The Drugstore Game

There are huge benefits in shopping the drugstores (CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens).

At the beginning of 2011 I put myself on a budget for grocery and drugstore shopping. My goal was to spend no more than $250 a month. I found an excel spreadsheet which keeps track of my trips calculating the amount saved and allows me to see which stores are actually saving me the most.

CVS is my long time favorite, but lately Rite Aid has been having awesome deals. Walgreens, well, every once in a while they have a deal I take advantage of but for the most part I stay away. As for grocery stores there is no question, Publix is definitely the way to go.

So I thought I would show some of the benefits of drug store shopping. I decided to go to Walgreens this week because they had a great deal on liquid acetaminophen, and we our on our last little bit. Kelsey is the only one in our house who still takes liquid, but since she takes 10 ml a dose, a bottle doesn’t last that long.

All the drugstores have “store money” that is basically like cash that you can use on your items at that store. Walgreens calls their money Register Rewards (RR) and they print on a Catalina machine after your purchase. I had a $3 RR I wanted to use at Walgreens, so this was my plan.

Buy:
4 Pediacare acetaminophen liquid (6.99 each) = $27.96
1 Nice and Easy hair foam (7.99 each) = $7.99 (generates a $1 RR)
3 cans of mandarin orances (1.29 each) = $3.87
TOTAL: $39.82

Use:
Walgreens Pediacare in ad coupon ($5 off each one) = -$20
Facebook coupon for a free nice and easy foam = -$7.99
Walgreens mandarin oranges in ad coupon (0.79 each) = -$2.37
Manufactures Pediacare printable coupon ($3 off 2) x 2 = -$6.00
And my $3 RR from last week = -$3.00

So my total was 0.46 plus $1.17 tax (so $1.63) and I had a $1 RR print that I can use on my next Walgreens trip. So basically I bought the oranges just so I could use my $3 RR from last week.

Rite Aid has two money-back programs. They have UP rewards (which are Rite Aid play money) and SCR (which are rebates). You enter your receipt online and if your qualify for a rebate (these are advertised) you get that amount entered into your account. At the end of the month you can request your check and you get a check in the mail for all your SCRs that you can cash at the bank. Rite Aid also has an online advertising program where if you watch these 30 second or so videos you get ride aid coupons for that product (or some are just $1 off any product). These are called video values (VV).

I went to Rite Aid with a $10 and $20 UP rewards (their form or Rite Aid money) that I wanted to spend. So basically my goal is to have my pretax total be slightly over $30 after coupons.

So I bought:
3 packs of dixie paper plates (3.59 each): 10.77
1 themacare: 3.59
2 Lysol disinfectant sprays (3.99 each) = 7.98
1 Keri lotion = 6.99
1 Tavist allergy tablets = 6.99
1 comtrex cold and sinus med = 4.99
1 bufferin 130 ct aspirin = 6.99
1 snickers bar = 0.88
1 cottenelle 12 pk toilet paper = 6.99
2 sambucol (herbal flu relief tabs) = 2.00
2 reese king size peanut butter cups = 1.59

TOTAL = $59.76

And then I used:
A $3/$15 coupon for completing a survey (printed on my receipt) = -$3.00
2 x $1 printable sambucol coupons = -$2.00
A video values reese printable coupon = -0.50
The in ad $5 off 3 dixie plates coupon = -$5.00
The video value $5 off 3 dixie plates coupon = -$5.00
2 mfr coupons ($1.50 each) for the Lysol disinfectant = -$3.00
A video values coupon for cottenelle = -$1.00
A mfr coupon for cottenelle = -$0.50
An in ad thermacare coupon = -$3.99
A printable keri lotion coupon = -$3.00
A mfr coupon for Comtrex = -$1.50
2 printable $1 Video values coupons (off anything) = -$2.00

Then my $10 and $20 rite aid UP bucks

It ended up being -0.82 before tax…normally you can’t go negative because UP rewards can’t be used to pay for tax…not sure why it worked but fine by me! After tax I paid $1.55 real cash.

But it gets even better. I had $1.88 print in new UP rewards print (from buying the snickers and the cottenelle). Then when I go online and enter my receipt I will get the SCR rebates for the Lysol, Keri lotion, Tavist, Comtrex, and Bufferin. These rebates will total $23 that I will receive as a check in the mail.

I don’t match up the coupons with the sales myself. Websites such as www.southernsavers.com and www.hip2save.com do most of the work for you. You just have to figure out which coupons you have and make up a scenario that works for you.

The way to make the drugstores really pay is to “roll” the play money these drugstores give you into the next week’s deals. You buy the items next week with your rewards that will generate new rewards. Most of the time you are not buying items that are on your shopping list for that week but eventually you will end up with a drugstore in your bathroom and when you need something you will never have to pay full price. Or you can just think Rite Aid paid me $23 to shop at their store today and go and give away all your items and make your friends or shelters happy!

