Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Back to Rite-Aid....The End of This Deal

So I did this on Monday.........

See my previous post for details.

On Tuesday I returned the 2 Rimmel items that didn't qualify for the "Buy 3, Get $10 total BC" Deal so $3.86 back in BC on my account.
I then bought these items.........


2 x Rimmel eyebrow pencils.  Cost with 20% Wellness discount + sales tax was $6.60 paid for with Bonus Cash.
I earned $8 in new BC(the rest of the "Buy 3, Get $10 BC" Deal due me for that deal(had earned $2 BC already for the 1 item I bought that qualified).
Now I have $27.46 in BC on this account.

I'll be back in a bit with another post, a "real" post. ;-)
I didn't just want to add this little bit onto what I posted yesterday so folks would be sure to see this in case anyone was following along on the R-A stuff.

Sluggy

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

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.

****************
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).

*************
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

Monday, February 10, 2020

This Week on the Dining Table

The "A Great Chicken Buy" Edition................


At Weis on Friday I found chickens marked down to .99¢ a lb.(not that great a deal)but with $3 off instant stickers on them(sell by date of 2/8).  They were each $6+ so these two were specifically just under .52¢ per lb. after the stickers.
Nice.

Moving On....
Onward to the meal planning-

This is what was planned for last week.......

1. Sunday--Fajitas
2. Monday--Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes
3. Tuesday--Leftovers
4. Wednesday--Beef Pie
5. Thursday--FFY
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--?  maybe Take-Out? Who Knows?

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Fajitas
2. Monday--Corned Beef, Cabbage
3. Tuesday--Chicken Pasta Casserole
4. Wednesday--Leftovers
5. Thursday--Chinese Take-Out Soup
6. Friday--TV Dinners(I had a turkey one)
7. Saturday--FFY(I had Jello)

Last week saw 3 nights of home cooked dinners, 3 nights of leftovers/FFY or TV dinners, and 1 night of Eating Out/Take-Out(lots of Hot and Sour Soup!). 

Everything was fine until Wednesday when Hubs and I got hit with some cold/flu bug.  Then it was Fend for Yourself of sick foods like soup, applesauce, hot tea, mashed potatoes, jello etc.
I hit Weis on Friday and Dollar General on Saturday(for the clearance sale)and I relapsed. So stupid! ugh.

What got put into the freezer last week....
* 3 bags of Pierogies
* 1 can OJ concentrate
* 1 bag of French Fries
* 1 TV dinner
* 2 Asian frozen dinners

What got taken out of the freezer and used.....
*  1.5 bags of frozen cooked Chicken Strips
*  half a bag of Pepper Strips
*  1 hunk of Corned Beef
*  the Chicken Casserole Bake

Lots of spending this past week in the amount of $161.98(Bread Outlet/Weis x 2/Price Chopper/Walmart x 2-but small shops) brings my February Grand Total spending on food to $199.10 so far.

My savings percentage last week was 47.07%(without Rite-Aid trips)and February's monthly savings total comes in at 46.34%(w/out R-A).  

I have 19 more food shopping/spending days in February.

Leftovers going into this week.....Baked Beans, Corned Beef.  I didn't cook much so not a lot of leftovers.

Here is this week's "food plan".....
1. Sunday--Roast Chicken, Stuffing(for some), Carrots
2. Monday--Beef Pie(at least for some of us)
3. Tuesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Sausage, Salad, Garlic Bread
4. Wednesday--Doing something with the leftover roast Chicken?
5. Thursday--TV dinners in the freezer?
6. Friday--Leftovers?
7. Saturday--Leftovers?

What needs buying for this menu? I also bought a big pack of 93% Ground Beef at Weis so hamburgers and Beef Pie will happen(and the rest goes into the freezer).
The rest of the week will depend on whether I feel like cooking and who feels like eating "real food" or not. lolz
I made a trip to Urgent Care on Sunday, got some meds and will be up to eating again soon.  Hubs and Ex-CB are feeling better than I am at this point so need feeding. ;-)

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?  

Sluggy

Friday, February 7, 2020

Frugal Friday.....the February 7th Edition

A quick look at what frugal things occurred in Sluggy's world this past week........

