Walgreens Battle Plan 03.10.09

Okay, if this works, it'll be a great deal.

$30- 3 Huggies diapers
$12.99- 1 Sambucol (never used it; buying it for the overage; comes recommended by Deborah)
$3.99- 1 Wal-Zyr
$2.99- 1 Walgreens Headache medicine

Subtract my coupons:
$10 Register Reward (from the last time I did the Huggies thing yesterday) By the way, I'm going to try using it though I've been warned against it. The cashier yesterday was UP on the Walgreens' policies and programs. She warned the lady in front of me not to use her $1 RR on the same product that generated it because it might not print another one. But when I asked her after mine printed, she looked at it and said, "If it doesn't say the product name on it, it will be fine. If it's a Walgreens coupon, it shouldn't make a difference." Now that she mentions it, it does seem like some RR's do say something like, "Thank you for buying [whatever]. Here's a dollar." Makes sense then.
2 $5 Huggies coupons
$3 Huggies coupon
$4 Sambucol coupon
$10 Sambucol ESQ

That's 6 items, 6 coupons. There's another urban legend I found to be true yesterday. I had always thought, "Walgreens never cares if I have more coupons than items." But it did yesterday, and my cashier understood the message she received whereas previous cahsiers haven't. It all made sense why I've had cashiers just bumfuzzled when the register tells them, "Coupon exceeds amount of items." They (and I) have just looked back and forth at the screen and the coupon. We were thinking "amount" means "amount." What "amount" means is "number." "Number of coupons exceeds number of items" would be a clearer error message, but my cashier knew what it was talking about. She made a few suggestions about which coupon I may want to eliminate, but I had been around enough blogs to be a step ahead of her. "I'll just buy these three gums for $.99. That adds one coupon and three items, right?" I think I may have impressed her. Especially when I whipped out the ol' Easy Saver Gift Card. She realized that, though she may be a pro, she wasn't dealing with a rookie.

At any rate, today I'll be better prepared. I'm using the Sambucol as overage, but that gives me another 2 coupons and 1 item. Hence, the monthly freebies today.

So, my total after coupons should be $15.97 (with tax).
And I should get back $7.67 on the gift card and $10 in RR's.
Which means, that if all goes as planned I get 3 packs of diapers (all I'm really going for) for $8.30 (I don't count RR's twice; if I pay with them, I can't count the ones I get back, right?)

We'll see if they have any size 4 Huggies left.

Walgreens Battle Plan 03.05.09

Okay, Mama. This would be a good week to make it to Walgreens.

Here's my plan (in no particular order):

Ritz Crackers (on sale B1G1 free for $1.99)
-$2/2 Nabisco coupon
Blink eye drops $7.99
-$2 coupon in Sunday's paper
Colgate toothpaste $3.49
-$.75 coupon
Vaseline Intensive Rescue Something Lotion (supposedly) $2.69
-$1.50 coupon
Revlon tweezers (if they're $2)
-$1 ESQ
-$1 Revlon coupon
2 Sunsilk shampoo (allegedly) $1 clearance
-$2/2 coupon
And, if I get the nerve to plop 8 trial-sized deodorants on the counter, 8 Dove deodorants $7.91
-$1.50/2 coupon

I should recieve:
$7.99 for the Blink
$3.49 for the toothpaste
$2 for the lotion
$10 for the Dove

If all goes as planned, I'll pay $16.33 for the above and receive back in Register Rewards $23.48. Now, if I'm smart, I won't buy everything at once. I'll use my Rewards from the Blink to buy the deodorant, and so on. Since I'll probably need some stuff to bring me up to the amount of the Reward, I just might be persuaded to throw in. . .

2 Starbucks chocolates (if they have any left) $4 each
-$6/2 ESQ

Maybe (:-)

What $1.16 Buys

Good afternoon. My New Year's Resolution was not to post more often on this blog, but maybe my resolve in other areas will spill over and you'll hear from me a little more.

But no use dwelling on the past. I got:

a box of tissues
a bottle of dish soap
a bottle of shampoo
and a pint of Ben and Jerry's

for $1.16.

I even got confused at the register, so I'm not sure I could explain it. But the ice cream was free. I wish you could have seen my husband's face when I said, "Would you rather have cookies or ice cream for dessert?" at lunch today. (Now this was in code--a mixture of Spanglish and spelling--since the 17-month-old wasn't granted suffrage on Wednesday's dessert vote. Soon the Spanglish will be useless, but we'll talk about that later.)

