About Those NeverEnding Receipts.....

As for my Sunday shopping....
I am not even going to attempt to do my usual rundown with prices/values/coupon specifics/etc.
At this point, my head might explode if I tried.
Seriously.
Explode.

I dumped it all out on the table and took 1 shot.
Please note: no shelves were cleared in the making of this haul unlike some people on certain extreme tv reality shows.....*wink wink*.
This is the result of 5 different trips to 5 different Rite-Aids.  I could have spread it out over more stores because we have a ridiculous number of them here, though none of them are EVER fully stocked with sale merchandise.  I could have done more but I didn't want to be, oh, I don't know.....greedy?lol
Ok....to the photo.....

2 Bags Pistachios
6 cans of Coffee
4 cans of Soup
8 boxes Cereal
4 boxes Tylenol Precise Cream/Patches
6 packages of Pencils
4 packs of Pilot Pens
2 Spic n' Span Microfiber Cloths
4 Dishwashing Detergent tabs
2 packages of Maxi-pads
2 Darice Craft Kits
6 cans of Diced Tomatoes
6 cans of Spaghetti Sauce
16 boxes of Pasta
1 bag of Rice(2lb)
2 boxes of Motrin PM
29 Hormel Compleats
2 Simply Asia Noodles

I 'spent' $4.45 on my free gift card.
Used $127 +Ups, got $133 +Ups back so a $6 moneymaker.

Rite-Aid paid me $6 to fill my kitchen table with food and hba!
Have I mentioned how much I "heart" Rite-Aid lately?lol

Highlights for shopping at Rite-Aid this week.......

If you like Pistachios, grab the $1/1 Pistachio Q Here(print it twice).  If you can find a store with the Pistachios on sale for $2.50, get 2 bags.  Use your Qs and after you pay you get a $1 +Ups wyb 2, essentially meaning you pay $1 a bag after +Up.

The Barilla Pasta is on sale $5 for 4 boxes.  You'll receive $5 in +Ups back($1 this week for buying 4 and 4 x $1 ones as this item is a month long food item that generates a $1 +Up).  Free pasta!
Unfortunately it will be hard to find 4 boxes in any one store, as with alot of the food Rite-Aid stocks.

The Hormel Compleats are likewise free this week after +Ups.  Each one is on sale for $1.99 this week and gives back a $1 +Up and is a month long food item that generates another $1 +Up. Pair it with a Q and better than free!

The Special K cereal is BOGO this week.  Use the IP BOGO Q and get 2 boxes for free PLUS it's a month long food item that generates a $1+Up so you'll get $2 in +Ups for 2 boxes....a $2 moneymaker.

The Tylenol Precise is also free or better than free after +Ups.  On sale for $5 each, use the $3/1 or buy 2 and use the $5/2 ManQ, pay $2 or $5(w/the $5/2Q) and receive a $3 +Up for each one you buy.  Depending on the Q you use it's either free or a $1 moneymaker(on 2)after +Ups.

The Coffee is free after the $1 +Up and the $2/1 Rite-Aid Qs available.
The Rite-Aid soup is .19¢ a can until Feb. something-or-other after $1/2 Q as mentioned in a previous post.

The Sauce and Diced Tomatoes are 4 cans for $4 on sale and after the $1 +Up wyb 4 cans.  These are NOT producing a monthlong $1 +Up per can, nor is the soup on sale 4/$5.  A buck a can for tomatoes while not free is a good price for here.

The Stay-free is better than free on sale 2/$5, combined with the BOGO Q and a $1/1 Q after the $2 +Ups wyb 2 packages.

The pens and pencils are a previously mentioned deal as well, though none of my pencils produced the $2 +Up on Sunday.  Anybody else having problems with that +Up?

Some Rite-Aids have the Spic n Span branded cleaning aids/tools 50% off(.50¢ per item)and there is a $1/1 Spin n Span Q on coupons dotcom so you can pick up free cleaning tools.

