Sunday Deals and Steals

In the interest of having SOMETHING to post besides memes, I'm going to try to post about the deals again. I know I have some people really interested in figuring out the couponing game, so I'm going to do it not only to help you out, but also to organize my receipts and pictures, to get a bigger picture about what exactly I'm spending on what, and where.

So here are the deals I picked up today for the big 3 drugstores, with credit as usual going mainly to Collin at Hip2Save for helping me put them together. Hers isn't the only coupon game in town (I also read Tara K. at Deal Seeking Mom, Crystal at The Thrifty Mama, and a couple others), but in my opinion, it's the definite must-read of the pack.

So, off we go!

RITE AID

 

This picture of my RA purchases represents two separate transactions. I actually could have done better than I did (which was certainly okay), but I did something I almost NEVER do: planned only the first one and then impulsively did the second transaction with NO coupons after I got to the store, even though I already knew there were coupons and deals for the second transaction on which I was missing out. Why? I can't explain it. The Halloween crunch time got to me, I guess. Here are the deets:

Going in, I had a $2.63 RA gift card from last week's transactions, a $10 RA gift card that was given to me a month or two ago instead of a SCR (Single Check Rebate), a $16.99 SCR from September's deals, and $6 Wellness-Plus rewards.  As you work these deals, you will go through lots of these things!

#1:

- (3) 35-ct bags of Utz Halloween pretzels, $2.99 each, to get my total up to the $16.99 needed to use the SCR. The kids are like termites with these things. Whoooom! They're gone!

- Skittles, 2.17-oz bag, on sale for 50¢. I had a November Rite Aid Video Values (RAVV) coupon for another 25¢ off, making this 25¢ (What just happened there? I have no idea...)

- (2) Xtra 75-oz laundry detergent, on sale 2/$4. No coupons, just needed to get my total up, plus we were out of detergent.

- Nivea Happy Sensation Lotion 13.5-oz, on sale for $5.99 and kicking back a $5 +UP Reward, making it net 99¢. Plus I had a $1 MQ for any Nivea lotion, making this FREE!

- (2) Halls Sugar-Free Honey Lemon Cough Drops 25-ct, on sale 2/$3. (I'm sending lots of these SF cough drops to my diabetic grandpa right now, since he's having throat problems. I have a big box full to send him!) I had a $1/2 MQ and a 50¢ RAVV for the Halls, which you can stack for bigger discounts, and buying 2 generated a $1 +UP reward coupon, making these 25¢ each net (reg $2.69)!

- (2) Right Guard Sport deodorants, which I'll also send to Grandpa if Hubs doesn't like them, reg. $2.99, on sale BOGO FREE. I had a $1.50/2 MQ, making these 75¢ each!

- I had a $4-off-$20 RA SQ from watching 20 RAVVs in October. Make sure you watch all those videos each month!

- Subtotal after all SQs and MQs, with tax: $17.89. Used the $16.99 SCR from September, making my OOP for this order 90¢! Plus, I received $6 +UP rewards for #2, so it was a $5.10 MM!

#2:

- This week, you can get a $10 +UP Reward for spending $25 on ANY candy advertised in the ad, so I decided to go ahead and get a bunch of candy. We get a ton of trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, and I had nothing yet!

- 42-oz bag of mixed chocolate candy (good stuff like Twix and Hershey bars), reg. $12.99, on sale $9.99

- (6) bags, (2) each of snack-size Kit-Kat, Snickers, and Reese's PB Cups, on sale 2/$5

- (3) Act II Popcorn Balls for my 3 kiddos, 33¢ each, to make up that $25 candy total

- I used a $1 RAVV earned from the November videos, and $13 in +UP Rewards from Trans.#1 and last week. I think there should only have been $12, so unless I'm misremembering or miscalculating something, I think the cashier may have scanned a $1 one twice by accident?? Not sure...

- Total with tax: $12.60. Used $10 GC and $2.60 off $2.63 GC, leaving me a whopping 3¢ on that GC! Plus, I got back the $10 +UP reward for the candy purchases!

So for everything I bought from Rite Aid today, I spent 90¢ OOP and came back with $10 for next week. Not bad!

