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Archive for the ‘Walgreens’ Category
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 »
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Here is my belated “Super Savings Saturday” post! I came down with a flu over the weekend, so I’m a little behind on getting my deals posted.
First stop, Safeway:
Total spent: Zero
Total before coupons: $6.00
View receipt #1
View Receipt #2
Got:
6 boxes of napkins
These were on sale for $1, and there were coupons for .50/1 in the 6/22 newspaper inserts – free after doubles! Unfortunately, these coupons expired on the 12th, but there seem to be Dixie coupons in the inserts frequently, and I see these on sale for $1 at Safeway often; so keep your eyes peeled for this one in the future.
Then, it was off to Walgreens:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.95 on a rebate gift card. And I got back $3 in Register Rewards!
Total before coupons: $13.99
View receipts – one of my items rang up wrong initially, so the first receipt is what I overpaid, and the second receipt is the refund back to my gift card.
Got:
1 Glade Flameless Candle – used a $5/1 coupon from the 9/7 newspaper inserts, and got a$3 Register Reward back for purchasing it.
2 bottles of Coffee-Mate – On sale for $1.50 each, and I used two $1/1 printables. You are allowed to print two coupons per computer, so I used my boyfriend’s computer to print these.
1 pez dispenser – fun stocking stuffer!
1 Lindt chocolate bars – These are on sale for $2.29 at my store. I used one .75/1 coupon and one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 10/5 inserts, and stacked them with a $1 coupon from the EasySaver catalog. This resulted in .46 cents of overage for purchasing 2 bars! Overage from chocolate – does it get any better than that?
I got last month’s rebate loaded onto my gift card, so I put it to good use during this trip. Remember how I spent $32.72 out of pocket for rebate items last month? Well, I got $42.60 back in rebates!
As a side note, you’ll notice that there is an item voided off my order. I had originally planned to buy one trial sized packet of Airborne for .99 cents, and use a $2 off coupon. However, the coupon would not go through automatically, and the manager said he could not accept it. The coupon was valid, because it says $2 off any variety of Airborne. The manufacturer reimburses the store for the full amount of the coupon, plus a handling fee. But the manager seemed to be confused about coupon redemption, as he said several different contradictory things regarding the redemption, and has been misinformed in the past also. This was the same manager from the last time I tried to redeem this coupon, and the register processed the coupon differently that time. But that’s OK; I just voided the Airborne off my order. Incidentally, my total was $1 higher than I had intended as a result, since I didn’t have the extra overage.
Then I stopped by Fred Meyer’s:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .20 cents on a gift card I got for my birthday
Total before coupons: $21.70
View receipt
Got:
Over a pound of organic bananas
10 Dove deodorants – on sale for $1.99, and there was a stack of $2/1 Dove deodorant coupons right next to it on the shelf!
1 trial sized Zantac 75 – on sale for .99 cents, used a $1.50/1 coupon from the 9/7 SmartSource newspaper insert – resulting in .51 cents overage!
Then I went through the line one more time:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .18 cents on my gift card
Total before coupons: $11.68
View receipt
Got:
1 gallon of milk
A pound of apples
8 trial sized packets of Zantac 75 – used seven $1.50/1 Zantac 75 coupons, and one $1 off any Zantac product coupon, both from the 9/7 newspaper insert. Both of these coupons say good on any size, so they can be used on trial sizes. The resulting overage paid for the milk and apples!
Then I stopped by Walgreens one more time:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $23.73 on my gift card. And I will get back $27.50 in rebates!
Total before coupons: $122.77
View receipt – I had to fold it in half because it’s so long! I think this might be the most coupons I’ve redeemed in one transaction.
Got a bunch of stuff:
18 Lindt chocolate bars – MMM! As I mentioned above, for every two bars I used one .75/1 coupon and one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 10/5 inserts, and stacked them with the $1 coupon from the EasySaver catalog. And I got .46 cents overage for every two bars purchased!