My Great Idea

I had one of the greatest ideas ever this weekend. Randy and I were working on assembling Kelsey’s old bunk bed down in the basement play room. Once that was finished, we were cleaning up and moving things around. I saw a DVD shelf we no longer are using against the wall and it hit me…the idea not the shelf.

For a few weeks I have been looking online for a food rotation system for canned foods. These shelves allow you to easily rotate your canned foods so that you are using the oldest cans first. Currently I have my extra cans in our basement “food closet” on a shelf, so when I would buy more I would have to put the older cans in the back and slide them all forward…this was not one of my favorite things to do.

I found some really nice shelves online, but they were more expensive than I was willing to pay. Then I found some cardboard ones that were reasonably priced but when I went to order them the shipping was outrageous, so I reconsidered that. Then I found instructions on how to make your own out of scrap cardboard boxes, and thought maybe one day I will do that.

Then came the DVD shelf. I works PERFECTLY to hold cans. I stacked the cans from with the oldest cans on the right and the newest on the left, and they easily slide left to right. For normal sized cans each shelf holds 18 cans. For the small cans tomato sauce or paste cans it probably holds at least 32. I now have the fanciest canned food holder ever!





This freed up tons of space on my shelf so I reorganized the rest of the food closet too. The canned food shelf is on the facing wall to this shelf.



And here are some pictures of the cleaned up play room. I am sure in a few days it will look again like the Lego store exploded in here, but for now it is nicely organized and cleaned up.





Of course I have a running list of things I want to organize in the house. Audrey suggested I figure out which room can be her "trophy room" as her trophies keep getting bigger. This weekend she won first place in her karate sparring tournament. She thinks this is the best looking trophy ever.

We love Publix!

Here is a summary of my very exciting Publix trip.

Reese king size cups (2) 2.00
Reese mini king cups (2) 0.00 Used 2 B1G1 coupons for king size cups above
Thomas bagels (1) 2.10
Doritos (2) 3.99
Reach floss (4) -0.04 Used 4 x $1 coupons
Pillsbury Grands biscuits (4) 2.80 Used 2 x 0.30 off 2 (doubles to be $1.20 off total)
Hunt tomato sauce (4) 1.34
Mueller pasta (4) -1.22 Used 4 x $1 coupons
Idahoan potatoes (3) 2.00 Used 1.00 off 3
Bayer aspirin (2) -1.26 Used 2 x $2 publix coupons and 2 x $1 mfr coupons
Ground chuck 3.04
Strawberries (1) 0.67 Used $1 off produce wyb 2 frito lay chips (Doritos counted)
Hot mama garlic knots (1) 1.40
Classico alfredo sauce (5) 1.73 Used 5 x $1 coupons
Bread (1) 1.25
Green giant canned vegs (8) 3.16 Used 2 x $1/4 publix coupons
Hunts tomatoes (4) 2.54 Used 1 x 0.45/3 (doubled to 90 cents off)
Publix choc crème cookies (1) 0.01 Penny item for this week
-5.00 1 x $5 off 30 purchase publix coupon (was in last weeks paper)
-10.00 2 x $5 off wyb 20 participating Italian items (hunts, pillsbury, green giant)

Total from above ends up being $10.50 before tax, but my receipt says $9.61 before tax. It's not worth the time to figure out where my error is. I did get "lucky" on this trip and got an extra $4 off. There is a publix coupon for $1 off 4 hunts tomatoes that I didn't have and asked if the cashier had the code (publix coupons are a 4 digit code they enter). She didn't have it but asked the bagger to ask customer service for it. They ended up giving her the code for the $5 off 2o items (which i had already used). But she rang it up too fast because it was the last coupon. So I went to customer service and the lady said to not worry about it and that they weren't going to let me pay back the $4 difference.

I use http://www.iheartpublix/ and http://www.southernsavers.com/ to find these deals. Now I am off to find some deals on gas! :)

Catching up - Disney!

Kelsey

Kelsey has taken her lunch probably 95% of this Pre-K year. So now I pretty much don't even ask in the morning, I just pack her one. So this morning....

Me: Hey Kelsey I packed your lunch and put it in your bookbag, why didn’t you take your lunch yesterday?
Kelsey: Oh I wanted to eat at school. I want to eat at school today too.
Me: What?
Kelsey: I want to eat peanut butter and jelly at school. I want to eat at school everyday.
Me: I just packed you a peanut butter and jelly.
Kelsey: Yea but if I eat at school AND I want peanut butter and jelly I get to be in the front of the line. I like being in the front of the line.

I am such a pushover…I ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. She just totally cracked me up, and from the eyes of a 4 y/o I am sure being in the front of the line for the short walk to the cafeteria is HUGE.

Audrey

Audrey came home from school earlier this week with an honor roll certificate.

Me: Audrey, what is this?
Audrey: Oh that means I am the smartest kid in my class.
Me: Really?
Audrey: Or maybe my teacher said ONE of the smartest kids in my class.