so including tax)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

CVS


Very late in the game CVS shop. Not sure how I missed them having so many good deals this last week. I wasn't even planning to go at all this week, but then I figured I'd take a look at next weeks sale and if it looked good I'd run to CVS tonight where I could get last and next weeks' at the same time. Save me a trip later. That was when I found out last week had some really good sales, and next weeks aren't so great.

The PF Bronzers and Blush were on sale for $6.00 off, I found some for $10.99, so $4.99 after sale. Used the $5.00 pdf to get free.

The Oral-B toofbrushes were $2.99, get .99 ECB, limit 2. There was a $2.00 mq in the 4/3 PG insert, and a BOGO mq from the 3/13 RP, so I paid .99 for 2, and got back $1.98 (except I got back $2.00 because the ECB didn't print, they had to manually print and it rounded up to $2.00)

The Crest deal was rinse, tp, or floss $3.49, get $2.50 ECB, limit 2. There were $1.00 mq in the 4/03 PG.

And the Snickers were 2/$1, so free after $1/2 from 4/10 RP.

They were out of the Right Guard Body Wash ($3.88, get $3.00 ECB, use BOGO and $1.00 peelie to get 2 for free), Complete Contact Solution (8.99, free after ECB, use $1.00 mq from 4/3 SS = $1.00 mm), Gold Bond Body Wash ($5.88, get $3.00 ECB, use $2.00 4/03 SS ?I think? - .88 cost), and the Gum Eeze Flossers ($2.00, fre after ECB).

I got RCs for all those.

For next week there's a 3-day sale, Sunday - Tuesday:
Russell Stover singles .74, free after ECB
Magic Bubbles (or some kind of bubbles, I forget) 16 oz. $1.99, free after ECB.

There's an Airwick/Lysol deal that's supposed to be good, I don't have the details so check to see if it's listed at iheartcvs.com (or another blog more informative than mine), but the deal is get $10 ECB wyb $20; these Kit things are $6.00 each, and there's a $4.00 printable at coupons.com. So I guess you buy (3) and some $2.00 item, hopfully you have a coupon for the $2.00 item....Anyway.

There's also a drink deal: get $1.00 ECB wyb 3/$4 Vitaminwater, Fuze, Smartwater, Honest Tea, 2 Ltr. Coke...I think that's all I saw posted, but I saw Powerade marked for the deal at the store. There were hangtags for $1.00/3 Vitaminwater, Smartwater, and Fuze, and then $1/3 tearpads on the fridge door for Powerade.
So that would be $2/3, or about .66 each, after coupon and ECB.

Totals
Card 1:
$5.50 ECBs Spent
$0.47 + 1.50 tax = $1.97 oop
$8.50 ECBs Earned
= $1.03 profit
Saved $43.09

Card 2:
$6.00 ECBs Spent
$0.00 +1.61 tax = $1.60 oop (found a penny on the floor)
$7.50 ECBs Earned
= $.10 cost
Saved $38.34

Rite Aid


Made one last run to Rite Aid, mostly just so my out-of-the-way trip to CVS didn't seem like such a waste.
Forgot to cut out some more free Poligrip q's, but at the time I picked it up I needed something to buy to take me up/over $20.00 so I could spend my last GoS certificate. I was also going to get some Scunci but then they didn't have any so I ended up getting another Biore/JF deal and just didn't think to ditch the Poligrip. Oh well, it was (practically) free.

Total:
$4.00 +Ups Spent
$20.00 GoS Spent
$0.45 + 1.48 tax = $1.93 oop
$10.00 +UPs Earned
$21.97 SCR Earned
= $6.04 profit

Saved:
$10.12 Wellness
$44.19 Coupon
$54.31

Friday, April 8, 2011

Rite Aid

Had $42.00 +UP to spend/roll, and (3) $20.00 Gift of Savings certificates. Didn't think I'd have much trouble rolling the +UPs if I didn't do anything but Biore/JF deals all day. Luckily I didn't have to, and was able to roll a good bit into cash (SCR).