2 bottles of Coffee Mate – used one $1.50/2 printable.
1 roll of foil
1 package of Windex Wipes – on sale for $2.50, used one $1.50/1 printable. I will get $1 back in rebates, making it free!
3 bottles of Pert Plus – on sale for $3.49, used three $1.50/1 coupons from the 9/7 inserts, stacked with a $2.50/1 coupon from the EasySaver booklet – resulting in .51 cents overage each.
2 bottles of Fantastik Cleaner – on sale for $2.50, used two $1.50/1 printables, and will get $2 back in rebates – making them free!
1 Glade carpet deodorizer – on sale for $1.99, used a $1/1 coupon from the 9/14 inserts, and will get back $1 in rebates – making it free!
2 packages of rubber gloves – used coupon from Walgreens sales circular, making them two for $1.
1 bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles spray – on sale for $2.50, used a $2/1 printable (I found it here, but I’m not sure if it’s still available). And I will get $1 back in rebates, so .50 cents profit!
2 bottles of Palmolive dish soap – used a coupon from the Walgreens sales circular to make them .89 cents each, and stacked it with two .25/1 coupons from the 9/28 inserts, making the final price .64 cents each.
3 boxes of pudding
2 boxes of Shout Wipes – on sale for $2.50 each, used two $1.50/1 printables. And I’ll get back $2 in rebates, making them free!
1 Glade Scented Oil Candle – on sale for $3.99, used a $2/1 coupon from the 9/14 inserts. And I’ll get back $2 in rebates, making it free plus a penny profit!
3 packages of TP
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner – on sale for $19.99, used one $10/1 printable. And I will get back a $10 rebate, making it free! Score!
4 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubbers – on sale for $3.99, used four $2.75/1 printables – two from my computer, two from my boyfriend’s. And I will get back $6 in rebates – resulting in $1.04 profit!
I also used my $3 Register Reward from the last transaction.
During this transaction, I had a problem with one of the coupons from the Walgreens sales circular – the coupon for the rubber gloves would not go through. The same manager I had talked to earlier tried and tried to scan it, but it just beeped. He looked at the rubber gloves and the coupon for a long time, and finally had to override the price manually. He couldn’t really say that he wouldn’t accept it just because it beeped, since it was from their own sales circular.
This was a great trip – not only did I not spend anything out of pocket, but if you add up the amounts I put on both my Fred Meyer birthday gift card and my Walgreens rebate gift card, it only comes to $26.06. I’m getting $27.50 back in rebates from Walgreens, so that paid for both the gift card expenditures and then some!
Big thanks again to Money Saving Mom, Deal Seeking Mom, and Common”Cents”ical for posting these deal scenarios! Also, bear in mind that Walgreens changes their sales on Sunday, so the sales this week are different. (I believe Fred Meyer’s also changes their sale prices on Sunday, although I’m not 100% sure. Safeway changes select sale prices on Sunday, with most of the prices changing on Wednesday.)
Posted in Fred Meyer, Produce Deals, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008
I’m making a few trips to Walgreens and Rite Aid this weekend, to take advantage of some awesome deals. Here’s the scoop:
Walgreens has some super sales going on this week. The last day for this sale is tomorrow, so be sure to stop by soon if you’d like to check it out. There’s some great scenarios posted at Money Saving Mom, Deal Seeking Mom, and Common”cents”ical, so check them out if you want an idea of what I’ll be doing on Saturday!
Rite Aid is also offering a ton of “Free after rebate items” starting on Sunday. There is a list available on the Rite Aid Single Check Rebate website. I’m going to hit up Rite Aid first thing Sunday morning, because the free rebate items go fast!
Posted in Rite Aid, Walgreens | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Here’s Friday’s haul:
Total spent: -.75 cents!
