Yay for Sunday Rite Aid trips!

Florida has no Rite Aids.  Sad, but true.  So I missed the past 2 Sundays at my beloved Rite Aid.  I was so happy to get back into the grind that I mentioned it at church, where someone quipped "church is over and now she's going to her REAL church."  This is particularly amusing if you know that my husband is the minister!

This is a good week for freebies at Rite Aid.  Unfortunately the freebies are junk food... but that's OK.  In fact, I only used ONE coupon that I'd walked in with this morning, which means this is a great week for people to get freebies with very little work done beforehand.

Lay's Stax (similar to Pringles), TGIFriday snacks, Burger King snacks (who knew there was such a thing?) and Combos are all $1 each, get $1 +UP back.  No limit.

Also, there's a Thermacare-type heat wrap called BodiHeat.  It's on sale this week, but for some reason it's ringing up for $1, get $1 +UP back- AND many of the boxes have peelies on them for either .50 or $1 off each, making them a "moneymaker".

I also got a box of hair dye for .24 with a coupon.  Something tells me I may never get the courage to actually USE this color, but hey... it's a fun story!

So I got:
4 BodiHeat Wraps
1 Natural Essence hair dye
4 Stax
5 Combos
2 Burger King snacks
---------
16.24
- 2.00 coupons (peelies)
-2.00 coupon (hair dye)
-------
12.24 OOP (paid $12 in +UPs, .24 in cash)
earned $15 +UP= $2.76 "moneymaker"


The shelves were full (for once!) and I could have bought a LOT more, but I just didn't want that much junk food- even free junk food.  I do donate it to food banks, though it makes me feel weird to donate non-nutritious food.  I find that they're good to have on hand for parties, church functions, etc. so I buy some every time a sale comes around, but I wouldn't stock up on freebies like I would for health & beauty care items or healthy foods.

Anybody out there have shopping success to share this week?

on vacation

We're currently in Florida, visiting family, which is why I haven't posted in a week.  I don't have much to say about money saving while I'm here, except that visiting Publix with my  "coupon eyes" was a whole new experience for me.  Firstly, it seemed like every item had a peelie on it!  Everywhere I turned, I saw a peelie or a tearpad.  The prices weren't too different than what we see at home, but they sure make it a lot easier to save money here by handing you the coupon to use with the item.

I found a coupon book tearpad and took three of them to bring home with us.  Oh, how my life has changed.

A couple of quick pictures to include you in the warm, sunny, beautiful joy that this week has been...

We'll be home Wednesday!  I'll be glad to be back in our lovely house with our comfy bed, but right now I'm thoroughly enjoying soaking up the sun and watching the girls swim in the pool ALL.DAY.LONG.

found money?

All of this couponing and deal-ing is causing me to take a closer look at magazines and store displays.  I used to think that rebates were a total and utter waste of time.  Surely it wasn't worth my 10 minutes to fill out a form (and keep the receipt I needed to send with it!) in order to get a check for a measly $2.99 in 2 months.  Why bother?

On the other hand, I'd still fall for the marketing trick.  I'd be in the store and pick up an item that said "try me free!".  I'd buy it, thinking "oh I'll mail it in for the rebate!" but once I got home, I'd either forget all about it or look at the pile of crumpled receipts in my hand and decide- you guessed it- that it wasn't worth my time.

As you can imagine, I've changed my tune when it comes to rebates.  In fact, in the last month I've stumbled across THREE rebates for items that I'd already bought-- and I'd had no idea I could get money back on them.  Two of these rebates were for salty foods, deli meats, prepared foods, or frozen pizzas from Budweiser.  We're not beer drinkers and I had NO IDEA that beer companies offer these rebates- and you don't even need to buy beer!  Honestly, I don't get the point of these at all- no clue how it helps Budweiser in any way- but if you'll give me back money on stuff I bought last month and (luckily) kept the receipts for, heck yeah, I'll take it.  I mailed in $11 worth of rebates to Budweiser this morning.

I stumbled across the other rebate when I was reading Real Simple magazine- a subscription I got super cheap thanks to one deal or another in November or December.  Hidden in a page of ads, stuck in the middle towards the magazine spine, was a column with a picture of a k-cup on it.  When I looked closer I realized it was a mail in rebate for $5 back when you buy at least $10 worth of Green Mountain k-cups.  Now, I have a Keurig, and it's about the only place where I don't save money.  I love coffee, I love k-cups, and Tom loves tea k-cups.  I buy online from sites with discounts and free shipping, or sometimes I'll get a box of k-cups with a 20% off coupon at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but I do still spend a lot on coffee.  I'd ordered a large number of boxes from Green Mountain coffee a couple of weeks ago.  So this was a no-brainer!

All in all, I'm sending in for $16 back today, all on stuff I'd already bought.  It took about 20 minutes to fish out receipts for the right products, fill out the forms, and stamp the envelopes, but is that work worth it for $16?  You bet it is.

morning thoughts- freebies, giveaways, and surveys

It's winter, and everyone I know is either fighting an illness, or getting over one, or watching their spouse or kids do the same.  We've been pretty lucky in this house so far- a couple of colds, Tom had the flu but it only lasted about 24 hours, Mia's only had one ear infection.  Other than my sinus-and-double-ear-infection over the past week, our house has stayed relatively healthy... until yesterday.  Whee!  Charlie's sick, Tom thinks he's getting sick, I'm still getting over the afore-mentioned infectionpalooza, and Mia is just fine, thank you very much.  So far.  We're leaving for Florida on Valentine's Day, so I'm hoping everyone gets the sickies out of their systems NOW so we can have an awesome, relaxing, warm time.

