Free Stuff @ Walgreens!!

Walgreens offers a register rewards (RR) program where you buy certain products and get a coupon back for your next shopping trip. There are some pretty good freebies, but the sale ends on Sat, so find time to get there on Fri or Sat!! Now, how the freebies work is that you pay for the item and then you will get the same amout in a coupon for your next purchase (which can be in ten minutes or the next day, just makes sure to use them before they expire!!).

FREE Stuff!!

• Nivea Shave Gel - 2.49 (according to Jeff, this is the BEST shaving gel)
• Right Guard Deodorant - 2.49
• Dove Deodorant - 3.99
• Johnson Softwash - 5.99
• Aquafresh - 1.99
• Infusium Shampoo or Conditioner - 4.99

NOW, here's what you need to know about RR's!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!
There are no limits.... BUT what I've heard in the past is that if you were to buy a product w/RR's that you earned from buying the SAME product, then you will not get more RR's... BUT if you were to get the toothpaste and say the Dove deodorant, got your RR's, then went right back and bought the Softwash and shave gel using the Dove and Aquafresh RR's, then you would be all set. So you just have to remember what you bought to earn the RR's that you're spending and then go back as often as you can to buy other things...

ANOTHER tip!! If you have coupons for these free items USE them!! Coupons will make these better than free. Nothing better than having a store PAY you to take some stuff off their hands, right?? For example, you have a $1 Nivea coupon, when you buy that item and use the coupon, then you would still get back the full value of the Nivea despite paying 2.49 minus $1.

Ok one more RR tip!! When spending RR's, make sure that you've gotten up to at least the value of the RR you plan to spend. For example, you have 5.99 in RR's to spend from the Softwash and you pick up the Dove Deodorant and the Aquafresh, which comes to 5.98. I'm not sure if they will adjust the penny or not, but just to be safe, they have 10 cent xmas gift bags. Add one of those, pay with your RR's and 9 cents (plus tax IF you're unlucky enough to live in a state that charges sales tax - BLAH to that!!) then you will be sure to get back your 5.98 in RR's.

So, here is a possible scenario:
Trip#1
Aquafresh
Right Guard
Dove Deo
Nivea Shave Gel
Total comes to $10.96, which you will pay and then get right back in RR's

Put that stuff in the car and head back in!
Trip #2
Infusium
Softwash
Total comes to $10.98, you pay with your $10.96 in RR's and two cents (besides, who wouldn't want to add in their own two cents?). You get $10.98 in RR's.

Repeat trip #1, but don't forget to add a 1o cent gift back since your total will be less than the RR's from trip #2. Alternate these scenarios as many times as you can to stock up! If you want to spend less money out of pocket, you could break this up into smaller txn's, but to spend $10 that you can keep rolling into more free stuff would be worth it to me...

And just for fun, here are some other good deals...

• Crayola Color Wonder marker sets - BOGO (I <3>
• 4 ft inflatable Snowman or Penguin - BOGO - 19.99, so really about $10 each - maybe not a great deal, but they look awfully cute, so thought I'd mention it. HA
• Cottonelle Bath tissue 12pk - 2 for $9 - IN AD COUPON, so grab the flyer when you go in OR you can print the coupon from Walgreens.com before you go

Happy shopping!! eeerrrhhh.. I mean Happy Thanksgiving and hope you've enjoyed Black Friday eve! :-)

Free Paper Towels & Cheap Breyers Ice Cream @ Shaw's until Nov 12

I haven't been keeping an eye on the sales so much lately, but had to share this one...

This week at Shaw's they have a spend $30 get back $15 in coupons for your next order. I know I've mentioned this before, but most people don't realize that these deals are on the pre-sale prices, so you don't REALLY have to spend $30 to get the $15 back. I haven't been clipping coupons for awhile, so all of the deals I'm going to post are without coupons.

Scott Paper Towels
pre-sale price = $2.09/roll
sale price = $0.99
Buy 15 rolls for $14.85
It gets even better... the store I went to yesterday had a blinky coupon machine on the shelf for $1 off 4, so I grabbed 4 coupons & bought 16 rolls instead of 15 - paid $11.85 and got $15 back for my next shopping trip. Nothing like getting paid to take home 16 rolls of paper towels, so keep an eye out for the coupon machine. :-)

Breyers Ice Cream
pre-sale price = $5.29
sale price = $2.99
Buy 6 cartons of ice cream for $17.94 - use the $15 in coupons from the paper towels, pay $2.94 and you will get another round of $15 in coupons for your next trip.

