Here’s my big Rite Aid trip from Sunday:

Total spent: $133.21. But you can pick your jaw up from the floor – because I’m getting $140.21 back in rebates!
Total before coupons: $140.21
View receipt – I had to fold the receipt in half to fit it all in. I also blacked out my debit card number.

This was the “Free After Rebate” bonanza that I mentioned! I was in Rite Aid right when they opened to snag all the deals. And I got a ton of stuff:

1 bottle of Nighttime Theraflu
1 bottle of Sambucol immune system booster stuff
1 bottle of Buckley’s cough syrup
1 box of Sucrets throat soothing icy pops
Another brand of throat soothing icy pops – these may be aimed at kids, but I think they sound like a great idea for adults, too!
1 jar of Mentholatum rub
1 bottle of Little Colds cough syrup
1 bottle of Triaminic nightime cough syrup – all this cold medicine couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve almost finished this bottle off already! I know it’s kids medicine, but it’s the same ingredients as adult cough syrup – you just have to double the dose. And it tastes better. 😉
1 bottle of Children’s Advil
1 bottle of Chloraseptic Throat Numbing Spray
1 bag of Bee M.D. cough drops
1 bottle of 4 Way Nasal Decongestant
1 Neti Pot – this has got to be the strangest coupon item I’ve gotten yet. This is a tea pot – for your nose. I guess you stick it in your nose and it flushes your sinuses with saline?
1 box of Ayr saline stuff
1 Simply Saline kit
1 pediatric saline kit
1 bottle of Simply Saline allergy & sinus relief
1 bottle of Simply Saline cold formula
1 box of Breathe Again
1 box of Comtrex cold medicine
1 box of Zucol cold medicine
1 box of Sniffles ‘n Sneezes For Kids
1 box of Orajel cold sore treatment
1 tube of Novitra cold sore treatment
1 tube of Nexcare cold sore treatment
1 tube of Lizard Lips balm
1 tube of shimmery Chapstick
1 tube of LypSyl lip balm
1 2-pack of SoftLips lip balm

In addition to all of these items being free after rebate, I also used some coupons to result in a profit. A friend sent me a coupon that she found for $5 off a $25 or higher purchase at Rite Aid (Thanks, Cathy!), so used that, and also two $1 off “peelie” coupons that I found attached to two of the saline products in the store. I don’t have a personal need for some of this stuff – I’ve never used saline solution or had cold sores before – but I can give it to others, and everybody wins!

You may also notice that I don’t count money spent on rebate items as part of my budget. Why is this? The way I see it, when I buy normal items that I need for my household, that is money that is spent and gone. But money that is paid for rebate items is not gone – I get it right back, plus the products and often a cash profit as well. I see rebates as simply an investment of my money, not an expense.

This Rite Aid trip was a perfect example of this. I paid $133.21, but I’m getting $140.21 back – when was the last time you got $7 interest for keeping your money in the bank for a month? Not to mention that I have $140 worth of merchandise as well! And in case you’re wondering how often these rebates actually come back, this rebate has already been processed and is ready to be claimed. Here’s a screen capture from my status page on the Rite Aid Single Check Rebate website:

I could request my rebates right away, but I’m going to wait until the end of this month’s rebate period – you can’t claim rebates at Rite Aid more than once per period, and I’m sure there will be other rebates deals that I’ll want to do this month, so I will wait and claim them all at once.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that rebate items are paid for using the “mad money” part of my budget, so to speak. That’s the wiggle room in my budget after factoring in all bills, expenses, savings, and so on. After all, it would be counter-productive to invest money in rebates if it took away from another area in my budget.

After all the fun at Rite Aid, I stopped by Safeway to pick up the Sunday newspaper:

Total spent: .29 cents
Total before coupons: $14.08
View receipt – I paid in exact change, but the cashier accidentally punched in “$29.00” instead of .29 cents, in case anyone was wondering about that!

Got:

2 Glade plug-ins – used one “Buy One, Get One Free” coupon from the 9/28 newspaper inserts
1 Sunday Newspaper

For this transaction, I just rolled two of the $4 catalinas that I had from the last time I did this Glade deal, and used them to pay for the Plug-in and newspaper. I then got two more $4 catalinas back!

I’m a little behind in posting my shopping trips, so I have some catching up to do!

I did a lot of baking over the past few days, and on Thursday night I realized that I was all out of several ingredients. So a trip to Safeway was in order:

Total Spent: .13 cents
Total before coupons: $15.13
View receipt – note that the total on the receipt is $2.13. This is because an item rang up wrong, and I was subsequently refunded $2. I also cut the bottom of the receipt off, since it had my debit card info on it.

I got:

2 pounds of flour
1 dozen cage free eggs
1 package of margarine
1 bottle of shampoo
1 bottle of conditioner
2 bottles of aspirin

There is a promotion running currently at Safeway for Dove hair care, where if you buy 2 Dove products, $2 is supposed to come off your transaction automatically; I read about this on Hot Coupon World, and there was also a sign marking it in the hair care aisle at my store. There was also a “Super Coupon” in the Safeway sales circular last Sunday that makes the Dove shampoo & conditioner 2 for $6. Store coupons can be combined with manufacturer’s coupons, so I also used two $2/1 Dove hair care coupons from the 8/17 newspaper inserts in conjunction with the Super Coupon. After doubles, this would give me $1 of overage. The only problem is that the automatic $2 discount did not come off, which is weird, since the sign did say it was off any Dove. So the cashier just refunded me the $2 that I overpaid, but I did not get a receipt for that transaction, since he just handed me cash.

Also, the Bayer aspirin is on a great sale this week – selected varieties are priced at $1, and there were $1 coupons for Bayer in the 7/27 newspaper inserts! My store will also double these coupons, so I was able to get .50 cents overage on each bottle.

As a side note, if anyone wonders why I use my debit card for such small transactions – the truth is, now that my groceries only cost me spare change, I’ve found that I don’t really need to carry much cash around anymore!

I also needed a few items at Rite Aid:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $9.85 on 2 gift cards that I earned through various promotions
Total before coupons: $13.85
View receipt

Got:

1 box of band-aids
1 pair of nail scissors
1 pair of tweezers

No exciting deals here, just stuff I had to get. Rite Aid had the best price I’ve been able to find on band-aids currently, and I also needed the scissors. I used a $2/1 Sally Hansen Implement coupon from the 9/28 newspaper inserts to lower the price of the scissors, and since the Sally Hansen tools were on sale for “Buy One, Get One 50%”, I also picked up a pair of tweezers. After the coupon and sale, they were only .47 cents, which is not a bad price for something useful.