Rite-Aid This Week....The Anatomy of a Plan That Goes Off the Rails & Back Again

Grab a cuppa, this is a long one or skip this post altogether is you don't "do"/aren't interested in Rite-Aid.......

So there is a $10 Bonus Cash when you "spend" $40 Q in the R-A ad this week. Supposedly all areas/ads have this offer on the front of the ad.  It's good on most items in the store so shouldn't be too big of a problem to hit the $40 mark since it includes all brands and some items also have their own BC Deal too so you can double dip on this one a bit too, bringing your BC earned total up more.

I went to the store on Sunday for drugs after my Urgent Care visit and bought a couple of gift cards I wanted to get this week since they gave back Bonus Cash(Red Lobster and Netflix).  It was money I was going to spend anyway and I earned $18 in BC.
This brought my BC total up to $22.45 on my Wellness card for Monday.  Besides the BC I have a fair number of free R-A gift cards left too.

What follows is the anatomy of a deal not going correctly, which happens more than I want to at Rite-Aid. lolz  But it all turns out a ok at the end.

So I loaded my digital L2CQs onto my Wellness account and went in on Monday to put a deal together and bought all this..........

1 x Tide on sale=$5.99
1 x DD coffee on sale=$4.99
1 x MH coffee(on sale)=$6.99
2 x Soft Soap body wash on sale=$7.98
2 x Brut deodorant BOGOFree=$3.69
2 x Hershey's vday candy bags on sale=$6.00
2 x Oreo cookies on sale=$7.00
1 x Cover Girl lipstick on clearance=$2.82
2 x Rimmel eye pencils on clearance=$3.64
Subtotal.......$49.10

I was going to buy the BOGOFree Cottonelle tp packs as they were listed as $8.49 online, there was a $2/2 L2CQ but in my store the shelf price was $12.99 per pack(Yikes! $4.50 EACH MORE in store than online...WTF?!?)so having to think on my feet, I changed the game plan and got the Maxwell House and Dunkin' coffees instead.  Not that I needed both the coffees as I was well over $40 to get the $10 BC w/out one of them anyway but the MH one  had a $2 instant Q on it and according to the sale shelf tag would have "cost" me $3.99 after earning a $1 BC so I great deal on the product.
I also substituted Soft Soap body wash for Irish Spring body wash in my original plan.  I had 2 x .75¢/1 IPQs for the Irish Spring but found $1 PeelieQs on the Soft Soap so a better deal(.99¢ each for Soft Soap rather than $1.24 each for Irish Spring after Qs).

And everything bought was with intention---make-up, deodorant/body wash for future giveaway boxes, coffee for Hubs and Ex-CB, detergent for the household here, Oreos for Ex-CB(He loves these double stuff things)and the candy for Hubs for V-Day(sshhh, don't tell him!)though I'll have some of the peppermint patties too. ;-)

This  transaction was going fine EXCEPT.......
The MH coffee was NOT $6.99(and also didn't give a $1BC wyb1).  The shelf tag was leftover from last week's sale which I didn't notice until after the coffee rang up 20% off reg. price($11.19)and I had completed the transaction and paid, went back in and read the damned tag. 8-)

So my new subtotal was $53.30 with the MH priced at $11.19.

Coupons Used........
1 x $2/1 Tide L2CQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 DD coffee L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 MH instantQ=$2.00
2 x $1/1 SoftSoap PeelieQs=$2.00
2 x $2/1 SoftSoap In-Ad RAQ=$4.00
1 x $1.50/1 Brut Receipt RAQ=$1.50
1 x $1/2 Vday Hershey candy CatQ=$1.00
1 x $1/2 Oreo L2CQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Cover Girl lip IPQ(which beeped)=$2.00
2 x $1/1 Rimmel ManuQ=$2.00
Coupon Total........$18.50

Except the cashier(new and somewhat befuddled)somehow rang up some Q twice and I got another $2 off, making my Q total $20.50.

