Frugal Friday: CVS and Walgreens Shopping

Pictured below is my first venture into my goal of building a stockpile at no cost or very low cost! For $6.09 I ended up with: 2 packs of 45-count Dixie paper plates, 2 jugs of Sun laundry soap, 1 small jug of Xtra laundry soap, 2 bottles of Suavatel fabric softener, a small bottle of Dawn dish soap, a pair of Aloe-infused (SOFT!!!!) purple socks (to put back for my daughter-in-law for Christmas or her birthday), a three-pack of Blistex smoothie lip balms, and three boxes of Puffs w/lotion.

I was able to accomplish this by shopping at Walgreens with my Walgreens Register Rewards card, shopping at CVS with my CVS Extra Care card, and using coupons.

Breakdown:
With my Walgreen's reward card...

• Sun Laundry Detergent was $3.49 each. I bought two, which (if I remember right) was the maximum. I had two coupons: One for $0.75 and one for $0.50. Total: $5.73.
  
• Suavitel Fabric Softener was $2.99 buy-one-get-one-free. Total: $2.99.
  
• Dawn Dish Soap was $0.99. I had a coupon for $0.25. Total: $0.74.
  
• Puffs w/lotion was $0.99 each. I bought three, which was the maximum. I had some great coupons that I had received in the mail (along with a free sample) from Viewpoints. I had one coupon for $1.00 and two coupons for $0.50. Total: $0.97.

Total owed: $10.43.
I paid $6.00 of this with my Register Rewards, which left a balance of $4.43. Add the tax to that, and my out-of-pocket cost was $5.48.

(Prior to this trip, I was able to purchase the paper plates, the lip balm, and the socks completely free by using a coupon for the plates and paying for the remainder with my Register Rewards. I don't have the receipt any longer, so I can't type out the breakdown on that shopping trip.)

At CVS, the Xtra Laundry Detergent was on sale for $1.50. I had a coupon for $1.00 off, and so my total was $0.50, plus tax, for an out-of-pocket cost of $0.61.

Total paid out-of-pocket: $6.09.

For an explanation of how the CVS and Walgreens cards/deals work, check out these links:

CVS 101

Walgreens 101
(Note: In my local area, this link is a little out of date, due to the fact that it says "Unlike CVS, the Register Rewards (RR) are not tied to a store card." My local area is one of the few that has started using Rewards cards... which I assume will eventually be used in all areas.)

That's all for now. If you need me, I'll be mourning the loss of age 38. :)

Frugal Friday: Update

I know that my millions of blog readers have probably been terribly disappointed by the lack of Frugal Friday posts lately.


Ahem.


My only excuse is that I haven't been frugal enough with my time lately to be able to post a weekly Frugal Friday post. :) Truthfully, I've been doing a lot of research. Not a lot of putting-into-practice, but tons of research. There are a LOT of helpful websites out there that will teach you how to get the best grocery deals, how to use coupons, how to use the CVS rewards card system, etc... and with my limited extra time, I'm slowly but surely going through all of these and trying to learn it all.

Sadly, between trying to learn everything I can about frugal shopping/living and working on getting a small amount of part time income set up for when I quit working, I don't have time to do as much on my blog as I'd hoped.

So until I quit working (seven weeks from today!), Frugal Friday may end up on hiatus. We'll see.

I'll leave you with these two frugal updates:

• I finally went grocery shopping with coupons in hand. Or should I say: jumbo binder of coupons in hand! With my coupons, I saved exactly $15.00... which I promptly transferred to our savings account.

• My sister-in-law's boyfriend called us today to invite us to go out to Hometown Buffet tonight to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. I checked my coupons and Entertainment coupon book, but to no avail. Then I decided to check their website to see if they have any printable coupons. I joined their email list and about twenty minutes later was the proud owner of a coupon for a free buffet dinner. :)

It's 12:09 AM now, which means that it's technically Saturday, and I missed the deadline for Frugal Friday! Oh well.... it's still Friday somewhere, right?!!

Frugal Friday: Coupons

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons!

(and something to keep them in...)

One of my plans on how to save/make money after I quit working is to get serious about using coupons. And save the difference, of course! :)

Visit this site to send someone a "Tater Taunt". It's a cute little talking tater tot who will say whatever you type. You email it to a friend and Sonic emails you a $0.99 coupon for a Route 44 drink. You can send as many taunts per day as you'd like, but can only receive a coupon once per day.

Ask me for an email invitation to join MyPoints. Please? :) At MyPoints (which is free to join, by the way), you earn points that are redeemable for gift cards and other items. One great feature is the coupons. There are tons of grocery coupons (and other types) that you can print off, and each time you print and redeem a coupon, you earn 10 points, plus a 25 point bonus if you print and redeem ten or more coupons per month. You can also earn points by reading emails, using the MyPoints website as your starting point for online shopping, taking surveys, referring others, etc, but even if you don't care about actively pursuing the points, you'll still enjoy having access to these coupons! If you decide to join, please give me the opportunity to send you an email invitation so that I'll receive credit. :)

The 2010 Entertainment Coupon Books are now 50% off! I got mine last week and as always, I love it. If you've ever bought one and used it, you know that it's a great value... especially when it's half price. You can quickly earn your money back just after using a few of the coupons. You could buy it from their website for $17.50 (free shipping). Or... hint, hint... you could join MyPoints and buy it through the MyPoints website for the exact same amount, while earning 750 points! (Roughly translated, 750 points is equal to about $5.00.) You can also enter your zipcode here to see all the restaurants, stores, etc. whose coupons are in the book.

Last week, my friend Bridget sent me this link and this link on how to make a coupon organizer. SUCH a good idea! Basically, you take a three ring binder, fill it with plastic baseball card collecting sheets and divider sheets, and put a coupon in each slot. I started mine last night (pictured at left). If you're working with a small amount of coupons, one of those purse-sized flip photo albums would work well.


If you have any coupon tips/tricks or know of any good coupon-related websites, be sure to leave me a comment!