Huggies Slip-Ons $3.99 at Walgreens (starting 8/12)

There is a great deal starting tomorrow (Sunday, 8/12) at Walgreens on Huggies Slip-on diapers. I love using cloth diapers to save money, but I still use disposables at night. I think a good price for a pack of diapers is around $5, so $3.99 isn't bad! Here is how this deal works:

First you'll need to buy a paper for the $1.50/Huggies Diapers coupon. Unless you have a Huggies coupon from the littler mailers they send out (I don't.) In the August 2012 coupon book at Walgreens there is a $4 off Slip-ons Walgreens coupon. With a sale price of $9.49 and using the two coupons, the diapers come out at $3.99 per pack! I will be buying a pack tomorrow if I can hunt down a paper and find Walgreens (I know there are three here, which I'm totally excited about.) There's also a deal on a large pack of wipes, final price is $3.49 after a .50 manufacturers coupon (in the paper) and a $2 coupon from the August booklet. If you're fairly new to using coupons, YES, you can use both coupons because one is a store coupon and one is a manufacturers coupon.

Here are a couple of other deals that I think are worth checking out tomorrow at Walgreens:

Renew Life Omega Smart Super Krill (fish oil) $10, with a $10 register reward. I use this fish oil and recommend it.

Palmolive Dish Soap $.94 (minus manufacture coupon of .25 if  you buy a newspaper) so total $.69

Let me know what deals you get at Walgreens this week!

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CVS vs. Walgreens

If you are new to shopping at drugstores or new to using coupons, you may be confused as to why people shop at places like CVS and Walgreens. CVS and Walgreens are two of the three major drugstores where couponers shop. Rite Aid is the third, there are none of these in my area so I won't include Rite Aid in this post.

Why would you shop at CVS or Walgreens when their prices are so high? It's true, regular prices at CVS and Walgreens are sky high. The reason for shopping at the drugstores are sale prices, in-store coupons (which can be used in conjunction with a manufactures coupon, or "stacked",) and rewards programs. In this post I will tell you a little more about these two stores and where there differences are. With this knowledge in hand you can decide at which store you would prefer to shop, or if you'd be up for tackling both.

So what are the differences between shopping at CVS and shopping at Walgreens?

Rewards Programs: Both CVS and Walgreens have a rewards program. Walgreens has Register Rewards, which print on a catalina machine separately from your receipt. CVS has Extra Bucks which print directly onto the bottom your receipt. Both stores have similar sales (ex. spend $5.99 on lotion, receive $5.99 Register Reward/Extra Bucks) but they way they are redeemed is different. Walgreens considers RR's (Register Rewards) to be manufactures coupons. With all stores you are required to have as many items as manufactures coupons, so you may need to use cheap "filler" items if you are using coupons for every other item you are buying. At CVS, EB's (Extra Bucks) are redeemed more like a gift card. Meaning that you don't need to have extra items. This means redeeming EB's is somewhat easier than redeeming RR's, at least until you get the hang of it. Keep in mind that Walgreens coupons are not manufactures coupons, so don't count them in your coupon total.

Item Limits: CVS has a shopping card (like a store loyalty card) that must be used to receive sale prices or Extra Bucks. Walgreens does not have a similar card. CVS usually has limits on it's reward items (usually 1 or 2) and Walgreens does not. A few Walgreens stores require that you only buy one Register Reward item per day, but without a store card there is no way to really enforce this rule, and it only applies to that store so you can always check another store for the same item. The item limits are both a good and bad thing. This means that CVS usually has better stock of an item that is a particularly good deal, but you can only buy one or two. Walgreens will usually sell out of items that are very popular, but if you find a store that is completely stocked you can buy as many as needed. Many people take advantage of this and will clear shelves at Walgreens, it may not be against the rules but it certainly isn't nice.

Number of Stores: In my area (and most that I've been to) there are more Walgreens stores than CVS stores. That means that it may be more convenient to shop at Walgreens because there are simply more of them. It also means that if one Walgreens is sold out of an item that you want, another might have it. I regularly go to about four Walgreens stores and about 75% of the time at least one of them will have what I am looking for.