So anyway, then he said, "What kind of ice cream?"
"Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cup," I replied to the king of all peanut butter lovers.

That's when I wish you could have seen his face.

So, I'll tell you what coupons I used, but there was too much ringing and re-ringing for me to be sure what was going on. But it was $1.16, and that was about what I expected, so hey.

Okay, $3 Ben and Jerry's coupon (I'm sure you've seen this one floating around. I'd link to it, but I've heard it's gone. I'm learning to be selective in my coupon printing as well as learning to jump on the one's I want. I didn't realize at first that the printables run out.)
$1 Garnier coupon
$2 Garnier ESQ
2 in-ad Qs for Puff and Palmolive.

Happy day.

I'm Afraid Even Walgreens Disappoints

So, I found online all these claims that WGs would give me 3 8x10 photos. Sweet. I ordered three cute ones we had in our computer, but upon arriving, they informed me that only one would be free. I knew they'd probably run the deal again, so I turned down the offer to take home the other 2 for just $2.50 each. If reading the fine print would have helped, I'd be advising myself to do that next time. Oh well. No way will I bad-mouth them for only one free picture though. ;-)

Alas, I arrived this morning an hour and three minutes after they opened and was too late to pick up a free hairdryer. Oh well. I have two already. I was going to use this one as a gift . . . sometime.

There's always next week, eh? The fun continues. . .

Walgreens Battle Plan 12.10.08

It's shaping up to be a good one. Right when I needed laundry detergent too. I had to ask my college student sisters to bring their own last time. Only they don't have their own. Go figure. But we had enough for last week, but it'd be pushing it for this week. So, you'll rejoice with me that I'm picking up:

4 Arm and Hammer laundry detergents for 5.96 (details here). I didn't bother to go to another computer to get 2 more printables, so I'm settling for getting my soap for $.96 rather than getting paid $1.04 to buy it. I know. . . I'm a pushover.

So that'll be the first Walgreens. Did I mention I get $5 in Register Rewards from that soap deal. Okay, so I had the hardest time coming up with enough stuff to cost $5, but by throwing in a treat or two and a necessity I have no coupons for, I came up with:

$2.99 2 Nestle ice creams
$4.99 2 Maybelline lip sticks
$2.50 Sure deodorant
$2 Scotch tape
$2.50 chicken wings
$.99 (hopefully) Walgreens brand hand soap--we're fresh out
$.99 Reynolds wrap (after in-ad coupon; don't know the price before)
_______________________________
$16.96 (before tax)

Minus
2 $4 Maybelline lip make-up coupons (12/7 insert)
$1 Sure coupon here
$1 Reynolds foil coupon (11/16 insert)
$1.50 Sure ESQ
_______________________________
$11.50

For a grand total on the register of $5.46 (plus applicable taxes). Which I will spend my Register Rewards to obtain, leaving my gift card $.46 (plus tax) lighter. Okay, and on the tax thing, I know how to calculate sales tax, but in my state, they don't charge sales tax for food, and I'm really not sure if that includes ice cream, and besides that leaves me with all kinds of nonterminating decimals or whatever, so just mentally tack on around 6% of my original $16.96 to the final $.46 total, kay?

So for the whole day, folks, I'm planning to plunk down $6.42 plus tax for the above products. Except that on account of the tape I can expect another $2.20 to find its way to my gift card when all is said and done. So let's call it $4.22 (plus tax, which is roughly $.84) for just. . .yeah, boatloads of merchandise. What a blessing! And right when I needed laundry detergent. . .

Week Off

I know, if you're here, you're thinking, "You just took more than a week off. What gives?" Well, frankly, there hasn't been much I've been compelled to blog. I used to try to come up with a post a day, and that was fun. And challenging. But I've fallen down on the job lately, and I'm okay with that. But I do intend to keep up blogging intermittently for a while here. Although, there are some life changes ahead that will significantly alter the blog's contents. But hopefully resource conservation will continue to be a goal of mine.

