Walgreens has put out yet another coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase, good this Friday and Saturday. I love all these great deals that Walgreens have been offering lately!
New Walgreens $5 Off Coupon
October 3rd, 2008First Shopping Trip of the Month – October 1st
October 3rd, 2008Got a few deals tonight:
Total spent: .10 cents – .06 cents on the actual groceries, .04 cents for breast cancer research
Total before coupons: $31.56
View Receipt #1
View Receipt #2
And I got $4 back in catalinas to use on my next trip!
Also, I earned my first 125 miles in the United Airlines GroceryMiles program. I have to earn about 50,000 before I can get a plane ticket anywhere, but it’s worth noting that you can cash in 1,000 miles for Restaurant.com gift certificates. It’s free to sign up for the program – just fill in a form and it will add the promotion to your club card, and your grocery purchases will start to count towards miles.
I got:
1 can of corn
1 4-pack of TP
8 trial size boxes of Tide – used $1/1 coupons from the recent P&G newspaper insert
6 Glade plug-ins – used “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons from another recent newspaper insert. There’s also a printable here.
1 package of pasta – used $1/1 coupon from 8/24 SS insert
1 pint of milk
2 bottles of Coffee-Mate – used $1/1 printables, found here.
2 packages of Stayfree – used $2/2 coupon from 9/28 insert
For my first transaction, I used overage from the Tide to pay for my other items. The trial sizes are .89 cents at my store, and the coupon is good for $1 off any size Tide – resulting in .11 cents of overage (And the store is reimbursed for the full amount of the coupon by the manufacturer, just as a side note). And I was also able to double these coupons, giving me an extra .50 cents of overage each. At my store, any coupon can be doubled up to .50 cents; and there is no restriction on the amount, so your coupon doesn’t have to be .50 cents or less.
So, as an example, a .35 cent coupon becomes .70 cents, a .50 cent coupon becomes $1, a .75 cent coupon becomes $1.25, a $1 coupon becomes $1.50, and so forth. In addition, a coupon can be doubled beyond the item’s face value. So if an item is on sale for $1 and you have a $1 off coupon, it will still double – hence the .50 cent overage on the Tide. This was confirmed by several managers at my store, who said that yes, it’s perfectly legitimate and accepted to get overage this way. I’ve gotten some great questions from readers about my store’s doubling policy, so I wanted to explain it in a little more detail so that it makes more sense. Also, bear in mind that it is up to the discretion of each store to set their own coupon policies – some Safeways don’t double coupons at all.
At any rate, the first transaction was .10 cents, and I got $8 back in catalina coupons towards my next order. I subsequently made my next purchase, and used the catalinas to pay for all of it. And I got $4 back in more catalinas!
Then, I made a quick stop at Rite Aid:
Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $2.69 on a gift card that I earned for free from a promotion
Total before coupons: $2.69
View Receipt
So this was a pretty good start to October’s budget!
Budget Total – September 2008
October 2nd, 2008After adding up my grocery expenses for September, here is the grand total expended for the month:
$11.80
This is for all food, including fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and my favorite gourmet coffee. Many of these items were also organic. $11.80 fed myself, my boyfriend, and quite a few dinner guests – not to mention the fact that I added a ton of items to my food stockpile.
And, this figure also includes all household items, such as foil, sponges, dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, toiletries, and so forth. It also includes all my Sunday newspapers – more coupons! – and paid for some new kitchen pans and utensils.
All of my shopping trips for September are documented in the September 2008 archive, if you’d like a more detailed overview of what this amount got. Also, you’ll notice that there were several trips where I left the store with more money than I came in with, during those instances where I was given change back from catalina coupons, or had coupons that produced more overage than I anticipated. I never aim to get “money back” from my purchases – I always plan on using my overage to pay for other items. But sometimes the register goes into the negative anyway, when an item rings up less than you anticipated, or if you forget to check a price. Stores are reimbursed by the manufacturers for coupons redeemed, and depending on the store’s policy, sometimes they will give you cash back. In these instances, I adjusted my budget total accordingly to include this “profit”.
