JB Fletcher Has Nothing on Me!

And if you get the reference in the title, you  are old and watched way too much TV in the 1980's!

The other day I was at Rite-Aid(of course I was!lol) picking up a prescription.
I commented to the pharmacist that my co-pay seemed ALOT higher than usual.
It was in fact almost double what I usually pay for the generic version I get of said drug.
We both shrugged our shoulders and I paid and when home.

Then Daughter picked up her prescriptions yesterday and when I went over the receipt to write her a check to reimburse her for paying for them, I noticed that 1 of her drugs was the exact same medicine in the exact same size with the exact same dosage.....and it did NOT cost almost double like mine did.

You probably can't make out my very bad, blurry photo but the receipt on the left says $18.72, the receipt on the right says $10.00 for the exact same meds.

So I dug out my old prescription bottle and my new prescription bottle and had my Eureka! moment......

Again, let me translate the bad photograph.....
The label on the right says "Take 2 tablets by mouth daily", the label on the left says "Take 1 tablet by mouth daily".
So my old bottle's 60 pill refill was for a month and my new bottle's 60 pill refill was 2 months worth.
Someone at Rite-Aid goofed when printing out the label.
And that goof  caused the insurance company to think I was getting 2 months worth so I got charged 2 month's worth of co-pay instead of 1 month's worth.

After 20 minutes of showing the evidence, explaining and wild gesticulating(see how I used a $20 word there?lol), the pharmacist checked my records, printed a new instruction label, changed some information in his computer and then handed me $8.72 back.

Not only do I get paid to buy toiletries at Rite-Aid but now I can claim that I get paid to get my drugs there too......well, at least this once, right? ;-)

While I was there, I took the opportunity to pick up a few more things and grow my +Up Rewards.....

2 x R-A Hand Sanitizer on sale $1=$2.00
1 x Max Freeze on sale=$7.00
2 x St. Joseph Aspirin on sale $4.99=$9.98
3 x $1 size R-A Juice drinks w/20% wellness discount.80¢=$2.40
SubTotal....$21.38

Coupons Used
2 x $2/1 St. Joseph Aspirin over $4.49 IPQ(HERE)=$4.00

$21.38-$4.00=$17.38
I used $17 in +Up Rewards and put the .38¢ on my gift card.
I got $18 +Up Rewards back(2 x $1 Sanitizer, $1 WYB 3 juice drinks, $7 Max Freeze, 2 x $4 St. Joseph).

I used $17 and got $18 back.

Analyze This!--
* The St. Joseph is part of a +Up Deal along with Anacin and something else that are each on sale for $4.99.  Each give a $4 +Up back.  Use the $2 IPQ and buy the St. Joseph's and it's a small moneymaker after +Ups.  I take a baby aspirin each day so I can score these larger pills.  I can stretch each 200 count bottle out to give me 2+ years worth of the baby aspirin dosage.
* The #2 Son can use these smallish juice drink bottles for Marching Band.
*  The R-A Juice drinks also qualify for a monthly $2+Up WYB $10 in R-A pantry items.  I believe it only runs through next week so you have to spend $10 quickly to get that $2 +Up.

Here's a heads up if you need free shampoo at Rite-Aid the week of 9/2.
Go to the Video Values before Aug. 29th and watch the Infusium23 clip while it's still available.
Then print out the $2/1 AdPerks Q and take it to the store the week of 9/2.
Infusium 23 products will be $4.99 that week.
Use your $2 Q and pay $2.99 and you will receive a $3 +Up Reward back(limit of 2 per card on this deal).
This makes the Infusium 23 free after +Ups.

Here are the August Grand Totals so far.....

Out Of Pocket....$.70  cash
Value of items bought....$472.71
Savings Rate of  99.85%
Single Check Rebate due....$5.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... -$4.30
Savings Rate  100%

+Ups at beginning of month...$14+
+Ups used....$154+
+Ups received...$166+
+Ups currently...$26+

Sluggy

For My Friends Friday

For all my friends who are debt-free and all my friends currently on the road to debt-free, this one is for YOU!

And if you aren't debt-free, what is stopping you from trying to get there!? ;-)

Let's all get up and dance!!!....but put down the scissors first.....




Happy Friday!

