COUPONING PAYS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are some skeptics out there who don't think couponing is worth it. Perhaps it isn't worth it to them in terms of time or energy, but one can't deny that it yields awesome returns financially!!!
I finally got with the times and started doing my Walgreens rebate stuff online. It takes just a few minutes and saves a stamp! In doing so, I noticed that they had my whole history of rebates listed. I began couponing in Sep. of 2007. So.....here is the grand total folks............... (drumroll....).............

From Sep of 2007-Sep of 2008 we have gotten $228.15 worth of FREE STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Our total was $258.15 but I subtracted the inital $30 I spent on rebate stuff to get the ball rolling).

This is only including the free-after-rebate items! Keep in mind also that there were a couple of months I didn't get any FAB stuff because the deals weren't that good or we couldn't use the items!
I am guessing that we have gotten at least $200 worth of freebies in the last year through register rewards deals too! Then there are the times we used coupons on rebate items or register reward items and GOT PAID to buy stuff. Then there are the things that I have gotten free or for pennies that were clearance items I used coupons on! Then there are the $5 off coupons they routinely give out on the internet. Then there are the amazing sales they have where diapers are about $2 a package......
....Ahhh. So many deals at Walgreens.

I have no idea how much money we've made off of Walgreens but I do know that shopping there has majorly paid off for our family!

*Due to the fact that I was new to couponing and rebate stuff, I had a couple of times where I made blunders, such as forgetting to turn my rebate in on time (thus having to pay $3 total for a package of gel pens and a box of washable markers instead of getting them totally free) or submitting the receipt wrong and not getting a rebate. But in spite of those blunders, I still got the product I paid for (just didn't get it free) and it was only a couple of times this happened to me. I know I didn't lose more than $20 this whole year doing couponing. Yes, it can be slightly risky to coupon, but a $20 loss to $400 worth of free stuff is worth it!

Walgreens Goodies

I don't have a pic of my stuff since I did the unthinkable and forgot my camera on our trip to Billings, but I did get a nice haul of stuff on Friday at Walgreens.

Here's what I got:

2 Boxes of sidewalk chalks
3 jars of Miracle Bubbles
8-pack of AA batteries
2 containers of baby wipes
1 large bottle of children's mouthwash (free-after-rebate item)
1 Schick Quattro Intuition Razor
2 boxes of anti-bacterial wet ones (24 individual packets per box)

With all the coupons and the special Friday-only $5 off a $20 purchase, I SHOULD have received all of this for around $4.50 after I get the rebate back on my mouthwash. But, the cashier goofed and voided my $5 coupon so I paid $15 and will get $5 back. However, I plan to bring this to their attention on my next trip and hopefully get $5 in cash back. Even if they somehow refused to give me the money back, I really only paid less than a dollar for everything, which is a super deal, considering these items would have cost at least $32 in our town and we will use everything.

*Alert* For those of you friends needing ink for your printers, I noticed this week they are doing refills half off so that would mean a black refill for only $5! Also, tomorrow, Friday the 30th, there is a super coupon out for $10 off a $30 purchase. You can stock up on June Free-After-Rebates and use this coupon to get paid to buy these things. Or, you could buy a few packages of diapers, use diaper coupons and the super coupon and end up paying $5 a package for Huggies or Pampers.

Frugal Friday--Tips for Being MORE Frugal at Walgreens

Some tips I have learned recently for shopping at Walgreens:

*ALWAYS, ALWAYS flip through your EasySaver booklet before you go up to check out at the register. Last week I got home and discovered that though I had gotten a great deal on batteries with a regular coupon, I could have saved $1 more if I had paid attention to the coupons in the Easy Saver booklet too. I also missed getting another good deal (Kotex pads for 50 cents) because I wasn't paying attention to the EasySaver coupons.

*Be very careful to get the exact items that the flyer says for RR deals. The past couple of times I have made mistakes on the ounces of toothpaste, etc. and it has caused some hassle with having to get the manager over there and confusing everyone.

