2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on May 17, 2011 11:55:20 GMT -5
skubikky,
We live 10 miles from our little rural town. It's 90 miles to the city! Fortunately, we do have a RA in town.
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Post by bobbysgirl on May 17, 2011 12:13:14 GMT -5
We live 8 miles from town. I do one trip a week to do any errands, including RA and groceries.
This is what I spent this week at RA:
Transaction 1
I had: 3.00/15.00 survey Q 1.00 video vale Q 1.00 video value Q 2 1.50/1 Oral B toothbrush Q 2 1.00/1 Colgate toothbrush 2 1.00/1 Crest rinse Q (12.00 total)
I bought: 2 Colgate toothbrushes 2 Crest toothbrushes 2 Crest rinses (17.94 total)
I received 8.00 back in up rewards that I used on the next 2 transactions. The Crest toothbrushes didn't print out a reward, so I returned them. I got 5.98 back. (plus tax)
So my final total was: 11.96 and received 8.00 up reward Out of Pocket (OOP) expense was tax only All of these items were free to me.
Transaction 2
I had: 1.00/2 M and M Q 5.00/2 L'Oreal manufacturer Q 3.00/15.00 survey Q 10.49 manufacture Q ( I think this was the in ad Q) 2.00 up rewards (21.49 total)
I bought: 5 Snicker Easter eggs (90% discount, .50 filler) 2 L'Oreal hair color 2 M and M, BOGO (21.49 total) OOP expenses were zero plus tax
Transaction 3 3 boxes Frosted Flakes, 6.66. I used 4.00 up reward and 1.00 manufacturer Q, 1.66 total OOP ( no tax on food)
So all of the above was 1.66 plus 3.16 tax (8%)
Grand Total 4.82 OOP expense
Cost: (items only) 46.09
I paid: (items only) 1.66
Savings (items only) 44.43 ( on items only, tax not included in this figure)
Watching the 2 videos, clipping coupons and checking out the ad took about 30 minutes. Shopping took 22 minutes.
52 minutes of work netted me 44.43. I use all of the items.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 12:15:07 GMT -5
Dancin, The way you do it sounds exactly how my wife does it. We live in a rural area, and our grocery store boices are limited. We do have a RiteAid, thank goodness. But whenever we need to go to the city, we stop along the way, and pick up the specials from each store. We were doing this even before we started couponing. Actually, we first couponed years ago when my wife first started being a stay at home mom. We mainly did the newpaper inserts. We would get the "double Sunday" editions so as to get two sets of inserts. Then we move to the country, and they didn't have the Sunday newspaper, and the Krogers, Publix that have the deals, so we stopped couponing. But, a couple of years ago, with the advent of the larger dollar internet coupons, the store loyalty cards, and the blogs that consolidate the info, AND the fact we need to make weekly trips to the city, couponing made sense again. Also, the thift stores for clothing are just completely amazing. We didn't know about them until we became landlords. There was one in the area of town where we had a couple of rentals, my wife went in, and was astounded at what was for sale, and how cheap it was. We don't coupon because we can't afford to not coupon, we coupon because why spend a lot of money for stuff when you can spend less money for the same stuff. 2kids10horses: And I'm sure that like my DH, you are very appreciative of what she does. DH will be retiring next year at age 55 and he has always given me EQUAL credit for our financial success. Over the years, I have ALWAYS couponed, but I have stepped up my couponing when it made sense and pulled back when it didn't. When WAGs added the Register Reward program to their already Easy Saver Rebate program, I devised a strategy that allowed my to get anything I needed from WAGs with absolutely no money spent in OOP on my part. I was all over that!! About two years ago, the Longs in my town converted to a CVS and until recently they offered so many incentives to get me in the door, I felt like I was living there. Recently, the incentives have not been as good, so as a consumer I have pulled back. I have a great connection that enables me to get free coupon inserts every week (takes about 5-10 minutes every Sunday night) so I will continue to maintain that connection, in spite of the fact that I am not using nearly as many this year as I did in '10. Ya just never know when something incredible will happen in the world of couponing!! ![](http://boards.msn.com/Themes/default/emoticons/tongue_smile.gif)
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 12:17:24 GMT -5
Small local grocrey store had 5lb bags of rice, White (yeah not healthy yet the kids love it), Long Grain Wild, Brown and Yellow rice, 5lb bag for .79c each, I may have gone overboard. Cleaned out the shelf leaving it empty for the next person? ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) I hope you're being sarcastic.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 12:21:43 GMT -5
frugalpaininthebum: You did an awesome job at Rite Aid!! I bought the (5) of the $5 Tylenol Precise last week using (5) $5 coupons. I also had a $3/$15 so I bought $3 worth of food items (might as well). I paid tax, but my UPs didn't print. I called CS and no problem, they're sending me my $10 coupon!! ;D
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Frugal Nurse
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Post by Frugal Nurse on May 17, 2011 12:23:18 GMT -5
Small local grocrey store had 5lb bags of rice, White (yeah not healthy yet the kids love it), Long Grain Wild, Brown and Yellow rice, 5lb bag for .79c each, I may have gone overboard. Cleaned out the shelf leaving it empty for the next person? ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) Do you shop where she shops? Did you need 5 lbs of rice recently and couldn't get it? If not, then stop complaining. All you ever do is complain or try to prove people wrong. I get it, couponing isn't for you. That's fine. It is for us. Stop trying to put us down for getting good deals. You are so bitter in your posts. Besides, haven't you ever heard the saying "The early bird gets the worm"? Maybe you should have gotten there before she did.
