My +UPs are good for another week and after the tuna debacle, there wasn't a damn thing on sale that I wanted to get. Not every sale is great, so I skipped it.
I did, however, have $18 in Walgreens RRs that expired today, so I had to use 'em or lose 'em. Though I wasn't particularly excited about the deals at first, things actually wound up working better than I'd thought.
Don't forget - you have until Tuesday to enter the Green Giant giveaway! I'll pick a winner late in the evening.
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| not pictured: 3 more Dove ice cream bars, 1 carton Walgreens rainbow sherbet |
Walgreens - shelf price $82.13
4 Right Guard body wash/shampoo - $4.99ea, BOGO sale, $9.98
2 Purex Complete Crystals - $4.99ea, $9.98
2 Dial Nutriskin lotion - $4.99ea, $9.98
4 Excedrin PM - $5.99ea, BOGO50%, $17.98
4 Dove ice cream bars - $.50ea, $2 (clearance)
1 carton Walgreens rainbow sherbet $.82 (clearance)
Subtotal $50.74, less two BOGO Right Guard, less two $2 Purex, less two $1 Dial, less four $2.50 Excedrin PM
Total $24.76, received back $20 in RRs ($10 for spending $20 on Excedrin, $2 ea for Purex, $3ea for Dial)
Out of pocket $4.76
Check out the frozen foods case at your Walgreens. Many random items are clearanced to 75% off which makes for some really nice deals. My store hadn't tagged anything yet, but I'd not only read about the clearance on other blogs, but my mom had gone a bit earlier and had found her store tagged nicely. I called her from the store and cross-checked what she'd found clearanced; the only things that matched between our respective stores were the Dove bars and the sherbet. I price checked a couple items but, being frozen food, I didn't want to be hauling stuff in and out of the cases just for a price check. I'll head back a little later in the week and see if they've put the clearance tags in their place. Mom found a ton of stuff and picked me up some Hagen Daas mango sherbet ($1ish) and some Banquet pot pies ($.25ea) for Andy.
Another great deal at Walgreens this week is an in-ad coupon for $20 off the Entertainment Book. These are $35 normal price here, so $15 after the coupon. The books contain coupons for all sorts of local businesses as well as national companies like Wendy's, Burger King, car rental companies, hotels, and so on. At $15, I can use the "buy one large pizza, get one free" coupon at a local pizza shop we love and the book has paid for itself! These are very much worth the money, especially at the sale price this week. My store was (gasp!) out of the damned things, of course. Mom is going to grab me one while she's running some errands later
More free Right Guard wash/shampoo! My older nephew loves this stuff so those are for him. The Dial lotion is for my mom; $.99ea after coupon & RR is a great price for these huge bottles, and it's a dang effective lotion that she happens to really like. The new Purex stuff has been on sale everywhere and I've been hearing good things about it, so I figured I'd pick some up while it's $.99ea after coupon & RR.
And the Excedrin...this is a hit or miss deal. If you buy $20 worth, you get a $10 reward back. I have a stack of $2.50 off coupons. The price on the 24ct bottles seems to vary from $4.79-5.99 from store to store, and in some stores they're included in the "buy one, get one 50% off sale." At my store it was $5.99 and it was indeed ringing up BOGO50%. Four of the bottles came to $17.98 ($23.96 before sale), I used $10 in coupons to make them $7.98, and I got the $10 reward back - $2.02 profit. The prices and the inclusion in the sale may be different at your store, so have a backup plan. Yes, two of my Excedrin boxes are torn open; I had started to combine them so they take up less space before realizing I hadn't taken a photo yet!
2 comments:
Nice deals! We do not have a Walgreens close by, but I am busy enough with CVS (and the very occasional RiteAid run - I went this week for the first time in over a year! Keri Lotion and Comtrex were my scores).
I'd love to hear about how much time these deals take you. I've been trying to figure out the best way to do the deals without spending 2 hours in the store. :-P
Hi Catherine,
Time spent shopping really depends on what sort of deals I'm hunting and which store I'm at! Last week at Rite Aid, for example, I was in and out of the store in about 15 minutes including chat-time with the cashier. I knew exactly what I was there for and I had my coupons ready to go; I just loaded the stuff in the cart and checked out.
Walgreens sometimes takes longer because of the multiple transactions. I think my longest time spent in Walgreens was about 90 minutes-2 hours for the Black Friday sales; I had something like 10 transactions and there were other customers in the store so I stepped to the back of the line as needed between transactions.
If there are clearance items to hunt down things take a little longer, and if I have to get rainchecks that adds time as well. Usually, though, I spend 30 minutes or less per store.
Before I go shopping on Sundays, I take a few minutes to make sure I have all my necessary coupons in my purse file (it's a plastic accordion-style file that stays in my purse at all times). Each store has its own section where I put the coupons for that week's sales along with my reward dollars. When I shop I put the file and my list in the baby seat of the cart. If something I want to buy is out of stock, I immediately move the coupons for that item into an empty section. When I get to the register, I simply hand over the stack of coupons that's already been pruned of raincheck items. I used to use an envelope system, with each store having its own envelope, but that got too complicated for me to manage (and the envelopes kept tearing); this takes up less space and it's easier to have just one file to keep track of rather than 4 separate envelopes.
Also - lists! I never shop without a list. I don't shop "off the list" unless I happen across an amazing clearance find. I have piles of scratch paper which I use to make a list of the items I want, the quantity, and any descriptions or notes needed. I use one sheet of paper for all my Sunday shopping and that goes in the front section of my file.
Through the week leading up to the sale, I have an Excel spreadsheet with my rough draft shopping list. If I see a potential deal in the ad or online, I type it into the spreadsheet for review later.
Overall, I'd say I spend about an hour or two per week checking out sales and entering potential deals in my spreadsheet; another hour clipping coupons, putting them in my file, and making my final lists; and anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours shopping - the high end is if I'm hitting 2 or 3 drugstores *and* the grocery store.
I found that with a little organization beforehand, I was able to get everything done more quickly. I'm easily distracted by shiny things so I tend to go off the reservation if I'm not careful!
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