More Than a Little

My mom came down yesterday to visit with us, and we had a very busy afternoon. We went to Pizza Hut (which was funded on my part from a giftcard purchased with Walgreens Register Rewards, and for which we used a coupon to save $4!) and then to look at some campgrounds and while we were out, I conned my mom into going to CVS with me.  I also ran in, leaving them in the car, to both Walgreens.  I almost didn’t bother posting about these trips because they were unexciting.  Then it occured to me… I am talking about making $7 for five minutes of shopping and it’s not exciting to me anymore?  I wonder how I reacted the first time I made $7 with coupons? haha.

Anyway, without further ado…

CVS

OOP: 1.01
ECT spent: 10.98 (3, 7.98)
Total Spent:  11.99
ECB Received: $10

Total Cost: $1.99

I did the math on this with cheaper bottles of sunscreen and then switched them out for these at the last minute.  They weren’t listed in their system so had to be manually entered, and therefore I had to get my ECBs manually as well.  That, and the fact that one of my coupons inexplicably scanned for half the amount it was supposed to altered my final cost, but still.  Two dollars is still a good price on this stuff.  I would have done the whole transaction differently if I had it to do over but sometimes things just don’t work out as well as you plan for them.  Two dollars is only two dollars at the end of the day. Sometimes you just have to let it go and not worry about it–it would have really bothered me when I first started shopping like this, but I am much more zen about it these days.

Walgreens

OOP: $1.48 on gift card
RR spent: $0
Total Spent: $1.48
RR Received: $8 (2, 2, 2, 2)

Total Cost: $6.52 profit

What I was really looking for was one of those pink hair dryers.  I usually don’t get so attached to one deal but I really want one of those for some reason, so I checked “my” store before we headed home.  Struck out on the hair dryers and the monitors.  This morning, I called to check and there were no dryers but four Contours, so Evie and I went out first thing to grab a couple.  I only had one coupon left, but I’ll try out the mail-in rebate–worst case, the second one was just free and I irritated the heck out of some other local couponer for buying it, best case, $10 profit.  No sales tax on these anymore–I know that I’ve paid tax on them in the past so I’m not sure what’s up with that.

OOP: $10 (0, 10, 0)
RR spent: $28
Total Spent: $38
Gift Card Purchased: $25 (doesn’t really count as an expense)
RR Received: $20

Total Profit: $7.00 (plus $10 mail-in-rebate for the second one = $17.00)

I listed the mail in rebate separately because I’ve heard they don’t always want to actually follow through with it. They never do if you use a coupon, by the way–no easy profit there.  They should honor this one, though… but I didn’t want to depend on it because who knows?

The mushrooms were just fillers so I could roll my six RRs into a gift card right away.  They’re good mushrooms, though, and we do use a lot of them.  I love it when they’re on sale for fifty cents.

What do you do with all this stuff? The food products we’ll eat.  Evie has already made a good start on the pineapples–I bought them as a little treat for her because she was pretty cranky yesterday. The monitors will go in the yard sale box, where they probably won’t sell, and eventually I’ll hopefully find somewhere to donate them. I’m not sure about the sunscreen. I don’t totally trust the chemicals in sunscreen for babies, so last year I used one of the safer varieties (which wasn’t in any way cheap.)

Any comments on the way I’m formatting these posts this week? It takes so much time to write them out item by item and then come up with a way to explain what everything costs. This works out a lot better for me, and maybe it’s easier for everyone else to read as well. Yes, no, maybe?