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on May 17, 2011 12:38:02 GMT -5
So because I have to be at work from 6AM - 4 or maybe 7PM, I do not deserve consideration and can afford whatever price may be there when I get there?
For the record, I do coupon - though not to the extremes that some of you do.
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Frugal Nurse
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Post by Frugal Nurse on May 17, 2011 12:50:36 GMT -5
dasiylu- if you get there and they are out of stock, you can get a rain check. You can go on your days off too. And yes, if someone got there before me and bought the last one, then I am not going to carry a chip on my shoulder over it. Is this the kind of stuff that people really get upset about? That is sad, because life is so full of joy and wonderful things, and not worth wasting by getting in a tizzy over someone taking the last bag of rice. Sheesh.
And I think tis great that you coupon. I do too. Not like the people on the show, and i don't chase every deal or buy ten of a coupon, but if there are only 3 bags of rice on the shelf and it is that cheap, I will grab all 3. If I go to the store to get one of something and there is only one on the shelf, should I leave it there just in case you come behind me and want the same item? That is silly.
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on May 17, 2011 12:56:26 GMT -5
I am not carrying a chip about a bag of rice, or the fact that I missed it - because I will probably never know that I missed it to begin with. A lot of these type deals are get 'em til they're gone.
I just wanted to point out that it is not so easy for EVERYBODY to get those deals.
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 17, 2011 13:18:17 GMT -5
I don't mind if the shelf is cleaned out when I get there...it's not the end of the world...but it does irritate me when people disregard or ignore the rules. One example is Black Friday at CVS or Walgreens. CVS has limits per household on their ads. It irritates me when people have two or three or more times the limit and try and check out multiple times on different cards. If you are going to do that, check out on one card and then get to the end of the line and let other people check out. ![>:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/angry.png)
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 13:48:35 GMT -5
I don't mind if the shelf is cleaned out when I get there...it's not the end of the world...but it does irritate me when people disregard or ignore the rules. One example is Black Friday at CVS or Walgreens. CVS has limits per household on their ads. It irritates me when people have two or three or more times the limit and try and check out multiple times on different cards. If you are going to do that, check out on one card and then get to the end of the line and let other people check out. ![>:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/angry.png) The only time that I get bummed if a shelf is cleared is on WAGs RR deals because you can't get the RR later. Other than that, sometimes I actually PREFER to get a rain check - that way I can CHOOSE the timing of when I get the sale price, especially if there does not happen to be a good/great coupon out when the item is originally on sale. Sorry to hear that about your CVS on Black Friday. My CVS must have been overstocked because they still had tons of the BF EB stuff after the sale was over. In any case, CVS DOES give rain checks on EB items so even if the shelf is empty, you can ALWAYS get the deal - however one item missing might have screwed up your scenario - that IS a pain. ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png)
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 17, 2011 13:56:42 GMT -5
The problem with WAG's RR is that they expire in two weeks versus CVS's 30 days. It's harder to roll those RR's.
I wish we had RAs in Houston, they always seem to have really good deals, more so than WAGs and CVS.
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 17, 2011 14:14:03 GMT -5
You have to wait to match the coupon with the sales and sometimes RR or CVS Bucks.
