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Archive for the ‘Safeway’ Category
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
I’m pretty well stocked on food at the moment, so my first trip for the month was just a quick run to Safeway yesterday to get some milk & creamer:
Total Spent: $3.31
Total before coupons: $13.06
View receipt
Got:
1 gallon of milk
1 16 ounce bottle of Coffee Mate – On sale for $2.50, used a .75/1 catalina that I received the last time I bought Coffee-Mate at Safeway.
3 trial-sized packets of Airborne – on sale for $2.19, used three $2/1 coupons from the 9/7 Smart Source newspaper inserts. Free plus .31 cents overage each after doubles.
1 Zone bar – on sale for $1, and I used a $1 off coupon from the 9/7 Smart Source newspaper inserts. But I feel really bad – when I was checking through my inserts just now, I realized that this coupon expired on October 31st!!! I didn’t even think to check the expiration date!! No one else noticed either, so my coupon was scanned and doubled by another .50 cents. I’m sorry, Safeway!
1 Always pad – free with club card!
This was a pretty expensive trip, by my standards. I haven’t seen any unmissable deals so far this week. The “Home For The Holidays” promo is interesting, but I wasn’t wowed by any of the products listed in the ad. The good news is, there are a ton of participating products tagged all through the store. Safeway often has a “master list” of participating products for these store-sponsored catalina promos, and if you inquire at the customer service desk and they have it available, I guess sometimes they will make a copy for you. I’m going to look into this the next time I’m in there, or if another blogger gets the list and posts it, I will be sure to pass on the link. Once we know what all of the participating items are, it will be easier to identify any good deals.
I wouldn’t have even needed to buy the milk, except that the last gallon of milk I bought went bad sooner than I thought. I read the expiration date wrong in the store, and I thought it was good until next week…but no. I had to throw away about a third of a gallon. I really need to be careful when I buy milk at Walgreens – half the time the milk at my store is already expired when it’s on the shelf!
The deal with the Always pads is worth noting. Safeway has started offering free samples with your club card – there was a display of these in the feminine hygiene section. You can have one free sample per club card, or pay a small amount without a club card. The only problem was that instead of ringing up free, it came up .25 cents; but customer service quickly fixed this for me. They refunded me the quarter that I overpaid and marked the return on the original receipt, but I did not a get a receipt for the refund itself.
Next, I had to make a quick stop at Rite Aid. Forgive the terrible photo:
Total spent: $2.42 – no coupons, alas!
View receipt
Got 1 package of first aid gauze bandage
Not much I could do about this one. I needed first aid gauze for an owie, and had no gauze coupons, so I just got the cheapest one I could find.
Posted in Rite Aid, Safeway | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Every year, I throw a huge Halloween bash, and spend a lot of time cooking loads of food for it. Here’s the grocery run that I made the day before the party:
Total spent: $7.65 cash out of pocket, put 64.66 on 2 different gift cards
Total before coupons: $96.45
View receipt #1
View receipt #2
View receipt #3
View receipt #4 – one of my items rang up twice, so they had to return $1 to my gift card
View receipt #5
View receipt #6
View receipt #7
View receipt #8
I didn’t use as many coupons as I might have normally, because I was in such a rush to get everything done for the party in time. But that’s okay, because I had a backup plan – my gift cards. I had one gift card that I earned for free for filling a prescription at Rite Aid, and a gift card for Walgreens that had my rebates loaded onto it. I’ve been able to slowly grow the amount on my Walgreens gift card and turn a profit by using coupons on rebate items, and by receiving a 10% bonus each time for opting to receive the rebates in gift card form.
There was one minor hitch in my plans at Fred Meyer, when I purchased 2 of the Glade plug-ins and only got one $4 catalina back. According to Common Sense With Money, the offer changed and was only printing one no matter how many you purchased. I had planned to whittle down my expenses by doing this deal a few times, but oh well!
So here’s what I picked up in anticipation of the shindig:
2 lipsticks
2 eyeliner pencils (the makeup was for my costume)
2 packages of fun sized Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
1 bag of fun sized Nestle Crunch – On sale for $1.88, used a $1/1 printable, which I believe is no longer available.
