Sunday was also drugstore deals day. We got going a little earlier than normal and things just weren't going my way once we got where we were going. The trip went from frustration to success to disappointment, but in the end I did okay. To complicate matters, I forgot to bring my camera with me yesterday so I wasn't able to get photos of everything before it was either distributed, used, or put away. My sad, empty little loot stack photo is only part of an otherwise decent haul.
Wags
5 newspapers $10
2 gift card holder cards $1.98
2 bags cat litter $6
1 box trash bags $9.49
2 Hershey bars $1
Total: $28.47 - shelf price $39.61, no coupons, paid with expiring RRs
Received back $5 RR, $2 RR
Out of pocket $21.47
This was an adventure.
First and foremost, I had $27.75 in Register Rewards from the big Black Friday profit machine which were expiring this week. Letting those expire is like throwing cash in the garbage can, but I wasn't interested in any RR deals this week save for one. I had already figured I'd use these babies to buy something like trash bags so that's all good. The circular for this week advertises "buy two greeting cards, get $2 RR" - I'd heard there were $.99 cards in many stores so I figured I'd add two of those in my transaction and roll at least $2 of my expiring stash. In addition, this week and next Wags has a ridiculously-named program called Super Jingle Cash - for every $25 you spend in a transaction before coupons, you receive a bonus $5 RR good for the next week. Even better! I was spending over $25 regardless, so that's just an extra treat.
I found all the items I'd wanted without issue and checked out in cosmetics with the super-friendly gal who works that department. She's always very nice and she's extremely knowledgeable about Wags' coupon policies. Well, my items were bagged and I paid with my RRs and we both watched the Catalina machine expectantly for my $7 in rewards that were due. Nothin'. Crap. She sighed, I said "Umm," and before I could get the rest of my thought out she said the same thing had happened already this morning and she'd get the manager to fix it.
Long story short, the manager gave me a $7 gift card to make up for the non-printing RRs. At first he tried to say I didn't get the rewards because I'd used coupons (managers ALWAYS say this at Wags, and besides I didn't use coupons); then he said it was because I'd paid in RRs (they always say this as well, and I informed him the last 20 times I'd paid with RRs at his store I'd had no issues getting what was advertised). So I got the $7 back which is just fine because gift cards don't expire. I later did some investigation and discovered the problems:
1. The greeting card promotion is supposedly a misprint; it's get $2 when you buy THREE cards.
2. The "Super Jingle Cash" (I cringe typing it...) has some printed exclusions including tobacco, alcohol, dairy. It apparently has an UNPRINTED exclusion of newspapers as well. That's perfectly fine; if I'd known newspapers were excluded I would have just bought $10 more in trash bags or something. If they don't print their marketing materials correctly, though, I can't help that. I follow the rules exactly as written. Fortunately the store made everything right and it wasn't too much of a hassle.
CVS
8 bottles Pantene shampoo & conditioner $29.92
1 bottle Gain $.99
1 bag Planters Flavor Grove almonds $2.50
Subtotal $33.41, shelf $43.41
Less $5 off $30 purchase, less $2.50 Planters, less $.50 Gain, less four buy one get one free Pantene, less $1 off 2 Pantene, less $2 off 2 Pantene
Total $7.45, paid in ECBs, received back $10 ECB
$2.55 profit!!
This was the only store Sunday where everything went right. There's a deal where if you spend $30 on selected P&G products, you get a $10 ECB back. The Pantene is on sale for $3.74 and I had a slew of BOGO coupons. When I got a $5 off $30 coupon in my email last week, I knew this would turn out to be a great deal. I have another family member doing the $20 P&G rebate who needed about $25 more in spending to hit the $50 threshold, so I grabbed all this Pantene at a profit to me and traded it and the receipt for 4 boxes of the cereal Rite Aid had for $.99 on Black Friday. Now she'll be able to get her $20 rebate as well!
The Gain was solely to make sure my P&G purchase was over $30. Sometimes the ECB triggers a few cents short of the advertised price point, but after the hassle at Wags I didn't feel like messing around. As a bonus, I discovered that the Gain dish detergent (others as well, I'm sure, but I have about 38 million bottles of Gain) can also be used as laundry detergent! I did a test run on a comforter that had been stored away for the summer and it came out clean and fresh. This is gonna be a great money saver!!
