Successful Clean Up at Rite Aid

Today was the last day of the Rite Aid cleaning sale. So I dragged Lionel to both stores in my area. I did good.

Store 1
3 bags Lays Kettle Chips
3 Nivea Men's Body Wash
1 Nivea Woman's Body Wash
2 MM Easter Candy
2 8oz bags Cookies N Creme Eggs
2 8oz bags Dove Peanut Butter Eggs
2 1.5L Berry Drinks
2 large boxes of Finish Automatic Dishwasher Soap
Total price without store rewards and coupons: $65.17
Store discounts and buy-1-get-1 free: $20.03
Coupons: $40.15
Paid Out of Pocket: $4.99

I received $5.00 store cash coupon and a $3 off when $15 is purchased on next trip. They paid me $3.01 to take the stuff home with me, except I went to the next store.

Store 2
2 Lysol wipes 35ct
1 white bread
1 gal. milk
2 Air Wick sprays 
4 No Nonsense socks
2 cans Osteo Biflex powder (15.99 each)
Total price without store rewards and coupons: $53.78
Store discounts and buy-1-get-1 free: $22.27
Coupons: $27.67
Paid Out of Pocket: $3.84

With the extra $3.01 back in the store +UPS rewards I ended up paying $0.83

I love couponing. I wish I can do this well at the grocery stores...

Great Walmart Trip: Serious Couponing

I just walked out of Walmart with $44.60 worth of goodies for only $1.72.

My haul includes:
1 Similac Spit Up Formula $3.84
4 Fuze drinks $1.00 ea
10 Reach Dental Floss $0.88 ea
8 Nivea Woman's Body Wash $3.00 ea
4 Frigo Cheese Sticks $0.33
The overall tax comes to $2.76

I used these coupons:
1 Similac $5/1
2 Fuze drinks $1/2
10 Reach $1/1
8 Nivea $3/1
4 Frigo $0.50/1
Total value $43.00

I love the overage policy at Walmart. I get full value for the coupons. Without the Fuze Drinks, which was an impulse buy, Walmart would have owed me money.

Lessons learned tonight:

• Always watch the screen and make sure the cashier scans all the coupons.
• Do not choose a cashier that you do not know.
• Do not shop in the dead of night when the cashier has time to read every coupon because she will. Even the duplicates.

I plan on going back in 3 or 4 days when they restock the shelves since they are now out of body wash and dental floss. I hope they get the travel-size degree deodorant in stock as well.

Score on Free Easter Candy

Rite Aid has a sale on Snickers Eggs (individual serving size) two for a $1 (2/$1) and I had coupons from RedPlum inserts that are $1 off of two... This equals free candy. Casey went with me the first trip yesterday and snatched up 16 of them. He has declared that since they were free, he will eat them nuts and all!

I stopped by again this morning and grabbed six more since I found 3 more coupons.

I will be pulling out all the candy coupons from my coupon box about Easter candy and see if I can match up more deals. I now wish I had waited until now to buy my candy for Easter. I spent $40 for a supply for five kids. Now I think I over paid.

Anyone want a free Tombstone Pizza

I wandered into Walmart the other day and used my $2 off Hasbro Candyland Game coupon, which was a rollback to $5. I paid $3 for a rainy day game for the kids. There is a Tombstone Pizza rebate form that offers a free pizza worth $7.01 when you buy a Hasbro game and send them the original receipt. There is a limit of five free pizzas per household and time limit of May 15th to redeem this. It is basically dinner and a game for $3 and a postage stamp.

I am waiting until next week to send my rebate in, because I am planning on using the $3 off coupon for the Buzz Lightyear Operation game. Walmart is currently out of stock for this $5 rollback game. I might pick up two or three of them to put away for surprise birthday parties the kids are invited too.

Getting Started on Couponing

Anyone watch Extreme Couponing on TLC? I have and now I am determined to maximize my savings using couponing strategies. So yes, I am part of the hoard of coupon enthusiast rushing to the stores with a binder of coupons.

I am dedicating this blog to my experiences learning couponing and just how to work with the stores. So after a week of trial and error, I am ready to start adding tips, trips and tricks to my blog. I am hoping to pass on some good information to anyone who reads this.

One rule, same every coupon. Look for online printable coupons so you know what is out there. One site to use is www.coupon.com. They allow you to print their coupons at least twice. Check manufacturing sites and look for their Facebook accounts. Sunday newspaper inserts are a treasure trove. Try to collect several of them from neighbors or recycle bins (that is a story all by itself).

Organize your coupons in a binder or bin by shopping aisle or subject. I'll go more into depth on this when I get it figured out. Collect the weekly sales papers. The best savings is when you pair up a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon when the item is on sale.

There are tricks to making money with coupons if your store gives back overages. For example, I collected four $5 off any Similac product coupons and used them at Walmart to by Similac at $3.84. When Walmart rang it up they paid me $4.64 to take those four bottles of Similac out of the store. I donated the Similac to WIC since my baby is nursing.