Short Walgreen's trip 8-6

So, I didn't have a huge trip, again pinching pennies since my husband lost his job. On the bright side however, he just got a job that pays better than the last one. Hopefully this means I can get to working on my stockpiles soon. My son was terribly sick all weekend long. I only had a few minutes to sneak away and unfortunately one of the big products that I wanted was already gone. I was very disappointed with the local Walgreen's. It only stocked about six bottles of the Keri lotion that is the moneymaker of the week. The cashier told me it is a new product and they don't have it fully stocked yet. Not fully stocked with a sale like that...not good planning. Our local Walgreen's has limited purchases because of shelf clearing which works out well for me since I am not always able to jump up at the butt crack of dawn to go to Walgreens. I did pretty well for a late evening shopping trip so here it is.

Three transactions this time. Rolling those Register Rewards. First transaction was the free Listerine Smart Kids Rinse. On sale for $3.00 minus a $1.00/1 coupons making it $2.00 and then $2.00 RR back. I also bought a Resolve Carpet cleaner that was on sale for $4.99 - $.75/1 and again $2.00RR back.

Total it up and the transaction was $6.24 before tax and I got $4.00 in RR back

Second transaction was the 4/$15.00 on TRESemme products. I bought 2 shampoo, a conditioner, and a gel. I used four $1.00/1 coupons lowering the OOP down to 4/$11.00 and I got $5.00 RR back on these making them essentially 4/$6.00. These are the liter size too. I also picked up a reusable lunch bag for $2.00 and used a caramel for filler.
Total it up and the transaction was $13.39 - $4.00RR and I paid $9.39 before tax.

Final transaction was filled with a few different items that I had coupons for. Ziploc sandwich bags 120ct were on sale 2/$4.00 and I had a $1.00/2 coupon for those, Palmolive 10oz dish soap on sale with in ad coupon for $.89 with a $.25/1 coupon was $.64, Purex laundry detergent on sale for $1.99 with a coupon for $.50 off each one, I bought 2, and used a caramel for filler.

Total it up and the transaction was $7.01 minus $5.00RR made total $2.01 before tax.

Total of all three transactions was OOP $17.64. Total savings $39.93. I saved 69% on this shopping trip.

Walgreen's 7-31 and Gifts from the Mail Man

Walgreen's

This week presented a new challenge. My husband lost his job and so we are scrimping, but we needed somethings. Thank God for couponing and some great sales at Walgreen's to get us the necessities. We didn't get much but we saved quite a bit. I hope for a larger shopping trip once he is employed again, but for now we will be sticking to mainly freebies or almost freebies.

I did two transactions yesterday at Walgreen's to roll my Register Rewards (RR) to try to keep my Out Of Pocket (OOP) down. My first transaction was the two packages of Cottonelle toilet paper. These were $5.00 each with $3.50 RR if you bought two. There was also a coupon in the Aug Walgreen's monthly coupon book, and I had two $.75/1 manufacturer coupons. So this transaction looked like this:

2 x $5.00 = $10.00

2 x $1.00 WAGS coupon + 2 x $.75/1 manu. coupon = $3.50 off

$6.50 OOP before tax with $3.50 RR

Transaction two was Good barrettes that were on sale for $2.00 with $2.00RR, two Old Spice Trial Size Deodorants, one Old Spice Body Spray, two packs of Schick Xtreme3 disposable razors. I had some great coupons on this transaction. The Old Spice Trial Deodorants I had a $1.00/2 and I had a great Buy One Item Get a Body Spray Free coupon. The Schick razors were Buy One Get One 50% and I had two $3.00/1 coupons. I might have held off on these because I misread the sale and thought it was BOGO free, but they were still pretty cheap. Here is the math:

Barettes $2.00 OOP

Old Spice Deodorants: 2 x $.99 = $1.98 - $1.00/2 coupon = $.98 total OOP and got the spray for free, it was $4.99.

Schick Razors 2 x $7.99 = $15.98 - $4.00 for BOGO = $11.98 - 2 x $3.00 coupons = $5.98 OOP

I used the RR from Transaction 1 which was another $3.50 off the transaction so total OOP was $5.46 and I got $2.00RR.


Total cost for both transactions were $11.96 and total saved $23.98 and I still have $2.00 RR. That is a savings of 68%. It was a great trip. I had some other items I was hoping to get, but our Walgreen's clears out fast down here. I don't know if it is one person shelf clearing, or lots of people getting the deals.