{Also, I made buddies with the cashier, C. I'd met her just once before, several months ago when I first started couponing at Rite Aid. She was a new cashier then, and very nervous about coupons. She's come a long way but still doesn't know how to coupon herself, and as a single mom of two kids, she's working 2 jobs to make ends meet. So I not only gave her all the different blogs and web sites to check out to help her put together some great money-saving (and -making!) deals, but I gave her my "Mama Card" with my personal info on it, so she could contact me with any questions. I hope she uses it! It'll be nice to have a couponing buddy locally - especially one in Rite Aid!}

CVS

 

The deals at CVS are usually much more exciting, but they're pretty lame this week. That's fine; we were due for a slow-down right about now. So I just had one small transaction:

- Ivory 3-bar soap packs, reg. $1.99, on sale for 99¢ each. I had (4) 25¢ MQs, so I picked up four packs for 74¢ each. This is Rob's favorite soap, so definitely stock-uppable!

- (3) 20-oz Cokes, FREE with My Coke Rewards points coupons. Yay for free Coke!

- I had $6 in ECBs (Extra Care Bucks, CVS' reward program) from last week, and you don't get change back, so I had to spend more money. We needed milk, so I grabbed a gallon at $3.39. I saw this big box of freeze pops behind me at the register, reg. $3.99, on sale for 39¢!! I decided to grab a box, and save them for the inevitable round of sore throats coming this winter.

- Total OOP: $1.17. No ECBs for next week, sadly! ;)

Walgreens

 
Some good deals at "Wags" this week, but I shot myself in the foot. I'll explain: Unlike the ECBs at CVS, the Register Rewards generated at Walgreens don't "roll." In other words, when you get RRs back from a purchase, you can't then spend those RR on the same item again  and get more RRs to do it again. If you spend the RRs  on the same item a second time, you won't get them again. And I forgot about this, although I have known it well for a long time, making me lose out on nearly $10 in RRs that I should have in my pocket right now, for next week's deals. Argh!!! I can't decide whether I should go in and return the items and have them re-rung to get the RRs, or just let it go, having learned my lesson. I'm pretty lazy, so it'll probably end up being the latter. Don't make my costly mistake!

I went in with $12.60 in RRs from last week, which is a pretty good amount for me. That was on six different catalina coupons, each worth $2 except for the sixth, which was $2.60. These count as a manufacturer's coupon, and you must have at least the number of items in your transaction as MQs, so you sometimes need "filler items" if you want to use a "real" MQ and a RR for the same item. Make sense? Let me know if you need clarification on that.

#1 and #2 were nearly identical.

#1:

- (4) cans of Campbell's Chunky soups, on sale for4/$5 with in-ad SQ, plus I had (2) $1/2 MQs, making them 75¢ each.

- (2) 24-oz bottles of Propel Water, on sale 5/$5 with in-ad SQ, plus I had a BOGO FREE MQ

- (6) boxes of Royal gelatin, on sale 5/$1 with in-ad SQ, as a cheap "filler" to increase my item-to-MQ ratio

- Contac Cold & Flu medicine, on sale for $6, plus I had a $2 MQ, plus it generated $6 in RR, making it a $2 MM!

- Colgate Sensitive toothpaste 6-oz, on sale $3.49, plus I had a $1 MQ, plus it generated $3.49 RR, making it a $1 MM!

- Trident Layers gum, on sale for 99¢ with in-ad SQ, plus I had a 75¢ MQ, making it 24¢ - and I *love* this gum!

- (2) bottles 15-ct Mentos gum, on sale for 99¢ with in-ad SQ, plus I had (2) $1 MQs, giving me 2¢ overage toward the rest of my order

- 3M tape, on sale for 49¢ with in-ad SQ, for more "filler"

- (1) Act II popcorn ball, on sale for 39¢ with in-ad SQ, for more "filler"

- TOTAL OOP for this order: 76¢, plus it generated $9.49 RR for the next order! (Total savings: $38.15.)

#2:

- Same as #1 for (4) Campbell's Chunky soups, (2) bottles of Propel Water, (5) instead of (6)Royal gelatin for filler, Contac cold & flu med, Colgate toothpaste, Trident Layers gum, and (2) Mentos gum. Same MQs as #1, plus the $9.49 in RRS.

- TOTAL OOP for this order: $2.09, and I *should have* gotten another $9.49 RR for the Contac and Colgate deals, but since I used the same RRs generated from #1 on this transaction, and RRs rarely "roll" at Walgreens, I didn't get any back for next time. Could have been a great money-maker. :( Maybe I'll go take them back. Yeah. I think I will, especially since we need more cold/flu meds and toothpaste like we need a hole in the head, 'round here. We're fully stocked up!

So that's it for this week. I doubt I'll make a Target run, but maybe, since I do have some Target gift card (GCs) to use and we can always use the groceries....

Fin.