Total before coupons: $7.26
View receipt
Got:
4 Glade plug ins
Over 2 pounds of bananas
So for this transaction, I used 2 of the $2 Glade catalina coupons from my last Safeway visit, and 2 “Buy One, Get One Free” plug-in coupons. The plug-ins are on sale for $1.50, so after buying some bananas at .59 cents a pound, I figured my total would be roughly .20 cents, depending on the actual weight of the bananas. But when the cashier scanned the “Get One Free” coupons, they both took off $1.99. “Oh, look, it’s taking off too much,” I pointed out. “The plug-ins are only $1.50, and it’s taking off $1.99.” To which the cashier replied, “Well, if that’s what it’s taking off, then that’s what it is. I can’t argue with what my computer says.” And since I’d handed over $4 worth of catalinas, it put my total at minus .75 cents. “And you get change back!” she said. So the cashier pretty much insisted on giving me money back! Not to mention that I got $8 in catalinas from the plug-in purchase. Crazy!
Total spent: .05 cents
Total before coupons: $2.05
View receipt
I went through the line one more time to get another pound of bananas and one more plug-in. And I got the same $2 catalina coupon back, so I left the store with $8 in catalinas and an extra .70 cents in my pocket.
Then, I headed to Walgreens:
Total spent: $3.94 – but I’ll get $7.49 back in rebates
Total before coupons: $28.44
View receipt
Got:
4 bottles of Pert Plus – on sale for $3.49, and I used 4 $1.50 coupons from the 9/7 newspaper inserts, combined with the $2.50/1 EasySaver Pert coupon, to produce .51 cents of overage for each bottle.
1 bottle of Rimmel foundation – on sale for $7.49, free after rebate
1 box of Zantac – on sale for $4.99, used this coupon for $5.50 off.
2 packages of TP
This transaction was just a mess. Originally, I had planned to get 3 trial size packets of Airborne, on sale for .99 cents, and use the $2/1 coupon from the 9/7 inserts to produce $1.01 overage each. To soak up this overage, I picked up a package of Quilted Northern TP, which would have been $3 after using a $1 Quilted Northern coupon. The remaining 3 cents would be absorbed by the rebate item.
The first Airborne coupon scanned just fine, but then the register refused to take the other 2, or my Zantac coupon (which came from the Walgreens website!). The manager came over and had to push the Zantac coupon through manually. Then he looked at the Airborne coupon for a long time and said, “Oh, it won’t take it because it says limit one per purchase.” I mentioned that each item is considered a purchase, and that I had 3 items. He said that in this instance, “purchase” refers to the whole transaction. I knew this was not accurate information, because if that were the case it would say “limit one per transaction” – for an explanation of this, I recommend this great coupon basics tutorial on Hot Coupon World. But it’s not worth arguing over – if they don’t want to take my coupons, I will just politely put the item back. Anyway, since I had bought the TP as an overage eater for the Airborne, I asked the cashier to just void the TP and all three Airbornes from my transaction. In retrospect, I could have kept 1 Airborne on there and let the rebate item suck up the $1.01 overage, but I was getting so confused and was trying to keep the math simple so that I didn’t end up paying more than I wanted to.
At any rate, the total came to $3.94, which didn’t seem right at all – I had figured that it would come to over $6. So after I paid, I sat in my car with my calculator for a good 5 minutes or so, just staring at the receipt trying to make heads or tails of it. If you take a look at the receipt you’ll probably see why I was having trouble making sense of it! Finally, I realized that the clerk had voided off the Quilted Northern and handed me my coupon back, but the $1 coupon for it had not been voided off. $4.94 was still way lower than I was expecting, but I thought I must have done the math wrong on the Pert.
I headed back into the store, explained what had happened and showed the manager my receipt. “So I owe you a dollar!” I said. He looked a little stunned that I would want to fix an error that was in my favor. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” he said. “It was our mistake. But thank you for coming back in!” So he appreciated my honesty, anyway.