Sluggy

The Bailey Building & Loan *UPDATE*

As of this afternoon, the ING deposits have arrived at The Bailey Building & Loan....aka my Credit Union.
And there was rejoicing in the Land of Sluggy!

Wow....it only took 5 days from ING sending the deposits and notifying me that they were working and received until the CU actually posted the deposits to my account.

I sure hope that TBBAL doesn't continue to use passenger pigeons and other outmoded means of communication to talk with other financial institutions and me in the future.....

Sluggy

The Bailey Building & Loan is Alive and Well in PA OR The Joys of Banking

No, I said Banking, not Baking......


Hubs & I have wanted to move our money to a credit union for some time now.
We finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago.

We aren't the kind of folks you jump around from financial institution to financial institution.
If it's working for us somewhere, we stay put.

When we moved here in 2000 our huge national bank did not have a location closer than 30 minutes away.  While they had a branch near Hubs work it was darned inconvenient for me to do any banking.
So I opened up an account at the tiny local bank in our town so I could move the money between the 2 banks/accounts.

This worked ok for us until about 6 months ago, when our huge national bank was taken over by another huge national bank.
HNB #2 said we had to open up a different account in order to keep our old account since they didn't offer that old type of account anymore.
Otherwise, we'd have to pay fees for the honor of allowing them to hold and use our money.
How nice of them.....

So we opened the additional account with the min. they required of $100 and kept our real money in the old account.
If that was all it was going to take to make them happy, we figured we'd stick with them.
After all, they were one of the few big banks that didn't take TARP money.

Then they started pressing us to get debit cards for this "new" account.
I guess they figured they'd just keep at us and eventually make us start using this account as our main account, migrate our money over to this account and phase out the original account.
I don't like being pushed into anything, especially if I am not given a good reason to do so.
And then when we didn't ask for debit cards they mailed them to us anyway.  Hey, thanks for something I didn't want! lol

Next  they started calling here and dunning us via snail mail with great deals on stocks/bonds/mutual funds/cds/retirement plans/etc., as well as wanting us to come in to "speak with someone".....as in speak to someone who wanted to get control over investing our money.  No thanks!

I guess nobody ever heard of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and "don't annoy the piss outta your customers" at this company.
The old huge bank let us be but this new huge bank was annoying as hell.
Which surprised us, since we had used this new bank as our mortgage company and we had been very pleased with them back then in that capacity.

Anyway this pestering came to a head last month and we looked around to move our money and move it to a local institution if possible.
And we found a local credit union.

So we went in, had a look-see and opened a savings and a checking account there.
Everyone says that Credit Unions are full of sunshine and lollipops....or is that rainbows?
I never can remember.
At the moment we have 3 accounts(not counting the ING one)-2 at banks and 1 at the credit union.
Having our money all over the place is not a good thing.....it's driving me to distraction.

Eventually the plan was to close down one of the bank accounts and keep the CU account and the small regional bank account.

And things went well with the CU until this week.

I have an ING account so I went online to link the 2 accounts.
And ING notified me that the small deposits had been made to confirm the linking so I went to check them at the CU.
And there were no deposits.
For 4 days I waited for them to show up.
And the routing and account numbers were checked and double checked.
But still no deposits.
Great......

And I went into the CU and the teller couldn't fine the deposits either.

And then I tried to deposit a personal check at the CU this week.
And the teller told me that I can't deposit a personal check into the checking account if it is for a LARGE sum of money....a business check was a different story.
I would have to deposit it in my savings account, wait for it to clear and then come back and move the money from savings into checking.
WTF?!
And then I asked her what was the cut-off amount that constituted a "Large sum of money".
$200 or more.
WTFF?!
$200 may be a "large sum of money" in Dhaka, Bangladesh or Mogadishu, Somalia but in middle class American, not so much.

And then she said that I had to wait 2+ days after depositing a check to withdraw it.
WTFFF?!
It's not a case of we don't have other funds in that account to cover if the check in question was bad.
None of this was mentioned at any point when we set up these accounts at the CU.

I'm under the impression that this CU thinks it's the Bailey Building and Loan and Uncle Billy is running things!

There is only so much bullshit I can take before I close this CU account down too.  Maybe I'll just stick to my back-up bank....the small regional one.