*  I earned .20¢ on Ibotta(2 x .10¢ for buying any item).  It's sort of hard to earn rebates when you aren't buying much. lolz

*  I got last Friday's Weis Freebie.......
Yet again, it was a 2 liter bottle of Weis soda.  This time I got a photo before Ex-College Boy polished it off. ;-)

*  I hit the Bread Outlet for 3 loaves of bread(really 1 loaf and 2 bags of hamburger rolls)this past week. $4 out the door for $12+ worth of premium bread products.

*  My best "deals" at Weis last week were these items.....


Fantastic Friday Hormel chili was .99¢ per can if you bought at least 3 cans at a time.  No coupons for it and I got the last 2 cans of regular chili so had to buy a turkey one.
The other good deal was a jar of clearance type pickles for $1.50.  I also have a .50¢/1 Weis digital Q for it on my card and it doubled to $1 off, making the pickles .50¢ OOP.

*  I sold something on eBay......

2 bottles of an old, discontinued Nexxus shampoo from my stash.  I got these from Rite-Aid(of course!lol)a few years ago so I didn't pay anything for them really.  A nice little profit on this sale. ;-)

*  I got some stuff at Rite-Aid........


And earned a $20 prepaid Visa card to boot..........

And there were some free Qs and samples on Wellness Wednesday as well........



*  I found money.....and whoah doggy was this a GOOD week for that!!!

First off there was this..........


A penny and a dime near the self-checkout machine I used at Weis last Friday.

On Tuesday Hubs and I went to Walmart to look for inexpensive new phone cases(for our new phones) and to pick up almond milk and cheese.  As we approached a vacant self-checkout I saw this hanging out of the machine and nobody was at the machine........


Two $20 bills hanging from the bill chute!!!

There was nobody there so we looked around to see if we could figure out if someone walking away from the self-checkout corral might be the owner.
We agreed that if we turned it into Customer Service it would just 'disappear' into someone's pocket(not the rightful owners)because well, it's Walmart.  So we rang our items out exceedingly slowly in hopes whomever left the cash would realize it and return to find it.  We must have spent 20 minutes ringing up our 6 items(mostly standing there not ringing things up to stretch out our time at the machine)but no one came back.
So tell me, what would you have done?  And what should I do with this windfall?......keep it?....use it for a food bank donation or some other charity?....apply it to our food budget?....or ?
Even if I don't keep it, this still COUNTS in my Found Money Tally.....ya hear me KIM?!? hehehe

Then on Wednesday at Rite-Aid I found this(though after Tuesday's find, it seems quite anti-climatic lol)......


A penny under the candy racks at the register.  That blur in the background is Dixie thinking I have something she can eat so she's being quite attentive to what I am doing here. lolz

Total found money for the week........$40.12
Total found money for the year.......$42.42

That's about all to report in on, except I did find something else this week or rather Ex-College Boy brought us home some sickness.
Yay me!
All three of us have whatever it is.
I don't think it's the flu(I got a shot in Dec.)but a run of the mill cold with sinus and chest gunk.
Good time folks, good times.....

So I may not be posting for a couple days/over the weekend.  I'll be on a tea, soup, vitamin C and cough drop diet until further notice and blowing through our stockpile of Kleenex(literally-blowing!). ;-)
If any of y'all are ill, I commiserate with ya and as for the rest of y'all who are not sick, stay away from those of us who are! hehe


Now tell us all the frugal stuff that happened in your world this past week too!

Sluggy

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Wellness Wednesday & Stuff

I almost forgot that yesterday was Wellness Wednesday for February!  Can you imagine that? ;-)

But I did get over to R-A and it seems like Wellness Wednesday is mostly gone.  True, if you are signed up for the 65+ Wellness program you get a 20% discount on what you buy(unless it's sale price is better than that)on WW.  But if you are a Gold Level Wellness member you get 20% off reg. price everyday so that's really not a deal to me.
But no more coupons for WW as far as I can tell. 8-(

Also Rite-Aid seems to have also discontinued it's Allergy Rewards Program(for every $75 spent on select Allergy Products you earn a $20 BC reward during a calendar year).  No one has gotten any credit toward this program for buying these items since Jan.1st it's been reported and there is no mention of it on the end part of receipts anymore.
Boo.

