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!