1 bag of fun sized Baby Ruth – Used same coupon as above – .38 cents a bag after coupons and doubles
A 5 pound bag of flour
4 cans of Swanson vegetable broth – used a coupon for .40 cents off four cans from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
A 32 ounce bottle of Coffee Mate – used a .75/1 catalina that I received recently
2 Zone bars – on sale for $1, used two $1/1 coupons – free plus .50 cents of overage each after doubles
2 packages of Hot Dogs
1 Avocado
A 12 ounce bag of Starbucks coffee
1 big bag of gummy body parts
An 8 pack of Junior Mints
2 Glade Plug-Ins – used a “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
1 pound of Broccoli
1 pound of apples
1.63 pounds of organic bananas
1 jumbo head of garlic
1 can of refried beans
6 bags of plastic utensils – 144 pieces altogether
A huge bag of paper plates (I think there were 240 plates, but I threw away the bag)
A whole bunch of paper cups (There were 60 cups, I believe – I threw away the bag for this also)
3 pounds of butter
6 pounds of sugar
2 Halloween figurines
1 gallon of milk
1 skull goblet
1 box of baking soda
An 8 ounce bag of cheese
2 bags of tortilla chips
36 skull rings
Check back tomorrow for Part II, and I’ll show you the spooky buffet I served, how many guests it fed, and how much we have left over!
Posted in Entertaining, Fred Meyer, Rite Aid, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Total spent: .01 cent
Total before coupons: $15.83
View receipt
Got:
2 Glade plug-ins – used one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
4 Zone bars – on sale for $1, used four $1/1 coupons from the 9/7 Smart Source newspaper inserts. Free plus .50 cents overage each after doubles!
1 purse sized packet of kleenex – on clearance for .25 cents
I used a $4 catalina that I had left from last time, and got $8 in catalinas back.
Posted in Safeway | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Total spent: .46 cents
Total before coupons: $31.25
View Receipt #1 View receipt #2
Got:
4 packages of Goldfish crackers – on sale for $1.00, used four .50/1 coupons that I got in the mail – free after doubles!
A 5 pound bag of flour
A 10 ounce bag of organic, fair trade coffee
1 packet of Ramen
2 Glade Plug-Ins – used one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 SmartSource newspaper inserts
4 Zone Perfect bars – on sale for $1.00, used four $1/1 coupons from the 9/7 SmartSource newspaper inserts. Free plus .50 cents of overage each after doubles!
For the first transaction, I bought the Plug-Ins and used a $4 catalina plus overage from the four Zone bars to pay for it. I needed a small filler item, so I also got the packet of Ramen. I paid .08 cents and got $8 in catalinas back for purchasing the plug-ins.
Then I used the $8 in catalinas plus another $3 catalina from Monday’s trip to pay for the coffee and flour that I needed. I also picked up the Goldfish, since they were free (not to mention tasty!). And I still have a $4 catalina left from Monday to spend next time.
Posted in Safeway | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
I just discovered that Safeway offers special printable coupons on their website. I knew for some time that they offered printables, but I thought they were the same ones that appear on Coupons.com. But Safeway has sweetened the deal by offering special, store-specific coupons in addition to the usual Coupons.com fare. They currently offer coupons for grapes, bagels, even flowers. Produce coupons are few and far between, so this is a good one! When I printed them, they said “Save with card & coupon. Limit one with minimum $10 purchase. Customer pays any sales tax. Not to be used in conjunction with any other coupon. Valid 10-22 through 10-28.” I don’t know if the valid dates vary depending on when you print them, or if it’s a limited time offer. However, it appears that these coupons can be doubled, if your store will double coupons.
Click here to access these coupons!
Posted in Safeway | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Total spent: .63 cents – .62 for the actual groceries, .01 for breast cancer research
Total before coupons: $69.41
I earned 1 Power Pump reward, bringing my running total to 3. I also walked out of the store with $11 in catalinas for next time.
View receipt #1 View receipt #2 View receipt #3 View receipt #4 View receipt #5
Got:
12 boxes of Frosted Mini-Wheats – used 12 $1/1 printables from Coupons.com (no longer available)
1 gallon of milk
2 cans of beans
1 packet of Ramen
2 packages of Wacky Mac – used a .50/1 coupon from the 6/22 inserts
6 Glade Plug ins – used six “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from the 9/28 Smart Source newspaper inserts
1 trial sized box of Tide – used $1/1 coupon from the 9/28 Proctor & Gamble newspaper inserts
1 moon shaped cookie cutter
Here’s how I broke this down:
For the first transaction, I bought 3 boxes of cereal, 1 Wacky Mac, 2 plug-ins and the cookie cutter, which was the perfect filler item because it was clearanced to .10 cents. I then used $8 in catalinas to bring the total to a whopping .01 cent. The cashier was laughing and the customer behind me was amazed. Safeway is doing a charity drive for breast cancer research this month, and the cashiers usually ask if you would like to round up your total and donate the change. As I was handing the cashier a penny, she jokingly asked if I wanted to round up my penny for breast cancer.
