Rite Aid Game Plan

There really isn't anything I want or need at Rite Aid this week. I may look for my rainchecked toothpaste for last week's rebate. But I still plan to make a trip this week - even though I missed my regular Tuesday trip.

Why?

Next week is the big 4 pages of (mostly RA brand) cold and flu prevention and treatment FAR Single Check Rebates! I need to sit down with my rebate book and my RA brand coupons (you can get them, too, for registering on their website!) and plan my attack. As I've said before, Tuesday is my Rite Aid day usually. But I also know that many times they're out of the one-week-only deals by Tuesday. Yes, you can call or fax in your info and they'll fix it, but I'd like to not have to go through that extra step. So... I think I'm going to go on Sunday. It's crazy - insane actually. But I think if I go this week with my list of what I'm looking for and make myself a map of which aisles I need to go to for each product, I could be in and out of there very quickly.

So, that's my plan. Are you planning to hit Rite Aid as well? What are you looking for?

I'm on a Walgreens HIGH!

I really didn't think there was going to be much to do at Walgreens this week.

Boy was I wrong!

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I usually go on Tuesdays as that's the day they're restocking the shelves at my store. So I spend my internet time Sunday and Monday looking at scenarios and sales and coupon matches posted in my "frugal living" blogroll and at Hot Coupon World, clipping my own coupons and organizing my binder (though I'll be trying the box method for a bit), and then hunting down specific web coupons that will be helpful and/or needed to make the deals work for me. I took my notes, printed some coupons before I left, and then set off to work!

Things just kept falling into place. The best was the Glade offer with $1 ESR on up to 10 Glade products. I printed out two coupons for BOGO glad warmers - the original slide the little waxy gel tab into the "fenced" frame plug-in. I really didn't think I'd need them, but I took them with... just in case. Well, they were part of that deal (ESR 28) - on sale for $1.99 each, $1 ESR on each, AND each packet had a peelie for $1/1 refil for them. The refils were ALSO on the $1.99 sale with $1 ESR - so the coupons on those made them free! So 4 warmers with one scent pack and 4 3-pack refils for free - or, really, $.01 overage on each!

The other great one was the Crest deal. Certain types of Crest toothpaste were on sale for $1.99. There is an IVC in the ESR catalog for $1/1 Crest toothpastes (6.4 oz). I had 3 coupons from recent Proctor and Gamble inserts (2 from the papers I bought, one that they sent to me for filling in a form online) for $1/1 any Crest paste 4.2 oz or larger. My store had exactly three that came with an additional trial size toothpaste and single use of floss, so I got those three for free (again, actually $.01 overage each). If that wasn't great enough, each box with the samples had 4 awesome coupons in it as well - that don't expire until July 2010!

Here's the whole order. I'll put in what the coupons were as I remember them, but unfortunately they only list them as "manufacturer's coupon" which doesn't do much for my memory =)

Stocking stuffer for Geof that was supposed to ring up as $.25 - but rang up as $2.00
(that'll be going back - sorry, dear)
Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom wipes $2.50
Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom wipes $2.50
Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom wipes $2.50
Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom wipes $2.50
Thai Kitchen Pad Thai $1.98
Thai Kitchen Pad Thai $1.98
Thai Kitchen Pad Thai -$.98 (they were $1.98 each or $3/3)
Glade Wisp Flameless Candle $5.99
Glade Wisp Flameless Candle $5.99
Glade Plug-In Warmer $1.99
Glade Plug-In Warmer $1.99
Glade Plug-In Warmer $1.99
Glade Plug-In Warmer $1.99
Glade Plug-In Refill $1.99
Glade Plug-In Refill $1.99
Glade Plug-In Refill $1.99
Glade Plug-In Refill $1.99
Glade Wisp Refil $3.49
Glade French Vanilla Candle $1.99
Chemistry Conditioner $7.99
Rimmel Lasting Finish Foundation $7.49
Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel $4.49 (Price corrected to $3.99 10/11)
Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Brush $3.99
Glade Scented Oil Candle Holder $3.99
Crest 6.4 oz Toothpaste $1.99
Crest 6.4 oz Toothpaste $1.99
Crest 6.4 oz Toothpaste $1.99
Subtotal $82.30