The magic coupon machine at CVS spit out a coupon for $2.50 off Planters Flavor Grove products; they're on sale for $2.50 this week. More free nuts! We got a bag of the Chili Lime flavor to try which I really like; unfortunately Andy thinks it's just okay.
Next, on to Rite Aid:
I knew the deal I wanted to do would be a longshot and, indeed, it was. Rite Aid has Hershey's Pot of Gold boxed chocolates on sale for $3.99 with a $2 +UP back. $1.99 is great, but to "sweeten" it even more (HA! Get it??), a $1 coupon came out in Sunday's paper. That makes these $.99 per box after coupon & reward, and I'd hoped to get 3-5 boxes to use as small gifts for neighbors. Well, I'd heard rumblings ahead of time that stock was abysmal on these chocolates in many areas. Sure enough, when we got to my beloved Rite Aid they had none. My favorite shift supervisor was manning the registers Sunday morning and since the place was empty I asked him for the dirt. He said they'd sold out on Black Friday, hadn't gotten their next order in, and had been informed that the warehouse wouldn't be getting any more in. Since he handles the ordering for this store and will order in stuff for me if I ask, I knew it wasn't a lame excuse. I didn't bother getting a raincheck.
I went ahead to do the two other deals I was interested in this week and those posed no problems. Coke 2 liters are on sale 4 for $5 with a $1 +UP back. As we know by now, I have a serious Diet Coke addiction, and a buck a bottle makes me happy. I also had a coupon for $1 off 4, which made it even better.
What I was most happy with, though, was another great deal on photo frames. There's a misprint here as well - the frames are advertised as "All frames & photo albums 50% off and get $2 +UP." The printed ad clearly states "ANY" frame/album, but in reality it's any with a regular retail of $4.99 or more. I knew about it ahead of time and, again, I didn't feel like messing around, so I disregarded the $1.50 keychain frames and such. I found a treasure trove of really cute $4.99 & $5 frames. At 50% off they were $2.50ea and I got a $2 +UP for each one making them just $.50 per frame. With all the photo deals these will come in handy, not to mention my baby nephew just got his first portraits taken so I needed something to surround his adorable little chubby mug. I got four large frames and a small metal wallet-size frame with little baby blocks on it. I gave that one to my sister.
My final deal was a nice use of the "ANY" qualifier that actually works. John Frieda hair care has a Rite Aid rebate of $5 when you buy ANY three products. This "ANY" includes trial size which are $1.49ea. The math on that one adds up to a $.53 profit on three little bottles of shampoo which is great by me!
5 photo frames $12.50
4 bottles Diet Coke $5
3 trial size John Frieda Root Awakening $4.47
1 bottle Rite Aid hand sanitizer $.90 (with 10% discount) - filler
1 king size Snickers $1.59 - filler
Subtotal $24.46, shelf $39.61
Less $5 off $25 purchase, less $1 Coke
Total $18.46, paid in +UPs, received back $11 in +UPs and $5 rebate ($2 for each frame, $1 for Coke, $5 John Frieda)
Out of pocket $2.46
Totals for the day
Shelf price $111.67
Total $54.38
Rewards earned $28 + $5 rebate
Out of pocket $21.38
Not bad, not bad! My actual cash spent was under $5 since I had to burn through those expiring Wags RRs and a few Rite Aid +UPs.
After deal hunting, I rushed over to my grandparents' house where the whole fam damily gathered to make our annual Christmas candies. Each year we get together, everyone brings various nuts and fruits and stuff, and we dip everything we can think of in chocolate. This year we started with I think 20lbs of chocolate and halfway through the day realized we wouldn't have enough so Mom ran out to get 5lbs more. We dipped pretzels and bananas and Oreos and peanut butter dough; we mixed nuts and candied orange peel and various cereals and coconut and crushed candy canes in melted chocolate and dropped spoonfuls into little baking cups; we poured and tapped chocolate into candy molds; and we started rummaging through Gram's snack cupboard to find more things to coat in chocolate. I made a batch of Puppy Chow, which was new to my family this year. It looks pretty gross when you're mixing everything in the bag, but once it's done and set it's fantastic! When all was said and done we had way too much candy to split up and take home and I'm fairly certain I'll gain 5lbs from what I've got in the kitchen.
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So much chocolate!!
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