But by "week off" I mean a week off of Walgreens. And CVS, and any other coupon/deal/stock-up that might be available. I'm leaving town tomorrow, and I'll be way too busy the rest of this week packing, flying, rehearsing, and Maid-of-Honoring to think about CVS. If there were any where I'm going--which there aren't. There are Walgreenses, but who wants to lug free household goods across the country in limited luggage space? Oh wait. That's what I'm doing with the stuff I picked up for my mom out here. Well, anyway. I'm planning to skip it next week at any rate. I'm even leaving my coupon binder at my house.

And here's a funny thing I've noticed about myself. Having a bunch of coupons totally changes the way I shop, even when they're not with me. We were in Target Friday night, and I'm like, "Under no circumstances will I purchase anything. I don't have my coupons." (But then we did get a good deal on Starbucks coffee, but I know I don't have Starbucks coupons. I'd remember that.)

I think it will be like that next week. "Oh. What a great price on shampoo. It'd be free if I had. . ." Oh well. There's always the week after, right?

And, this other bit of miscellany for Deborah's benefit: I used every cent of my gift card this month. All $108.76 from September and October was consumed on various necessaries (mostly cheese, I think). But the good news is, I spent only $1.04 out of pocket on . . . uhh, cheese on Saturday, and I shouldn't have to shop at Walgreens until I get my November reload. I'll have to be careful in December. I haven't even checked out those deals yet.

Okay, hopefully that gets us all caught up. I'll see you all next month!

Walgreens Debriefing 11.7.08

I hadn't darkened the door of a Walgreens in several days, but I landed some deals tonight. I present them below:

2 Almay mascaras (and I urge my readers who have not yet purchased their free mascaras to do so this week as they are on sale B1G1 free)
2 Wrigley gums
2 Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time teas
2 packages of Schick Quattro razors (my college-student sisters will flip)
Total: $39.63 (w/tax)
And whoops. I just realized that one of the razor packs was not on sale, so I paid like $2.30 more than I wanted to. My bad.

Minus:
2 $1/1 Almay coupons
1 B1G1 Wrigley MQ
1 B1G1 Wrigley Walgreens Q
1 $1/1 Celestial Seasonings MQ
1 $1/2 Celestial Seasonings ESQ
1 Schick B1G1 MQ
1 Schick $2/1 MQ
1 Schick $3/1 ESQ

Final Total: $7.56

And the rebate on the mascara after the bonus is $7.69.

Thirteen cents profit!

Walgreens October Summary

According to my calculations, I have paid Walgreens a whopping $58.29 this month. All but $1.76 was on my gift card and Register Rewards. Walgreens should be adding $39.02 to my gift card next month.

Must have been all the cheap cheese and coffee creamer. I'll try to do better next month. :-)

Walgreens Debriefing 10.25.08

Well, it did not turn out quite like I was hoping. I went to three Walgreenses, and none had the Pert Plus. So, since Paul was protesting every time I buckled him in the car seat, after getting him out, locking the car, going into the store, making a bee line for the shampoo aisle, sighing, heading back out of the store, unlocking the car, and strapping him in TWICE, I relented and just got other stuff. Besides, I didn't know where any more Walgreenses were beyond that one. Additionally, the Benefiber deal either was over my head, or it wasn't a great deal after all. The $7.99 stick packs (that I had a $5 coupon for) didn't qualify for the Register Rewards. Beyond that, I couldn't make head or tail of what was part of the deal and the what the coupons would cover, and after $7.99 each, it ceased to be a money-maker, so I skipped that too, which put me totally off kilter when it came to getting $20 worth of stuff. This is what I came up with on the spot:

2 pistachios $5
4 M&M bags $10
Rimmel foundation $7.49
And, okay. I wasn't going to buy this. I'll never use it. I mean I'll never use it. Ever. Not only will I not use it, my husband will not ever let me use it. Not only will I not use this product that I would not be allowed to use but wouldn't use anyway, I don't know a (pardon the redundancy) single solitary individual among all my acquaintance who would ever use this. But they pushed me to it. They did not have in stock what I was going to buy. I had to do it to get up to $20 and still make money. So I rolled my eyes and bought the:
6-Hour Energy Burst shot thingie $3.99 (If you want it, leave a comment, and we'll talk.)

I presented them with the following coupons:
4 $1/2 M&Ms (2 MQs and 2 ESQs)
$1 Rimmel
$5/$20 e-mail coupon

So I paid $16.87.

This month I'll get back $12.63. Next month, I can expect $5.50.