Coupons:
-$1.00 Crest 6.4 oz IVC
-$1.00 Crest 6.4 oz IVC
-$1.00 Crest 6.4 oz IVC
-$1.00 Crest mfg
-$1.00 Crest mfg
-$1.00 Crest mfg
-$2.50 BOGO Scrubbing Bubbles Wipes
-$2.50 BOGO Scrubbing Bubbles Wipes
-$1.99 BOGO Glade Plug-In Warmer
-$1.99 BOGO Glade Plug-In Warmer
-$5.99 BOGO Glade Wisp Flameless Candle
-$1.00 Glade Candle
-$1.00 Glade Plug-In Refill
-$1.00 Glade Plug-In Refill
-$1.00 Glade Plug-In Refill
-$1.00 Glade Plug-In Refill
-$1.00 Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Brush
-$2.00 Glade Scented Oil Candle Holder
-$1.00 Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel
-$1.00 Glade Wisp Flameless Candle Refill
-$.50 Thai Kitchen
-$.50 Thai Kitchen
-$10.00 RR
-$4.50 RR
-$4.00 RR
Coupons total -$50.47

Total Due $31.33
Gift Card -$26.13
OOP $5.20!

BUT!!!

$3.00 RR for the Glade Flameless Candle purchase
$37.93 in ESRs (110%)

I spent $31.33 and got $40.93 back! Since I had the $2.00 mistake price corrected down to $.25, I'll have actually been paid $11.35 to take home 4 full bags of cleaning supplies, health and beauty supplies and some instant gluten-free foods! Do you understand the high now?!?!

Have you heard about Ebates?

I recently learned about Ebates from another blogger. You can sign up for Ebates by clicking on these links and filling out the form on their site. When you sign up for Ebates and make your first purchase, you get an additional $5 bonus in your account. By signing up through one of the Ebates links on this post, you are also helping me by adding $5 to my account when you make your first purchase. You get a certain percentage of your purchase back (anywhere from 1-25%, based on the retailer)! There is no fee to join, and it's really a simple concept.

Say for instance you're looking for a new book for your nephew for his birthday:
1) You go to Ebates
2) Select your favorite online book seller from the list of available stores
3) Continue to make your online purchase as you normally would.

It's that simple. Within a day or two, you'll receive an email from Ebates saying that your account has been credited $X.XX for your purchase at [for instance] Barnes and Noble. When you accumulate $5.01 in your account, not counting sign up and referral bonuses, they send you a Big Fat Check. Or you can choose to have the money sent to paypal - or sent to your friend or favorite charity.

It's a great way to make a little extra money doing the things you do every day - without any extra effort other than a few clicks of the mouse. I've used Ebates for my first purchase already... what are you waiting for?

Holy Cow! It really happened!!!!

Remember a few weeks back when I said I was super excited about something, but didn't want to post until it was in my hands?

Here it is!

On August 3rd, we purchased a laser printer/scanner/copier/fax machine from Staples. My husband had been looking into a laser printer for awhile, and with some new work that he had been doing, his copying needs were going to be going through the roof. In the long run, the laser would save us more money over the ink replacements every few weeks. Plus, I'm still handing a lot of legal stuff from when my mom died a year ago, and our access to a fax machine ended when my husband left his last job. Purchasing a fax has been something we were looking into ever since I took over as my mom's power of attorney from a few states away in April of 2007, and, again, purchasing the machine would be worth it in the long run with trips to pay-by-page fax services costing gas and outrageous fees to send and receive.

So we saw that Staples had the Samsung SCX-4725FN on sale. Regular price was $279.98 - it was selling for $199.98 (after $80.00 instant rebate). It was one of the few brands and models available anywhere close that was compatible with Linux - it just made sense. We decided to take the leap of faith and go for it.

Of course, 2 weeks later the deal changed at Staples. They were selling it for regular price ($279.98), but there was an Easy Rebate for a $140.00 Visa Debit Card. The $60 difference was worth it to us, and Staples has a 14 day price match - so we made the trip back down to Staples to do their price match guarantee.