For October’s grocery budget, I am setting aside one $20 bill. Let’s see how much I have left over at the end of the month!
Guest Post on MoneySavingMom.com
October 2nd, 2008I recently wrote a guest post for one of my favorite websites, MoneySavingMom.com. The article, How I Buy Organic, Fresh Foods For Pennies, talks in more detail about the strategies I employ to slash costs on expensive foods. So if you’re interested in reading more about the methods I use to save, check it out!
Stockpile Giveaway, Week Three!
October 2nd, 2008This week’s giveaway is all about hair!
Winner will receive a haircare prize package, consisting of the following:
(1) 13.5 oz bottle of Pert Plus “So Fine” 2 in 1 Shampoo Plus Conditioner – designed especially for fine or oily hair
(1) 13.5 oz bottle of Pert Plus “Happy Medium” 2 in 1 Shampoo Plus Conditioner – designed for normal hair
(1) Try Me Free Rebate Form For Pert Plus – this little form will get you another bottle of Pert for free! Buy any Pert Plus Thick ‘n Full, Revive & Rejuvenate or Dandruff Dismissed product between now and August 31t, 2009 (!), and send in this form along with your contact info and receipt, and they will mail you a refund up to $3.99.
Assortment of haircare coupons – everything from shampoo to styling aids and even hairdye! A $22 value, this is sure to save you some cash while keeping your mane looking great!
Here’s how to enter: Just leave a comment on this post, and you’ll be entered to win!
To earn an extra entry: If you’d like to gain a second entry into the contest, just put up a link to my blog and leave a separate comment letting me know that you did. You can either link to this contest, or any other post that you liked. If you already have me in your blogroll – thank you, and be sure to leave a second comment mentioning it to improve your odds!
Fine print, rules, etc: This giveaway is only open to US residents, because I unfortunately can’t afford to ship this package overseas. (APO/FPO addresses are OK, because the rates are the same as domestic.) But fear not, international readers! I will be having another giveaway that you can enter soon, I promise!
Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM, October 8th. A winner will be chosen via Random.org on October 9th and notified. Be sure to leave your email address, either in your post or in your blogger profile, so that I can get in touch if you win! Email address will be used only to notify winner. If, for some bizarre reason, the winner does not respond after 4 days, a new winner will be chosen.
Shopping Trip – September 30th – Last One For The Month!
October 1st, 2008This was a nice way to finish off my shopping for the month:
Total Spent: Zero!
Total Before Coupons: $6.00
Got:
4 packages of pasta
Safeway has Ronzoni pasta on sale for $1.50, and there was a coupon in the 8/24 newspaper inserts for $1 off one. My store doubles coupons up to .50 cents, making these free! I needed this, because I was planning to make spaghetti for dinner tonight, and realized that I had none left. Which brings us to this week’s edition of: What does a coupon user eat, anyway?
Spaghetti and meatballs with mushrooms, tomatoes, black olives, and artichoke hearts.
Stockpile Giveaway, Week Two: WINNERS!
October 1st, 2008And the winners of last week’s stockpile giveaway are…
First Prize: Formula & Coupon Prize Package
Comment number 27 is:
Unfortunately, Mverno did not leave any contact info, so I have no way of getting a hold of them. Mverno, if you’re reading this, please shoot me an email at: bakahentai AT gmail.com. If I don’t hear back from you within 4 days, I will be forced to choose a new winner.
Second Prize: $1 Luvs Coupon
Comment number 43 is:
Very cool! Danandmarsh, I’ve sent an email notifying you. I hope your friend can get some use out of this coupon!
Thank you to everyone who entered. Be sure to check back tomorrow, for Stockpile Giveaway: Week Three!
Fantastic gas deal, and a few more goodies from Walgreens
September 30th, 2008Today was all about fuel discounts. First, I received a $5 Chevron gift card in the mail, from taking part in a quiz contest a few months ago. Second, it was time for me to redeem my Power Pump Rewards!
