A Shopping High

I know that the amazing deals you can get at the various stores may be old-hat to a lot of you, but I want to share today's experience with all of you, in case there are some out there who are still not convinced and think it just takes way too long to do this stuff! I just got home from a rather impromptu trip to Walgreen's and CVS. I was on my way home from teaching some lessons and I was close to a Walgreen's - so I decided to stop in. I had two raincheck slips from last week because they were out of the Keri lotion that was on sale with the Register Rewards for a total net of $.99, and they were also out of the Papermate 10 pack of mechanical pencils that were on sale for $.39. One of the cool things that Walgreen's does is if there is a register reward associated with the item that they have out of stock, the price guaranteed on the raincheck is the one with the register reward factored in. So - the Keri Lotion wasn't on sale this week and was back to its usual price of $9.99, but I was armed with my raincheck (and the super nice manager gave me the raincheck for 2 bottles at $.99 each). Then I had 2 manufacturer coupons for $2 off each - so I made $1 on each of them. I had several other things in my transaction to absorb the overage - so that was nice. Well, much to my surprise and delight - the register printed out a $5 Register Reward for the purchase of 2 Keri Lotions! So, not only did I make $1 on each bottle, but I made an additional $5!!! I ended up walking away from Walgreen's with all of the following for a total of $5.16 (total:
4 - 1/2 inch binders
3 - bags of Twizzlers
3 - bags of Brach's Candy Corn
2 - bottles of 15 oz. Keri Lotion
2 - bags of 10 count Papermate Mechanical Pencils
And I have $6 in Register Rewards for next time!

So, I was feeling so good about my purchases at Walgreen's, that I decided to pop into CVS before heading home. I remembered that a few things were on sale that I wanted to check on. Of course I scanned my Extra Care Card on the magic coupon machine and it printed out tons of coupons. The most significant ones were for a free box of CVS brand fabric bandages (up to $4.59 in value) and a free Hershey's Caramello Bar, $3 off the new Huggies Slip-On diapers, and $3 off a $15 Babycare purchase. Well, I had already printed off CVS and manufacturer coupons for the Huggies Slip-On Diapers (that were also part of the free gas promo). So, I decided to go ahead and get 3 packages of the diapers (since I now had 3 CVS coupons for $3 off each and 2 manufacturer coupons for $2 off each), and the baby care coupon. Then I realized I was only $3 shy of qualifying for the free gas card. So, I added a few more things to my basket (paired with coupons) to get me to the $30 mark. Then I added in the free items that I mentioned above - and realized I was up to about $46 worth of stuff. So, I added some packs of Trident Gum (which were on sale and I had coupons for them) to get me to the $50 mark - so I could use the $10 off a $50 purchase coupon. This may sound totally confusing but - I ended up getting everything in the picture for a grand out-of-pocket total of $3.21 + $3 in Extra Care Bucks + $10 gas card!!!! I basically made $10 on everything I bought!!! It was so much fun!

So here's the kicker: I spent ZERO time at home going over lists and salespapers trying to figure out how to make this work. I just had my coupon binder with me and matched them up in the store. I was in and out of CVS in less than 20 minutes! It can be done people - with basically NO prep time! I'm stocked on diapers for a while, my candy bag for my students is stocked, and I have plenty of lotion. Ahhh! I'm on a total shopping high!!! :)