“Wait! Hang on!” I said, reaching into my purse and pulling out another penny. I told her that I would double my total with a matching donation. She thought it was hilarious, and laughed that I was the only customer to match 100% of my total with a donation! Yes, I have way too much fun at Safeway.
I got $8 in catalinas back for the plug-ins, and was expecting another $3 catalina for purchasing the cereal, but it did not show up. Safeway is running a catalina deal on Frosted Mini-Wheats where you receive a $3 catalina for purchasing three boxes. This was mentioned on Hot Coupon World and also brought to my attention by a Super Coupon Girl reader. I realized that I must have bought the wrong kind – which is why I always double-check the details on catalina deals before I go to the store, but I neglected to this time. So I went through the line again, doing pretty much the same thing – except this time I got different Mini-Wheat flavors, two plug-ins, one Wacky Mac, and the packet of Ramen as a filler. But this time the cashier looked at my catalinas and said, “Oh, I’ll have to adjust the last coupon down,”. I had one $4 catalina left that hadn’t been scanned, but the total was at $3.94. I knew something must have gone wrong, so after she balanced me out to zero, I pulled my cart over to the side and looked at my receipt. I realized in horror that I had not put the packet of Ramen on the conveyor belt – it was still in my cart, hidden underneath a sales flyer! I showed the cashier what happened and apologized for my mistake. She was super nice, and when I said, “It’s a good thing I didn’t walk out of here without paying!”, she replied, “Oh, you would have been back in a minute to spend your $11 [referring to the catalinas I just got] anyway!”
So she rang up the Ramen at .29 cents, and then deducted .06 from the total since she had adjusted the $4 catalina down to $3.94. I didn’t ask her to, she just did – which was really cool of her. I paid .23 cents, but I didn’t get the receipt for this one, because I was on the wrong end of the checkstand and she just quickly rang up my Ramen before helping the next customer in line, and I was just trying to get out of the way as quickly as I could!
And all of the catalinas that I was expecting printed out this time, so I got $8 for the Glade and $3 for the cereal. The participating varieties listed on the catalina are Blueberry Muffin, Strawberry Delight, Maple & Brown Sugar, Vanilla Creme, and Cinnamon Streusel.
I still had coupons left for more cereal, which brought the total price for 3 boxes down to $2.16. I picked out a can of beans as a filler item, since they’re .89 cents; I then used my $3 catalina and paid only .05 cents, getting another $3 back! I was able to do this twice before I ran out of Kelloggs coupons.
But I needed some milk to go with all this cereal, so I went through the line one last time and bought a gallon of milk, two plug-ins and the Tide. I used $8 in Glade catalinas to pay, and after overage from the Tide, it came to .28 cents. They adjusted my coupon down again, which is the same thing that happened on Sunday, but I still got .50 cents overage because it doubled.
Posted in Safeway | No Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
I hit up a few stores yesterday. First stop, Walgreens:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .15 cents on my rebate gift card
Total before coupons: $45.51
View receipt
Got:
18 bars of Lindt chocolate – These are on sale for $2.29 at my store, and I used nine .75/1 coupons and nine “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from the 10/5 inserts. Stacked with a $1 coupon from the EasySaver catalog, this resulted in .46 cents of overage for every 2 bars purchased.
4 packages of TP
1 Halloween bag
I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to put chili peppers in chocolate, but this was all they had left on the shelf, so I guess I’ll have to try it out of morbid curiosity!
Next stop, Rite Aid:
Total spent: $11.68 – but I will get back $14.18 in rebates.
Total before coupons: $14.18
View receipt
Got:
1 tube of Crest toothpaste – used one $1/1 coupon from the 9/28 Proctor & Gamble newspaper inserts
1 package of Tena Serenity Underwear – used one $1.50/1 coupon from the 8/3 Smart Source newspaper inserts
While I have no use for the Tena or the toothpaste (I have more than enough toothpaste!), these items are free after rebate this week, and I will make $2.50 in profit thanks to the coupons that I used. If you think it’s a little overboard to buy things you don’t need, remember that you can always donate items like these. I may not have a personal use for the Tena, but I know a nursing home that will be happy to take it.