*Pay attention to minor holiday sales. They often have free photo deals or great sales on holidays like Leap Day, Tax Day, Memorial Day, etc. Today they have a super good coupon out you can print off online to get $5 off a $20 purchase. Even though I already bought most of my Free-After-Rebate items for the month of May, I am going to hit Walgreens this afternoon since we'll be driving through on our way out of town for the weekend and am planning to get a big LOAD of great stuff for around $4.50 thanks to this extra coupon and some others I didn't use last time.

Light bulb!

Thanks to all the comments from folks about my Walgreens deals. I realize my mistake, paying for a Proctor and Gamble deal with P and G RR, so I know what NOT to do next time. It totally bums me out though because I now have figured out that I could have gotten everything in the picture for around $6! Oh well, next time I will know better! Couponing is a learning process!

My Walgreens Deals of the Week

All this, plus one pound of butter, which isn't pictured because it's in the fridge, for $6.06 out of pocket! And I'll get $2.20 back in rebates! How is that possible? Well, as I discovered on the drive home, my cashier goofed on one coupon. My printed internet coupons never scan so she manually typed it in. She typed in $7.60 instead of the 76 cents she was supposed to. I will, of course, mention this on my next trip and offer to pay back the $6 something. However, if they have a policy like some stores, mistakes go to the customer. But even for the $10 ($12 total -$2 Rebate on candles) this actually would have cost me, it's still a LOT of stuff. 3 rolls of Hallmark giftwrap, 4 rolls of ribbon, 2 Glade candles (they smell up the house so well!), a thing of raisins, 3 handsanitizers, 2 gums, 2 Theraflu medicines, 1 Fortifense immunity booster, 1 Vive Pro shampoo and 1 Vive Pro conditioner, and butter.

Last Saturday night Crystal posted about the coming deals for the following day at Walgreens. I'm tired of our local paper not having all of the good coupons she gets. So, I got on http://www.couponclippers.com/ and ordered a few Purell coupons and the Buy One Get One Free Vive Pro Nutrigloss coupon. They cost just 10-25 cents each. You had to buy a minimum of $3 and then pay one or two stamps shipping. Because I had to buy $3 worth of coupons, I got some battery coupons (we go through tons of those) and diaper coupons and Silk soymilk coupons. All stuff I will buy, so it's totally worth the cost. It took about 5 days for them to come in the mail, with 2 days to spare on the weekly sales!

Had I bought these items on sale or with coupons at Wal-Mart, I would have spent $32. Total saved at Walgreens today: $50.

What did I actually pay for? If the cashier hadn't made her mistake I would have paid $2 for the raisins, $2 for the pound of butter, $2 for the 3 rolls of wrapping paper, $1 for the 3 medicines, $1 for the ribbon, $3 on the candles (but with a $2 rebate to come) and tax. The shampoo/conditioner, gum and sanitizers were totally free. The great thing is that I actually made $1 by buying the 3 handsanitizers! That dollar more than pays for the coupons I had to buy to get these deals!

P.S. The reason I didn't really catch the cashier's mistake is because I was shopping with my husband and son and didn't have time to add up the total cost of it in my head and was in a hurry so the people behind me could get through the line.

For more stories of Great Deals Found go to Money Saving Mom.

My Deals of the Week

My Walgreens deals this week! I got all of the above for $10! I spent $26 (half cash/half register rewards) and will get $16 back in rebates. Because there are $2.50 coupons on the web for Playtex Sport tampons and because they are on a Buy one, get one free deal this week I got PAID 20 cents to buy them! I also got paid 50 cents to buy the Pert Plus after I get my rebate. The Garnier Fructis shampoo was free and so was the Pulsar Toothbrush. I had 2 coupons for $1.50 off Healing Gardens Organics products and since they are on Buy one, Get one this week, I paid very little for those too and they will make beautiful gifts, especially for my friends who are into the "natural, good" stuff!