For example, CVS usually has the Complete contact solution go on sale for $8.99 a bottle with $8.99 ECB (Extra Care Bucks) back, essentially free. There was also a $1 coupon, so it was a $1 money maker. If you had ECBs from previous deals, which I did, you would spend even less out of pocket.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 14:17:20 GMT -5
I don't do the coupon thing, but was just looking at the coupons in our paper today and from what I see the products that have the coupons are generally the more expensive brands. So even with the coupon you'll end up spending more than you would if you bought an off brand product. So where is the savings coming from? lonewolf: You are absolutely correct. A novice couponer MIGHT clip that coupon and buy the product, thinking they are saving money. The REAL SAVINGS with coupons comes when you combine an awesome sale with a high valued coupon in addition to a retailer's promotion (EBs at CVS, RRs at Walgreens, or UPs at Rite Aid). A lot of times you can even get the products for FREE!! ;D
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 14:17:40 GMT -5
This message has been deleted.
Sorry - double post.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 14:23:55 GMT -5
The problem with WAG's RR is that they expire in two weeks versus CVS's 30 days. It's harder to roll those RR's. I wish we had RAs in Houston, they always seem to have really good deals, more so than WAGs and CVS. I have all three chains and they all have their pros and cons. My Rite Aid is often OOS on the best deals and their food selection is pretty bad. If I need to burn rewards and there are no good SCRs, I usually like to buy food. BUT they are the only drug chains where you can turn their rewards into cash - can't beat that with a stick!! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on May 17, 2011 14:34:05 GMT -5
lonewolf,
As others have said, snip and save the coupon. Then wait for it... wait for it... sometime in the future, BINGO!!! A BOGO sale will haapen, a two for 1 deal, then use a coupon for each product, and THEN the savings mount up.
My wife has a system of envelops where she saves her coupons. For stuff she might want. She uses a website Southernsavers dot com, and it shows the deals. They'll say, "use the coupon that was in the paper on such and such date. And combine that with an internet coupon. Here's the link..." and so on.
Semi-extreme couponing DOES take a bit of work and planning to get the max rewards. But, like any skill, you get better as you do it.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 17, 2011 14:36:40 GMT -5
The REAL SAVINGS with coupons comes when you combine an awesome sale with a high valued coupon in addition to a retailer's promotion (EBs at CVS, RRs at Walgreens, or UPs at Rite Aid). A lot of times you can even get the products for FREE!!
Unless someone else has cleaned out the shelf ahead of you. Then you can get a rain check to use - after the coupon has expired. Of course, you don't find that out until you get to the store.
snip and save the coupon. Then wait for it... wait for it... sometime in the future, BINGO!!! A BOGO sale will haapen, a two for 1 deal, then use a coupon for each product, and THEN the savings mount up. Unless the coupon expires first.
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Frugal Nurse
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Post by Frugal Nurse on May 17, 2011 14:42:00 GMT -5
lonewolf, As others have said, snip and save the coupon. Then wait for it... wait for it... sometime in the future, BINGO!!! A BOGO sale will haapen, a two for 1 deal, then use a coupon for each product, and THEN the savings mount up. My wife has a system of envelops where she saves her coupons. For stuff she might want. She uses a website Southernsavers dot com, and it shows the deals. They'll say, "use the coupon that was in the paper on such and such date. And combine that with an internet coupon. Here's the link..." and so on. Semi-extreme couponing DOES take a bit of work and planning to get the max rewards. But, like any skill, you get better as you do it. I LOVE Southernsavers! They are my go-to site for matching up coupons! They even have little boxes beside each match up that you can check, and when you're done, print your shopping list! It is fantastic!