Friendliness of Staff: It may not seem like a huge factor, but if you are using coupons it is always good to have staff that is coupon knowledgeable or at least open to the use of coupons. I have personally found that cashiers and managers at CVS know more about their coupon policy and are more helpful than those who work at Walgreens. This may not be true in every area, but it certainly is where I live.

"Magic Coupon Machine:" This is a little red machine at CVS that prints coupons automatically when you scan your card. Sometimes it will even print coupons for FREE items. CVS has this, Walgreens doesn't.

In-Store Coupons: Both CVS and Walgreens have in-store coupons. Store coupons can be "stacked" with a manufactures coupon for great savings. Walgreens has more of them, and they are usually easier to find. Walgreens has a little book every month that is out by the weekly sale ad with lots of coupons. They also regularly have coupons in the newspaper, as well as other little booklets in the store. Some of these booklets are seasonal, or found near the pharmacy. CVS occasionally has coupons online or in the newspaper, as well as coupons that print from the "magic coupon machine." I heard that Walgreens will soon have mobile coupons, I'll update when I have more information.

So with this information in hand, you should be able to understand the differences between these stores a little better. Which store is "better" is entirely up to you. I prefer CVS if I am in a hurry, because there is no figuring out filler items. However if you are really looking to stock up on a product Walgreens may be the better option.

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Free 8x10 collage from Walgreens Photo

Head over to Walgreens photo and click on the banner for a free 8x10 collage or $1.99 poster. You can choose store pick up to make the collage totally free. Hurry because this deal ends on Saturday the 22nd!

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"Money Makers" at Drugstores and other places

 If you have visited any coupon blogs you have probably seen the term "money maker" or "MM." This means (supposedly) that you got back more money than you spent. The reason that I don't like this is because many times it gives people a false impression because they are subtracting any earned register rewards, gift cards, or extra bucks from their total. Confused? Here is a scenario:

Let's say that Tampons are $7 at CVS and you get a $7 Extra buck with purchase, let's also say that there was a $1 off printable coupon online (there was a similar deal to this last week.) Okay, so you pay $6 plus tax and receive a $7 extra buck. Some people call that a $1 money maker.

Now, if you used extra bucks from a previous week to pay for it, it would be a "money maker" because you spent nothing or very little out of pocket. If you actually spent $6, then you SPENT SIX DOLLARS. It's great to have the reward for next week, but those rewards can be lost or forgotten about (especially for newbies.) I also see people counting rewards TWICE. The day they get them and the day they spend them, this doesn't make sense at all. For me, I count whatever CASH I spend out of pocket as my total spent. If I have rewards left over from last week (and I usually do) this total is little or nothing. Last week I spent $.04 at CVS at Walgreens ($.03 at CVS, $.01 at Walgreens) because of leftover rewards.

Why is this a big deal? Well it isn't, but I think some people who are new to couponing get confused or discouraged because their actually expenses seem higher than what they see online. To me, counting the CASH that I spent makes the most sense. Now there are true "money makers" out there. For example Wal-Mart will give you money back if your coupons go over your total amount. I've never done this personally because I use overage toward other items. Also if you use your Extra Bucks from last week at CVS, spend little or no cash and come out with more Extra Bucks than you went in with, that is also a "money maker" (even if it is paper money.) 

I think that anyone who is keeping track of their total expenses and savings should keep this in mind. Saving money is great, but we shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking we are saving more than we are!

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7 things that you should never pay more than $1.00 for

Do you pay more than $1.00 for common household items like toothbrushes, body wash or bandages? If you are like most people, you probably do! I have noticed several items that regularly have coupons and also go on sale at the drug stores regularly. Some of these items even have very low every day prices at stores like Wal-Mart or Target. I was showing my sister some of the stuff that I had recently bought with coupons and she noted that they was all name-brand items. Using coupons combined with sales (and sometimes without sales!) nearly always get a better price than a store brand or cheaper version of the product. I have found that a lot of the times store brand items work just fine (things like plastic cutlery, etc.) but most of the time bath and body products just don't measure up. Here are a few items that you should NEVER pay full price for, in fact, you should be able to regularly find these items for under $1.00!