Gifts From The Mail Man

I got a couple great things in the mail too. I got a coupon for a free juice and a coupon for a free Herbal Essences item. Hopefully more to come.

HOT Walgreen's Trip 7-24

I have had to scale back my coupon shopping trips a bit and really try to get things as close to free as possible because money is tight during the summer when I am not getting financial aid to help us out. We took a family trip to Walgreen's today and it went smoothly and we saved 71%. Overall shelf cost for this trip would have been approximately $58.63 and out of pocket I only paid $16.96. Let me give the break down for ya!

I split this trip into three transactions, but before I get into detail about the specific transactions I wanted to let you in on my secret to setting up my shopping trips. I finally have a system that makes it easy for me to decide what to buy and work until I get the lowest OOP I can. Flashcards! That has been my savior. I go through my favorite matchup blogs and decide which deals I want for my trip and print the list. Then I make some small flashcards. I put the product, OOP, and RR if there are any. Then I lay them out and arrange them until I get the best costs I can find. This has really helped me see the difference when you use multiple transactions and roll your RR.


Now to the nitty gritty:

Transaction #1

Scunci 18 ct on sale 2/$3.00 with $3.00 RR.

I bought 2 and they were basically FREE.

OOP(excluding tax):$3.00 RR received:$3.00

Transaction #2

Irish Spring Body Wash and Deodorant on sale 2/$6.00 with $4.00RR.

There were many sites that said there was a coupon in todays paper, but I couldn't find it. These still were a pretty good deal.

Crest 3D White Toothpaste on sale 2/$4.98 with $3.00RR.

There were quite a few coupons you could use with this deal, but I had two $.75/1 toothpaste coupons.

Scotch Brand Magic Tape $1.99 BOGO Free.

I bought 4 of these and had 4 $1.00/1 coupons making these FREE.

OOP(excluding tax using $3.00RR from Transaction #1):$6.46 RR received: $3.00 and $4.00

Transaction #3

HOT DEAL: I hadn't seen this anywhere on a blog yet, so I want to share. I had a coupon for buy one Old Spice Fresh product get a free Body spray. I think it came from the last P&G insert, but I am not 100% sure. There was no verbage about price being less or excludes trial size. I found the Old Spice Fresh Trial Deodorant for $.99 and got the Old Spice Fresh Body Spray $4.99 for FREE!!

Huggies wipes on sale for $2.49.

There was a coupon in the July WAGS coupon book for $1.00/1 and I had manufacturer coupons for $.50/1 that I stacked so I got them for $.99. I bought 2.

Gain Powder Laundry Detergent 40 load on sale for $4.99

I bought 2 of these and used 2 $2.00/1 making them $2.99 each.

Hunts Tomato Sauce were $.99 original price, in ad coupon $.33 limit 3. I bought 3.

Mini Composition Notebooks were $.49 original price, in ad coupon for $.19 limit 3. I bought 3.

Barbasol Shaving Creme was $1.79 original price, in ad coupon $.99. I bought 1.

My daughter had to have gum and Orbits was on sale 3/$2.00 so we got 3.

My husband needed Chapstick and got it on sale for $.99.

OOP (excluding tax using $3.00 and $4.00 RR from Transaction #2) $7.50 No RR received.

This was by far my best trip to Walgreens and would have been better if I hadn't given in to my hubby on a couple items and my daughter as well. Very successful trip!!

First Grocery Trip Albertson's 7-18 and small Walmart trip

Albertson's

I finally got the courage to do it. I planned a trip for grocery shopping and went to it. I have used coupons grocery shopping before, but just basically bought what I always buy and if I happened to have a coupon I used it. I saved about $20.00 that way. Today, I decided on Albertson's since I have a couple of pages that I follow that show match ups. Also, we were lucky enough to score twice the value coupons in this Sunday's paper. For those of you new to the coupon world, these coupons are available for use at Albertson's and it doubles the value of any coupon up to $1.00. You can use three per transaction. I used 9 today and it really helped.



I won't list out my whole purchase because I did get a few things that were not on sale, but I will show you my best buys. The total information for Albertson's was we spent $108.44, saved $92.83, brought home $5.00 off our next purchase, and two coupons for free gallon of milk.



