Meijer 4/7/11

This is a post about Pharmacy coupons. Several stores run promotions in their pharmacy where if you fill an Rx, you get a gift card to their store. Last week I filled an inexpensive Rx at Meijer, and a "catalina" coupon printed. It stated, "fill an Rx at the Meijer pharmacy, get a $20 custom coupon on your next order."

So yesterday, my husband needed to fill an Rx. We went to Meijer, filled it, used the coupon and got the $20 off custom coupon. You can use regular coupons with this, too. We ended up paying $1.89 on $50 worth of stuff. Savings from coupons, store sales, and the $20 custom coupon.

There are other ways of getting a pharmacy deal. When you get your Sunday paper take a good look at the inserts. Any store with a pharmacy will run this deal on occasion. Usually it is a coupon inside the insert that you have to cut out and take with you, other times it is a printable coupon from the stores website.

Here is what we got-

1 bag lays chips, 1 bag quaker rice snacks, 1 family size stouffers entree, 2 boxes tornados, tub of sherbert, 2 bags shredded cheese, 2 bottles pepsi, 8 cans orange juice concentrate, 3 4-packs toilet paper, and 1 bottle of jetdry. Oh and 2 fountain drinks. Basically we paid for the two fountain drinks and got the rest for free.

How do I save money at the grocery store?

First you need to locate all the stores in your area. Anywhere that sells food (I've gotten killer grocery deals at Target!), and then find a blog that does coupon/sale matchups for the stores you have. You can find the Souther Savers blog link on the top of my blog, it is a great blog!

Make sure you get a sunday paper, and have access to a printer. When you go to the blog, it will break down everything on sale, what coupons to use to make it a better deal, and then the final price after coupons. It will also tell you where to find each coupon, it might be an IP (internet printable) or a coupon from your Sunday paper. This will look like this:

Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta, 10/$10 (ten items for $10, a fancy way of saying they are on sale for $1)
$1/1 box of pasta SS 3/27 ex. 6/12 (one dollar off of one box of pasta, coupon in the Smart Source insert of the 3/27/11 newspaper, coupon expires on 6/12/11)
((use $1 off coupon, makes it FREE))

So then you find the best deals in your store for that week, judging by sale prices and what you have coupons for. Buy as many of those items as you can, you want to buy enough at that great price to last you until you can buy it for that price again (usually 3 months). Your shopping trips may look like this:

Week 1-
12 boxes pasta (free)
6 bricks of cream cheese ($0.50 each)
12 bags of frozen veggies ($0.67 each)
6 boxes rice ($1 each)
If you bought these items at full price, it would be around $60. But because of the sales and coupons, you will pay around $17.

Week 2-
2 64oz bags frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts ($5.49 each)
6 bags of shredded cheese ($1 each)
4 boxes pancake mix ($1.50 each)
8 boxes of cereal ($1 each)
Full price $62, you will pay $31

Keep it up an at the end of the month you will have around $240 worth of food filling your pantry and freezer for a total cost of $80-$100.
You just keep going, every week buying those 3-4 great deals and spending around $20 and having it last you three months. By the end of a 6 month time frame, you will be fully stocked to the brim of everything you could want. And you will have spend a very small amount of money to get it.

Rite Aid 4/3/11

1st transaction:
1 Gillette proglide razor, $9.99-$5 coupon (paid $4.99)
Got a $5 +UP

2nd transaction:
2 Gillette deodorants ($4 each), 2 Gillette body wash
Coupons for B1 deodorant, get a wash free, AND coupons for $1 off deodorant
Plastic straws, $1(filler)
Used $5 +UP (paid $2.60)
Got a $2 +UP

3rd transaction:
Large rubber play ball $2.99
Used $2 +UP
(Paid $0.99)

Total spent:  $8.58
Total saved:  $29.86

Walgreens 4/3/11

3 Jumbo packs Pampers(Sale for $8.99, had 1 free product coupon, a $2 and a $1.50 off coupon)
2 32 oz Purex(Sale for $1.99, had two $1 off coupons)
1 100ct Puffs tissues(Sale for $0.99, had a $0.50 off coupon)
4 large bags Easter M&Ms(sale 2/$5, had $1/2 store coupon, and two $2/2 coupons)
1 small M&Ms(filler)

Total spent:  $15.84   Total saved:  $45.45
Plus $5 coupon off a $5 pampers purchase

Target 3/28/11

5 Revlon nail care products
5 Happy Baby pruducts
2 Circo baby socks
1 pack Huggies wipes
2 travel Secret deodorant
3 Dove travel deodorant
3 Degree travel deodorant
1 A&D ointment
1 box Flinstones vitamins
1 2-pack Target paper towels
1 box Target q-tips
2 boxes Quaker granola bars
1 bottle Target glass cleaner
1 Travel size Visine
2 Wishbone salad dressing
2 Target Cafe kids meals
1 Target Cafe large fountain drink

Total spent:  $0.76   Total saved:  $83.11

A few weeks ago a daily deal site offered members a $20 Target gift card if you got three people to join the website. I won the card, got it in the mail two weeks later, and it bought all of the above merchandise, including tax. The only thing we actually spent out of pocket was $0.76.

Walgreens 3/18/11

Total spent:  $13.40   Total saved:  $61.92

Meijers 3/18/2011

Total spent:  $13.81   Total saved:  $26.52