I am really lucky in that my Walgreens is really friendly and patient with me and my coupons.  I only had two transactions planned today, but I forgot to use my Visine coupons, so I had to return and rebuy, so I turned it into three.  I am also extremely lucky that my child is patient. Most of the time.

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Purchased
3 Colgate Total, 3.49
1 Crest Pro-Health, 3.50
3 Reese’s eggs, 2.50
10 Royal gelatin, .20 (ad Q)
2 Oust, 2.99
1 Physician’s Formula makeup, 13.99
$20 gift card recharge

Coupons Used
$1 Colgate
$0.75 Colgate x 2
B3G1 candy (2.50)
$2 Oust x 2

I also used $36 in Register  Rewards. Yay!  They were all really small, from last week’s Skintimate/Edge shaving gels for $3 and Chapstick for $2, so I was worried about getting enough fillers to be able to use them. (You have to have at least as many items as coupons at Walgreens, and they count Register Rewards as coupons.)  That’s why I bought ten boxes of Jello.  Basically, I paid $2 for the privilege of using my RR.  I count that as a pretty acceptable trade-off, considering that I made a profit off today’s transactions.

The Math
22.43 + 5.41 + 5.41 = $33.25 (out of pocket costs from three transactions.)
33.25 + 36.00 = $69.25 (out of pocket costs plus Register Rewards used=total cost)

-20.00, cash put on Walgreens gift card is available for use later so it’s not a cost
-8.46, returned Visine, given to me in cash.
-7.70, Easy Saver Rebate plus 10% bonus for two Ousts ($1/ea) and the Hershey’s candy ($5)
-19.50, Register Rewards earned from toothpaste and Visine*
-2.00, Prescription Savings Club rebate on gift card
-13.99, Physicians Formula Try Me Free rebate (must have peelie from specially marked packages)
-2.50, candy purchased for my parents so will be reimbursed.

69.25 – 74.15 = -$4.90 (total cost – incoming monies = final cost)

That makes a profit of almost five dollars!  Sorta.  Subtracting the money from the candy is unfair accounting because while it’s accurate for my wallet to list it this way, it’s subtracting the cost for an item that I am still showing as purchased.  So, to be fair, my profit is really $2.40.

Also, I bought the Physician’s Formula makeup to qualify for the April $10 rebate on Physician’s Formula, but my cashier pointed out to me at the register that it wouldn’t work for that rebate because it’s not the organic variety but mineral wear.  However, I bought one anyway because it’s still free after rebate, even if it’s not a $10 profit like I had hoped. :)  I might still take it back, though.  Either way, it works out to not costing anything.

And now on to Rite Aid.  I feel like saying this every time I go to Rite Aid, but I really hate it there. I have been to nice Rite Aids. I know they exist.  Mine, however, does something to irritate me just about every single time I go in there.  Today was no exception, of course.  It was relatively minor, at least–they refused to take a $2 coupon for $1.99 worth of Excedrin.  I actually can’t figure out what they did on my receipt anyway, because the one voided Excedrin is listed at $4.99.  Whatever.

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Purchased
4 John Frieda  shampoos and conditioners, 5.00
1 Blink eye drops, 7.99

Coupons Used
$5/$25
$2 John Frieda x 4
$1 Blink

The Math
Total Out of Pocket $7.20.
-$10, SCR for John Frieda.

Total profit of $2.80

*sigh*  I know.  That makes no sense. It should have been somewhere around $15.67, with $17.99 SCR.  They apparently didn’t scan the Blink, though they did take the coupon off.  I didn’t notice it until just now.  Blink is free after SCR this week, so it works out to be essentially the same thing in the long run.  I am having a moral dilemma over whether or not to take it back in and have them fix it.  They really hate me there, and while one would think that this sort of thing would build good karma, knowing them, it will probably annoy them even more that I am bugging them with my coupon problems.  (Never mind that it wasn’t a coupon problem this time.)  I feel like I should but it is such a hassle. I wasn’t really planning on going back there this week and it’s just the sort of in-and-out errand that Evelyn hates.  If it wasn’t free after rebate anyway, I wouldn’t even consider not going back in, but… I don’t know. I’m still thinking about it.  It’s bad enough that they annoy me while I’m shopping there. Now they are annoying me hours later just thinking about it.

All in all, a good run.  I love profitable shopping days! :)

What Do You Do With All This Stuff? My favorite part of these posts.  :) I bought the candy for my parents but I will see some of it again in my Easter basket this weekend, I do believe. :)   I think I might use the John Frieda next–I’m almost out of shampoo in the shower right now.  The Blink and Visine are likely destined for the yard sale pile, just because I have several of them already.  The toothpastes are definitely headed to that pile.  (I have approximately forty tubes of toothpaste right now.  Muahahaa!)  The Oust will get used or sold–not sure, because I believe I have a couple in there already that I haven’t used.  And the gelatin.. oh, I don’t know.  I am guessing most of it will go into my pantry and expire and be thrown out.  I’m taking the sugar-free ones to my mom this weekend, probably.