So let me know.....how many accounts do you have and at how many financial institutions?
Do you use a credit union or a bank and are you happy with whichever you use?

Sluggy

My Weekly Rite-Aid Trip(s)

I got around to my Rite-Aid trip early this week so here are the long boring details in all their glory......

4 x Dixie Plates BOGO sale($4.49)=$8.98
1 x Fat Foam hair coloring on sale(but 20% discount is lower)=$8.23
2 x R-A brand hand sanitizer($1)=$2.00
1 x Sleep Sheets on sale=$5.00
1 x Max Freeze on sale=$7.00
1 x Sting Ease w/20% wellness discount=$3.43
6 x NYC nail polish w/20% wellness discount(.79¢ea)=$4.74
SubTotal.....$39.38

Coupons Used
1 x $5/1 Fat Foam IPQ=$5.00
1 x $6/1 Fat Foam Store-ad Q=$6.00
1 x $1/1 Sleep Sheets ManuQ in box=$1.00
Coupon Total.....$12.00

$39.38-$12.00=$27.38
I used $27 in +Up Rewards and put the .38¢ left on my Rite-Aid gift card.

I received back $26 in +Up Rewards($2 wyb $6 in Dixie items, 2 x $1 R-A Hand Sanitizer, $5 Sleep Sheets, $7 Max Freeze, $4 Sting Ease-monthly Up+, 2 x $3 wyb 3 select nail polishes).

So all this stuff cost me $1 in +Ups I spent down and .38¢ on my gift card.

* If you buy the Sleep Sheets you might want to open the box and check for a $1 off Q inside....but only if you are buying it for sure!  Or if you have a problem opening it before you pay for it, buy it, THEN open the box and take the Q out and get your cashier to do a 'post coupon' transaction to use the Q.

* The Sting Ease is a monthly +Up deal so continue to look for it on the shelf.  With Wellness discount, you pay less than the value of the +Up Reward you get back.

* Select nail polishes are generating a $3 +Up when you buy 3.  The NYC .99¢ bottles qualify for this deal so there are Free after +Ups or a small moneymaker if you have the silver or gold Wellness discount.

* The Dixie plates/cups are a good deal but not free.  They are BOGO this week so if you buy 4, 2 are free and the 2 you pay for come to $8.98 and after the $2 +Ups you get back, they end up costing you $6.98 or $1.745 each package.  They can be almost free if you also buy......

* The Samy Fat Foam hair color.  With stacking the In-Ad Q and the $5 IPQ you get at least $2.01 in overage to put toward the Dixie plates or anything else you want to buy.

I was planning another trip today but Hubs car(again with the CARS!?ugh)is having work done on it so he has my car today.
So I sneaked back up to Rite-Aid yesterday evening and got more of the same....

More Polish, Sanitizer, Hair Color and Paper Plates.
But I got 6 Dixie products this time because it made more sense.  If you buy 4 with the BOGO sale, you are spending enough to get the $2 +Ups WYB $6 worth AND you are halfway to spending enough to get a second $2 +Ups(because you have spent $9 and the second +Ups triggers at $12 total spent).  So buy a set of 2 items with the first 4, spend another $4.49 OOP for both AND get another $2 +Ups.  Instead of being OOP $1.745 for each item, when you buy 6 at the same time, you are OOP $1.578(after the +Ups are applied).
If you already bought 4 items, you can't go back and buy 2 and get the second $2 +Ups to trigger because this +Ups Deal is NOT tracking.

Anyway, this second trip was $17.58(with .04¢ tax), I used $17 in +Ups to pay and put the .58¢ on my gift card.
I received $12 in +Ups back(2 x$1 Sanitizer, 2 x $2 WYB $6 of Dixie items, 2 x $3 WYB 3 Nail Polish).
I spent down $5 of +Up Rewards this trip but I don't mind since it's stuff we need/use and you can't beat $5 for $49.95 worth of stuff! ;-)


Here are the August Grand Totals so far.....

Out Of Pocket....$.70  cash
Value of items bought....$438.86
Savings Rate of  99.84%
Single Check Rebate due....$5.00
After SCR applied, Out of Pocket.... -$4.30
Savings Rate  100%

+Ups at beginning of month...$14+
+Ups used....$137+
+Ups received...$148+
+Ups currently...$25+ 

 Sluggy