That's $18.13. So I wound up making a bit today, $1.26 to be exact. And just maybe I'll meet someone without a lot of energy who will be thrilled to have the 6-hour deal.

Walgreens Battle Plan B 10.24.08

The last Battle Plan should still work. I'm just not doing it. I did get a coupon, and I didn't realize that it's Double Dipping Days already. I guess I should pay better attention. So here's what I really plan to do:

Pert Plus 3.49
3 Benefiber 23.97
Rimmel 7.49
2 Pistachios 5.00 (because, I think I've mentioned, I love these)
4 bags peanut butter M&M's 10.00 (see above)
Total $52.95 w/ tax

Total Qs ($30.50)
$2 Pert MQ
3 $2 Benefiber MQ
$1 Rimmel MQ
2 $1/2 M&M MQ
$2.50 Pert ESQ
3 $5 Benefiber ESQ
2 $1/2 M&M ESQ
After Coupons: $22.45
$5/$20 WQ
Total if all goes as planned: $17.45

$8 RR
$8.23 October ESR
$5.50 November ESR

Final Total: $4.28 profit.

Wahoo!

[To find out how it all turned out, see the debriefing here.]

Walgreens Battle Plan 10.22.08

Okay, I took a week off last week because there wasn't anything that warranted a trip. I couldn't come up with enough to justify using the $5/$25 coupon I was e-mailed. But I'm planning to go this week, and it's shaping up to be exciting. I'll wait until the weekend in case they send out another $/$$ coupon. I may still have a hard time coming up with a post-coupon total of $20 or whatever, but we'll see what the e-mail box holds and go from there. But even without one, my plan is simple and oh so satisfying. (By the way, my mother-in-law is into Benefiber. I don't think she's tried the flavored variety, but what better time to try something new, right?)

$3.49 Pert Plus
$23.97 (3) Benefiber
$7.49 Rimmel

Minus. . .
$2 Pert MQ
$2 Benefiber MQ
$1 Rimmel MQ
$2.50 Pert ESQ
3 $5 Benfiber ESQ
___________________________________
Equals $10.55 (w/ tax)

Then they give me $8, then I send off for another $8.23 or so for a grand total of . . .

$5.68 profit.

Tah dah!

Walgreens Debriefing 10.09.08

Here's how it all turned out:

I did get the cheap cheese. I did not get the coffee creamer because the coupon website said enough was enough. See, I already got 2 creamers Monday. Anyway, I found another scented oil candle coupon, so I got 2 of those. My Crest manufacturer coupon didn't fly, so I tossed out the Crest toothpaste. And the Visine rang up for $4.49 instead of $3.99, but $.50 Visine is nothing to complain about.

So I ended up forking over $9 in Register Rewards and $3.48 on my gift card. (That's $12.48. I'm sure you knew that already.)

But Walgreens has already given me the first installment of my return in the form of a $3 Register Reward and $7.15 is on the way. (I'm over here really trying to figure out what went wrong on my math on the last post. I think I multiplied by 1.5 instead of 1.1 to get the bonus amount. Sorry about that.)

So I acquired the above products for $2.33, and Glade has promised me another $5.99 if I'll send the right paperwork. I'll certainly take it.

Walgreens Battle Plan 10.09.08

This one goes out to my mom in CA. Hi Mama!

I realized that posting on Saturday doesn't give her a whole lot of time to run into town and take advantage of my Walgreens tips . . . not that she seems to really need my help anymore. (Side note: My mother-in-law just called to ask, "Which store was it that had the automatic shower cleaner I wanted to get?" See, I left her the $5 coupon from her insert after telling her how cool mine is and how cheap it would be at Walgreens after her rebate. [Contented sigh.])

Okay, here's what I want to do:

$1.99 Glade jar candle
$5.99 Wisp Flameless candle
$3.99 Glade Scented Oil candle
$3.99 Fresh Brush Max Kit
$1.99 Crest toothpaste
$3.99 Visine
$3.00 2 CoffeeMate creamers
$3.00 2 Deerfield Farm cheese packs
______________________________
$29.26 after tax on the non-food items

MINUS the following coupons:
$1 Glade jar candle
$5 Wisp Candle
$2 Scented Oil candle
$3 Max Fresh Kit
$2 Visine (that I found out about here)
$1 Crest toothpaste
(2) $1 CoffeeMate creamer
$2 Visine Walgreens ad coupon
$1 Crest Easy Saver coupon
_______________________________
$10.27

I'll pay them that (including $9 in Register Rewards). Then they'll hand me $3 in Walgreens cash. Then later I'll ask them for more money. Which they'll give me. To the tune of:
$1 for the jar candle
$2 for the scented oil candle
$1.50 for the Max Fresh Kit
10% of all that.