$53.30-$20.50=$32.80+.80¢ tax=$33.60.
Used all $22.45 in BC to pay, then another $11.15 between 2 of my gift cards.

I expected to earn $25 in new BC($10 wys $40, $10 buy3 CG/Rimmel/Clairol, 2 x $1 SoftSoap, $1 Oreo, $1 Brut, $1 Maxwell House).
I actually earned $16 in new BC($10 wys $40, $2 buy 1 CG/Rimmel/Clairol, 2 x $1 SoftSoap, $1 Oreo, $1 Brut).
No Maxwell House $1 as that deal was last week's and only 1 of my make-up items earned that deal even though clearance has been reported to qualify so $9 BC less than expected.

So I went back in to the old Maxwell House shelf sale tag, read the fine print and took it to the register and returned the MH coffee, getting back my $11.19 spent on it in BC.  I said you didn't deduct the $2 instant Q on it(meaning I'd only paid $9.19 orginally)but the cashier just waved me off about that.  Ok......

Then the manager let me rebuy the MH coffee for the sale price of $6.99 since the sale tag was still up when I bought it.  I don't know if every store would do that for a customer but, I am a regular here, I am always nice and I didn't demand they sell it to me for the sale tag price, heck I didn't even ask them to(plus I took down the old tag and brought it up to be thrown away so nobody else would demand the sale price). 
So the cashier price adjusted the coffee to $6.99 and I rebought it using BC just returned to my card.  And that $2 instant Q came off again!(the cashier didn't scan it, I know)so I paid $4.99 in BC for the rebuy(and no $1 BC earned since that deal was last week but that's ok).
I now had $6.20 in BC left plus the $16 in new BC earned Monday.

I paid $27.40 in a combination of BC and gift card script when all was said and done rather than $33.60.  If this had all gone as planned without a return/rebuy it would have meant spending all $22.45 in old BC and putting $4.95+ tax on the gift cards and having $16 in new BC to spend/roll.
But it is what it is as they say. ;-)

So I will return the 2 make-up items that didn't earn BC(the 2 Rimmel eye pencils)which will give me back another $3.85 in BC(including the sales tax paid), making my BC total $26.05. Even returning the 2 Rimmel items my initial Subtotal would have been over $40 without that purchase so no issues earning that $10 wyspend $40 BC unfairly or anything.

I can then either stop there or buy 2 new make-up items(not on clearance-not taking the chance on that again!lol)that total less than $8 combined as the BC earned on buying these 2 more would total $8 so only worth it if I can find 2 such items.

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If you need shampoo and body wash(and you find peelie Qs on the Soft Soap and you have 4 x the $4/2 ManuQ for Elvive 'poo from Sunday's inserts here is a good deal you can do this week at R-A.
Just throwing this out there in case anyone can avail themselves of this deal.

8 x Elvive shampoo on sale=$32.00
2 x Soft Soap body wash on sale=$7.98
1 x single candy bar on sale=.77¢(or something cheaper in your store but at least .02¢ to get you over $40)
SubTotal......$40.75

Coupons to use
4 x $4/2 Elvive ManuQ=$16.00
2 x $2/1 Soft Soap In-Ad RAQ=$4.00
2 x $1/1 Soft Soap PeeliQ=$2.00
Coupon Total......$22.00

$40.75-$22.00=$18.75 and you'd earn $20 in new BC($10 wys $40, $10 wys $30 on Elvive).  This is before any sales tax depending on what state you are in and what is taxed by your state but it could be free after BC or a slight moneymaker in you are in places without state sales tax like NH, DE, etc.
And you have the right Qs(we rarely get insert Qs for Elvive here and the coupons dotcom ones are only $3/2).

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Some weeks it's hard work to stay ahead of your Rite-Aid deals and it pays to have a Plan B, C and even D just in case because you never know when you'll need to think on your feet.
And look for Soft Soap Peelies on the body wash if you're planning on doing that deal this week.

And always be nice to your store's employees/managers. 8-)))

Sluggy