Pretty much same deals as before, except the KY lube:
$20.99/$19.99 (different store prices)
-4.20/4.00 20% disc.
-3.00 in ad q
-7.00 IP (facebook)
-$3/$15 survey q
= $3.79/$2.99
Get $5.00 +UP
= +1.21/+2.01 profit

(It's against RA policy to accept IPs for more than $5.00, so YMMV. I know it's a valid coupon so I have no problem using it anyway, knowing it will be reimbursed.)

The GA Tech hoodie was on sale for $12.99; my youngest son's best friend was accepted to Tech, so I got it as a gift for him.

Totals:
$68.98 +UPs Spent
$40.00 GoS Spent
-0.41 + 10.37 tax = $9.96 oop
$46.00 +UPs Earned
$87.88 SCRs Earned
= $14.94 profit

Savings:
Wellness $66.59
Coupons $223.41
Total $290.00

Walgreens

Had $72.00 RRs to spend/roll today; I figured I wouldn't find anything in stock and end up having to blow most of it on junk, but surprisingly I found everything I was looking for and was able to roll them with not too much loss. Only about a $17.00 loss in RRs, so not too bad. (The $12.77 oop kills me, though)

Total:
$72.00 RR Spent
$5.20 + 7.57 tax = $12.77 oop
$55.00 RR Earned
= $29.77 cost

Total Saved $182.92

*I tried the deal with getting the smaller 2/$1 Lifesavers jellybeans and use the $1/2 coupon from the April book. It beeped and wouldn't take it. Manager said it was because I didn't even spend $1.00...I spent .59 and .41 cents. I asked if she knew how much .59 and .41 was together?  Well, it's not showing I spent $1.00. I said, it's for $1.00 off 2, I got 2, that equal $1.00.
Well, that's too cheap, she says. Too cheap? That was a new one. I said, you know how many things coupon users get free after coupons in here every week - there is no "too cheap" reason.
Then she tries to tell me it's not an Easter candy. I said, it's on the Easter candy aisle, if it's not Easter candy, then it's misleading to customers.
Then she says, well the smaller bags aren't pictured. Neither are the larger ones, but it says ANY Lifesavers.
Yeah, but, when a size isn't specified, then it means the larger one. I said, when it means the larger one, it will specify the larger one, not say ANY.

Anyway, I lost the arguement and she wouldn't take it based on the fact it was "too cheap".
I still had to buy some of them because they were my filler items.

Kroger

Kroger had a whole buggy full of .49 loafa bread. I wanted to buy it all, but knew I didn't have the freezer space for it. I almost got $5.00 worth, but thought about it and knew I pretty much still didn't have room for it.  I'll be wishing I had got more anyway when I'm back to having to scrounge for .79 bread in a couple of weeks.

Total:
$2.94 + .06 tax = $3.00 oop

Food Lion

Made my annual bi-weekly Friday morning visit to Food Lion for mark-down meat. Got some steaks and cube steaks and ground pork, and some pork sausage.
The sausage was packaged 2 rolls for $1.53, but they only had HOT variety. I wasn't sure we'd be able to eat hot. If they'd had Mild I'd have bought every one of them. We like sausage very well.
This weeks meat total came up to about $19.00. This about $20.00 of meat every other week is working out good for us.  Now if only they'd mark down some Chicken, bok-bok.

Someone reminded me my $1.00/1 Kleenex coupons were expiring this weekend, but didn't know where there was a deal, so I carried them along and checked everywhere. Got lucky and found them on sale at Food Lion for .99 after MVP.

Total:
$18.91 + 2.04 tax = $20.95 cost

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Rite Aid

Tonight's soccer game took me to a town with two pretty good Rite Aid stores. (Tonight was our last game so maybe I'll get back to Sunday shopping again.)

Store #1, bought the Gillette Fusion gift package sets; others said it rang up $8.79 w/ the 20%, but mine rang up $9.99 same as the razors. (Limit 2 per card)
-$3.00 PG 4/03, and got $5.00 +UP (2)
= $1.99 each (I don't mind as much it costing me $1.99 for these with the shave cream and lotion and face scrub all included with the razor. I can't hardly pay for just a razor, though, after so long of getting them free. Although I'm probably going to have to adjust my attitude on this eventually, as the value of the coupon keeps getting less and less.)

