I had one disappointing shopping trip on Sunday, followed by a great trip yesterday.

Safeway trip, January 4th:

Total spent: $6.99 – no coupons
View receipt

Got:

1 24 pack of TP

This trip was a dud for a few reasons. First, I had planned to pick up some Wacky Mac – Sunday was the last day that it was on sale for .99 cents, and there are .50/1 printables on both SmartSource and Coupons.com, which would make it free after doubles. However, the store was completely out of the sales fliers that contain the doubler, so I opted not to get any Wacky Mac, since there was no way for me to get my coupons doubled. On top of that, the store was also completely out of Sunday papers. But I still got the TP, since we’re running low. Toilet paper sales are rare around here, so I just have to take what I can get. After Safeway, I ran to a vending machine and got myself a paper, adding $2.50 to my budget.

But my trip to Walgreens on the 5th was much more successful. First transaction:

Total spent: Nothing out pocket, put $10 on my rebate gift card. And I got $9 in Register Rewards back!
Total before coupons: $14.00

View receipt #1
View receipt #2
View receipt #3

Got:

2 bottles of SlimQuick Energy shots – on sale for $4, got $4 in Register Rewards back for purchasing it.
2 bottles of Theraflu – on sale for $5 each, used two $2/1 coupons from the 10/19 Smart Source newspaper inserts. Final price: $6 for two, and I received $5 back in Register Rewards back for the purchase.

The reason there are three receipts is because when I made my initial purchase, I forgot to hand over my coupons – DUH. But they were very accomodating, and let me return the Theraflu and then re-ring it with the coupons. I put $14 on my gift card initially, but the manager did the return in cash, so I ended up with a $4 cash refund. I really appreciated them doing that!!

I thought this was a good deal for the Theraflu – I love stocking up on this stuff, because it really saves you money when you get sick.

For my second transaction, I used my $9 in Register Rewards to pay for some awesome clearance finds, and also scored some fantastic coupon deals:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.11 on my rebate gift card. And I will get $1.50 back in EasySaver rebates!
Total before coupons: $54.84
View receipt

Got:

4 pints of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream – on sale for $3, used four $3/1 printables. Free after coupons! These coupons were available for a limited time last week if you signed up on the Ben & Jerry’s website. The offer is no longer available, but if you printed these last week, use them at Walgreens! Jai and I both signed up for the offer, which is how we got 4 pints. YUM!
1 Blood Glucose Monitor – on sale for $14.99, used a coupon for up to $20 off from the 1/4 Red Plum newspaper inserts. Free after coupon! As you might guess by the fact that this is sitting next to ice cream, I do not have diabetes. However, I have relatives that do, and if they can’t use it, I will donate it. As a side note, if you or a loved one need one of these, check out this link to see if you qualify to have a free monitor mailed to you from One Touch!
1 package of Electrasol – on sale for $3.49, used a $2.50/1 coupon from the 1/4 Smart Source newspaper inserts, bringing it down to .99 cents. And I will get a $1.50 EasySaver rebate for purchasing it, so I’m .51 cents ahead!
2 jumbo packs of Stayfree – 96 pads altogether! On sale for $6.99 each. First, I used the “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 1/4 Red Plum newspaper inserts, which took off $6.99. Then, I used a $1/1 printable, stacked with a $3 coupon from the Walgreens sales flier, which took $3 off each package. Final cost for both: Free plus .01 cent overage!
1 bottle of Palmolive dish soap – on sale for $1.79, used a coupon from the Walgreens sales flier for $1 off stacked with a .25/1 coupon from the the 1/4 Smart Source newspaper inserts. Final price: .54 cents
1 purse sized packet of Kleenex – clearanced to .24 cents
3 cans of Sweet Potatoes – clearanced to .24 cents each
3 rolls of ribbon – clearanced to .16 cents each
8 Santa & Snowman votive candles – clearanced to .12 cents each. I just couldn’t resist, these will be so cute to put in gift bags next year!
1 can of Pumpkin – clearanced to .44 cents
2 packages of Christmas gift tags – 200 gift tags in total! Clearanced to .49 cents each
2 Santa salt & pepper shakers – clearanced to .16 cents each
Pre-made Honey Maid Graham Cracker crusts – clearanced to .74 cents each. I was stoked about these – Jai’s birthday is in March, and I always make him cheesecake, so this was a great find!
2 packages of bows – clearanced to .24 cents each
2 packages of red & green tissue paper – look familiar? I paid $2.50 for one package of this before Christmas. But now they’re clearanced to .62 cents each, so I stocked up!
1 package of plastic cutlery – clearanced to .24 cents
1 bag of BBQ potato chips – Notice how the bag is empty! I was having a blast rooting through the clearance, and I realized that it was getting late when I noticed how hungry I was! This was just to tide me over until I got home.

I was really pleased with these deals, because I got a few awesome freebies and some useful items on clearance that will come in handy next Christmas and beyond. The bottom of my receipt listed my grand total savings – factoring in coupons, store specials, and pre-clearance prices – as $89.91. Not too shabby!

Thanks so much to Common Sense With Money and Hot Coupon World for posting these awesome coupon scenarios for Walgreens!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Safeway, Walgreens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.