Thursday, April 30, 2009
April Monthly Totals
Monday, April 27, 2009
I LOVE Walgreens!
$21 OOP, $40 in new RRs left - PROFIT of $19 on these products!!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Walgreens Deals 4/26 - 5/2
NEW: Free Exotrin Aspirin - Moneymaker!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Albertsons - 4/22
Wags on Earth Day
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Register Rewards
At other stores (like Albertsons or Smiths) these types of coupons are sometimes called Catalinas. When I first started doing this I couldn't figure out what salad dressing had to do with any of this. :) Catalina is a company that companies contract with to promote their products. So they will often offer a catalina or Register Reward for buying their promotional item. These print out along with your receipt.
Each week Walgreens will have certain items that when purchased will generate a RR. Each week the expert bloggers (see the links on the right of my page) will post the weekly deals for various stores. My favorite frugal blog is http://www.hip2save.com/. She is amazing! HERE is her post for this weeks deals. She will also add more posts throughout the week as she finds more deals. You can go to her site at http://www.hip2save.com/ and then on the right hand column under "Store Specific Coupons & Info" scroll down and click on the Walgreens link. This will bring you up all the Walgreens links she has posted. I like to keep a word document on my computer called Walgreens.doc where I cut and paste in the weekly deals and any new deals that I see that I want to look for. Then when I am ready to go to the store I know what to look for. She also has a link to Walgreens Q&A and Walgreens #1 and Walgreens #2. I would highly recommend reading these posts. You will learn a ton!
Now back to RRs. On hip2save's post for this week you will see a section called Register Reward Deals and underneath you will see things that should trigger a RR coupon. Some of these deals you will see advertised in their weekly ad but some of these are unadvertised and that's why checking the blogs are a good idea. I don't put all them on my blog, I just direct you to look at the really great blogs that have all that info on them.
If you are new to this I would suggest starting small. Here is an example of what I did today that might be a little easier to follow.
Today I bought 6 of the Skintimate NEW Cream Shave product and 6 Chapstick 100% Natural or True Shimmer Lip Balm.
I did 6 seperate transactions, each with 1 Skintimate and 1 Chapstick in them. When you are buying an item that has a RR, if you buy more then one of these items in a transaction then you will only get one RR. So if you were to buy these 6 Skintimates in the same transaction you would only get one $3RR where if you were to buy these 6 Skintimates, split up in six transaction you will get back six $3RRs totaling $18.
I had A LOT of RRs from last week and I wanted to use some of them up so I bought one Skintimate for $2.99 and one Chapstick for $1.99 in each transaction. My total came to $4.98 + tax. I used one $3.50RR on each coupon which made my OOP for each transaction $1.82. PLUS I got back a $3RR for the Skintimate and a $2RR for the chapstick for each one. So I spent $1.82 and got back $5 in Register Rewards.
And sometimes you can get things even better then free through RRs. For example, this week Wags has Colgate Max White or Max Fresh Toothbrush for $3.29 with a $3.50RR. There is also a $1 coupon that you can print out from here (click on sign up now, you can print each coupon twice per computer) or use the .75 coupon from the 3/29 Smart Source newspaper insert. So in this case you would buy the toothbrush for $3.29 minus the $1 coupon so you pay $2.29 but get back $3.50 in RRs. You just made a profit on buying this toothbrush!
Now you can of course start small. Do a couple transactions, get some RRs and then next week go back in and use those RRs to buy other items that have RRs. My sister in MT calls me every Monday and says "Okay, what do I buy at Wags this week?" I tell her what to get and she takes her stack of RRs and uses those to buy new items. RRs expire 2 weeks after they are issued so you will want to keep that in mind and make sure to use them before they expire.
There are some rules like you can't use a Skintimate RR on a Skintimate product. If you do, the new RR won't print out. You can read on the RR what company issued it. (Those Walgreens posts I mentioned on hip2save's website are great at explaining this and the other rules.)
This may sound like too much to figure out or too much hassle and it may feel like that your first few trips in but IT WILL GET EASIER. Now I can get in and out, even with a big list pretty quickly and it is VERY VERY worth it. I love that we can "shop" out of our own bathroom closet and food storage room. I am so stocked up on many things that I got for very cheap, free or even better then free, things we used to pay full price for because we had run out of and needed it right then. Not anymore for the most part!
Questions?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wonderful Wags
I used two $1 coupons from the 3/15SS
Final cost ONLY .75 each!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Thomas Nelson Book Review - In the Footsteps of Paul
Albertsons Free Meat Promo TAKE 2
Colgate $1.50 Coupon No Longer Valid
HERE is a link to the retraction. I appreciate the explanation as to why this coupon is being retracted. This coupon will no longer be accepted.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Albies Free Meat Promo
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
20 Boxes of Cereal for $1.52 TOTAL!
UPDATE: If you get an uncooperative checker like my friend Rebecca did that won't let you use the $5 catalina right away don't worry. It's lame but the math works out the same you just spend more OOP today and have those catalinas to spend on your next trip in.
There is a $2/1 IP coupon for Trail Mix Crunch which you can print out HERE. The coupon is a little slow to print out but it's worth it. Now you know you can usually print all IP coupons twice but for some reason this one let me print it out 3 times per computer so I ended up with six of these coupons. So here is the breakdown of what I did:
2 Raisin Bran
2 Honey Bunches of Oats
1 Trail Mix Crunch
$10.35
Used one $2/1 coupons for the Trail Mix Crunch
Got $2 off instantly
Used the $5 catalina from the last order
After coupons and catalina my OOP was = $1.60
Got back a $5 Catalina good for $5 off my next order
1 Raisin Bran
2 Post Selects
2 Trail Mix Crunch
Used two $2/1 coupons for the Trail Mix Crunch
Got $2 off instantly
*Note: I would print out as many of the Trail Mix Crunch coupons that you can and make sure that you put one of those in each transaction. That $2/1 coupon basically pays for that cereal and makes it like you are getting 5 for the price of 4, plus the $2 off instantly, plus the $5 catalina. You can't beat that!
BTW - With each transaction where I bought a Trail Mix Crunch along with the Catalina a $1.50/2 coupon for Trail Mix crunch printed out which you could use right away if you wanted to.