And when I was scanning the receipt in today, I studied it further and added everything up several times, and it finally dawned on me – the $2 coupon for the Airborne hadn’t been voided off, either!! So that’s why it was so low. What a confusing mess that transaction was!
After all that, I headed over to Fred Meyer:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $7.97 on a gift card that I got as a birthday present. And I got $16 back in catalina coupons!
Total before coupons: $37.95
View receipt
Got:
1 Dove deodorant – on sale for $1.99, and there was a tearpad of coupons for $2/1 sitting right next to it. So watch for these if you shop at Fred Meyer!
4 Glade Flameless Candles – On sale for $8.99, and I used 2 $5/1 coupons from the 9/7 inserts, and 2 “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons that I printed here. And I got a $4 catalina back for each candle that I bought! This promo is running at other Kroger stores, Safeway, and probably a few other chains as well.
These candles are great, especially with power outage season fast approaching!
So essentially, I was able to double the amount I had to spend by turning $7.97 on a gift card into $16 in coupons. My cashier was super nice, and couldn’t believe the deal. As I was leaving, I heard her say to the next customers in line, “Did you SEE that?! She got all those $4 coupons back!!”
I then used those coupons to pay for the following items:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.54 on my gift card
Total before coupons: $19.54
View receipt
Got:
1 head of organic red leaf lettuce
Just under 2 pounds of organic apples
1 Eggplant
A pound of organic oranges
A pound of broccoli
1 gallon of milk
1 8oz bag of cheese
2 ears of corn
1 canister of bread crumbs
Another free Dove deodorant
Then I made one last stop at Safeway on my way home:
Total spent: .04 cents
Total before coupons: $2.04
View receipt
I used one of my $2 Glade catalinas to buy:
1 package of TP – my favorite overage item! After all, you can never have too much of it, and there’s rarely good sales on it in my area.
1 bag of Cheetos – I was hungry for a snack. The bag was empty by the time I snapped this picture!
Posted in Fred Meyer, Produce Deals, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Walgreens has put out yet another coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase, good this Friday and Saturday. I love all these great deals that Walgreens have been offering lately!
Posted in Walgreens | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Today was all about fuel discounts. First, I received a $5 Chevron gift card in the mail, from taking part in a quiz contest a few months ago. Second, it was time for me to redeem my Power Pump Rewards!
The first quarter of Safeway’s fuel discount program, Power Pump Rewards, ends tomorrow. This means that any points accumulated during the quarter must be redeemed, or you will lose them. Discounts are earned for every $100 you spend at Safeway. Each time you accumulate $100 worth of purchases on your club card, you earn a .10 cent per gallon discount. Even better, it counts your total before manufacturer’s coupons, and the discounts stack. Since I redeem so many coupons, I waited until the very end of the month to save up as many rewards as I could. I ended up with 22 rewards, which equals a discount of $2.20 per gallon! That’s a pretty big savings, and I was mulling over how I could best utilize it.
Safeway allows you to get up to 35 gallons with your Power Pump discount. My car has a 16 gallon capacity; my boyfriend, Jai, has a 12 gallon tank in his car. “We should borrow someone’s truck, fill it up, and then siphon the gas off into both of our cars,” Jai suggested. You know gas prices are high when this seems like a perfectly reasonable idea!
As a result of this brainstorm, we decided to ask Jai’s dad if we could use his truck today. As luck would have it, this truck has a gas tank capacity of exactly 35 gallons, and the tank was almost empty when we borrowed it. So, we took it over to the nearest Safeway gas pump to fill up.
My Power Pump discount brought the price down to $1.49 a gallon – a good deal in today’s world.
We filled the tank with 32 gallons of gas, for a total of $48.25. Here’s the receipt – I blacked out my debit card number, for obvious reasons:
Jai’s dad noted how $48 would normally get just 1/4 of a tank in his truck.
As we headed home, we passed by Walgreens, and I took the opportunity to nip in and grab a few deals. I had some Pert Plus coupons that expire tomorrow, and I wanted to use them up since they’re a moneymaker right now.