At both stores I bought:

$1.99 Scunci hair elastics; get $1.99 +UP = FREE (Limit 2)

$6.00 Neilmed Dock thing; get $6.00 +UP. (Limit 1)
I found a $1.50 peelie on another Neilmed product at the first store, and a $3.00 peelie on the Netipot at the other store, so $1.50 and $3.00 mm.

2/$1.00 Snicker eggs - $1/2 Mars (insert?) = FREE

Candy deal: (Limit 1 $10 wyb $20)
(4) MnM's at $2.44 each (2/$4.88 sale) (or (2) MnMs and (2) Nestle Butterfinger Nest Eggs)
(4) Reese's Eggs at $2.44 each (2/$4.88 sale)
(1) Hershey Bunny .70 w/20% disc
-$2.00/2 Mars MQ from Smartmarket mailer, or $1.00/2 Mars (insert?), or $1.00/2 Nestle IP [coupons.com] x 2
-$1.00/2 Hershey's, Reeses, or Cadbury 4/03 SS x 2
Paid $15.22 or $16.22; got $10.00 +UP wyb $20.00, and (4) $1.00 +UP wyb 2
= $1.22, or $2.22 cost

$9.99 Tena pads; get $9.99 SCR (Limit 2)
-2.50 IP
Paid $7.49, get $9.99 SCR
= $2.50 mm
(Forgot to take these with the orginial picture)

Store #2

$1.83 Poligrip (Limit 2)
-1.83 Free mq 3/27 ?RP?
=Free, get $1.83 SCR x 2 = $3.66 mm
*Says reg price is 2.29, on sale for $1.99, but 20% disc is better than sale, so it rings up $1.83. SCR is for UP TO $1.99, so should only give $1.83.

$2.74 Vit E on clearance
$2.49 Vit E on clearance
(Requested by family member)

$2.55 Nesquik w/20% disc
$2.71 milk w/20% disc

Used (2) $3/$15 coupons

$82.00 +UPs Spent
$20.00 GOS Spent
$1.30 + 5.67 tax = $6.97 oop
$47.96 +UPs Earned
$43.62 SCR Earned
= $17.39 cost (bit more cost than I was expecting)

Still have $42.00 more +UPs to spend/roll this week.

Walgreens

Wow, I ended up with $94.00 RRs expiring this week. I didn't think I even shopped at Wags that much.

$2.99 Colgate MaxFresh, et al
-1.00 MQ from Smartmarket mailer
- .75 4/03 SS
Get $3.00 RR
= $1.00 or .75 MM

2/$6 Always w/ Leak Guard
- 1.00 4/03 PG x 2
Paid $4.00; Got $4.00 RR wyb 2
= Free

2/$7 U Kotex
- 1.00 IP x 2
Paid $5.00; get $3.00 wyb 2
= $1.00 each

$1.50 Packaging tape
-1.00 UP
= .50
*This coupon is miscoded $1/2. They can enter it manually as long as you have any other item without a coupon attached (doesn't have to be a Scotch item). If you only buy tape, or have coupons for everything else, the coupon won't work no matter what.

.99 W gallon size storage bags
.79 Refreshing Cola
2/$1.00 More Junk I didn't Need...I mean, cute salt and pepper shakers.
.39 Hershey Bunnies

$22.00 RRs Spent
.29 + 2.12 tax = $2.41 oop
$17.00 RRs Earned
= $7.41 cost

Still have $72.00 to roll/spend by the 8th. What am I gonna buy?? Danggone Walmart again!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Rite Aid

Went to town looking for the $1.00 papers this morning. First people we found were nearly out and could only sell me (5) so we had to wait for the other people to show up.

