Ok, girls. If you haven’t yet been inspired to try out Walgreens with coupons and register rewards, this is the perfect week to start! I’ve never seen this many freebies at Walgreens!!

My Walgreens didn’t have everything in stock, but they had most of it. I ended up making this 2 transactions rather than 3 when I was there, to spare my sweet but easily confused cashier some trauma. My out of pocket was higher, but oh well. :)

Here is my “ideal” scenario:

Transaction #1:
1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion @ $6.99

Use $4.50 Register Rewards on hand
Out of pocket = $2.50
Receive $7.00 RR back

Transaction #2:
1 Oral B advantage 123 toothbrush @ $3.00
1 Herbal Essences hair gel @ $2.99, use $1.00 H/E coupon from 8/22 RP
1 Dentek floss @ $2.00
1 3-pack ivory soap @ $.99 (w/ in-ad coupon), use $.25 coupon from 8/30 insert
Total = $7.75

Use $7.00 RR from Transaction #1
OOP = $.75
Receive $7.00 RR back

Transaction #3:
1 Emergen-c @ $3.49
1 Robitussin to go $2.49
1 Halls refresh cough drops @ $1.00
1 3-pack ivory soap @ $.99 (w/ in-ad coupon), use $.25 coupon from 8/30 insert
Total = $7.75

Use $7.00 RR from Transaction #2
OOP = $.75
Receive $7.00 RR back

Total Out of Pocket Expenses = $4.00!!

Fore more Walgreens low out of pocket scenarios, click over to Keeping the Kingdom First’s $5 walgreens challenge for this week!

I’m in love with couponing.

Tonight I made a run to Walgreens and Giant Eagle.

Walgreens had some great sales this week along with coupons –

Transaction #1:
1 Aussie shampoo @ $2.99
1 Aussie conditioner @ $2.99
2 Oral B indicator toothbrushes @ 2/$4.00

Used $2.00/2 Aussie coupon from 9/13 insert
Used BOGO coupon for the toothbrushes from 8/22 RP
Used $2.00 register rewards on hand

Out of Pocket = $4.00
Received $4.00 in register rewards back!

Transaction #2:
1 trial size Thermacare heat wrap @ $2.49

Used $2.00 register reward from Trans #1

Out of Pocket = $.50
Received $2.50 register rewards back!

Total OOP (before tax) = $4.50!
Total register rewards left over = $4.50!!

Beauty.

So, I was feeling good already. Off to Giant Eagle, where it got even better.

I had been planning to stock up on some Campbells condensed soups, as they had them on sale for $1.00 each and I had a bunch of Campbells coupons from the 9/13 coupon haul, which (after they double the coupons) would mean the soup would be $.60-$.80 a can. Then it kept getting better!

I had seen that they had 5 packs of kraft mac n’ cheese on sale for 2/$6, which is a good price already. Then I noticed that they had peelie coupons on the packages – $2.00 off oscar meyer hot dogs, which were already on sale for $2.50!!!

I left Giant Eagle with 10 boxes of macaroni and cheese, 14 cans of campbells soup, and 2 packages of oscar meyer hot dogs for $17!! My cashier was marveling at the cheapness.

Are you sold on coupons yet?? :)

If you’re still learning the ropes, Keeping the Kingdom First has a $5.00 Walgreens challenge every week – click here to see this week’s post so you can visit the other blogs that are linked up and see how they do it!

I am a relative newcomer to couponing. Even though I am extremely frugal, I resisted couponing for years – I wondered if it was really worth it. Once I started, though, it became addictive – the combination of frugalness and strategy with bringing home bags of stuff and saying to my husband, “guess how much I paid for this??” was irresistible! Here’s my method of organizing and utilizing all those goodies.

1. I clip every coupon. Even ones I think I’ll never use in a million years. Why? Because occasionally you can get things so cheap (or free!), that even if we don’t need it I buy it anyway and store it or give it away.

2. I usually buy 2-3 Sunday papers per week for the coupon inserts. I go through the inserts in sets so I can stack the identical coupons together – less sorting later, and I can put single pages of the inserts on top of each other and cut out two pages at once.