Total Spent: .22 cents
Total before coupons: $27.22
View Receipt
As I mentioned over the weekend, you can combine the manufacturer’s Pert coupons with this month’s EasySaver $2.50/1 coupon, resulting in overage. Here’s what I got:
6 bottles of Pert
1 pound of butter
2 packages of TP
1 Halloween gift bag – cute filler item!
After this quick WAGs run, we returned home and began the adventure of siphoning off gas!
Jai hooked up a garden hose to the truck’s gas tank, parked his car on a slope, and let gravity do the rest. Knowing that we would use this gas discount at the end of the month, he had let his gas tank get as low as he could, and was able to put a full tank into his car.
After his car was filled, we moved my car into position. In the meantime, we had to keep the hose elevated so that it wouldn’t slosh gas around, so Jai tied it up into a tree. People driving by must have wondered what on earth we were doing!
My car had a little more gas in it than Jai’s, but I still got at least 10 gallons or so. And after both our cars were full to the brim, the truck still had half a tank left! Suffice to say, I am pretty pleased with the Power Pump Rewards program. I wonder how much of a discount I can rack up in the next quarter!
Posted in Power Pump Rewards, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
Monday, September 29th, 2008
If you use as much Zantac as I do, the following coupon is for you! Walgreens is offering a printable coupon for a free box of Zantac, up to $5.50. All you have to do is click here and enter the UPC from any box of Zantac along with your contact info. Thanks to Common Sense With Money for the tip!
Posted in Free coupons, Walgreens | No Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
My “double dip” day at Walgreens went perfectly! It’s known as a double dip because for two days, the September EasySaver rebates overlapped with the October EasySaver rebates, meaning that you can buy items for both rebate periods, and use the coupons from both rebate books.
First transaction:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $9.00 on a gift card
Total before coupons: $15.00
And I got a $10 Register Reward back!
View receipt
Got:
3 bottles of Dimetapp – I used the $2/1 printable found here. Thanks, Money Saving Mom!
I bought this simply because it was a small moneymaker, and worked nicely with the other deals I had planned. And if you compare the ingredients to adult cough syrup, it’s actually no different – it’s just a smaller dose.
Second transaction:
Total Spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $2.99 on a gift card
Total before coupons: $19.99
And I got a $8 Register Reward back!
View receipt
Got:
1 box of Crest Whitestrips, 56 count – I used the $10 Register Reward that I earned in the last transaction, and a $7/1 coupon that I received in the mail. Click here if you’d like to sign up for Whitestrips coupons. Also, I believe there is a $7 Whitestrip coupon coming out in Sunday’s P&G insert, although I haven’t gotten a paper yet to check.
I started using these last month and I really like them, so I was glad to find this good deal, since they’re normally expensive.
Third transaction:
Total spent: $3.38 on a gift card, and $13.28 out of pocket. But I will get back $14.27 in rebates!
Total before coupons: 33.66
And, I got back a $3 Register Reward this time.
View receipt – I omitted the second half, since it had my debit card number on it.
Got:
1 gallon of milk
1 package of Oreos
1 package of Chips Ahoy – the Register Reward was for buying the milk & cookies. Thanks to Common Sense With Money for the inspiration!
2 6-packs of TP
1 Glade candle – free after coupons & rebate. I stacked September’s EasySaver coupon for this with a recent insert coupon – 8/24 SS, I think. Props to Money Saving Mom again for pointing out this deal!
16 Halloween cups
20 Halloween pencils (I throw a huge Halloween party every year, so these will be perfect party favors!)
1 package of L’Oreal makeup remover – October “free after rebate” item
2 bottles of 6 hour energy drink things – October “free after rebate” item
I also used the $5/20 coupon that I mentioned yesterday, and the $8 Register Reward from the last transaction.
