More Than a Little

So of course I am still shopping, even if the posty posty is a little lax these days.  Through the summer, I was doing more shopping and deek-seeking than I am now, but I’m still going at least to Walgreens once or twice a week.  I went on Sunday morning this week to get a monitor–just one since my ordered coupons had not arrived yet–and my favorite beauty advisor had brought me not one but TWO monitor coupons. :)  I took pictures of that trip, too, but then I left a sippy cup of milk in my purse and didn’t find it until today, so my receipts are so sour that I can’t stand the thought of getting them within smelling distance to break it down.

Anyway!

I hit two different stores today, for a total of six transactions.  Wednesday is the day my stores get their truck now, so I actually found monitors in all stores.  The shock!  I even left some on the shelf!

Total OOP: $15.26 (2.79, 3.35, 2.29, 1.54, 1.54, 3.75) 
RR Used: $14 (3, 3, 4, 4)
Total Spent: $29.26
RR Received: $84
Total Profit: $54.74

I think that is a personal record.

Highlights on how I did it: My stores allow the use of the 5/25 coupon (located in this week’s ad) before manufacturer’s coupons.  The monitor is $14.99, so I just need $10.01 to hit that $25 limit.  The Almay is $9.99 and produces a $10 RR, so one lovely transaction was monitor + Almay + $.20 pudding. The Dulcolax is free after coupon (located on product) and RR, supplying $7 towards that limit.  The Lubriderm was a MM–buy three (3.79) at a time, using $1 coupons in the Diabetes magazine found free near the pharmacy and any manufacturer’s coupons–I had four $2 coupons–and then you get $8 back.  I made $5.63 on the first transaction and $1.63 the second. (Note that if you need lotion, it’s just $.37 for three of them even without any extra coupons!)  So each transaction was as close to $25 as possible, and then the monitors produced $5 RRs each.  So much fun!

What do you do with all this stuff?
I bought the juice for M, because at $.99 each (sale minus Walgreens coupon from a store booklet) it is a bargain.  I shall do holiday baking with the chocolate chips.  The makeup, lotion and Dulcolax will probably be put in the yard sale–I am approximately as pale-skinned as the Lubriderm bottles and you can tell from a glance that those colors are not for me. :)  Evelyn adores that dried pineapple.  The monitors… well, there are ten strips in each box.  I will either give them to my mom, sell the boxes in the yard sale, or possibly just sell the strips on eBay.  Doesn’t really matter, as they’re paying me to bring the stuff home.

I am really upset with myself for neglecting this blog. I know WHY it’s happening but I can’t quite figure out how to fix the problem.   My daughter stopped napping, and it has thrown my schedule out the window.  By the time she goes to bed, I have to do everything–including shopping preparation, paperwork, etc–that I used to do during nap time and I am usually tired by then. Also, my husband now has primary bedtime duty, which is fantastic, but it used to take me 30-60 minutes of sitting on the couch with her and the laptop before she would go to sleep.  That was when I did all my deal blog reading and some of my shopping preparation.  Anyway, it’s difficult.  If anyone has thoughts on how to squeeze in extra time during the day I’m all ears.  Two-year-olds keep you busy, it seems.

I know, everyone hates a blogger that apologizes for not blogging. :)

Another confession? I haven’t even been (coupon) shopping once this week.  Terrible!

I received a $10 check in the mail from the Huggies <a href=”https://enjoytheriderewards.com/”>Enjoy The Ride</a> program today!  I won it in one of their little games a couple of months ago, but I was beginning to think that there had been a glitch in the system and the win hadn’t gone through.  But sure enough, it arrived today. :)  I so rarely win anything that it always gives me an extra thrill when I do. :)

Loyalty programs can be great way to get things for free or win prizes.  EnjoyTheRide.com is the rewards program that Huggies recently debuted.  You enter codes that you get from packages, the website, in-store flyers or… well, I don’t know where else you might normally find them, because I always get them from the internet.  :)

The Huggies  program allows you to save your points and use them to “purchase” items, and you can also spend points on sweepstakes, games and instant win contests that you can play and win prizes like gift cards.  I actually won a game a while back, though I haven’t yet received my $10 prize.