Oral Care
Never, ever, EVER pay for toothbrushes! You can get these for free* at the drugstores almost every week. There are almost always coupons for toothbrushes that can be combined with sales for a free item. For instance last week I purchased a Colgate 360 toothbrush. Retail price was $4.99 (which is ridiculous if you ask me) but it came with a $4.00 Register Reward. I also had a coupon from All You magazine for a $1.00 off. So I paid $3.99 plus tax for the toothbrush (I used Register Rewards from my last trip) and got $4.00 back! Toothpaste and floss have similar deals. You can regularly find deals for toothpaste and floss for no more than $.25 or $.50.
*"free" after Register Rewards, Extra Bucks, Gift cards, etc. You may have to pay a little bit out of pocket initially but you will get the money back to spend later.

Hair Care
You could pay $1.00 for cheap shampoo or you could pay $1.00 (or less!) for the "good" brands like Pantene, Herbal Essences, Garnier, etc. These can be a little trickier, I am currently stocked up on Garnier coupons (my husbands favorite brand) waiting for a good sale. You may have to wait for a few weeks to find a sale on your favorite brand but if you aren't picky there are great sales on these items every week. There are always new newspaper and printable coupons for hair care. Target clearance is also a GREAT place to find very low prices on your favorites brands that can be combined with coupons. A couple of months ago there was a deal on Finesse sulfate free shampoo, after a coupon and a mail in rebate it was absolutely FREE!


Deodorant
Like hair care, there are always coupons floating around out there for deodorant. There is currently a $1.00 off Degree coupon for premium deodorant that has no size restriction. These can be redeemed at Target where the trial size premium deodorant is only $.97! There was also recently a deal where Mitchum deodorant was free and last week at Walgreens full-size Degree deodorant was only $.75.

Body Wash
Just like with hair care, there are usually coupons for body wash, soap, and lotion and plenty of good sales to be combined with. The most important thing is to try to leave your brand loyalty behind because your coupons may expire while you are waiting for a good sale on your favorite products. If you see a good sale on a brand that you like where the final price is under $1.00, stock up!

Pantyliners
Never pay full price for any feminine hygiene product! There are coupons for these products almost every week in the newspaper and they also run regularly online. Carefree pantyliners can often be bought for less than $.25 for a small package and currently U by Kotex has a $1 off any product coupon that can be used on the smallest package of liners for a final price of only $.24 at Wal-Mart.

Bandages
Nexcare, Curad, and Bandaid brands have all recently had coupons for their products. I was able to score a bunch of plain Nexcare bandages for FREE at Wal-Mart and also some Shrek bandages for only $.74.


Trial size items
Sometimes coupons do not have a size restriction (meaning it will NOT say "excludes trial sizes") and that means you are free to use it on a trial size. Regardless of what a rude cashier might tell you. I've had lots and lots of issues with this at Wal-Mart, one cashier acted like I was stealing the money straight out of her pocket. I can assure you that the manufactures know what they are doing and if they didn't want you to use it on a trial size they would put it on the coupon! I'm not an expert but I think that the manufactures want you to try the product even if they lose money, because they know that coupons will not be available forever and if you like the product you will buy it again even if it isn't free. This is also why there are often high value coupons for products (especially new products) which make the products free. Some of the trial size items that I have gotten for free or very cheap: Dove hairspray, Degree deodorant, Tide singles detergent, Cascade dishwasher tabs. I recommend using these coupons at Target over Wal-Mart, I have also never had a problem at Walgreens trying to use a coupon that didn't have a size restriction.

So as you can see there is no need to spend a lot of money on every day necessities. If you can't wait for a good sale, use a coupon and buy one of what you need and then save the rest of your coupons for a sale. Like I mentioned before, there are sometimes very high value coupons that do make other products free. Some of the most recent coupons like this were for Bengay, Zyrtec and Tylenol Precise. If you see these coupons, print the maximum that you can (usually 2 per computer) and stock up, but please try not to clear any shelves! Even if it is for a product that you will not use, you can always give it away to someone who will.

