My Walgreen’s & CVS Trips for this week; $5 net gain

CVS goodies

Walgreen’s Goodies:

Overall not a bad trip. They were out of the Glade spray I blogged about and their Kellogg’s selection was not that great. Also, I had a diaper coupon that wouldn’t work, so I ended up paying $2 more for this transaction than I had planned. I had the Register Rewards from the diaper deal in July, and they all were going to expire on Friday, so I had to use them up. I’m a teacher, so I’m always on the hunt for cheap school supplies.

8.49 pack of 40 diapers
10.00 5 boxes of cheezits (my MIL loves these)
3.00 Sesame Street Coloring book (for Kevin of course)
0.98 two plastic cases to hold school supplies (pencil boxes)
0.38 two boxes of paper clips
0.38 two packs of notecards
6.00 two jars of Jif peanut butter
0.18 two packs of 10 Paper Mate pens

Minus the coupons:
$1 off two jars of Jif
$24 in Register Rewards

Paid $2.05 oop. Got back $5 in Register Rewards for the Cheezits.

CVS
I hadn’t planned on going to CVS this week, but when I got my inserts this week, I ended up with two of the bogo Cover Girl coupons, so I couldn’t resist.

5.79 children’s advil
5.79 children’s advil
8.99 Cover Girl–their version of Bare Minerals powder
0.00 bogo Cover Girl item-pressed powder
7.99 Cover Girl-moisturizer with spf 15
0.00 bogo Cover Girl item-their version of Bare Minerals blush
3.29 CVS brand ibuprofen, 20 ct bottle
0.88 dawn
0.88 dawn
0.88 dawn
0.88 dawn
$35.37 subtotal

Coupons
-1.00 $1 off any 2 dawn
-1.00 $1 off any 2 dawn
-8.99 bogo Cover Girl coupon
-7.99 bogo Cover Girl coupon
-1.00 $1 off children’s advil
-1.00 $1 off children’s advil
-3.29 my free gift (ibuprof)-every cardholder gets one in Aug!
-2.50 $2.50 off any $10 pain purchase at CVS, printed at end of my receipt during a previous transaction

total of 26.77 in coupons

$8.60 new subtotal, plus tax it was $9 something

Paid with $9 in ECBs and change.

Got back $11.58 in ECBs for buying the Children’s Advil. A gain of about $2 in ECBs, plus a bag of good stuff!

At Walgreen’s I spent $2 cash. At CVS I had a gain of $2 ECBs. (in my mind, ECBs and RRs are almost as significant as cash, I treat them like money) And at Walgreen’s I gained $5 RRs, so overall this morning, I had a $5 gain–plus all that stuff!

Blog readers-Acme or Giant, please weigh in!

Ok readers, I want your opinion on this. I do most of my shopping at Acme, but want to know from the locals which you prefer–Acme or Giant. Please post a comment and tell me!

Here’s the story: Remember the deal I posted a few days ago about the Softsoap, how you can get it at Acme for $0.30 a bottle? Well, yesterday I picked up three. I had three of the $0.35 coupons and one $1 off 3 coupon. I mistakenly handed the cashier the $1 one, realized the error, and asked her to void it off and I would use the other coupons instead. The cashier-supervisor person was standing behind her (funny how they always come to observe whenever I’m checking out) said: We can’t do that, we can only void off one coupon per transaction.

I argued a bit, but let it go. And, I might add, the first coupon that was voided off was because the cashier made an error–it wasn’t my fault. Believe me, I get the big picture. I know that paying $2.00 instead of paying $0.90 for three bottles of handsoap is not a huge deal. But it’s the point. It’s the point that I called customer service when I got home, and what I was told was not true. She could have voided it off if she wanted to, she just didn’t want to.

As I’ve said before, I don’t do anything illegal. I clip coupons and bargain shop in hopes of saving my family money. And for some reason, this really ticks off some cashiers and some supervisors, I don’t know if they’re jealous, if they think coupons are deducted from their paycheck, or what. But it’s getting really annoying and I shouldn’t be hassled every time I shop.

So I’m weighing out the pros & cons of regularly shopping at Acme vs. Giant.

Acme:
~closer to my home
~I pass it twice a day on my way to/from work.
~I like the deals I get on Avenu, the e-coupons
~they double all coupons up to $0.99
~I usually like their meat better
~constantly hassled and made to feel like a criminal for using coupons
~I feel like overall, they offer better deals

Giant:
~further away and out of my way
~I like their produce better than Acme’s
~no e-coupons, but occasionally have transaction coupons, like $5 off $30.
~only double coupons up to $0.50
~if you have several of the same coupon, they only double the first one, the others do not double
~haven’t ever been hassled over my use of coupons
~overall I don’t feel like their deals are as good

So what do you think? Are the extra savings worth the hassle? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

More deals at Acme, thru Wednesday only

I have a few offers on my Avenu that expire on Wednesday at midnight, so one more day to take advantage.

Danimals yogurt smoothies: Kevin loves these! They are on sale for $1.99 and I got an e-coupon for $1.25 off, so $0.74 for an 8-pack! Less than 0.10 a piece.

Haagen Dazs: If you’re an ice cream snob, and it’s ok, really, and don’t want the Edy’s, HD is a good deal. On sale for $3.00 a pint and I got $1.25 off each pint, limit 5. $2.75 is a good price for premium icecream.

Yoplait yogurt: I figured out how to maximize the yoplait deal. It’s on sale for 10 for $4.50, must buy 10. Buy 11-6 regular yoplait and 5 whips. Use two coupons from last week’s paper: the 0.40 off wyb 6 yoplait, and the one for a free yoplait whips wyb 4. The $0.40 coupon will double to $0.80 and they’ll take of $0.90 for the free Whips.
$5.40 is your subtotal; $4.50 for the 10, and $0.90 for the 11th.
-0.80 doubled coupon
-0.90 free Whips coupon
3.70 new total, divided by 11 yogurts is $0.33 a piece.

Hatfield pork: there is some really cheap pork in the back with $1 off coupons on it because it’s going to expire soon.

Hatfield hot dogs: bogo, and there are some packs with $1 off coupons on each one because they’re going to expire soon. I paid about $2.39 I think for 2 packs of hot dogs and stuck them in the freezer. Hot dogs have so many preservatives, I’m sure they’ll be fine.

Free Glade, Cheap Dawn

Glade: At Walgreen’s. Fabric & Air Odor Eliminator (their version of Febreze), use the coupon in the August booklet, found at front of store and combine that coupon with this coupon and it will be free. You can print 2. If you’re going for the free photos tomorrow, might as well toss this into your cart.

Dawn: The coupons from this Sunday’s insert are for $1 off two. Pretty good, since we usually only get $0.20 coupons for this. Dawn is $0.99 at Walgreen’s this week and $0.88 at CVS, so you’ll pay either $0.38 or $0.49 after coupon. For Walgreen’s you need the coupon on the back page of the weekly circular in addition to the mfr coupon from the paper.