Friday, December 9, 2011

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.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

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.)

Monday, December 5, 2011

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

Sunday, December 4, 2011

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.)