It's difficult to see on top of the pasta boxes but there is a 2lb. bag of white rice.  It and the brown rice are producing a $1 monthlong +Ups.  With my 20% Wellness +Discount the $1.49 per bag is $1.19, so after +Up it cost me .19¢.  The brown rice is higher at $1.69 so after 20% off it will cost you .35¢.

If anyone needs an particular(about stacking Qs or location of Qs)just leave a comment.

And that's just what I deemed worthy of buying for my family.  There are even more deals this week to be had but I didn't want to just buy stuff for the sake of buying it.
This is all part of my "Intentional Purchasing Plan" for 2011.  Having a plan for everything I bring home, be it using, giving away, donating.  No more buying stuff just because it's a moneymaker unless I have a plan for it ahead of time.

It was a sweet day of deal shopping on Sunday, except for the new fly in the Rite-Aid ointment.
Word is that register receipts are now printing out a limited number of +Up rewards per tape.  The number is somewhere around 24 or so.  If you are due back more than around that amount of individual rewards, some may not print.
My advise.....Keep your transactions shorter to avoid having this happen!

I fell victim to this new glitch twice on Sunday.  I was just trying to get it all done and quickly since I didn't need to break the shops into $25 lots to use a $5 off $25 Q on each order.
That's what I get for being efficient and helpful to my cashiers......argh!

Being the super nerd that I am, I measured my receipt tapes before I cut up the +Up Rewards.
1 tape was 6 feet long, 2 tapes topped off at 8 feet long, 1 came in at 8 feet, 10 inches and 1 was 9 FEET LONG!
Here it is next to the yardstick....mind you the receipt is folded twice so 3 layers deep.  8-))

They looked like those rhythmic gymnastic ribbons you see on the Olympics.

Just dye the register tape pink and learn how to hoist my leg up over my head and I'm alllll set! lol


Here's the big ol' numbers round up--

THESE TRIPS
Number of Transactions.....6
Total Spent....$4.35  put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$312.94
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$00.00
Resolution Reward....$40.00(1 Me, 1 BIL)
+Up Rewards earned...$133.00
+Up Rewards spent...$127.00
+Up Rewards left to spend....$138.00

 
GRAND TOTALS--January Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......24
Total Spent....$12.48 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$1086.51
SCR qualified for....$12.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$40.00

+UPS Totals for Jan. SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 1/7.....$132.00
+Up Rewards spent....$287.50
+Up Rewards earned....$312.00
+Up Rewards left....$138.00 includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Sluggy

Just a Fine Mess

I don't have time to post Sunday's Rite-Aid Rampage today but here's a sneak peek at my mess of register tapes.......

5 receipts......
4 of which are taller than me and have +Up Reward errors that I got to chat with Customer Service about this morning.
So much fun!....yah......you're not buying the "fun" crack, are you? lol

I need to do some post writing tonight that doesn't involve Rite-Aid so I have something for folks to read on the blog tomorrow.
I also need to put away a lot of stuff taking up my whole kitchen table at the moment so I can serve dinner.
Come back tomorrow!

Sluggy

Giving to Others......Friday at Rite-Aid

I don't know what possessed me, but I went back to Rite-Aid on Friday to do the Spend $20 on Aquafresh and get $10 +Up Rewards.

Ok, I DO know what possessed me.

I dropped off a load to the tiny little local food bank in my town on the 31st.  The 'food bank ladies' were there and I got to meet them finally.  Every time before the food bank wasn't open when I had goodies to drop off and I dealt with the church secretary.

So I popped me head into the food bank room and asked if I could drop some bags of stuff off.
As I brought in bag after bag, one of the ladies asked me if I was 'that lady who shops a lot of great sales and gets stuff for free and brings lots of food to the food bank'.
Um....I guess that would be me.lolol
The church secretary had been telling them tales about me and my escapades apparently over the last year, so they were happy to put a face to the "legend". ;-)
They gushed and gushed over me until frankly I felt like Garth..."totally not worthy".