Fourth and final transaction:
Total spent: 0. They handed me .54 change back! And I’m getting back a $3.49 rebate!
Total before coupons: $16.46
View receipt
Got:
1 4-pack of TP
3 Halloween puzzles
3 bottles of Pert Plus – used a $2/1 coupon from the 8/3 inserts, stacked with this month’s $2.50/1 EasySaver coupon
1 bottle of Dawn – used .50/1 coupon
2 lint rollers
Ok, so this one was a surprise! My plan was to use up my last Register Reward by getting a few things I needed, and combine it with the Pert deal. The Pert is on sale for $3.49 each, but by stacking the insert coupon with the Easysaver coupon, you get $4.50 off, resulting in $1.01 overage. Where I went wrong was that I completely forgot to double check the price. I had printed off a copy of Money Saving Mom’s scenarios, just to make it easier to figure out the deals – my Walgreens is in the next town over, so I have to be prepared! Anyway, I just glanced at the price she had listed from the sale flyer, which was $3.79; but my store had it priced less, at $3.49. I’m usually very detail-oriented, but I just forgot to look at the price this time. So when the cashier rung me up, it showed negative .54 cents! Oops! The checker called a manager over, who looked at my coupons, looked at the receipt, and then said to the person ringing me up, “Well, it looks like you owe her .54 cents!” The manager proceeded to open the till and hand me the change!
And as if that wasn’t good enough, I get to claim a $3.49 rebate for one of the bottles of Pert!
Posted in Walgreens | 1 Comment »
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable, because I have a lot of deals to report!
I don’t get up to Walgreens too much, primarily because it’s a 15 minute drive away from me in the next town over, and with gas prices as they are, it seems silly to drive around chasing deals unless they’re really good. But I made a little shopping expedition yesterday that was well worth it!
Stop #1: Walgreens
Total spent: $1.22 on a gift card, and $29.23 out of pocket. But, I will get back $35.24 in rebates, plus a 10% bonus of $3.52 because I choose to have my rebates put on a gift card, AND I got a $10 register reward – yielding $18.31 profit!
View Receipt – I didn’t include the second half of the receipt, because it listed my debit card information; but you can still see how I worked it.
Here’s a breakdown of what I got, and how I did it. Big thanks to Money Saving Mom and Wags to Riches for posting about these deals!
First of all, I took advantage of this $10 off a $40 Walgreens coupon. This coupon is only valid after all other manufacturer’s coupons, meaning you must pay $30 after all coupons in order to use it. But there’s loads of free rebate items at WAGs this month, so I basically used the rebate items that I would have bought anyway to get me up to $30, and then chose another $10 of stuff that I then got for free! This coupon is only valid on the 12th and 13th, so if you have a Walgreens nearby, check it out today!
So I purchased:
3 bottles of Robitussin. If you buy 3 bottles, you receive a $10 register reward towards your next purchase, and if you sign up to print these $1 coupons, you can get all 3 for $8.97. I basically used the $10/40 coupon to pay for the initial investment in the cough syrup, and got the register reward back. I was happy to take advantage of this deal, because cough medicine is so expensive and I never have any when I need it – so of course I end up spending a lot, because who want to go deal hunting with a flu?
1 bottle of toothpaste – free after rebate, plus overage because I used a coupon from the monthly P&G insert
1 bottle of heartburn medicine – free after rebate
1 lip balm – free after rebate
1 nail polish – free after rebate, plus overage after I used a $2 off coupon from a recent insert
1 box of Excedrin – free after rebate
1 bottle of hair styling spray – free after rebate
6 boxes of South Beach bars – these are on sale this week for 2/$5. There are coupons you can print here for $2 off a box and if you buy 6, you qualify for a $5 rebate. So spend $3 for 6 boxes, and get back $5! Check out Common Sense With Money for the full lowdown on this awesome deal!
1 ghostie candy dish – I needed one more small item to get me to $40, and I chose this!
