Living better, spending less.
I have been a wee bit lazy about posting my shopping trips of late. I think this is because I’ve been doing a little more shopping than usual and it gets a little overwhelming just to even display everything for taking a picture, much less writing lengthy posts about.
I went to Walgreens first.
Total OOP: $35.27 (7.43, 13.29, 1.93, .73, .73, 8.15, 3.01)
Total RR Spent: $70.5 (10, 3, 3, 10, 3.50, 3.50, 10, 4, 3.50, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4)
Total Spent: $105.77
Total RR Received: $54.50 (10, 3.50, 4, 10, 3.50, 4, 3.50, 4, 4, 4, 3.50, 4)
Total Gift Card Activated: $36.00
Total Received: $90.50
Total Cost: $15.27
Upon looking at my receipt, I see a number of things that were just slightly off, which led to the unusually high out of pocket costs. First of all, the Tylenol PM was higher than I thought (not sure if it rang up wrong or if I was wrong), and I apparently just had $.50/2 coupons for Jello instead of $1/2. I wouldn’t have bought them except I thought they were free. That’s what you get for relying too much on someone else’s match-ups! We don’t eat Jello here. I think it’s okay but the husband and kiddo think it’s nasty, so I don’t bother. I didn’t even really look at the coupon this time, just picked it out of the box. Still, fifteen bucks for all of that stuff isn’t bad, which is something I always remind myself when it doesn’t work out quite like I had planned. That’s more than fifteen dollars worth of pasta sauce, after all. :) At Wags prices anyway. And besides, part of that OOP was from my Walgreens PSC card–I got $2 per bottle of free glucosamine a couple of weeks ago, so I technically could subtract a few more dollars here… but I won’t.
Then I headed to CVS. I used my card and also my mom’s.
OOP: $11.69 (2.99, 0, 2.23, .12, 0, 6.35)
ECBs Spent: $93.93 (3, 4, 4, 5, 23.97, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 31.96, 1.98)
Total Spent: $107.60
ECB Received: $80.79
Gift Card: $10
Total Cost: $16.81
I actually bought eight cases of Pepsi, but didn’t want to lug them all over there to put into the picture. It worked out to two dollars per case, so .81 for everything else is not bad. With coupons and ECB, the five Lysols should have been $.40 each, so the overage helped with that, and also tax. Tax stinks. The $10 gift card was for a prescription that I dropped off, for which they charged $6.35. Almost four dollars of profit for getting free meds, not bad.
So, all in all, I paid a little more yesterday than I would have liked, but I did fairly well. I also got two $5 ECBs for Johnson & Johnson. I have no idea what triggered them but I’m not complaining.
Oh, and I got the mouthwash and paper towels free on the receipt for the August customer appreciation promotion. Fun. :)
When I became a stay-at-home-mom, I promised I could save our family money by shopping sales and maybe even using a few coupons. I had no idea what I was getting into. These days, I am on a first-name basis with the cashiers at the local drugstores, I haven't paid for toothpaste or shampoo in over a year and I spend my free time here, helping others do the same. So please, make yourself at home while you learn how to save, and when to spend!
Dominique
August 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
How many transactions did you have to do at Walgreens?
Kisha
August 8th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Oops, forgot to reply to this. :) This was six transactions at Walgreens. I don’t usually do so many if one of my favorite cashiers isn’t there.
Hope the baby girl is still doing well!
Dominique
August 12th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
She is still doing good. Hopefully she will be home soon. I am trying very hard to learn this couponing game. Your right it is time consuming but the savings are well worth it. I am trying to conquer Wags first and then will branch out to others eventually. I’ll keep you posted.