There are lots of different items that are included in the spend $30, get $15 deal - just check the back page of the weekly circular for what's included. Rumor has it that the Old El Paso products aren't working for the deal - maybe they were skipped in the system programming - so I'd stay away from those, but mix & match... get what you need & stock up on stuff that you will use... One last tip - you CAN double or triple the deal - meaning that you could buy BOTH the paper towels & ice cream in one transaction and you'd get back $30 in coupons.

I collected a few pre-sale & sale prices on the items that I'm interested in, so here are a few to consider if you want to make a plan before you shop...

I've listed the pre-sale price, the sale price, & quantity needed if that is the ONLY thing you were to buy to get the deal. The end price is assuming, you've already done a deal & already have $15 in coupons. So, for example, you'd only pay $1.83 for 17 pasta sides. Not too shabby!! If you have coupons for any of these items - USE EM because it will only bring down the amount that you pay.

Item
Knorr Pasta Sides Pre-sale = $1.79; Sale = $0.99
(buy 17, so $16.83 minus $15 = 1.83)

Knorr Rice Sides Pre-sale = $1.69; Sale = $0.99
(buy 18, so $17.82 minus $15 = $2.82)

Lipton Soup Mix Pre-sale = $1.69; Sale = $0.99
(buy 18, so $17.82 minus $15 = $2.82)

Progresso Broth Pre-sale = $2.69; Sale = $1.49
(buy 12, so $17.88 minus $15 = $2.88)

Progresso Soup Pre-sale = $2.50; Sale = $1.49
(buy 12, so $17.88 minus $15 = $2.88)

Skippy Peanut Butter Pre-sale = $2.29; Sale = $1.99
(buy 14, so $27.86 minus $15 = $12.86 - not a GREAT deal, but not too bad if you mix these in with other items, but less than $1/jar of PB is not THAT bad either & we use TONS of PB here)

Klondike Bars Pre-sale = $3.99; Sale = $2.99
(buy 8, so $23.92 minus $15 = $8.92)

Hellman's Mayo Pre-sale = $3.99; Sale = $2.99
(buy 8, so $23.92 minus $15 = $8.92)

Ragu Pasta Sauce Pre-sale = $2.50; Sale = $1.99
(buy 12, so $23.88 minus $15 = $8.88)

Shedd's Country Crock Spread Pre-sale = $4.99; Sale = $3.39
(buy 7, so $23.73 minus $15 = $8.73 - for this one, IF you want to stock up, I'd buy 6 + one 99 cent item - like a soup mix, because 6 is VERY close to the $30 needed)

Q-tips Pre-sale = $2.99; Sale = $2.50
Again.. mix these in with something else if you really need 'em... not worth it to buy $30 worth of Q tips unless your family goes through hundreds/month...

Happy Shopping!!

Great sale at CVS this week!

Three day sale - Aug 23-25
Composition Paper - 100 sheets - 99 cents, FREE after ECBs
Maybeline Mascara - BOGO

Lots of good ECB deals:
Pepsi 12-pks 4 for $12, get 3 ECB's back, 4 for $9 or $2.25 each
Kraft Mac & Cheese = 4/$4 - get back 2 ECB, so 4 boxes for $2 or 50 cents each (I think I recently saw a buy 3 get one free coupon in the paper, so that would be 4 boxes for $3 if you have that)
Spend $15 on Enegizer Batteries, get back $5 ECBs
Spend $10 on Glade air fresheners and get $3 ECBs (there are USUALLY Glade coupons around to make this deal worthwhile)
Spend $25 on Aveeno skin, sun, or hair and get $10 ECB (I'm going to look for some coupons for this - I wanted to try the baby Aveeno sunscreen)
Spend $15 on Neutrogena skin, sun,men's, or hair and get $5 ECB
Spend $15 on Biore, Jergens or Curel Skin Care or John Frieda Hair Care and get $5 ECB
Spend $15 on Revlon Face, Eye, Lip or Nail and get $7 ECB (I REALLY like the new mousse mineral make up)
Speedstick $2.49 get back $1 ECB, so $1.49 each (limit 2)
Addidas deodorant - get $3 ECB, price is not listed
CVS Skincare products - get $3 ECB when you buy 2 (sometimes, the travel packs of cotton rounds are included and if they are this time, they would be a money maker at 99 cents each. )
Proctor & Gamble feminine care products - get $2 ECB when you buy 2
Excedrin Menstrual Complete, Excedrin Migraine or Vagistat products - get $3 ECB
Carefree Pantylines $3.79 with $3.79 back in ECB's = FREE!! Limit 4!