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Frugal Nurse
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Post by Frugal Nurse on May 17, 2011 14:44:18 GMT -5
The problem with WAG's RR is that they expire in two weeks versus CVS's 30 days. It's harder to roll those RR's. I wish we had RAs in Houston, they always seem to have really good deals, more so than WAGs and CVS. You haven't been missing much at RA lately, they've been kind of slow. I haven't been in a few weeks because there haven't been enough good deals to make it worth my effort. They were awesome between black friday and March, then the good deals dried up. I am disappointed in them.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 14:48:32 GMT -5
The REAL SAVINGS with coupons comes when you combine an awesome sale with a high valued coupon in addition to a retailer's promotion (EBs at CVS, RRs at Walgreens, or UPs at Rite Aid). A lot of times you can even get the products for FREE!! Unless someone else has cleaned out the shelf ahead of you. Then you can get a rain check to use - after the coupon has expired. Of course, you don't find that out until you get to the store. If I at all suspect that an item MIGHT BE out of stock (and most couponers can almost predict the odds), I will often call before I go out and ask if someone is available to do a stock check. Sometimes I have to wait on the phone for a minute or two, but they are always willing to do it. Many times IF they have it they will ask me if they would like them to hold it for me. If they don't have it, I'll add getting a rain check for the item to my TO DO list for the next time I go out. In addition, more than one time when there was a sale and I had a soon to expire coupon and was worried the store would make the sale (if they had only one item on the shelf) and write me a PAID rain check or they have said that they would accept the expired coupon. I prefer the PAID rain check, but I'll take whatever I can get if it is a killer deal.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 14:58:10 GMT -5
The problem with WAG's RR is that they expire in two weeks versus CVS's 30 days. It's harder to roll those RR's. I wish we had RAs in Houston, they always seem to have really good deals, more so than WAGs and CVS. You haven't been missing much at RA lately, they've been kind of slow. I haven't been in a few weeks because there haven't been enough good deals to make it worth my effort. They were awesome between black friday and March, then the good deals dried up. I am disappointed in them. frugalnurse: I don't think it's just RA - all three are pulling back. I have had a "sense" that it was coming for a few months and the Black Friday offers were a pleasant surprise (I really didn't expect that they would offer so much). Summer has a tendency to be slow anyway so just hang in there. I use the slow times to catch up on any organization that I need to do for the next wave: purge expired coupons, clean out my loose coupons drawer, etc. I also use the time to put together my quarterly donation to the food pantry if I haven't done that already.
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Frugal Nurse
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Post by Frugal Nurse on May 17, 2011 15:00:32 GMT -5
Dancin- yeah, there isn't much I need to stock up right now anyhow (except shampoo/conditioner- I got all crazy and donated it all to the AL victims!), but it was nice when I was able to make a bunch of $$ at RA with their winter rewards and similar programs! I miss all the easy money!
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cme1201
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Post by cme1201 on May 17, 2011 16:16:44 GMT -5
;D
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Post by bobbysgirl on May 17, 2011 20:46:14 GMT -5
I don't do the coupon thing, but was just looking at the coupons in our paper today and from what I see the products that have the coupons are generally the more expensive brands. So even with the coupon you'll end up spending more than you would if you bought an off brand product. So where is the savings coming from? LONE: My items at Rite Aid were all national brands. I got all of them for 1.66 plus tax. What is it you don't understand? If a person wants to do something, they figure out a way to do it. Especially a YMer. Thanks DANCIN for the encouragement, oh mine guru you!
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on May 17, 2011 20:53:32 GMT -5
Dancin- yeah, there isn't much I need to stock up right now anyhow (except shampoo/conditioner- I got all crazy and donated it all to the AL victims!), but it was nice when I was able to make a bunch of $$ at RA with their winter rewards and similar programs! I miss all the easy money! frugalnurse: OMG, you're out of shampoo/conditioner? That was soooo nice of you to donate what you had. ![](http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff155/JiminiChristmas/smileys/button29934414.png)
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on May 17, 2011 21:54:30 GMT -5
So, I'm looking through the Tuesday inserts we always get, and usually just throw straight into the recycling bin. Some things I see, white onions 5 lbs for $0.99, same for cantaloupe and grapefruit. Tomatoes 2 lbs for $0.89. Jalapenos 3 lbs for $0.99, same for white potatoes, carrots, and fuji apples. Tomatillos, limes, and jicama are 4 lbs for $0.99 Bell peppers and papaya are 2 lbs for $0.99.
None of these are coupons by the way. I'm not even sure the store in question offers coupons since they never have any in their inserts. It's just the price of produce if you live somewhere that grows all kinds of produce. I'll take that over super cheap toothpaste and shampoo all day long.
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2kids10horses
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Post by 2kids10horses on May 18, 2011 8:59:36 GMT -5
Dark,
No one is suggesting that you should substitute toothpaste for food!
But, would you rather pay $3 for a tube or toothpaste, or get it for free?
Using coupons, you can get it for free.
FREE. Nada. Zip. Zero. nuttin'.
You got a problem with that?
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 18, 2011 9:02:52 GMT -5
But, would you rather pay $3 for a tube or toothpaste, or get it for free?
Using coupons, you can get it for free.
I get it free from my dentist - no coupon, no expiration date, no waiting for sales.
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Post by soon2bmomof3 on May 18, 2011 9:18:07 GMT -5
"I get it free from my dentist - no coupon, no expiration date, no waiting for sales. "
You pay dental insurance don't you?
I only go to my dentist twice a year. I'd feel embarassed to ask for 6 months worth of toothpaste in those tiny sample tubes.
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