Then it was onwards to Fred Meyer:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .15 cents on a gift card I got for my birthday
Total before coupons: $6.09
View receipt
Got:
6 trial sized packets of Zantac – on sale for .99 cents, used six $1/1 coupons from the 9/7 Smart Source newspaper inserts
1 packet of Ramen
I got the Ramen simply as a filler item for the six cents of overage I was anticipating – a decidedly ironic choice for overage gained by purchasing antacids! However, it worked out a little different than I thought it would. My coupons stated that they were good for $1 off of any size Zantac, but they beeped and the cashier had to enter the price manually; and he only entered in .99 cents, not the full value of the coupon. Keep in mind, the manufacturer will reimburse the store for the full value of the coupon, which is $1, plus a handling fee – even if they key it in at .99 cents, the store will still get $1 back. So the Ramen ended up being unnecessary because of how he rang it up.
Final stop, Safeway:
Total spent: $1.02
Total before coupons: $21.99
View receipt #1 View receipt #2
Got:
1 Sunday newspaper
1 can of tuna
2 Glade Plug-ins – used one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 Smart Source inserts
8 trial sized boxes of Tide – on sale for .89 cents, used eight $1/1 coupons from the 9/28 Proctor & Gamble newspaper inserts
For the first transaction, I got four Tides and the newspaper, with the goal of using the overage from the Tide to pay for it. However, the coupon beeped and prompted for manager approval. Once again, the coupon says that it is valid on any size of Tide, but the manager who came over instructed the cashier to key in the value of the coupon as .89 cents. The store will still be reimbursed for $1 by the manufacturer, even though it’s keyed in at .89 cents, so I don’t really understand why some managers make this their policy on overage. But on the bright side, they still doubled these coupons, so I received $2 in overage to pay for my paper nonetheless!
For the second transaction, I bought two Glade Plug-ins, using my $4 catalina from the Plug-ins I bought on Friday. I had also picked up four more Tides to pay for the remaining cost of the Glade, and grabbed a can of tuna as a filler item. Since I picked out all of the items that I purchased at the same time, and just split my order into two transactions at the register, I had done my calculations before I realized that the store would adjust the Tide coupons down – so both of these transactions came out to be more than I had expected. But I still got $8 in catalinas back for next time!
Posted in Fred Meyer, Rite Aid, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Total spent: .48 cents – .45 for the actual groceries, .03 for breast cancer research
Total before coupons: $50.06
View receipt #1 View receipt #2 View receipt #3
I also earned another 125 miles in the United Airlines GroceryMiles program that I wrote about recently.
I Got:
1 dozen cage-free eggs
1 8 oz bag of cheese
.39 pounds of organic, fair trade coffee
4 bags of Wacky Mac – on sale for .99 cents, used a .50/1 coupon from the 6/22 inserts. Free after doubles!
1 packet of Ramen
2 packets of trial sized Airborne – on sale for $2.19, used two $2 coupon from the 9/7 SmartSource newspaper inserts. Free plus .31 cents overage after doubles!
6 bottles of Bayer aspirin – on sale for $1, used a $1/1 coupon from the 7/27 Red Plum inserts. Free plus .50 cents overage after doubles!
2 packages of TP
4 Glade Plug-ins – used two “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from the 9/28 Smart Source inserts.
The Plug-Ins are $5.79 at Safeway, so for the first transaction, I used a $4 catalina from the last Glade deal that I did in conjunction with overage from the Bayer, in order to offset the cost of the plug-in. I had it worked out that I would owe .05 cents, but after I handed over all my coupons, the register ended up showing negative .95 cents. I was puzzled, and the cashier said that she would just balance me out to zero. You’ll see on the receipt that there is .95 cents in “general merchandise” – that’s why. So I looked over my receipt after the transaction was through, and saw that only 3 Bayer aspirins were listed on the receipt, even though I had purchased four; one of them didn’t ring up. So I went back to the cashier and showed her what had happened. If the fourth Bayer had been rung up, the register would have showed me owing .05 cents, instead of the negative .95 that came up. The cashier then opted to just do a “general merchandise” sale for .05 cents, and I handed her the nickel that I owed. She didn’t give me a receipt for that transaction, otherwise I would have scanned that as well.
At any rate, I got $8 in catalinas back for purchasing the two Plug-Ins, so I went through the line once more, purchasing two more Glades and using overage from the Bayer and Airborne along with one of the $4 catalinas to bring the total down to .17 cents – .20 cents after I “rounded up” for breast cancer!