You might as well enter the codes.. free stuff is free stuff, right?

EnjoyTheRide.com

New codes circulate around the internet pretty often.  There is a list of some current ones at Sweetie’s Sweeps–looks like about 90 points just for entering the codes listed there!

Enjoy and good luck, if you enter any of the contests!

If you have kids, you know that disposable diapers are stupidly expensive.  I actually switched from cloth diapers to disposables when my daughter was about 18 months old because I figured out how to spend so little on diapers that I was spending more money to do diaper laundry–which is such a minimal expense!–than I was to use disposables. 

There’s a trick to getting diapers for next to nothing, but it’s not rocket science. If I can do this, you can too. 

Concepts

1. Ditch brand loyalty.  At the end of the day, this is an item that your child is going to poop in once, and then you’re going to throw it away. It doesn’t need to be fancy.  There are always special circumstances–some children are allergic to some brands, for instance.  But, be willing to explore different brands, including store brands. (My favorite diapers are the Walgreens store brand, actually.)
2. Calculate price per diaper. Smaller sizes have more diapers per package. You can calculate the cost per diaper by dividing the price by the number of diapers per package.  That is the best way to accurately compare prices against brands.  Keep an eye on that amount to make sure you’re getting the best deal possible.
3. STOCKPILE.  That is important enough to warrant bolding and all caps!   This is really the key.  When you find a great price, buy as many as you can. Diapers can be hid all over your house, if you’re worried about the storage space.  Stick them under the crib, under your bed, in the closet, under the dresser, above the hallway closet, under the stairs, under the couch, in a closed bookcase, in the bathroom…whereever you can find a little space, add diapers.  If you end up buying too many–don’t despair!  You can take a package back to the store and exchange it for the next size up if that’s the problem, or you can add diapers in to your next baby shower gift, or you can sell your off sizes. I get $6 a package for them at yard sales (and by word of mouth) and have sold out every time. I know of people who sell diapers on Craigslist with great luck.  You just don’t want to ever run out and have to pay full price.
4. Stack a variety of promotions. Basically, you want to combine as many discounts as possible into one purchase.  You want to have a good sale, a manufacturer’s coupon, a store coupon, a purchase-based coupon (like a $5/$25), overage from other coupons in your transaction, a store rebate like Rite Aid’s Single Check Rebates, Register Rewards/Extra Care Bucks, a manufacturer’s rebate, a Caregiver’s Marketplace rebate and a partridge in a pear tree.  You won’t get all of those every time, of course, but the more things you get working for you, the better.