To waste some time I said I'd go in the Rite Aid there and do a shop.
I was kind of confused, because I thought I needed to do another shop, or didn't think I needed to do another shop (I already rolled all my expiring +UPs for this week).  My mind just wasn't on what I was doing, and I guess I forgot that 99% of the time I drive past this store and will drive miles out of my way to not shop at it.

My fault for forgetting they are all jerks in there. I should have just gone it and got a bunch of free .99 greeting cards and nothing else.

I did a Biore/John Freida deal, and was planning to get $1.31 overage on the cards with my $1.00 mqs.

So she looks at the in-ad coupon and pushes the button to print out the receipt as she said, and I quote, "Gotta make sure I'm not giving you more than I'm supposed to".
Kinda ticked me off, so I said, Aw, yeah, I forgot y'all are the store that doesn't allow that. That's why I don't shop here.
She said, yeah, it's because they got *dinged* on it.  I said I didn't have that problem at any of the other stores. She said, well, they're getting *dinged* too. I was like, oh yeah, obviously, since they've been lettting me do it for a couple years.

Technically I know getting overage is wrong per RA's idiotic policy. I don't mind following rules when they make sense, but this one doesn't.  I'm not sure if the Rite Aid Coupon Policy maker was just stupid, or they did it on purpose in order for RA to be able to keep the profit from the coupons. Not giving overage on a mq is the same as keeping my change from a dollar bill, to me. It ain't right.

Right or wrong, I just flat don't believe the stores are getting in trouble for allowing overage sometimes because it's not an obvious thing. Unless someone checked each receipt individually, they wouldn't even know it.  When a cash drawer is balanced, they just print like a Summary run of the days' tally and the amount of money, coupons, and credit/debit/EBT in the drawer should equal the amount of sales for the day. So they don't know if I bought some cards using the in-ad coupon and another person bought some cards using the MQ.  
I shop up to 12 other RA stores besides this one in 9 different cities, and have shopped them for well over a year, so I'm pretty sure if any of them had gotten into any trouble because I or any other coupon shopper sneaked some overage by them, they would be alot stricter about putting a stop to it way before now. And none of them have even now....of a dozen stores, only that one makes sure they aren't "giving you" anything.

Walgreens

Had a $10 RR expiring today so thought I'd go roll it over. Didn't work out quite that way.

This is a testament to how susceptible I am to...I'm not sure what you'd call it; I call it backasswards advertising, but I'm sure there's a less redneck term for it. If someone is trying to sell me something, I'm usually not interested. But as far those Clementine oranges, I read a bunch of posts where people were excited about being able to buy them and was going to buy some more. So then I felt like I needed some, too. Although I had seen these in the store the week before last and had no urge to buy any.

This is alot of the reason why when you see certain shopper blogs posting deals from like Amazon or Groupon or any other online shopping place, and instead of saying "You can get this deal", they'll say "I got this deal" and then others will be like "Hey, I wanna get in on that, too!"

I know some of my friends are trying to get into making money from blogging, so that's something to keep in mind.

Anyway, back to the shop. I wanted to get some Colgate so I'd get a $4 RR back, but they only had one box on the shelf. An employee was stocking on the other side of the aisle and I asked her if they had any other toothpaste displays, like on an endcap or anything. She said if they did it'd be near Cosmetics.
I kinda joked with her saying "You'll be my best friend forever if you could find me just one more box of this toothpaste." She said if there wasn't any on the shelf they didn't have any more.
So I rolled over towards Cosmetics and was looking around and the BA asked me if I needed any help. I asked her if she had any of this toothpaste and she said she'd seen it in the stockroom and went and got me a box.

Nope, I didn't even say a word about that other chick being an asshat about not going to find me any toothpaste. I just let it slide.

Then I wanted to pay back her niceness by buying some of the Saturdate stuff, but gah, I just couldn't. She really tried to sell me the Dove bodywash, but I get BW free all the time, it killed me to think about paying over $7.00 for it after RR. 
But now I feel guilty about it. I shoulda just did it. I had RRs I coulda spent.

I did buy a bag of the Suggestive Sale Almonds, though (I needed to spend .02 to get be able to use a $10 RR).