Monday, September 28, 2009

Drugstore Deals

On Saturday, Stephen took me out for a rare treat. He took me to Belk (they were having a supposedly huge sale) and then to get Little Caesar's for dinner. The reason we went to Belk is only because I had two gift cards there and I never go there. Okay so technically Brianna has two gift cards there, but seriously, they don't sell anything useful for babies there like sheets or diapers or anything, so as her mother, I took control of her finances. I tried on 12 things, came out with 5, and talked myself down to 2. Yesterday I was going through my bag to check the receipt and everything (you should always check your receipts!!) I realized they had overcharged me! Each shirt I bought was on sale for $10.99 and 40% off of that, so they each should have cost $6.59. Turns out that one was supposed to cost $8.99 and that's what I was charged. So obviously today I set out to get my money back! Since it was their mistake I was sure to get a couple of bucks back (every dollar counts!) Well, I'm not sure what the girl did when she did the return but I got $4.31 back. I mean, 4 bucks is a lot of money, so I'm happy.

Rite Aid Rebates this week are pretty good. Our Rite Aids don't allow "stacking" (you can only use one coupon per item you purchase) so my deals aren't as good as they could have been.

Gillette Fusion Razor -
  • Regular price - $9.99
  • Sale price - $9.00
  • Minus $5.00 rebate
  • Minus $4.00 coupon
  • Final price - free.
Softsoap body wash (15 oz)
  • Regular price - $4.99
  • Sale price - $3.99
  • Minus $2.00 store coupon
  • Minus $1.00 coupon
  • Final price - $0.99
Crest toothpaste (4 oz)
  • Regular price - $3.79
  • Sale price - $2.69
  • Minus $2.69 rebate
  • Minus $0.75 coupon
  • Final price - free
I used the money I earned from Rite Aid last month to pay for these. So my total purchase price for these items was $9.15 but I'll earn $7.69 in rebates, so out of pocket I would have paid $1.46 for these items.

This week at Walgreens the savings are very good again, especially if you have a good amount of Register Rewards to use (which I had $12.50 of). There were a couple of things which I may go back and get but I'm not really worried about. I didn't take note of the regular prices for these items, so I only have the sale prices.

Hunt's tomato sauce
Use a Walgreens coupon from the store ad to get an 8 oz can of tomato sauce for $0.39. This is a great price and you can get up to 3.

Toilet bowl cleaner
Use a Walgreens coupon from the store ad to get one toilet bowl cleaner for $0.39. I don't know if that's a good price or not (I'm expecting it's not a bad price) but for example, I got one just to put in our upstairs toilet which I don't clean as often as our downstairs bathrooms. So it was a good deal for me.

Chapstick
  • Sale price - $2.99
  • Minus Register Rewards (RR) - $3.00
  • Final price - free
Apple juice
On sale right now for $1.67. This is a great price on juice and you can get up to three!

Herbal Essence conditioner
  • Sale price - $2.99
  • Minus $1.00 coupon
  • Minus RR - $3.00
  • Final price - free
Dentek floss picks
  • Sale price - $2.00
  • Minus $1.00 coupon
  • Minus RR - $2.00
  • Final price - free
Gillette Venus Razor
  • Regular price - $11.49
  • Sale price - $7.99
  • Minus $2.00 coupon
  • Minus RR - $4.00
  • Final price - $1.99
Gillette Fusion Razor
  • Regular price - $9.99
  • Sale price - $8.99
  • Minus $4.00 coupon
  • Minus $2.00 coupon
  • Minus RR - $6.00
  • Final price - free
Oral-B toothbrush
  • Sale price - $3.00
  • Minus $0.75 coupon
  • Minus RR - $3.00
  • Final price - free
Halls cough drops
  • Regular price - $2.99
  • Sale price - $1.00
  • Minus RR - $1.00
  • Final price - free
Vaseline lotion
  • Sale price - $6.99
  • Minus $1.25 coupon
  • Minus $1.25 coupon
  • Minus RR - $7.00
  • Final price - free
So the thing about Register Rewards is that you pay up front and get coupons back which you can use to purchase anything in the store on your next visit. So out of pocket, I paid $15.73, saved $37.59 with coupons, and got $23 in Register Rewards (I was supposed to get $29 but I got home and realized I made it home with one less coupon than I was supposed to.)

We decided to go out to eat tonight which is like a once-a-month kind of thing for us. We had a coupon for Ruby Tuesday that was Buy One, Get One Free entree, and we also had a $25 gift card, so we decided to pair them up to eat for free. Also, side note. I have learned to do this at places that have an incredible salad bar. Because I looooove salad, but I'm not a salad-for-a-main-course kind of girl, as soon as the waiter brings our food, I will immediately ask for a box. Then I can go on and put my dinner in the box (usually a huge hamburger) and then I can eat plates and plates of salad and french fries and not feel like I have to eat my huge burger too. And also, if it's a salad bar, go on back up right before you leave and get another helping of salad and put it in a box as well. I mean, you did pay for it. So anyway, we were feeling pretty good because Stephen got a steak that was like $18 or something (crazy!!) and I got this huge burger plus three gigantic servings of salad (I really love their salad bar) and then we paid with our gift card because our meal was only $22... and lo and behold, the card said $25 on it but it actually had $50 on it!! Sweet! We will wait for another BOGO offer from Ruby Tuesday and make our way back there. It is my favorite restaurant!

Anyway it was a really great day altogether! Brianna did really well in the restaurant, but it probably also helped that it was like 6:00 and we were the only people under 75 in there. I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds!

P.S. Sorry to all those reading this blog who have no interest in my thriftiness. If you are looking for pictures of Brianna, you might want to head over here because I haven't taken pictures of her in forever! I know, I am a bad mother and blah blah blah but if you haven't noticed, playing with a baby is much more fun when you don't have a huge metal brick hanging off your wrist. If you are looking for information about our life these days, this is it! Sorry to disappoint but maybe soon something interesting will happen around here!

P.P.S. Speaking of something interesting, the one interesting thing that has happened was Claire's baptism. So I will blog about that later since your eyes are probably tearing up right now from the length of this post.

2 comments:

Ken Loyd said...

Loved every word of this post. Perhaps my favorite part was the $25 gift card that turned out to be $50. You deserved that!

'Tracey Garner said...

I love reading about how you save money. You inspire me to be thrifty, but I never stick with it. Although, we always go out to eat with a coupon. I love your recipe blog as well. I have tried several things and also post a link for my FB friends to try some of your recipes. One friend loves the churros for her boys breakfast. I even mentioned you in my ebay blog. I find your life very interesting.