Happy Halloween! Don’t forget that today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a $20 Haddy Grace Designs gift certificate! Haddy Grace features the most adorable handmade girls dresses, onsies, & baby shoes, and the prices are ridiculously reasonable. Click here for details.
Now, on to shopping….
I had to take a break from all our weekend festivities to do my Sunday drugstore shopping. I actually decided to skip CVS this week, as the deals there weren’t thrilling me yet again. I’m hoping next week they get their mojo back! But I had a great trip to Walgreens, and I have to give a shout-out to the great staff and manager at the Punta Gorda store. They were all so friendly, helpful, & patient today, even with my gazillion coupons, a self-inflicted fiasco, and 4 complicated transactions. It made shopping truly a pleasure.
Here is what I got:
At Walgreens I spent $12.71 for $118.98 worth of groceries & drugstore merchandise, a savings of 90%. I could’ve saved an additional $6 OOP if I would have been able to print the coupons for the Zarbees Cough Syrup, but alas, there were no more prints available. But those are the breaks and it was still a great deal, and a great shopping trip overall! Since this week’s Beginner’s Guide to Coupons lesson is on Walgreens, I will be a little more detailed than usual on my coupons and transactions, just in case anyone wants to try to copy it. Keep in mind that a few of these P&G coupons expire today, which is why I am trying to post this as early as possible!
Coupons Used:
Transaction #1
(bought 1 Zarbees Cough Syrup, 2 Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrushes, 2 $0.05 filler pencils)
(1) Buy 1, Get 1 Free Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Proctor & Gamble insert, 9/26)
(1) $1 off Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Proctor & Gamble insert, 9/26)
(1) $1 off Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Walgreens November Coupon Booklet)
(1) $2 Register Reward (leftover from Thursday)
(1) $1.60 Register Reward (leftover from Thursday)
Total Spent OOP: $3.76, got back $6, $1 RRs
Transaction #2
(bought (4) Secret Expressions, (4) Olay Ribbons Body Wash, 3 pencils, (2) boxes brown sugar)
(4) $0.50 off Secret (Proctor & Gamble insert 9/26)
(4) $5 off Olay Body Product wyb any Secret (Proctor & Gamble insert 10/31)
(1) Domino Sugar for $0.59 (Walgreens in-ad coupon, automatically doubles)
(1) $0.50 off 2 Domino Brown or Confectioner’s Sugar (Red Plum insert, 10/17)
(1) $1 RR (from Transaction #1)
(1) $6 RR (from Transaction #1)
Total Spent OOP: $3.31, got back $10 RR
Transaction #3
(bought 1 Zarbees Cough Syrup, 2 Oral-B toothbrushes, 2 DayQuil, (2) boxes brown sugar, 1 pencil)
(1) Buy 1, Get 1 Free Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Proctor & Gamble insert, 9/26)
(1) $1 off Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Proctor & Gamble insert, 9/26)
(1) $1 off Oral-B CrossAction Toothbrush (Walgreens November Coupon Booklet)
(1) Domino Sugar for $0.59 (Walgreens in-ad coupon, automatically doubles)
(1) $0.50 off 2 Domino Brown or Confectioner’s Sugar (Red Plum insert, 10/17)
(2) $1.50 off NyQuil or DayQuil (Proctor & Gamble insert, 10/31)
(1) $10 RR (from Transaction #2)
Total Spent OOP: $4.99, got back $6, $5, $1 RRs
Transaction #4
(bought (2) Children’s Advil, (1) bread, (6) tomato sauce, (6) Campbell’s, (1) butter, (2) sugar)
(1) $3 off Children’s Advil
(Walgreens in-ad coupon, automatically doubles)
(1) Domino Sugar for $0.59 (Walgreens in-ad coupon, automatically doubles)
(1) $0.50 off 2 Domino Brown or Confectioner’s Sugar (Red Plum insert, 10/17)
(1) $6 RR (from Transaction #3)
(1) $5 RR (from Transaction #3)
(1) $1 RR (from Transaction #3)
Total Spent OOP: $0.64, no RRs leftover
Since I only went to one store, so far this week I have spent $12.71 for $118.98 worth of groceries and drugstore merchandise, an average savings of 90% for the week.
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Sheila November 1, 2010 at 3:36 am
Hi, how did you use the Campbells soup coupon? It says it excludes Tomato and Chicken Noodle. Great shop btw!!
Ruth November 1, 2010 at 10:37 am
I used the $1.50 off 3 Great for Cooking Soups. Tomato is considered a "Great for Cooking Soup" so it went through fine. I wasn't sure it would work, so I asked her to check it first on that transaction. Combined with the soup on sale for $0.50 this week, it made all 6 cans of tomato soup free!
Kelsey November 1, 2010 at 4:59 pm
How does the Walgreen's in-ad automatically double? I tried using a $3 off in-ad coupon for children's ibuprofin & it didn't double. Is it state-by-state, or am I missunderstanding this? Thanks!
Ruth November 1, 2010 at 5:11 pm
It should automatically double if you buy 2 so that you don't have to use two coupons (and will triple for three, etc., up to the quantity limit stated in the ad.) Does that make sense? It won't double if you are only buying 1 bottle. I bought 2.
Kelsey November 2, 2010 at 2:35 am
That definitely makes sense, thanks! So on the CrossAction toothbrushes, can you do several in one transaction and still get RR's? I see you did, but I don't have a BOGO coupon so not sure if this makes a difference.
Kinda related to that, but I was going to get some shampoos w/ RR but my coupon is $2/2, so not sure if this is possible.
Kim November 2, 2010 at 3:08 am
I have a question about the transactions with the tooth brushes. I understand you can use a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon for one item but could you explain how you used a manufacturer's coupon for buy one get one free and then another manufacturer's for a $1.00 off?
Ruth November 2, 2010 at 3:28 am
Let's see if I can answer all the toothbrush questions….
The Catalina machine will only print 1 RR per transaction for the toothbrushes, even if you buy multiples at one time.
I could use both coupons because I was purchasing 2 items. That confused me a lot at first too, until I started looking at it this way: the $1 off coupon is for the first toothbrush, and then the BOGO coupon is for the second toothbrush–the value of the coupon is for 1 free toothbrush when you buy one. It doesn't matter if the 1st one is discounted by a coupon.
Oh, and the reason I've been buying so many toothbrushes is to fill up my Operation Christmas Child boxes!
Hope that helps!