Methods

1. Sales. Obviously, you don’t want to pick up a pack of diapers at a convenience store.  Currently, the standard price for diapers is around ten to twelve bucks per package, with the occasional sale price of nine dollars.  Just think, if you only bought diapers at nine dollars (not  a terribly difficult thing to do, if you pay casual attention to the sales) then you’d save a lot of money over your diapering career. 
2. Manufacturer Coupons. The workhorse of diaper purchases.  Huggies and Pampers both release coupons regularly in the Sunday paper. I see more Huggies than Pampers, and usually for a better value.  There are also often printable Huggies coupons on coupons.com and similar coupon websites. 
1. Action: Sign up at the websites of all the diaper companies to get on the mailing list.  They randomly send good coupons in the mail.
2. Hint: If you don’t buy the Sunday paper and can’t find printable coupons for a particular deal, check eBay.  Paying a dollar or two for a stack of coupons that will save you ten or twenty dollars just makes good sense.
3. Store Coupons. Most stores allow you to use a store coupon AND a manufacturer coupon per item.  For example, there is a coupon for $1 off Huggies in a Walgreen’s children’s activity book found in the store.  Say that the price of the diapers is $9.  You have a coupon for $1.50 and the store coupon for $1.  This alone will make a package of diapers cost $6.50–not bad, huh?  Oh, and Walgreens usually lets you keep your store coupons to use again later… though your store might not be so kind. 
4. Purchase Coupons. Sometimes, stores put out coupons for say, $5 off a purchase of $25 or more.  Let’s imagine that, as before, the diapers are on sale at Walgreens for $9.  Just to make things easy, let’s pretend that you buy three packages.  9 x 3 = $27.  $27 – $5 ($5/$25 coupon) = $22.  We’ll use a $1.50 coupon on all three packages, and a $1 store coupon (which will come off three times at Walgreens). $22 – $1.50 – $1.50 – $1.50 – $1 – $1- $1 = $14.50.  That, folks, is $4.83 per package… less than half of the regular retail price.
5. Store Rebates. I’m including the Walgreens Register Reward system as well as the CVS Extra Care Bucks program in this category, along with the Single Check Rebates at Rite Aid, to name the three most common.  This is when you pay a certain amount for the diaper, but you get some amount of money back, either at the register via a coupon (at Walgreens and CVS) or a check in the mail (Rite Aid).  CVS had a (albeit poorly executed) promotion a few months ago that gave $5 ECBs when you purchased a package of Pampers. Combined with a coupon and a $5/$25, those were some cheap diapers!  The drugstores often have promotions that sound something like this: Buy $25 worth of [Insert Manufacturer Here] products, get $10 back!  The diapers are often just listed as one of the options. So, let’s pretend that in this case, the promotion was to spend $25 on Huggies and get $10 back, and we’ll keep using the above example (where we purchased three packages for $14.50, after coupons.)  $14.50 – $10 RR (for next purchase) = $4.50.  That’s $1.50 per pack.
1. Hint: see my posts on how to get started at CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid!
6. Coupon Overages. If you happen to have a coupon for an unrelated item that is for more than the cost of that item, throw it into the same transaction and let that overage pay for your diapers.  For example, if you have a $3 coupon that you use on a $2 item, that extra $1 will help pay for your diapers.  This will depend greatly on your cashier and your store.  The other way to get coupon overage is to use a coupon on an item that gives you money back in the form of a coupon at the register, like Register Rewards at Walgreens, or Extra Care Bucks at CVS.  If the item is $5 and you get $3 back for buying it, and you have a coupon for $3, you’ll "make" $1. Again, that extra dollar can help pay for your diapers.
7. Caregiver’s Marketplace. I love the Caregiver’s Marketplace!  It’s basically just a simple independent rebate program that gives you cash back on the qualifying items you purchase.  Huggies diapers and training pants are some of the qualifying items.  For 2009, you get $.75 rebate for every package of diapers you buy.  All you have to do is save your receipts and send them in periodically.  Nothing to it!   So.. in the above example, we have whittled our diaper costs down to $1.50 each.  Subtract another $.75 and we have purchased three packages of Huggies for $.75 each.  I think that’s not bad!
1. Hint: see my post about this program here.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  You can’t do that just any time you want to!  And the answer is… well, no, of course not.  Most of the time, you won’t get the stars to align just so that you can take advantage of most of these promotions at the same time… but it will happen periodically, and when it does, you want to jump on it hard so you don’t have to pay full price the next time.  Also, if you take advantage of just a few of those promotions, you’ll be doing really well!  Remember that back in item 4, we had the total down to $4.83 each–after subtracting Caregiver’s Marketplace (because that one, you CAN add in any time!) That would be $4.08 per package, and that scenario is not dreadfully uncommon. 

I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible on this, but please, if I’ve missed anything, let me know.  If you have specific questions about buying diapers for nearly nothing, I’ll be happy to answer them if I can.  I am thinking of adding a diaper-buying feature, as well–posts specifically about buying diapers on the cheap.  It may be a necessary expense, but it doesn’t have to break the bank!

See, I am back already, with a picture and a post for tonight’s shopping adventure!  I had big plans for where I was going tonight, but I finally just went to my Walgreens and called it good.  Shoulda gone to CVS to spend expiring ECBs and shoulda gone to Rite Aid because it’s a good week with lots of freebies but I just wasn’t feeling up to it.  My girl has been sickly and I think I am hovering on the brink of it myself–I still have hopes that I’ll fight it off, but I think it’s putting a strain on my immune system.