I had a few things that were great buys. London broil was kind of expensive at $17.00, but it was buy one get one free. They were huge so I figure I can probably get about four meals out of the two we bought. GM cereal was on sale 4/$10.00 and I had two coupons for $1.00/2 and used two TTV coupons. This made four boxes of cereal for $6.00. I got four boxes of Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta for free with coupons. There was a list of items if you buy 10 you save $5.00. It was called spotlight for savings. I purchased 5 cans of Hunt's tomatoes, 3 bottles of Hunt's BBQ sauce, and 2 boxes of Act II popcorn to take advantage of that deal. I also had coupons for the popcorn. I used all my TTV coupons for $1.00 off coupons. Although it wasn't for pennies I feel like I did well.

Walmart

I had really hoped for better savings during my WalMart shopping, but because the Red Plum coupon booklet is not delivered around here I am missing some of the coupons. I am still pondering whether to order it from ebay, or just wing it. I am thinking order! I only bought one thing that I did not have a coupon for and it was so stinking cute I couldn't say no when my son saw it. He is a bit of a bobble head and seems to constantly run his head into things, so it should come in handly. I cuter than heck little Spongebob ice pack. It was only $2.94.

Everything else in the picture I had coupons for. The dog treats were $2.12 and I had a $1.00/1 coupon for each of them. The bigger dog treats in front were $2.98 and I had a $1.00/1 coupon for those as well. I was looking for the smaller bottles of Frank's hot sauce that were supposed to be on sale for $.98 but couldn't find them. The two I got were $1.98 and I had a $.50/1 coupon for each. The Gillette Razor was a great buy. I had already bought WalMart out of the kits for $4.97 and I saw these Seattle Mariner ones for $6.00. I had a $4.00/1 coupon. Dial lotion was $1.97 and I had a coupon for $1.00/1. Flintstone vitamins $5.98 coupon for $3.00/1. The little body washes were $.97 each, and I had 3 coupons for $1.00/2. I bought six of them. The travel first aid kits were also $.97 and I had a coupon for $1.50/2. The benedryl anti-itch pen was $2.38 and I had a coupon for $2.00/1 making it only $.38! This rounded out my shopping day. I spent $23.28 on $40.78 worth of items.

WAL-MART 7-17

So, this was my first run to Wal-Mart and I just got a few things. I FINALLY found the travel Johnson and Johnson first aid kits. I have to go get those tomorrow, but I have a $1.50 off 2 and they are $.97. Makes it a good deal for sure.




I did take advantage of a great sale on corn for a bbq with my neighbor tomorrow. It is on sale 5/$1.00. Lucky for me since I needed 15 ears. I also used my $.75/2 coupons from last Sunday's paper on ScotchBrite sponges. They are $.84 each. I bought 8 of them. I also found Gillette Shaving Kits on clearance for $4.97 and a special edition Gillette Seattle Mariners Razor kit on clearance for $6.00. I had coupons for $4.00/1. I got them for $.97 and $2.00.



My total purchase including 15 ears of corn, 8 sponges, one Gillete Shaving Kit, and one Seattle Mariners Gillette Razor was $11.02. Not bad for a short little run into WalMart.


Have a good night!

Walgreens 7-13-11

I have been struggling to find a groove to get into as far as which days to coupon and finally found the key. The Rite-Aid and Walgreens ads change every Sunday. Pretty easy there, get the Sunday paper, I usually get 3 or so, and then match up. I am getting pretty good with those two stores, although Rite-Aid just didn't have anything I wanted this week. Albertson's and Safeway and from what I understand most grocery stores run their ad week Wed. thru Tues. So my goal for next week, is to get right in to Walgreens and Rite-Aid if needed on Sunday or at the latest Monday and then prepare for grocery items for a Wed or Thurs. shopping trip. This week, I was way late with the Walgreen's and I missed out on some stuff I wanted and ended up spending a little more than I planned. I still got a pretty good deals. I had originally intended to make three transactions rolling my Register Rewards to each one, but two of my transactions were missing. I replaced one with a slightly more expensive buy and took a rain check on the final one and saved my Register Reward for next trip in.

Here is my break down:

Transaction #1

I started with the Garnier Fructis 4/$14.00 deal that gave $4.00 in Register Rewards. I had originally intended to start with the Infusium 21 deal that was similar but they were already out. I had two $1.00/1 coupons for shampoo and conditioner and 2 $1.00/1 styling aid coupons. I used them all and got 4/$10.00 with $4.00 RR. The other item I bought in this transaction was a first for me. I have gotten plenty of things free when you account for Register Rewards or similar programs, I had never gotten anything just plain free from a coupon....until today! I found Crest Toothpaste on the clearance rack for $.75 and I had a $.75 off coupon. It was FREE!! My total for transaction #1 was $10.96 with a return of $4.00 RR and a $10.00 off $25.00 or more at Fashion Bug. Total savings listed at $9.25.