I got another $8 in catalinas back, and I proceeded to go through the line one last time, using $12 worth of my catalinas to pay for a few things that I needed – like coffee!! I still have a $4 catalina left, which I will use towards more Glade warmers next time.
Posted in Safeway | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Here’s my big Rite Aid trip from Sunday:
Total spent: $133.21. But you can pick your jaw up from the floor – because I’m getting $140.21 back in rebates!
Total before coupons: $140.21
View receipt – I had to fold the receipt in half to fit it all in. I also blacked out my debit card number.
This was the “Free After Rebate” bonanza that I mentioned! I was in Rite Aid right when they opened to snag all the deals. And I got a ton of stuff:
1 bottle of Nighttime Theraflu
1 bottle of Sambucol immune system booster stuff
1 bottle of Buckley’s cough syrup
1 box of Sucrets throat soothing icy pops
Another brand of throat soothing icy pops – these may be aimed at kids, but I think they sound like a great idea for adults, too!
1 jar of Mentholatum rub
1 bottle of Little Colds cough syrup
1 bottle of Triaminic nightime cough syrup – all this cold medicine couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve almost finished this bottle off already! I know it’s kids medicine, but it’s the same ingredients as adult cough syrup – you just have to double the dose. And it tastes better. 😉
1 bottle of Children’s Advil
1 bottle of Chloraseptic Throat Numbing Spray
1 bag of Bee M.D. cough drops
1 bottle of 4 Way Nasal Decongestant
1 Neti Pot – this has got to be the strangest coupon item I’ve gotten yet. This is a tea pot – for your nose. I guess you stick it in your nose and it flushes your sinuses with saline?
1 box of Ayr saline stuff
1 Simply Saline kit
1 pediatric saline kit
1 bottle of Simply Saline allergy & sinus relief
1 bottle of Simply Saline cold formula
1 box of Breathe Again
1 box of Comtrex cold medicine
1 box of Zucol cold medicine
1 box of Sniffles ‘n Sneezes For Kids
1 box of Orajel cold sore treatment
1 tube of Novitra cold sore treatment
1 tube of Nexcare cold sore treatment
1 tube of Lizard Lips balm
1 tube of shimmery Chapstick
1 tube of LypSyl lip balm
1 2-pack of SoftLips lip balm
In addition to all of these items being free after rebate, I also used some coupons to result in a profit. A friend sent me a coupon that she found for $5 off a $25 or higher purchase at Rite Aid (Thanks, Cathy!), so used that, and also two $1 off “peelie” coupons that I found attached to two of the saline products in the store. I don’t have a personal need for some of this stuff – I’ve never used saline solution or had cold sores before – but I can give it to others, and everybody wins!
You may also notice that I don’t count money spent on rebate items as part of my budget. Why is this? The way I see it, when I buy normal items that I need for my household, that is money that is spent and gone. But money that is paid for rebate items is not gone – I get it right back, plus the products and often a cash profit as well. I see rebates as simply an investment of my money, not an expense.
This Rite Aid trip was a perfect example of this. I paid $133.21, but I’m getting $140.21 back – when was the last time you got $7 interest for keeping your money in the bank for a month? Not to mention that I have $140 worth of merchandise as well! And in case you’re wondering how often these rebates actually come back, this rebate has already been processed and is ready to be claimed. Here’s a screen capture from my status page on the Rite Aid Single Check Rebate website:
I could request my rebates right away, but I’m going to wait until the end of this month’s rebate period – you can’t claim rebates at Rite Aid more than once per period, and I’m sure there will be other rebates deals that I’ll want to do this month, so I will wait and claim them all at once.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that rebate items are paid for using the “mad money” part of my budget, so to speak. That’s the wiggle room in my budget after factoring in all bills, expenses, savings, and so on. After all, it would be counter-productive to invest money in rebates if it took away from another area in my budget.
After all the fun at Rite Aid, I stopped by Safeway to pick up the Sunday newspaper:
Total spent: .29 cents
Total before coupons: $14.08
View receipt – I paid in exact change, but the cashier accidentally punched in “$29.00” instead of .29 cents, in case anyone was wondering about that!
Got:
2 Glade plug-ins – used one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 newspaper inserts
1 Sunday Newspaper
For this transaction, I just rolled two of the $4 catalinas that I had from the last time I did this Glade deal, and used them to pay for the Plug-in and newspaper. I then got two more $4 catalinas back!
Posted in Rite Aid, Safeway | 1 Comment »
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