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Couponing This Week

I know that I have been absent lately but I've had a lot of personal stuff going on. I wanted to do a little "couponing update." A lot of people seem to think that couponing is too difficult for working moms because we have enough to do between work and everything we have to do once we get home. For me this hasn't been the case at all. I drive people who are on medicaid for work I usually have to wait for a while while they are in their doctors appointments. Since I live in a small town with no Walgreens, CVS, Target, etc. (there is a Wal-Mart about 10 miles away) this works out really well. I don't have to waste my own gas driving up to a larger town to shop at these stores which is great because the gas would almost make the savings not worth my time! I have been buying a few things every week trying to build up a small stockpile. Most of what I have is household products, but I am working on food as well. I am not an extreme couponer my any means, I try to keep the cashiers happy and usually only buy a handful of products at once. I don't get hundreds of dollars of items for free but I've gotten a lot of things that my family will actually use cheap or free. My largest "coupon haul" has been this week for sure and I wanted to share it. I went to 4 Walgreens stores (some more than once,) Target, Wal-Mart and CVS. My OOP (out of pocket) price for all of this was about $40, and I still have Register Rewards ($9, I think) from Walgreens left for next week. Most of this was purchased at Walgreens, I also have 1 more Dial body wash, 3 more packs of Papermate pens and 4 more mini degree deodorants not pictured that were purchased yesterday. Here is a very rough breakdown of my purchases.

 
Walgreens (4 different stores)
 6 Dial Bodywashes ($3.99-3RR) = $.99 you can often find body wash completely free but I really liked this and my sister uses it so I got some extras for her
6 (I think) packs of blue papermate pens = $.29 each with in-ad coupon. We use these for work and always need more, great "filler" item!
6 (I think) mailers = $.39 with in ad coupon. I mail diapers/dryer balls/etc very often and this was a good price. I love using "filler" items that I actually need!
Cottonelle TP ($5-$.50 coupon-$1 coupon) $3.50
16 Degree mini deodorants (.$97-$.75 coupon) $.22 each. The first 4 of these that I bought printed out a register reward and I kept trying for another but no suck long.
2 Degree deodorant (2/$4-(2)$.75 coupons-$1RR) $.75 each
4 Mini notebooks $.15 with in ad coupon, for my sister who is a waitress
KY Yours+Mine ($15-$5 coupon-$5RR)-$5 No explanation needed here, lol.
4 M&Ms (2/$4-$1 coupon-$1RR) $1 each, potty bribing candy :)
Cheezits & Keebler Cookies (4/$10-$5RR) $5 for 4.
Dawn dishsoap ($.99-$.50 coupon and $.25 coupon) .$25 and .$50 each
Gatorade, buy Perform ($1.79) get catalina for Prime and Recover for free, I did this twice but only got the catalina for the free products the first time.
Proglide Razor ($9.99-$4 coupon-$4RR) = $1.99
360 Toothbrush ($4.99-$1 coupon-$4RR) = Free
Airwick thing, ($7.99-$4 coupon-3RR) $.99 I plan to give this away because I don't use stuff like this
There are probably more Walgreens purchases hiding in there but those are the only ones I can remember. I am doing this off the top of my head without receipts (which is really, really sad now that I think about it.) :)
 
Target
5 Degree premium mini deodorants ($.97-$1 coupon) = FREE, because I don't have enough mini deodorants right? :) I actually plan to use them instead of regular deodorant until I run out, in 10 years.
Method All Purpose Cleaner (not pictured) ($2.99-$1 coupon) = $1.99, I LOVE Method and I'd much rather use it than the chemical stuff, even if it was free.
Dove Bodywash 2 pack, plus bracelet. $3.50 clearance - 1.25 coupon = $1.75 for both, this was a great price because one of the body washes is regular size and one is really big.
2 Cottonelle Flushable Wipes, I can't remember the exact price but I had a $1.75 coupon and a $1 off coupon (Target and Manufactures) and another printed at the register for next time. I think they were about $.80 each, these are for Kainan.