Since we haven't been leaving the house much, I wanted to tell you about the mail I've been getting.  I sign up for a lot of freebies, Facebook giveaways and samples.  I always sign up for them using my maiden name, which gives me a false sense of security.  I have a junk email address I made on gmail that I use for any giveaways that I'm not really interested in.  That way, the company doesn't have my real email address and I don't have to go through the process of unsubscribing to all the spam.

In any given week, I usually get 2 or 3 product samples and a good number of coupons.  I also recently joined a consumer opinion panel that regularly emails me surveys.  Sometimes I'll get to the end of the survey and they'll ask if I'd be willing to test out a particular product and give them my feedback.  I've already received two full-size free products to test, which is great because the kids think it's fun, and both were products I either needed or would have bought if I had seen them in a store.  I earn points by doing all of these different surveys, and once I get a particular number of points I can redeem them for cash.  I really don't mind taking surveys, and I LOVE testing products, so it's really a win-win for me.  It's not lucrative, that's for sure, but getting the free products to test is worth it in my opinion!

The company I do these tests for is called Synovate.  Other than being a panel member, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, and I don't get anything if you sign up (they don't do referrals).  I just think it's a cool opportunity and I thought some of you might also enjoy it.

My plan for Rite Aid on Sunday

Here's my list for tomorrow!  I really doubt my store will have enough items in stock for me to get all of this, and I do NOT slash & grab (clearing the shelf, especially on the first day of the sale, is a big no-no!) but if all the stars and store stock aligned, I'd come home with the following:

3 Betty Crocker cake mixes
3 Betty Crocker frostings
6 Betty Crocker cookie mix pouches
1 Children's Chestal
1 Children's Coldcalm
1 Oscillococcinum
9 boxes Rice Krispies
2 cans Scrubbing Bubbles aerosol cleaner
4 Excedrin PM, 20 ct.
16 rolls Bounty Basic
1 Mentos
4 bottles Finesse
85.65 (total, sale prices)
-------------------------
-36.90 in coupons
= 48.75
earn $37 in +UPs
get 20.97 back in rebates
------------------------
total price for all the above: 9.22 moneymaker  
Wish me luck!


ETA: For the first time ever, I got to RA when they opened this morning. Here's what I ended up getting (and I'm planning another trip for cheapies, not freebies, later in the week)...

2 cake mixes
2 frostings
4 cookie mix pouches
1 Children's Chestal

1 Children's Coldcalm

1 Oscillococcinum

1 adult Chestal

2 Excedrin PMs

6 boxes Rice Krispies

3 RA coffee cannisters (I was SUPPOSED to buy 4, you only get the +UP if you buy them in 2s... whoops!)

1 Red Dress coupon

----------------------------

66.85 sale prices

- 26.60 in coupons

---------------------------

40.25 OOP ( paid mostly in +UPS, $1.68 in cash)

earned $23 in +UPs, plus $20 Winter Reward, PLUS $27.96 in Single Check Rebates)

------------------------

$70.96 "earned/cash back", makes this trip a $30.71 moneymaker!

I've been lax!

Sorry, guys... a double ear infection and a sinus infection have pretty much kept me confined to the couch this week.  Sleeping, not posting.  The antibiotics started kicking in yesterday, just in time for Tom and I to go out to dinner and a movie- a total rarity around here!

As we were heading out, we walked by the shelving unit in the basement that Tom set up for me to store my stockpile/freebies/random loot on.  He shook his head as he saw the shelf full of Afrin and other products we never use in this house.  "I know you said they're a money maker, but it's not REAL money.  We can't buy gas with it.  I just don't get why you do it."

I yawned (gotta pop those ears!) and said "you know how you came home from the doctor earlier with a list of things that you needed?  And I went out to Rite Aid and got them all?  It should have cost me about forty bucks, but I paid 4 cents in cash for those items.  They weren't on sale, and I didn't get any sort of deal, but using my 'fake money', I still bought stuff we need."

"FOUR CENTS??  Woah."

I think I got through to him.

Thus ends a great week for Rite Aid shopping, and Shaw's shopping, though being sick really cut down on the number of Shaws runs I was able to do.  There are decent deals coming up at Rite Aid this week, though, so no reason to be upset!

By the way- The King's Speech was good!

Keeping track

I just saw a good deal for Rite Aid next week posted on Southern Cali Saver.  I used to see things like this and just assume I'd remember.  Or I'd keep the Notepad on my netbook up, and add to the list, which worked OK except I couldn't really format it and if my computer restarted, it was gone.

I began keeping a rolling shopping list on Google Docs.  I keep mine private.  It auto saves, and it's super easy to edit, print, and access from anywhere.  Feel free to take a look at my list for this week (I made a private copy for myself so you're looking at a semi-public copy). It's not pretty at the moment, and maybe it doesn't make any sense to other people, but it does to me!

This way, I print out the pertinent page on shopping day and throw it in my basket/shopping cart.  I can quickly scan the list to see what I wanted to buy, how I wanted to break up transactions, and what coupons I wanted to use.  This helps me to keep my wits about me when I go into the store-- otherwise I'm easily confused.

No matter how you keep your list, I highly HIGHLY suggest keeping one.  It is a lifesaver in terms of staying to your plan, and getting the savings you were hoping for.