But I went up to Rite-Aid anyway to do a deal for this week.
Like Ms Goose on the Living Large For Much Less blog mentioned last week, if you got your R-A $20 Visa debit card from the last Spend $50/Get $20 Visa card from that previous promotion it's a good week to try to roll it to get another $20 Visa card this week.

While I didn't use my $20 Visa card I used some Rite-Aid gift cards earned in 2018 from a "Spend $50/Get a $10 R-A gift card Beauty" Deal instead.
I'd rather spend the gift cards only valid at R-A and keep the Visa debit card because I can spend it anywhere.  They are valid for 6 months so I can deal with that time frame to use them up.

So here is what I bought at first--
2 x R-A Vitamin D3 BOGOFree=$15.99
2 x R-A Vitamin C BOGOFree=$9.99
4 x Airwick double refills BOGOFree=$13.98
2 x Cover Girl eye palettes 20% disc.=$10.38
SubTotal......$50.34

Coupons Used
1 x $4 wyspend $20 R-A CatQ=$4.00
1 x $5 wyspend $25 R-A Vitamins R-AQ=$5.00
2 x $5.50/2 Airwick double refills IPQ=$11.00
2 x $3/1 Cover Girl eye items IPQ=$6.00
1 x $2/1 Cover Girl item receiptQ=$2.00
Coupon Total.......$28.00

$50.34-$28.00=$22.34 +.06¢ tax=$22.40
I should have earned my Reward Code for the $20 Visa card except.....

Cover Girl EYE items didn't qualify so I had to return them and rebuy two CG face items. ugh.
So the return of the CG eye items earned me back my $10 BC I had used plus $1.01 in cash(due to coupons and sales tax paid).


Not sure why the computer said give me cash since I used BC and gift cards but whatever. ;-)

So this is what I actually bought......



2 x R-A Vitamin D3 BOGOFree=$15.99
2 x R-A Vitamin C BOGOFree=$9.99
4 x Airwick double refills BOGOFree=$13.98
2 x Cover Girl concealers BOGO50%=$11.23
SubTotal......$51.19

Coupons Used
1 x $4 wyspend $20 R-A CatQ=$4.00
1 x $5 wyspend $25 R-A Vitamins R-AQ=$5.00
2 x $5.50/2 Airwick double refills IPQ=$11.00
2 x $3/1 Cover Girl face items IPQ=$6.00
Coupon Total.......$26.00

$51.19-$26.00=$25.19
If I had done the transaction correctly the first time I would have used the whole $10 in BC then $15.19 in free R-A gift cards so a "spend down" of $5.19

As it stands however I used $5.55 of my $10 BC and put the rest of the $11.39 OOP on various free R-A gift cards("spending" $16.94), received $1.01 in cash back on the botched transaction and earned my $20 Visa card code.
rah.


I've entered the code and got an email of congrats and my Visa card will be here in about 2 weeks.

Though there were no Wellness Wednesday coupons they did have the WW table set up with other coupons and samples on it........


$2/1 CeraVe item Qs and  $5 wyspend $25 R-A vitamins Qs.  R-A is introducing a new "cleaner" line of Vitamins and what with the whole R-A line of vitamins BOGOFree this week I incorporated those into what I bought.  If you need vitamins and you spend $25 it's not too bad a deal at R-A this weeek since their vitamins are also BOGOF.
That $5 Q is valid through Saturday 2/8 only though so if you find them in your store you have to use it this week but be warned, when I used the Q on 2/5 it beeped and the register said it was expired! lolz
Good old Rite-Aid.......

They also have 2 different CeraVe samples, Ricola drops(the new ones)and a little pill container for a key ring from Bayer.
Better than a poke in the eye with a stick but WWQs going away makes me sad.
But the company has to change things to stay competitive and not go bankrupt so it's understandable.

Did y'all buy anything at Rite-Aid this week?

Sluggy