My Smith's deals were pretty good too! Kroger shredded cheese is 4 for $5, so I got some of that. I printed some Armour coupons off the web (75 cents off any Armour product) and so I got 5 of these Lunchmakers for only 25 cents each, because they are 10 for $10 this week. Cheap lunches/snacks! I also printed some Purex coupons off the web this week ($1.00 off one Purex Natural Elements) and they were on sale for $2.49, so I got 2 jugs of natural detergent (32 loads each bottle) for $3!

One other great deal that ends tomorrow at Safeway: 93% meat/7% fat hamburger is on special for $1.99 a pound. That is $3 off per pound in our town! I bought 3 pounds for $6 and plan to go get some more. I spent $6 and saved $18! Since the kid who was going to give us some elk didn't get one this year, my hubby told me to fill up the freezer with this good hamburger this week!

Funny: One cashier at Safeway now calls me "The Coupon Lady." She told me yesterday, after ringing up my order and seeing I saved twice as much as I spent, "You just FREAK me out when you do that!"

Power Shopping

This week Walgreens had some great deals! They had a bunch of items on register reward deals and all of these items had coupons for them, either in this week's paper or a previous one.
Here's what I got:
Pepcid AC Advanced
Buckley's Cough Medicine
Keri Milk Body Lotion
5 packages baby food
3 boxes of 100 ct. Excedrin
3 boxes of 24 ct. Excedrin
Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste
Crest Toothpaste
Crest Whitening Cinnamon Toothpaste
5 boxes gelatin
1 Adidas deodorant
2 boxes of Theraflu Cold medicine
3# of Epsom salts
1 package of To-go Beano
Band-aids
Saltwater Nasal spray

Here's what I did:
I took the Excedrin and 2 baby foods through the line. I used 3, $3 off coupons on the Excedrin and my total came to $11.90 with tax. I paid this on a gift card I got from my Sep. rebates. My register rewards on this order? $12 plus a coupon for 3 baby foods. So, I made 10 cents on that order. Next order, I put all my free after rebate stuff up with all the coupons and the total came to $28 something. I paid with my $12 in register rewards and some more on my gift cards. Third order I put the Theraflus, 3 baby foods, and Keri Lotion up with coupons for all of it, and the total came to $15.50, but generated another $12 in register rewards.
So, for those of you who are confused:
I spent (with cash or gift cards): $45
Rebates I'll get on this stuff: $28.50
Register Rewards (which is like cash): $12
Total spent: $4.50
Items: 27
Wal-Mart cost of these items at cheapest possible prices: $60
At Walgreens, this is $108 worth of merchandise
Added bonuses: The Crest and the 3 Excedrins were bonus packs with freebies attached so I not only got the big ones free, but got 3 smaller Excedrins and a smaller tube of Crest free too.

What did I pay for? I figured out that I paid for the 50 cent Band-aids, the Epsom salts on sale for $1.50, 1 package of baby food for $1, and the 5 packages of Royal Gelatin for $1. All other products were COMPLETELY free. I could yard sale some of the stuff and make money on it, but I think I will donate some to my grandparents who are on a fixed income and could really use the medicines.

I was headed to my mom's house this weekend when I noticed a yard sale, yes even on a freezing cold fall day! The yard sale happened to be at the most zealous yard saler-in-town's house (I know since I see her at EVERY sale all summer long and she holds 4 or 5 per summer herself!) She's known for having great stuff so I had to stop. Several of my kid's clothes are from her sales, and some of them were brand-new with tags still on them! I snagged an adorable, new pair of pink sneakers for Ali which should fit next spring and summer ($1) and this new-in-the-box scooter doll that really rides the scooter around when you put batteries in it. $3! This will be Ali's birthday present for her 3rd birthday in Feb. Anyone who knows Ali well knows she's obsessed with scooters and rides the little neighbor girl's scooters constantly. I've gotten all of Ali's B-day and Christmas gifts (and most of Jer's too) thanks to clearances and yard sale deals!

Update: Since our local Safeway NEVER restocks, I swung by the Safeway 30 miles away when I was in that town shopping Walgreens today. They had lots of crackers left so I grabbed another 10 boxes, remembered to use my coupon this time, and paid $1.45! I think we're set for a year now!