Other deals...
Summer clearanace 50% off - some things were tempting at 40% off last week, such as fans and chairs in a bag... I also like their knock-off Crocs for kids, which will be about $4 a pair. Might be worth it to get larger sizes for next summer. (Jaden has two pairs & loves em)
T-Shirts 5 for $10 - why not at $2 each?

Buy-One-Get-One FREE (BOGO)
CVS Batteries (I have a coupon for a free pack of them, so I'm thinking that SHOULD get me TWO free packs. You can never have enough batteries!)
Cover Girl Outlast lip color & lipstain - there are always CG coupons in the Proctor & Gamble inserts - I think the last one was $1 off 1 OR $2.50 off of two, which you could definitely use for this deal, since you'd be *buying* two items.
Almay Foundation, powder, blush or concealer


(ECB = Extra Care Bucks, which are coupons that are as good as cash at CVS)

Kraft Deal @ Shaw's... and Cheap Post Cereal

Want some free or more than free Kraft products? The only catch is that you have to send away a mail-in-rebate...

Shaw's is running a Kraft promo that expires on 8/23. Here's the deal - buy $25 worth of specific products and get a $5 coupon for your next shopping trip AND $20 from a mail in rebate (takes 6-8 weeks). The list of products can be found on the back of this week's flyer or on signs throughout the store.

For this, I went by the sale prices to meet the $25 AND I used mfg coupons to lower my total amount paid. I happened to stumble upon some Kraft coupon books in the store - which was quite fortunate as I'm not exactly organized these days when it comes to coupons. Just as an example, here is what I bought:

1 bottle A1 - found a coupon on the display for $1 off beef when you buy A1 and who doesn't need beef?
2 boxes of Ritz Bits Crackers - $1 off 2 from the Kraft coupon book
2 boxes of Teddy Graham Munch Packs (12 single serve each) - $1 off 1 from the Kraft coupon book; used 2
4 Planters Trail Mix - $1 off 2 from the Kraft coupon book
2 boxes of Capri Sun

Total before coupons = $26.41 (could've gotten one less trail mix, but the coupons were $1 off 2)
Total after coupons = $20.41 minus $5 from last week's Proctor & Gamble deal
Got back $5 coupon for next trip and $20 in a few weeks from the rebate.

There were plenty of products to choose from, I just chose what we'd be most likely to use at my house. A few of the other products included in the deal that I can think of off the top of my head... Kraft Mac & Cheese (4/$3), DiGiorno pizzas, Kraft shredded or cubed cheese, Oscar Mayer, Jello, Miracle Whip, Wheat Thins, Starbucks, etc...

The offer is only 1 rebate per address/household, but you can always send the $20 to someone else's address... parents, siblings, friends, whoever. I'm sure they won't mind, especially if you put their name on it. I'm thinking about going back for some more of the munch packs, as they're great to have in the car for lil ones.

Other notable deal this week...
Post cereals are on sale for 2 boxes for $5... there is a coupon in the flyer for $4 off when you buy 4 boxes AND there were two Post cereal coupons in the newspaper inserts last week or so, which I did happen to have, so $10 - $4 - $2 = $1 per box.

Happy Shopping!! :-)

P.S. Nothing too exciting at CVS this week. Just thought I'd mention it...

Shaw's Sale Ending TOMORROW 8/6

I love it when Shaw's runs specials that say, spend X amount and get X amount back on your next shopping trip, because what most people don't realize is that the amount that you NEED to spend to get the money back is based off of shelf price, so the more deeply discounted the item is, the less you will spend.

This week, there were two specials ... one where you needed to spend $30 to get $15 back and another where you spend $20 and got $5 back. You can mix and match the products, you just need to be aware of the shelf price. The spend $30 deal can be doubled up - say spend $60 get $30, however the spend $20 cannot be, which is important, because you want to make sure that you divide up your purchases accordingly.

Here is how I worked this out today to get the most for my money, while limiting my purchases that things that we will use...