Transaction #2

I plan to repeat part of this transaction next week too since I got another catalina the same as I had. I started with the Playtex Tampon 18ct which were on sale for $3.99. I had a manufacturer coupon for $2.50/2 and a walgreens catalina for $2.00/2 (which printed again after I bought these). This made total sale price $7.98 minus $4.50 in coupons equalling $3.48. I also bought the GUM Toothbrushes. I got the Micro 2 pack for $1.00 and got $2.00 Register Rewards. I applied my $4.00 RR to the total which was $4.48 making my subtotal $.48, and my total $1.07 with $3.00 RR, the $2.00/2 Playtex catalina,and another Fashion bug as well. Total savings showed at $14.09.

Total it up

My total out of pocket cost for both transactions was $12.03, total savings was $23.34, plus I have $3.00 RR, and some great coupons for next time.

Gifts from the Mail Man

Also, shown in the picture is what I received in the mail this week which was a bible study DVD set. I haven't really checked it out much yet, but I will let you know how it is!

Walgreens and Rite Aid 7-1-11

So I have decided to post everything here on the page and then put copies in the respective areas, so this will be here and in the Hannoah Savings compartment on the right. All other couponing stuff is in there as well.

7-1-11 Walgreens and Rite Aid

So today I hit Walgreens and Rite Aid. I recently purchased a coupon binder full of coupons so I have a few more and I have been buying double copies of the Sunday papers to stock up Online coupons have been a great asset as well. I have a couple of blogs I follow pretty regularly. They are my favorites. The Krazy Coupon Lady, Super Coupon Lady, and Spend With Pennies are my faves. I check them regularly. I have most of them on my facebook.

Walgreens

So the total on my Walgreens shopping trip today was $23.79 OOP with a savings of $37.45. I did two transactions, the first to build up some Register Rewards and the second to spend them :).

My first transaction was the Twizzlers, which were on sale for 2/$3.00 with $1.00 RR and I had a coupon for $.50 off; the Intuition Razer Refill 3ct,which was on sale for $8.99 with $3.00RR and I had a $2.00 off coupon; the Johnson Baby Care wash and detangler were on sale 2/$6.00 with $1.00 RR; and finally the Reach Toothbrush which was on sale for $2.99 with $2.00 RR. Total for this first transaction was $19.85 and it gave me $7.00 in Register Rewards for Transaction #2.



Transaction #2 consisted of: 2 cans Blue Diamond Almonds on sale Buy one for $3.59 Get one Free and I had a coupon for $.60 off 2; Curad bandages for $.99 with a $.50 off coupon (I wanted two, but there was only one pack left); Tylenol Precise Pain Creme was on sale for $7.99 and I used a $5.00 off coupon and a $3.00 off coupon making it FREE; Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner was Buy One for $4.99 Get one 50% off and I had a save $3.00 on two; then I had to buy 3 carmels and a sucker for filler to use my RR. The total on this after the RR was $3.94.

Rite Aid

Rite Aid was a smaller trip for a few near free items. It was a lot higher percentage of savings though. I did two transactions which together cost me $6.09 and saved me $32.25. I had a couple free items and a great money maker on this one.


Transaction #1 was only two items, but it made me the most in +UP Rewards. I bought Veet Caring touch Creme Kit for $5.99 (I could have saved more if I had gotten the facial waxing strips but those are just scary) and used a $3.00 off and a $2.00 off coupons and got $1.00 +UP reward which made this FREE; then I bought sunglasses. The way this worked was all sunglasses were on sale Buy One get One 50% off. They carry two brands and if you watch the videos at riteaid.com you can get a $5.00 off coupon for each of them. The kids glasses were $7.99 and $6.99. You also got $5.00 +UP rewards when you buy two. This ends up being a $3.51 money maker. The total for that first transaction was $3.61 with savings of $18.50 and $6.00 +UP rewards.


Transaction #2 was a little more than I had hoped because they were out of the cereal I wanted so I settled for Cookie Crisp which was $4.49 and I had $.75 off coupon; I got Coppertone Sun Screen on sale for $8.99 and I used a $1.00 off coupon from another video, $2.00 off, and another $2.00 off coupon, making total for the sunscreen $3.99. I used my $6.00 +up rewards and another $1.00 purchase from the videos to make the total $2.48 with savings of $13.75.


All in all a great shopping day.