Stop #2: Safeway
I stopped at the Safeway in this town, because I had bought mine out of stock in the Glade plug ins, and this was the last day before my coupons expired.
Total spent: .18 cents
Total before coupons: $34.65
And I got back $16 back in ONYOs towards my next order!
I also earned a .10 power pump reward, bringing the running total to 12.
View Receipt – I had to fold it over and scan it twice, because the receipt was so long.
I got:
4 scented oil plug-ins
4 gel plug-ins
4 Halloween cards
2 boxes of band aids
1 package of floss
But I still had more coupons, so I went through the line a second time:
Total: -7.29. Whaaaa?
Total before coupons: $51.85
Got back $22 in ONYOs!
And I earned another .10 power pump reward, bringing the total to 13.
View receipt
Yes, the total was negative $7.29. How could that be? I’ve mentioned before that I never try to get cashback in overage – I always, always plan for the overage to be absorbed by other items, for a multitude of reasons. I calculate my sales to the penny, and always double-check my math. Well, the unexpected happened. I had several “Buy one, get one free” coupons for the plug-ins. The coupon is free, up to a maximum value of $4.99. The plug-ins are on sale for $3.99, so I assumed that it would work the way it normally does – the coupon prompts the cashier to enter the price. Well, the coupons scanned, but they didn’t prompt the cashier to do anything – they automatically took off $4.99. Naturally, this pushed the register into the red. The cashier said, “Well, I’m going to go with what my computer says!” and totaled it out. We both looked at the receipt, and she pointed to my pre-coupon total and said, “See, your total was this much, but you had so many coupons, it pushed it into negative!” Then she cheerfully handed me $7.29. I’m usually fairly savvy about coupon redemption, but I didn’t know what to do in this instance. The cashier looked at my receipt, and said that it was correct. But how? I have two theories:
Scenario #1: Free coupon overage is like any overage. If you have a coupon for, say, $3 off any chex mix, and you find chex mix on sale for $1.50, you can use that coupon to receive $1.50 in overage to pay for other items in your order. As I understand it, this is pretty much universally accepted, although some stores will not allow any overage, even when you are still paying out of pocket for your order. Why, I’m not sure. So, my theory is that maybe when a free coupon rings at more than the sale price of the item, it’s like getting overage from using a higher value coupon on a lower sale price. Except if this is the case, why does the wording say “Free up to“? Why not just make a $4.99 off coupon? Which leads me to my second theory:
Scenario #2: The cashier was mistaken. Perhaps she was ill-informed, and should have voided the coupons off and entered them in manually at the sale price. But why does the coupon take off $4.99 automatically if the manufacturer knows it will go on sale? Is it a mistake in the coding? Did the register process it wrong?
So I’m calling on my coupon-savvy readers to let me know what the scoop is here. I strive to redeem my coupons legally and honestly, and I want my blog to be an example of a success story in redeeming coupons legitimately. I don’t want to give my readers bad or dishonest deals. Nor do I want to cheat the corporations who make these products, or the stores I buy them at. So once I get to the bottom of this, I will report back with my findings.
PHEW! So after all that, here’s what I got:
11 scented oil plug-ins
4 Halloween cards
2 packs of TP
3 cup-o-noodles
After this, I stopped by Ross and picked up some clothes:
The psychedelic pink dress was $4.49, the black dress was $6.99, and the super cute white gown was $8.49 – so I spent a total of $20.47. Not quite as good a deal as all the $2 dresses I got last month, but I was still pleased!
On my way back, I stopped at Walgreens once again, to use the $10 register reward. I don’t know when I’ll be back next, and it makes no sense to waste time and gas driving there just to redeem a coupon.
Total spent: .04 cents
Total before coupons: $12.04
View receipt
It was getting late and I was hungry, so the first three items were snacks – hence the half-eaten wrappers in the photo!