Trip #1
4 All Small & Might HE
2 Diet Snapple 6-pks
13 Lipton Rice Sides
2 Lipton Tea bags
----------------------------
Shelf total = $61.80
Sale Price total = $41
Coupons* = $8
Price Paid = $33.00
Coupons returned = 6 x $5 off your next purchase = $30

*Coupons used:
$1 off 2 All
$1 off 3 Lipton sides
$1 off 2 teabags
$5 from a previous shopping trip

Trip #2
1 8pk of Bounty Paper Towels
1 box feminine products
1 Puffs Plus Cube
----------------------------
Shelf total = $21.47
Sale Price total = $16.49
Coupons* = 3 x $5 from previous trip
Price Paid = $1.49
Coupons returned = 1 x $5 off your next purchase = $5


Trip #3
1 box Pampers Cruisers
1 Puffs Plus Cube
----------------------------
Shelf total = $21.68
Sale Price total = $20.99
Coupons* = 4 x $5 from previous trips
Price Paid = $0.99
Coupons returned = 1 x $5 off your next purchase = $5


Total Cost without discounts = $104.95
Total Savings = $69.47
Total Price Paid = $35.48

Hope this helps someone! Happy Savings!! :)

CVS - MORE Free School Supplies & LOTS of ECB deals!

Shocking! More FREE school supplies. Similar to previous weeks - 3 days only... Items included are as follows:

Erasers or Glue Sticks 3pk or Sticky Notes $0.99
One Subject Notebooks $0.99
Pens 20ct and/or Wooden Pencils 10 ct $0.99
Compass and/or Protractor $1.50
Scissors $2.99
Ruler $0.99
Book Cover $0.99
2 Pocket Poly Portfolios $0.49

For all items, you pay the sales price and get Extra Care Bucks (ECB) back... best way to do it is to buy a few items at a time so that you can use the ECB's earned to buy more things that produce ECB's. Limit is 2 for all.

OTHER ECB deals...
Pampers 2/$20 and then $5 ECB back = $7.50/pk (less any other mfg coupons)

Spend $20 get $10 ECB's on the following products:
Electrasol 2/$9 ($2.25 mfg Q)
Resolve or Woolite 2/$9
Lysol All purpose cleaner 2/$6 ($1 off 2 mfg Q)
Neutra Air 2/$6 ($1.50 mfg Q)
Lysol toilet bowl cleaner 2/$6 ($1 off 2 mfg Q)
Airwick Scented Oil refill 2/$6 ($1 off 2 mfg Q)
Lysol Disinfectant Spray 2/$8 ($1 off 1 mfg Q)

Here's what I am going to do (MAYBE)...
1 Electrasol @ $4.50
1 Neutra Air @ $3
2 toilet cleaner @ $6
1 disinfectant spray @4
1 oil refill @ $3
=20.50 - 2.25 - 1.50 - 1 - 1 = 14.75 with 10 ECB back, so effectively spending $4.75


IF I had multiple coupons, which unfortunately, I do not, I'd get...
4 Electrasol @ $18
1 Neutra Air @ $3
= $21 - 2.25x4 - 1.50 = $10.50 with 10 ECB back, therefore spending 50 cents.

Blink tears FREE after ECB's ($7.99 with 7.99 back in ECB's)

More Free School Supplies at CVS - 7/16-28 ONLY!

Hope you saved your ECB's from last week to spend on more free stuff this week...

MORE FREE School Supplies!!
*Compostion Books 100 sheets - you pay 99 cents and get 99 cents back in ECB's - limit 2
*Erasers, Push-pins, or Binder Clips- you pay 99 cents and get 99 cents back in ECB's - limit 2
*Pencil or Notecard case - you pay 99 cents and get 99 cents back in ECB's - limit 2
*Pilot Easy Touch Pens 2pk - you pay 99 cents and get 99 cents back in ECB's - limit 2
*Swingline TOT Stapler or Caliber Sticky Notes - you pay 99 cents and get 99 cents back in ECB's - limit 2

Back-to-School BOGO's (be sure to check the prices as these aren't always a great deal):
Bic Mechanical Pencils
Sharpie Markers
Stretchable Book Covers
Backpacks
Index Cards
Glue
Scissors
Wooden Pencils
Crayola Crayons
Tape Notebooks


Other noteworthy specials ...
*Colgate Toothpaste - you pay 2/$10 and get 5 back in ECB's - limit 2
*Copy Paper - you pay 2/$10 and get 5 back in ECB's - limit 2
CVS Tampons FREE - you pay $1.99 and get 1.99 back in ECB's - limit 1

*All items with an asterisk are part of the 3 day sale... Sun - Tues ONLY.