Wal-Mart
3 U by Kotex liners ($1.24-$1 coupon) = $.24 each
4 Tampax Compak Tampons ($3.99-2BOGO coupons-2$1 off coupons) = About $1.50 per box.
Pull-ups Flushable Wipes ($1.74-$1 coupon) $.74, also for Kainan
Keri Lotion (PM to Walgreens at $1.99-2 coupon) FREE some stores/cashiers will price match after register rewards and some won't, it just depends on who you get
2 Advil Pocketpacks ($1.79-$2 coupon) FREE
5 packs of scotch tape (PM to Staples at $.50-$1 coupon) FREE plus .50 overage which was applied to the other purchaes
Bubbles, $.50 on sale, for Kainan
Beechnut baby food ($.39 each-$1/3 coupon) about $.10 each. I plan to make most of my own babyfood when Mikaela is ready for it (about a month or two) but I thought these would be nice for the diaper bag, etc.
10 Pack of Minutemaid juice ($2 something - $1 coupon) = $1something (my memory is failing me now)

CVS
Cheap wine, $2.99 :)

If you did the math and can't see how I only spent $40 (or so) it's because I "rolled" my Register Reward purchases at Walgreens. There are lots of sites and blogs with tutorials on couponing at various stores but I will probably write up my own sometime for Walgreens since it is my new favorite place to shop.

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Cheap Huggies wipes at Walgreens

Huggies wipes are $2.49 at Walgreens this week. There is also a $1 off Huggies wipes coupon in the July coupon booklet. You will find this booklet at the front of the store near the weekly ad. There was a $.50 off Huggies manufactures coupon in the paper a while back or if you are on Huggies mailing list they sent a coupon for $.75 off wipes (with a couple of coupons for diapers as well.) With these manufactures coupons you could get the wipes for either $.75 or $1 since Walgreens allows you to stack on manufactures coupon with one Walgreens coupon. I normally use cloth wipes at home but I do use disposables for going out and I prefer Huggies (unscented) to most others.

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Walgreens Coupon Trip - July 2nd

 

This is my couponing "loot" for the day.  I use coupons from time to time but have never really put much effort into it. Going to Walgreens or any other drugstore on a Saturday (last day of the week for their ads) is never a good idea but I ended up getting all but 3 things from my list. I don't have an exact amount for what everything was but here is a general idea:

(2) Tylenol Precise $8 regular price - $3 Walgreens Coupon - $5 Manufactures coupon = FREE!

(1) Reach toothbrush $3 sale price - $1 coupon + 2 RR = $2 spent, 2 RR received

(3) Colgate Toothpaste $1 sale price - .75 coupons = .75 for all 3!

(4) Pringles Super Stacks $6/4 sale price - $1 coupon + 2 RR = $5 for 4 plus 2RR

(2) Twizzlers $2/3 sale price + 1 RR = $3 spent plus 1RR

I meant to get some Dove products at Walgreens but they were out of what I wanted. We went to Wal-Mart for a different reason but we noticed the Deodorants were buy one get one free (2 in one package for the price of 1) so the $2 coupon that I had ended up being an even better deal!

(2) Dove Mens Deodorant (2 packs) $3.79 regular price - $2 coupon = $3.58 for FOUR.

(2) Dove Mens Body Wash (plus free gift!) $3.79 regular price - B1G1 coupon = $3.97 for two plus bonus

All in all it was a good day. I ended up spending about $16 at Walgreens and coming home with 5 in Register Rewards for next week. So I basically spent $11 for $35(ish) worth of stuff. For those who aren't "couponers" Register Rewards print out for certain items at Walgreens. They are like a gift card to use on your NEXT Walgreens purchase. I also spent just under $8 at Wal-Mart for for $22.74 worth of stuff. I had intended to buy the Dove products at Walgreens for even more Register Rewards but those who shop on Saturday can't be picky. :) I found another coupon for $2 off deodorant (I knew I had one more!) so I will go back and get another 2 pack for $1.79 tomorrow. I also meant to buy the Dove Men's bar soap but Josh doesn't like bar soap so I am giving those coupons ($4 off!) to my mom.

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