So I've had that meeting in the back of my head lately.  It's pushing me to try to do more and give more to the food bank.  For me, 2010 was so NOT about getting much food for free or real cheap so most of what I brought them wasn't food but toiletries and paper goods.  I'm crossing my fingers that the food coupons get better in 2011 so I can have more actual food in the bags I take in to them.

Now the last thing we need is another tube of toothpaste, but this Aquafresh deal was so easy, didn't cost me anything but my time, some gas to get to the store and some ink and paper to print the necessary coupons.

8 tubes of Aquafresh a $6 moneymaker at +Ups.
6 cans of soup at .19¢ per can with Q.
2 packs of Angel Soft TP for .70¢ a pack after sale and $1 +Ups wyb2.
1 can of Cranberry Glop on clearance for .32¢.
I ended up using $9 +Ups, getting back $11 +Ups and it cost me .85¢ off my free Rite-Aid gift card.

The Toothpaste and soup will go into the food bank donation pile.
The TP will go to BIL and I'm keeping the Ocean Spray Glop. ;-)

Which leads me to a food bank donation dilemma I am having.

If you've been reading here for awhile you know I have been donating food/hba to a relative that is having financial problems.   This help has pretty much been on a regular basis since the fall(and irregularly before then).
This relative frequents this food bank as part of other help they receive.
Should I just give my donations to them since they are family?
Should I give my donations to the food bank and have the relative get stuff from there instead of from me directly?
Should I divide up what I have and give to both?....and if so, how much to each?

When I give to the relative directly they still go to the food bank as well....it's not like my donation directly to them keeps them from using the fb.

I don't know....I was letting the relative choose from my donation stash first and then taking what they didn't want to the food bank.  I'm thinking this is probably the best way to handle things.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Anyway, here are my updated Rite-Aid totals for this shop.....


THIS TRIP
Number of Transactions.....1
Total Spent....$.85 put on free Rite-Aid gift card)
Value of Items....$43.99
SCR qualified for...$0.00
Other Rebates earned...$0.00
Gift Cards earned....$00.00
+Up Rewards earned...$11.00
+Up Rewards spent...$9.00
+Up Rewards left to spend....$132.00

 
GRAND TOTALS--January Rebate Period so far

Number of Transactions......18
Total Spent....$8.13 put on free Gift Cards/Certificates so ZERO OOP
Value of Items purchased....$773.57
SCR qualified for....$12.00
Other Cash....$0.00
Additional Rebates....$0.00
Additional Non-Cash Rewards....$0.00

+UPS Totals for Jan. SCR period
+Up Rewards carryover from 1/6.....$130.00
+Up Rewards spent....$160.50
+Up Rewards earned....$179.00
+Up Rewards left....$132.00 includes ALL +Ups not just ones from this SCR period

Sluggy

Timing Sales Cycles with Coupons=Savings!

 **This post is part of the Money Saving Challenge over on FRUGAL MAKES CENTS.**

It seems like all I do lately is shop and post about Rite-Aid trips!
I find this highly amusing as I signed on to go on a January Spending Diet.....lol
Yep, low spending and only the necessaries in January.
I don't know....maybe it's the contrarian in me.
I'm fairly frugal and keep to a food/hba budget each month.
But tell me NOT to spend and all hell breaks loose! ;-)

But I DO consider stocking up when things are cheap a necessary shop.
It may not be a life/death decision to buy that 10lbs. of pork loin today or this month but come the next 3-4 months when we want pork chops, I am not at the whim of the $3.99 or more per lb. at the grocery store butcher. 
Yep, saving big bucks on food/hba is necessary even in a no spending month deal.

And that is my not-so-subtle segue into one of the great ideas on saving money that anyone forearmed with some sales cycle knowledge and some spare food/hba budget cash can jump on.

Here is what I did over the last week or so to save money.

We have a dishwasher.
Dishwasher detergents are pricey, right?
So I pick it up when I find it cheap.
Once a year, Finish brand releases a high value coupon(some years they release it two times during a year).  It's generally $2 or more and it's usually available at the beginning of the year.
I knew this baby was coming and I was ready to start saving!
But phooey on the coupon gods.....this year my region did NOT get the yummy $2.25 off 1 item coupon!

