OMG

Usher, apparently he IS the man, and we have been hearing and singing oh my gosh a LOT lately, and it seems like its always in my head, so last night as I'm driving home from my shopping trip even though there is a completely different song on the radio, what is in my head...yup, omg.  Then I start thinking omg, I love to SAVE! (which results in a newly created song and a topic for another blog).  Here I am at 11:00pm driving home from Wal-Mart (this isn't such a strange occurrence for me), completely exhausted from running from store to store yet I drive home with a big smile on my face, excited to get home, get out my calculator, see exactly what I saved (man I LOVE numbers), and pile it all up to look at!  So onto the results....

I had read one on of the blogs I check (which I posted links to last entry) that Family Dollar had Gain dryer sheets for $3 each, and given that I had two $3 off 1 coupons for Gain dryer sheets (clipped for a recent Sunday's coupons), I decided to start there.  Prices are different in different parts of the country and I'm not really sure where most of this blog people call home, so the Gain was not $3 at Family Dollar, it was $3.50, but it was still a great deal to pay $1.35 for two boxes of dryer sheets and save $6.

This was also after the cashier told me these coupons wouldn't work, then seemed surprised when the first one did, then told me the second one wouldn't work, to which I told her it should as it was $3 off 1 and I had two items and two coupons, so she tried it and shockers, it worked.  I have found even before I started clipping this many coupons that clerks or those behind you in line, aren't always happy to see you whip out your giant stack of coupons, but I'm really not one to care what others think about it, I'm saving whether you like it or not!  So don't let the cashier's attitude ruin your savings high!  On another cashier note, cashiers may not always care if your coupon gets credited, if the machine beeps sometimes they just clear it and throw your coupon in the stack like it went through when it didn't, so watch closely!

Next I headed to CVS and there's a lesson to learn in this trip!  CVS's flyer advertised Lady Speed Stick or (Mens) Speed Stick Deodorant for $2.99 (on sale from $3.89 ea) with $2 extracare bucks.  (Extra care bucks are the same as Rite Aid's +up rewards, its a coupon for $ towards your next purchase which prints on the bottom of your receipt.)  So with a $1 off 2 and a 50 cent off 1 coupon I purchase two deodorants thinking I'm going to get $4 in extracare rewards ($2 per deodorant), with coupons and end up paying 48cents for the two.  BUT, the fine print of the offer is that there was a limit of only 1 $2 extra care rewards, so actually I ended up paying more like $2.48 for the two, but still a savings of $5.30. 


FREE TOOTHPASTE! 

Both CVS and Rite Aid this week are offering Colgate toothpaste on sale with a extracare or +up reward for the full amount of the toothpaste.  I used two $1 off 1 coupons at CVS with my $2 extracare bucks, paying $3.96 and getting $7.58 in extracare bucks. 

I took my $7.58 and put it towards NutraGrain bars which were on sale, fruit snacks there were on sale, which I had a 50 cents off 2 coupon, 2 20oz coke sodas where I had a manufact. coupon for $1 off 2 and a CVS coupon for buy one get one free, Dove soap which was on sale for 2 for $5 and I had two $1.25 off 1 coupons (deceitful: another note on cashiers, sometimes, well most of the time they don't really look at your coupons, and I have to admit I kinda half almost knew that the $1.25 Dove coupons I had were for a 6 bar or larger pack, not the 2 bar pack I purchased, but the cashier didn't catch it and they went through.  Most of the time if you have a product with the brand name on it the coupon will go through, its up to the cashier to scrutinize your coupons, and most just don't), all totaled before sales and tax this would have come to $26.02 but after sales, coupons and my $7.98 in free extra care bucks I paid only $4.03 with tax. 

Total CVS purchase (missing from photo: Sprite I drank, shopping makes you thirsty!) price for these items was $13.27, total saved: $30.73.

Next we head to Rite Aid where I got this for FREE:

On sale 2 for $4, had two $2 off 1 coupons clipped from Sunday paper results in FREE.  But it does get better, I got $2 in +up points, so really Rite Aid paid me $2 to "buy" these!  Thanks Rite Aid!

I also got some GE lightbulbs, $2.99 with a $2 +up reward and a 50 cent off Rite Aid coupon it was like getting them for only $.49, it could have been better, bloggers mentioned there was a 50 cent manufact. coupon a while back that I didn't have, or they could have been free, but I'll still take them for 49 cents!