The first quarter of Safeway’s fuel discount program, Power Pump Rewards, ends tomorrow. This means that any points accumulated during the quarter must be redeemed, or you will lose them. Discounts are earned for every $100 you spend at Safeway. Each time you accumulate $100 worth of purchases on your club card, you earn a .10 cent per gallon discount. Even better, it counts your total before manufacturer’s coupons, and the discounts stack. Since I redeem so many coupons, I waited until the very end of the month to save up as many rewards as I could. I ended up with 22 rewards, which equals a discount of $2.20 per gallon! That’s a pretty big savings, and I was mulling over how I could best utilize it.
Safeway allows you to get up to 35 gallons with your Power Pump discount. My car has a 16 gallon capacity; my boyfriend, Jai, has a 12 gallon tank in his car. “We should borrow someone’s truck, fill it up, and then siphon the gas off into both of our cars,” Jai suggested. You know gas prices are high when this seems like a perfectly reasonable idea!
As a result of this brainstorm, we decided to ask Jai’s dad if we could use his truck today. As luck would have it, this truck has a gas tank capacity of exactly 35 gallons, and the tank was almost empty when we borrowed it. So, we took it over to the nearest Safeway gas pump to fill up.
My Power Pump discount brought the price down to $1.49 a gallon – a good deal in today’s world.
We filled the tank with 32 gallons of gas, for a total of $48.25. Here’s the receipt – I blacked out my debit card number, for obvious reasons:
Jai’s dad noted how $48 would normally get just 1/4 of a tank in his truck.
As we headed home, we passed by Walgreens, and I took the opportunity to nip in and grab a few deals. I had some Pert Plus coupons that expire tomorrow, and I wanted to use them up since they’re a moneymaker right now.
Total Spent: .22 cents
Total before coupons: $27.22
View Receipt
As I mentioned over the weekend, you can combine the manufacturer’s Pert coupons with this month’s EasySaver $2.50/1 coupon, resulting in overage. Here’s what I got:
6 bottles of Pert
1 pound of butter
2 packages of TP
1 Halloween gift bag – cute filler item!
After this quick WAGs run, we returned home and began the adventure of siphoning off gas!
Jai hooked up a garden hose to the truck’s gas tank, parked his car on a slope, and let gravity do the rest. Knowing that we would use this gas discount at the end of the month, he had let his gas tank get as low as he could, and was able to put a full tank into his car.
After his car was filled, we moved my car into position. In the meantime, we had to keep the hose elevated so that it wouldn’t slosh gas around, so Jai tied it up into a tree. People driving by must have wondered what on earth we were doing!
My car had a little more gas in it than Jai’s, but I still got at least 10 gallons or so. And after both our cars were full to the brim, the truck still had half a tank left! Suffice to say, I am pretty pleased with the Power Pump Rewards program. I wonder how much of a discount I can rack up in the next quarter!
Free Zantac Coupon
September 29th, 2008If you use as much Zantac as I do, the following coupon is for you! Walgreens is offering a printable coupon for a free box of Zantac, up to $5.50. All you have to do is click here and enter the UPC from any box of Zantac along with your contact info. Thanks to Common Sense With Money for the tip!
Super Coupon Girl Won an Award!
September 29th, 2008
I won a blog award today! Faithful reader Rebekah C , of Ready Set Read Reviews, kindly nominated me for the “I Love Your Blog Award”! Rebekah reviews children’s books on her blog, and even though she just started blogging a week ago, she already has a plethora of reviews posted. If you’re looking for new books to read to your kids, you should check it out!
Update: Nancy at Raging Bear Ranch and Michelle at Saving Some Green also nominated me for this award! How nice, thank you both!!
Now, in order to keep the fun going, I’ve been instructed to nominate seven of my favorite blogs to receive this award, as well. I thought for a while about who I should nominate – and I realized that I know of way more than seven deserving blogs for this! So I decided to do something a little different. I am nominating all of the sites listed in my blogroll, because they all rock! So if your blog is listed as one of Super Coupon Girl’s Allies, feel free to grab the “I Love Your Blog” logo, and post it on your blog along with your seven (or more!) nominees.