I think someone returning their item to pay more really confused the computer. I have the receipt in front of me, showing that we paid $199.98 and that we were return price matching it for $279.98. The computer processed it, spit out our new receipt for the exchange, spit out the Easy Rebate form for the gift card. But on the exchange receipt, it gave us a subtotal and total of $0.00 owed. I didn't realize it until I got home and started entering the information into their system for the rebate. The associate and the manager on duty were the ones who rang it up, everything is entered correctly - the computer just didn't get why someone would want to pay more for an item they paid less for.

Anyway, I processed the rebate, figured the system would see what happened and we'd be out the rebate. I'd check in every so often. It was stuck on "validating" for the longest time. Then, last week it switched over to "validating complete." Saturday night I checked it again - "Rebate sent."

Today, in our mail, we received a gift card for $140.00! We can use it anywhere Visa Debit cards are accepted (except ATMs) - so we'll be using it to pay our utility bills. Since I don't like to double post how sales went (Ex: Look, I got $15 in RR, so it was like paying $2 instead of $17... then the next post being "I got $15 in free merchandise because of my RR"), you can choose to look at it one of two ways:

We spent $199.98 on a workhorse of a printer and got a gift card for $140.

OR

WE GOT A GREAT LASER PRINTER FOR $59.98 BRAND NEW!!!!!

Kickin' it at Walgreens!

I hit up Walgreens on their $5/$20 offer twice today. Because I'm there at least once a week - usually twice - I'm starting to get to know the people who work there and they're starting to get to know me as well. There's only one there that seems, well, exhausted when she sees me coming. So I just try and smile and make small talk and let her get back to work. If nothing else, I want to make sure that they realize I appreciate them being there and that I only do fair and real deals. I don't want to scam anyone in the process - just get what I can to care for my family for as little out of pocket as possible.

Anyway -

Order 1
Huggies Natural Fit diapers $9.99
Huggies Natural Fit diapers $9.99
Huggies Unscented wipes $3.99
Subtotal $23.97
Coupons:
-$.50 on Huggies wipes
-$1.50 on Huggies diapers
-$1.50 on Huggies diapers
Subtotal $20.47
-$5.00 $5/$20+ coupon
Total $15.47 (gift card) and received $5.00 RR for $20 or more in Huggies products

I realize with this one that there was some divine intervention and a misunderstanding on my part - the latter of which I just caught now. So I won't be trying to do this again and I ask you to please not try and do the same thing.
Order 2
5 Softsoap body washes @$3.49 each $17.45
Fusion razor system $8.99
Oral B manual toothbrush $4.49
Subtotal $30.93
Coupons:
-$1.00 Softsoap nutraoil body wash (limit one per household)
-$4.00 Fusion Razor from Sunday paper
-$.75 Oral B toothbrush from Sunday paper
-$5.00 $1/1 Softsoap bodywash IVC in the October ESR booklet
Subtotal $20.18
-$5.00 $5/$20+ coupon
Subtotal $15.18
Here's where I made the mistake. I didn't realize that the RR were marked as manufacturer's coupons. So I should have used $15.18 off my gift card. I will make sure not to use those with these deals again because they are supposed to be $5 off $20 AFTER ALL COUPONS. The divine intervention came in when the girl accidentally scanned it twice. I even pointed it out to her - that my total should have been $10.18 - not $5.18 - but she said that the computer scanned it wrong and not to worry about it. So...
Total $5.18!!!

PLUS!!!!

$10.00 RR for buying 5 Softsoap products
$4.50 RR for buying the Oral B toothbrush
$4.00 RR for buying the Fusion razor.

I am FLOORED! Plus, these are very much going to come in handy in the next week because I have to do a test that requires some prep with over the counter medications. So this $18.50 will cover the cost of these OTCs, plus one other free after rebate item that I plan to purchase. And I still have over $26 on my gift card!

It's baaaaack

Walgreens is having another $5/$20+ this weekend. Friday and Saturday, use this coupon to get the things you want or need at Walgreens!

A great link!

Surprising Things You Can Get For Free... Or Almost

List of free things including:
business cards
expert computer help
Spanish lessons
business classes
credit reports
wi-fi hotspots
time-management organization
silver jewelry
online checking account
cookbooks
sheet music
radio service
gently used stuff
photo organization
spam filter
directory assistance
family calendar