And......another lesson is learned.  Rite Aid had Axe bodyspray and deodorant on sale 2 for $9 with $3 +up rewards and I had a coupon for bogo.  So I'm thinking I'm going to get both for $1.50 after taking the +up rewards into account, but it didn't work out this way and you have to pay attention to how 2 for deals ring up, in this case the first axe rang up at $5.99, the regular price, and the second one rang up at $2.99 to make the two combined the $9, so with my bogo I got the one that rang up as $2.99 free, so after the $3 +up rewards I ended up paying $3 for the both, double what I thought I would, but once again still a good deal.  I took advantage of Motts Applesauce 2 for $5 sale without a coupon and got $2 +up rewards. I also bought the colgate toothpaste here at $3.50 each with a $1 off 2 coupon and $7 in +up rewards.  I put rewards I hadn't used yet into my fourth purchase on this trip (if you really want to save yes folks you have to make more than one trip to the register or break up your order to use the +up rewards immediately, you could always save them for next time, but I'd probably forget I had them so I like to use them right away.) and purchased Gain that was on sale for $4.99 with $1 off coupon, not free but a great deal on Gain and well, I LOVE Gain, got two bottles.  Got a pack of mentos for 35 cents after my 50 cent off coupon, and some cheap Finish dishwasher tabs and jet dry after taking advantage of a $1 off manuf coupon for each, a $1 off Rite Aid coupon and the sale of bogo.  The two dishwasher items alone was a savings of $7.99.

Total Rite Aid trip retail $71.31, I paid $15.60, a savings of $55.71.  For those of you who like percents: that's OVER 75% savings.  cha-ching.

Walgreens had two killer deals this week on items that I use.  I mentioned how I love Gain, but I also like to be cheap so lately I've been buying purex for $3.98 at wal-mart. 

This week Purex was on sale at Walgreens for $1.99.  Dial bar soap which I also use was bogo on 8 pack of bars.  I purchased three Purex and two dial soaps and spend $12.56 and saved $17.99, without any coupons! So think clipping is too time consuming, you can still save just by taking a few minutes to read the flyer!

Onto Target, and let me mention how much I love Target deals!  Although like Rite Aid and CVS where you can use their web coupon with a manufact's coupon, Target has WAY more coupons on their website and they're updated way more often.  Some steals I got where a box of Kellogg's new nut crunch cereal for 50 cents as it was on sale for $2.50 and I had a target $1 off coupon and a manufact. $1 off coupon.  Lipton Tea bags I snagged two boxes of flavored tea for $.81 each after a $1 off 2 Target coupon and a $1 off 2 manufact. coupon.  I could have bought a 16 count box of regular Lipton tea bags for only 9 cents each, but I have plenty of those at home already.  Wishbone salad dressing was on sale for $1.60 each, with target $1.50 off 2 and manufact. $1.25 off 2 I paid only 45 cents for two bottles, that's less than 23 cents for a bottle of salad dressing, and its actually a kind I like and buy all the time!  I saved $1.25 each on kraft shredded cheese, making them half price, not as good of a deal as last Target trip but a savings worth taking advantage of seeming we can't seem to keep enough of this stuff on hand at my house. 

I purchased two clorox products with a 75 cent off target coupon, a $1 off one clorox manufact coupon and a $1 off 2 clorox I snagged off a bottle on the shelf (I'm not sure if both of those should have actually gone through though), paying $1.88 for two products that retail for $4.63 together.  I had two coupons for Suave products that I wasn't sure was gonna fly, but the cashier rang them right through, proving what I mentioned before that in most cases, if you have something the same brand as the coupon its up to the cashier to make sure its the product on the coupon, the register isn't likely to catch it, so even though I had a $1 off 2 target and a $1 off 2 manufact coupon for suave salon professionals haircare products (which I don't use) I actually purchased a suave detangling spray and kids shampoo, two products I do use, and still saved.

I also saved on nabisco crackers, kraft macaroni and cheese cups and vaseline lotion by combining manufact. coupons with target coupons and sometimes catching the item on sale too. 

Total Target results:  all the products above retail of $40.75, I paid $17.11 saving $23.64.  I could have saved way more if I had caught a larger majority of the items on sale.

So if you've had your calculator at your side I purchased $186.80 worth of products, paying a total of $58.54, saving $128.26, not all that bad!  That's not quite 70% savings.  Somewhere along the way if you really do have your calculator at your side (I seriously doubt it but the accountant in me does have to mention it), you may come up with $128.07 in savings, somewhere I added tax on one and not the other, I don't really care where the 19 cents is at this point!

That's not to mention the savings at Shaws which doubles coupons up to 99 cents, their bogo on cantaloupe and 4 meats for $19.99 (I wasn't supposed to but wound up paying $19.99 for meat worth over $32 which is a heck of a deal considering meat is not something you usually see a coupon for!)  Turns out you were supposed to only take packages with a certain sticker, of which there were about 3 in the meat case, long story short manager gave me the difference because she couldn't dispute what the flyer said which is what I was using to make my meat selections.

I finished up at wal-mart for some of the ususals and used some coupons there too, groceries at wal-mart are just cheaper, but their produce stinks.  I have been keeping an eye on the grocery store flyers and making a note of whats on sale and that's what we have for fruits and veggies that week for the most part, and in the long run, it adds up.

So I didn't purchase over $180 worth of stuff for only a few bucks, but I am pretty satisfied with my results and know that my hard work has paid off and saved us some money this week on items that would buy whether they were on sale or not, and I'm not going to have to buy toothpaste, deodorant or laundry detergent for a long long time!

What do you think of that?