Total OOP: $25.60 (3.50, 3.08, 17.16, 1.86)
Total RR Used: $126 (7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)
Total Spent: $151.60
Total RR Received: $44 (2, 2, 6, 4, 4, 2, 6, 4, 6, 2, 6)
Gift Card Purchased: $76.00
Caregivers Marketplace: $4.50 (.75, .75, .75, .75)
Prescription Savings Club: $0.45
Total Cost: $26.65

…which is a lot worse than expected, really, and if I’d done the math before writing this all out, I wouldn’t bother posting it. ;)  I paid nearly seven dollars in tax alone, thanks to the geniuses who decided that you should pay tax on pre-coupon amounts in this state.  Ahhh well.  I will make that back, plus some, just by selling the diapers, and there’s a healthy profit in the rest of it.  I just wish I could have found a few more of my overage items.

I have gotten a little lazy about taking pictures of my shopping results lately.  This may or may not be connected to the number of toys laying around the living room floor at any given time–it’s sadly difficult to find a clear spot in which to set up photos.  It is also connected to the disappearance of naptime at my house–I used to blog during nap and I haven’t yet figured out a new time to work that in.  I have taken several shopping pictures that I gave up on posting.  But here we are.  I can’t take a picture of yesterday morning’s Walgreens visit because everything is already put away, but I can tell you that I purchased:

5 Fusion MVP razors
4 tubes of Crest
6 bottles of peroxide
1 Oral B toothbrush
4 bags of Halls Refresh
6 boxes of character Band-Aids (two each of Dora, Spongebob and Barbie)
2 packages of Trident gum

Total Spent: $13.63 (1.75, 1.13, 1.45, 3.15, 6.15)
Total RR Used: $20 (7, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3)
Total OOP: $33.63
RR Received: $40 (2, 1, 6, 2, 1, 6, 1, 6, 1, 6, 1, 6, 1)
Gift Card Received: $3
Prescription Savings Club: $0.18
Total Cost: $9.55 profit

I think it was worth my time. :)

Just a note about the $3 gift card.  I thought that the toothbrushes were a monthly RR deal.  They didn’t print and now I see that most deal sites don’t have it listed now…though I remember seeing it somewhere.  My beauty advisor also thought it was supposed to be a monthly. I wasn’t going to sweat it, and asked to return the item after purchasing it…but when the manager came, he just gave me the gift card instead of returning it.  That’s pretty much the benefit of establishing friendly relations with your store.

If you’re going to buy something online, wouldn’t it be nice if you could get a little cash back?

Ebates is a program that I have been meaning to write about for quite some time. It’s a shopping portal with links to a wide variety of stores, and when you use their links, you will get a percentage back on your purchase. It works because Ebates has deals with the merchants–they get paid something for sending you to the store and they give part of that fee to you to keep you using their site. You’ll get an email from Ebates a few days after your order, telling you how much has credited to your account. They send checks four times a year, as long as your balance is over $5. The money in your account doesn’t expire, though, so if your balance isn’t high enough, you can still get your money eventually, when you’ve done a little more shopping.

Yes, this really works and no, it isn’t a scam. I have received about $60 in total back from Ebates over the past six years, and I’m just a casual user. I kind of forgot about the account for the first couple of years. Now I am pretty good about using it, or a similar service (there are other companies that I will talk about later) whenever I shop online.

I am using it quite a lot these days because you can click through to eBay and get 2% back.  I buy almost all of the coupons I order from eBay, so it really works out well. Coupon auctions go for very little money, usually just a dollar or two, so I might only get two or four cents per click through, but it adds up faster than you’d think. It’s something I’d be ordering with or without Ebates so it’s pretty much free money.

And, even better!  When you sign up, you’ll get a $5 bonus in your new account!

Earning money for shopping… that is pretty much one of my favorite things!

Right now, you can sign up for VIP Membership at Zappos–FREE. This offer is available through Nov 1, 2009, but do it now while you’re still thinking about it. VIP Membersip guaranteed free overnight shipping, as well as other exclusive benefits.

I have never really bought shoes online, but maybe I will start! Free shipping is a powerful lure in the world of online shopping!

(Thanks to slickdeals.)

Harbor Freight is having a Giant Parking Lot Sale this weekend. You can also print a 20% off coupon good for any single item.

If you’re into tools or you know someone who is, you might want to take advantage of this or pass the info along to them. Or not, depending on whether or not you want that special someone to buy even MORE tools. :)

(Thanks to slickdeals.)