Today I spent $33.69 worth of money from my bank account, and saved $157.69 using coupons, sales, rebates, and gift cards, for a total savings of 82%. I truly had no need for fresh produce today, because I still have broccoli, kale, spinach, potatoes, garlic, onions, grapes, celery, lemons, limes, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, scallions, cilantro, mushrooms, green and red peppers, and pears from last week's huge produce trip.
First store, Walgreens. My first trip to Walgreens. I've never shopped there and don't know the system, but I think I did pretty good anyway. Two transactions.
First transaction: Spent $2.82
Saved: $1.99
But I paid with a CVS rebate Visa card, so my actual OOP was still nothing.
Bought one bottle of Dove shampoo. On sale for $4, used a $1.50 coupon, so I paid $2.50 and received back $4 in Register Rewards.
Second transaction: "Spent" $2.21
Saved: $26.86
two AirWick imotion air freshener kits
four dark peanut butter Reese's cups
12 roll pack of Cottonelle TP
Used the $4 coupons for imotion, bringing the final price to 49c each, the 55c man q on Reese's coupon combined with the 39c each q, and apparently this store allows overage, which brought the total for all four down to $1.01. TP was on sale for $4, store q for $1 off combined with man q for 50c brought price to $3.50. Then I used my $4 in RR from the first transaction, which gave me a total of $1.49. Added tax brought me to my final total of $2.21, which I paid using the aforementioned Bioluxe rebate Visa card. Thanks, CVS! I still have just under $5 on the rebate card.
From there, to my beloved CVS! The machine gave me not one but TWO $3/$15 coupons today, so I split my purchase into two transactions. Also, some cranky old lady told me off for walking in front of her and not saying excuse me ("Haven't you ever heard of saying, 'EXCUSE ME?' Haven't you ever HEARD of being polite?!?") (but I had to be at least four or five feet in front of her! I was coming out from the aisle and she was on the other side of the endcap. it wasn't as though I walked into her, or anywhere near her!) and also, she was mumbling so I could barely hear her, and when I apologized and told her that I didn't see her there, she got even ruder. Then every time she saw me in the store, she stared me down and said snotty things about how in her day, people had what they called manners. I laughed at her. It made her even more offended. I like to think that I am a polite and considerate person and not a big jerk, so I felt bad for rising to the bait and being rude in return. She was just a lonely, cranky old lady; I didn't have to laugh at her continuing ploys for attention.
First transaction: "Spent" $2.14.
Saved: $20
two bottles of Covergirl Advanced liquid foundation
They were $10.99 a piece. I used the Buy One Get One coupon from the PG insert, one of the $3 CVS coupons, and last week's $6 worth of ECB. My total, paid with the $25 GC, was $2.14, and I earned back $8 in ECB.
Second transaction: "Spent" 83c
Saved: $47.85
three bottles of Arizona iced tea (the husband's favorite!)
three bottles of Swiffer Wetjet solution
two Oral-B advantage toothbrushes
one blue chocolate rabbit
two Schick Quattro for Women razors
Ah.... I found the razors in the markdown baskets. Originally $9.99, and I thought they were going to be 50% off, but the guy said they were 75%, then did the math in his head, came up with $2.99 (70%), and manually entered the amount. I had $4 off coupons and he gave me $2.02 worth of overage (!!!) so I didn't complain about the faulty math which left me $1 short of what I would have gotten. Since I was expecting to pay 99c for the razors, not to get $2+, I didn't really care that much. Also, it threw off my math for the whole order. I handed over the $8 ECB only to learn that my total due was only $4.40, so I had to go back and get a few more things to bring my total up. Grabbed another bottle of Swiffer solution and the blue Easter rabbit.
I came away from this shopping trip with $11.53 left on my GC and $2 in ECB for my next shopping trip. I also have another $5 on my CVS Bioluxe Visa.
This means that so far, I have used a little over half of my GC balance. I have purchased $162.39 worth of merchandise with that $13.47.
Third store: Acme! Three transactions here. Oh, and I actually spent my own money. I like spending imaginary corporate money so much more. Ha.
Transaction #1:
Spent: $15.28
Saved: $15.17
two 50oz bottles of Tide detergent
three boxes of Triscuits
I had $1 coupons for the three boxes of crackers. I like the smell of Tide, but it costs waaaaaaaay too much. It was on sale for $5.99 and I used the PG $1 coupons, which made it $4.99. Around half price, still stupid expensive, but what I really wanted was the $5 OYNO catalina, which printed after I paid. Sent my husband to take the detergent out to the car while I wheeled the cart back in and bought some more cereal.
Transaction #2:
Spent: $3.38
Saved: $21.16
two boxes of Apple Jacks
two boxes of Froot Loops
two boxes of Rice Krispies
Used $1.50/2 on the Rice Krispies, $1/2 on the others, then handed over the $5 cat from the previous order. Six boxes of cereal for about 56c each, woo. But that's not the best part. Nooooo. The best part is that Acme is running another promotion, where if you buy five boxes of participating cereals, you get a catalina for two free gallons of milk. So! That leads us into:
Transaction #3:
Spent: nothing
Saved: $7.50
two gallons of whole milk
Used the catalina from the cereal, obviously. Paid nothing. We don't drink milk, but go through a huge amount of yogurt, so I was hoping to try making my own. Otherwise I'll probably freeze it and use it for baking.
Last store! Whew. Target.
Spent: $15.03
Saved: $9.16
three dozen eggs
two 8lb bags of Pedigreee dog food
Eggs are on sale for 99c a dozen, had two expiring $3 coupons for the dog food. My dogs used to eat raw and then they ate Merrick and Canidae and now they don't, which makes me sad, but I couldn't afford it any longer and on the other hand, they probably eat more of Mr 3's delicious nutritious food than Mr 3 does, so it evens out, right?
Pretty good shopping trip, if you ask me.
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