So I bit the eBay bullet and paid someone to clip a pile of this coupon for me.
And wouldn't ya know it! the sales started for Finish dishwasher detergent immediately after the coupon came out the Sunday before last.

Walgreen's had a deal last week....Finish was on sale for $3.49 a box.  After coupon & tax here, it was $1.45 a box.  And for each box you bought you received a $1.50 RR(1 per transaction), making it free after Q and Register Reward.

My envelope of coupons arrived on Thursday.  I was chomping at the bit to use these babies so I went up to Wags.
Usually by Thursday here at Wags, with the good or free deals(which this was!), the shelves are long past cleared.
This particular coupon not being released here worked in my favor.....Wags was lousy with Finish!! ;-)
I did 2 transactions and bought 2 boxes.....plus a clearance jar of Italian Herbs as we were out.

Total spent....$3.49($2.90 for the dish detergent).
I have $3 in RRs to roll.
Why did I stop at 2 boxes?
Well, first off I am NOT anxious to get back into the Wags scene and rolling RRs and second, I knew Rite-Aid and CVS would have deals on this item in short order.

And the very next week(yesterday), those 2 drug chains started sales on Finish. 
The Rite-Aid deal is BOGO which is pretty sweet usually.  Not so sweet if the regular price on 1 box is $6.49 however!lol
So 2 boxes on BOGO sale using 2 x $2.25 Qs still means I am out of pocket(or out of free gift card in my case)$1.99 for 2 boxes or $1 a box + tax.
CVS came through with a better deal.  This week the Finish is on sale for $3 a box, which after $2.25 Q makes each box .75¢+ tax.  And if you buy $20 of Airwick and/or Finish this week you get a $10 ECB reward back.
So the deal is buy 7 boxes, spend $5.25 out of pocket and get $10 in ECBs back.
Even without the ECB, you spend less OOP than at Rite-Aid with the Q.

The problem is finding 7 boxes here in the CVS stores past 9am on Sunday morning!
They get hit and hit early and hard on the good deals....
But again, no $2.25 in our inserts worked to my advantage.  I slept late on Sunday and still found plenty of Finish in the late afternoon to buy....
And I bought 14.
I did the deal on my card....

And then I did it again on Hubs card at a different CVS.
I still had 4 Qs left.  So I used them at Rite-Aid, but we'll talk about Sunday's Rite-Aid rampage another time. ;-)

I spent $11.14 with tax at CVS for 14 boxes.
$2.90 at Wags + $11.14 at CVS=$14.04 for 16 boxes of dishwasher detergent and I have $3 to spend at Wags and $20 to spend at CVS.
After I spent zero out of pocket to buy 4 more at Rite-Aid(thanks to my free gift cards and +Up Rewards) I now have a yearly supply of dishwasher detergent in place.

Yes, I may buy a bottle or box here or there if it's an amazing price or free during the rest of the year, but this is one item I can check off my needing to purchase for the whole year list!

Sluggy

A New Giveaway Winner Chosen!

Since a solid week has elapsed since I picked the winner of the MyBlogSpark/Safeway/Gladware/Betty Crocker Giveaway with no contact from that winner, I have drawn a new winner from our 48 remaining valid entries.

Random dotorg has smiled upon Entry #23....

Ashley said...

Found this giveaway on the blog post at Looking forward to an equally frugal 2010! reynoldsmommy at gmail dot com #3

December 16, 2010 11:21 PM

Congratulations Ashley!
You have 48 hours from this post time stamp to email me your mailing information(along with your phone number as the company asks for that too).  You can find my contact email on my Profile Page(see the About Me section on the right sidebar).


This giveaway should teach everyone 2 things when entering a giveaway......
1. Always leave your contact information in your entry, especially if you don't link your info from your Blogger ID or post anonymously.
2. It pays to use other blogs to find giveaways.  Ashley found us here through Frances' blog and they both received extra entries for blogging and directing readers here!


Sluggy