1 lunchables
1 drinkable yoghurt
1 bag of chips – I got these because they were “Yoghurt and Green Onion” flavored, and I wanted to try it because it was so odd! These were actually really good. I’m from England, and over there we have Cheese and Onion flavored chips/crisps, and this was the closest thing that I’ve found to them stateside – exp-pats take note!
1 tupperware box
4 bottles of Coffee-Mate – this should stave off my Coffee-Mate emergencies for, oh, at least a week.
1 pack of TP
1 clearanced packet of popcorn – perfect filler item!
But I couldn’t leave town without getting some free yoghurt from Fred Meyer first!
Total: Zero!
Total before coupons: $3.00
View Receipt
If you have a Fred Meyer nearby, watch for this deal – there were coupons in the 7/13 inserts for $1/2 Darigold yoghurts. Fred Meyer usually has them on sale 2 for $1! We just finished off all the free yoghurt I got there last month, so this was perfect timing.
I had one last stop to make, once I got back into town. I checked my local Safeway to see if they had restocked the Glade yet, since I still had a few coupons left. And guess what – they did!
Total spent: .01 cent
Total before coupons: $56.47
And I earned $20 in ONYOs!
View receipt
And I got:
10 plug-ins
4 Halloween cards
1 12-pack of TP
1 gallon of milk
1 cheesetick
1 package of paper plates (for the boyfriend)
So this time, when I handed over my “Buy one, get one free” coupons, the first one prompted the cashier to enter the price. So he checked the sale price of the item – $3.99 – and entered that. So you would assume that, since I was redeeming several of the same coupon (one for each item), that each one would give the same prompt. Wrong! The subsequent coupons didn’t prompt or beep, and this time they deducted $5.79 each. Huh?!?! I don’t get it. The cashier knew the sale price – $3.99 – but looked at the $5.79 and went, “Oh.” He shrugged and kept on scanning them. Two cashiers at two different Safeways said it was OK. Are they mistaken, or is there something I’m just not getting?
Naturally, this pushed me into the red again. A supervisor was helping the cashier key my coupons in, and her overage policy is that if my total goes negative for some reason, she just balances it out to zero, and I get my groceries free. That’s what all the weird “GROCERY” items on the top of the receipt are – it was a dollar something over, so she added $1.03, but with my 10% discount, the total keeps adjusting and taking the 10% off. So she’d put in a dollar, and it would still show a few cents negative. She kept adding until finally it came out to me owing 1 penny, and we called that good!
And as you’ll also see on my receipt, the power pump rewards totally flipped out. On my last Safeway visit, I was at 13 fuel rewards, and had accumulated $46.81 towards my next one. You earn .10 cents for every $100 (pre-coupons) that you spend. So, this purchase should have earned me one reward, with about 3 or 4 dollars towards my next one. But instead, it showed me earning TWO rewards, bringing me to 15, with $84.80 towards my next one!! Um….what? I cannot fathom how it came to that conclusion. However, I’m glad, because there have been several big purchases that I’ve made during this reward period that I did not get credit for. Sometimes the system will get a hiccup and it won’t count my purchases – so beware, if it doesn’t show your running total at the bottom of your receipt, it won’t be counted. Many people have reported a problem with this, and you can call customer service to have it manually credited – which I know now, but didn’t bother doing before. So, maybe they’re retroactively crediting me for all the rewards I should have gotten? I have no idea. Safeway’s registers are just whacked.
So here’s the final numbers breakdown (not including the clothes I bought):
I purchased a total of $206.21 worth of groceries.
Spent: $29.46
Profit: $73.60!! This is in ONYOs, rebates, and for now I’m counting the $7.29 overage – I will update this total as needed, depending on what I find out about the legitimacy of it. Also, I’m just counting the ONYOs that I have left in my wallet – not the ones that I spent on this trip.
And thus concludes this very lengthy edition of Super Savings Saturday!
Posted in Fred Meyer, Ross, Safeway, Walgreens | No Comments »
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