3. After I pile up all of my treasures, I enter them into my coupon database – an excel sheet with columns for brand, amount, expiration, source, and store (if they are specific to one particular store). Since they are already in stacks, I can copy and paste the rows for identical items. After they are all entered, I sort the whole document by brand, expiration, and amount.

4. I file the coupons alphabetically by brand in an index card file (with letter dividers I found at Dollar Tree.)

Now, this does take some time to clip, sort, enter, file, and use the coupons. I find utilizing this system to be helpful, however. When I first started couponing, I had a small stash of coupons and I pretty much knew what I had on hand. Currently, however, there are 732 coupons stuffed into my coupon file – clearly I don’t remember what I have.

When I sit down to look through the weekly store circulars (I only use coupons when a store has a sale on the same item – I have found that just using a coupon on a non-sale item or purchasing sale items without a coupon rarely brings the price lower than what I would pay at Aldi), I pull up my coupon spreadsheet. It’s quick and easy to scan the circular for good deals and scan my spreadsheet for what coupons I have.

I have also found it helpful to be able to sort my spreadsheet by expiration date, in order to weed out expired coupons or know which high-dollar coupons are expiring soon.

Do you have a coupon organization system that works well for you? I’d love to hear about it!

For more Works for me Wednesday, hop over to WeareTHATfamily.com

After last week’s bad walgreens experience, I was a little wary of testing the water again. I decided to return some of the stuff I had gotten last week since the register rewards didn’t print. In order to avoid more drama, I went to a different store where my experience has shown that they have more friendly and competent staff. (What a difference people who are competent and not rude make!) :)

So, the manager was very kind and returned my things, explaining that one day last week some of the register rewards just didn’t print for some reason. Perhaps that was the problem! She then asked if I would like to purchase the carefree back again, as the register rewards offer was still going for them. Hooray!

FYI – I asked her if there was a list on the walgreens website of monthly register reward deals, as this is not my first time having register rewards print unexpectedly or having staff fill me in on deals that were still going but not in the weekly flier. She said that there isn’t anything like that. Rats.

Anywho. Feeling more confident that my shopping would be a success, I grabbed a weekly circular and went shopping. There are some good deals this week!

2 Crest whitening plus scope – 2 for $7.00; used 2 $.50 coupons from the 8/30 P&G insert; = $3.00 each got $5.00 in register rewards back!

2 Niagra 20oz spray starch – $1.99; used in-ad BOGO coupon plus 2 $.25 coupons that I ordered from the Coupon Master = $.75 each

2 Campbells microwavable bowls – $.99 each with in-ad coupon plus $1.00 off of 2 coupon from 8/30 insert = $.50 each

2 Tylenol cold 24 cap packs on sale for $5.99 each, got $5.00 in register rewards back!

16oz Walgreens brand Nyquil was on clearance for $3.89

Vicks 6oz sore throat spray was on clearance for $2.99

I also used $5.00 in register rewards that I had on hand, bringing my total to $24.14 (total value = $48.03) – and then I got $10.00 in Register Rewards back! Hooray!

So, apparently the manager last week was wrong and indeed, register rewards still print if you use register rewards.

Now since I was nervous after last week, I didn’t break this into multiple transactions. Here is my theoretical $5.00 Walgreens challenge scenario – perhaps I’ll go back tomorrow and try this out. :)

Transaction #1
Crest toothpaste – 2/$7.00, use 2 $.50 P&G coupons = 2/$6.00
[add in a caramel or pencil so you can use 3 coupons - RR counts as a coupon and you have to have at least the same number of items as coupons]
Pay with $5.00 register rewards on hand
OOP = $1.30
RR’s received = $5.00

Transaction #2
Windex outdoor cleaning kit – $9.99, use $3.00 coupon from 8/22 SS
[add in a caramel or pencil so you can use 2 coupons]
Use $5.00 RR from Trans #1
OOP = $2.30
RR’s received = $3.00

Transaction #3
Glade sense & spray starter – $5.99, use $4.00 coupon from 8/30 P&G
2 Campbells soup microwavable bowls – $.99 with in-ad coupon, plus $1.00/2 coupon from 8/30 insert
[add a caramel so you can use the RR]
Use $3.00 RR from Trans #2
OOP = $.30
RR’s received = $2.00

Total OOP = $4.90
RR’s left = $7.00

Happy walgreening days are here again! :)