Which equals: $9.85

Hang on. I've got one more source of income here. I then will mail off for a full rebate on the purchase price of the Wisp Flameless Candle, which incidentally is $5.99. Bringing my total refund (in a number of weeks, I realize) to $14.84.

Which means that, even factoring in the price of the postage stamp, I make $4.17 this week. And besides, I challenge you to find cheese that cheap anywhere else.

(You may be wondering what I'm going to do with all this air freshener. I hate air freshener. But it's candles. Every hostess likes candles. I'm going to wrap them up and save them for those times when it would be nice to have a little something to give for a housewarming or something to stick into a bridal shower gift. You know. That kind of thing. I don't plan to buy cans of air freshener or even "plug-ins" even if they're free. Since, as I said, I can't stand the stuff.)

If you'll indulge me. . .

I'd like to share the contents of an e-mail I received from my fave drugstore. Fanfare please.

To summarize, it informed me that my Easy Saver Gift Card will shortly be credited $69.73.

After going through my records, I noted that I put $25.99 on our credit card and $29.97 on my gift card during the month of September. For those of you without a calculator-like brain like my husband's, that's $55.96. That's an impressive $13.77 in income for last month. But you have to remember that I bought waaaay more than the rebate stuff (meaning that in addition to the income, I've got some products to show for it . . . Well, I've got them, my college-student sister ended up with lots of them, I ate most of the M&Ms already, it's all the same, right?)

The way I see it, unless Walgreens majorly cranks out some killer deals in the next couple of years, I'm to the point where I have no excuse for ever giving them another cent. I hope they're okay with that.

It all comes down to this. . .

Here's my Walgreens plan. I'm hoping to find the last few free-this-month things. I've got to spend 2 $10 RRs, and hopefully take advantage of at least one "double dipping deal." We'll see how it goes.

$ 1.99-LypSyl lip balm
4. 79-Revlon nail polish
4. 99-Nivea for Men body wash
3.79-Pert Plus
20.97-3 Garnier Fructis shampoos/conditioners
5.00-2 pistachios bags
5. 00-2 boxes Lipton tea
__________________________________
$46.53

Minus:
$ 2.00 Revlon coupon
1.00 Nivea coupon
2.50 Walgreens October Easy Saver coupon
2.00 Pert Plus coupon (from before I was keeping track of which insert it came from)
(3) 3.00 Fructis Walgreens OES coupons
(3) 1.00 Fructis coupons (from various inserts)
.50 Lipton coupon
5.00 for $5/$20 Walgreens coupon
___________________________________
Total: $21.53 ($20 of which will, incidentally, be paid in Register Rewards)

Rebate amount (if the Pert Plus thing works): $28.12 (after 10% bonus)
Register Rewards: $1

That's $7.59 in Walgreens cash richer than I was when I started.

Edited to add: If you want to see the happy ending, go here (one post up).

Walgreens Caveats

The point is that you beat the system. All I can figure Walgreens has realized is:
1. If we tout stuff as free, people will come into our stores and buy all kinds of other (overpriced) stuff in addition to the free stuff, so we'll still make money selling light bulbs and greeting cards and whatever to folks who think they're getting great deals, but they really care more about one-stop shopping.
2. If we tout stuff as free, people will buy it and then continue to buy it (here, hopefully) when it's not free
3. If we tout stuff as free, people will buy it and then forget to request the rebate. Then we'll sell them all kinds of things they never would have bought if they weren't "free."

That's my theory, anyway. But even if I'm wrong, doing the 3 things above will ruin the deals. By all means, use drugstore coupons and sales to get stuff that's not free but really turn out to be good deals to combine with your rebate or rewards stuff and so cut down on your grocery or WalMart bills (as I've done). But here are my rules: If I don't need it, I won't get it even if it's $0.15, unless it helps me get a better deal on something else. If it's free, and I don't need it, I'll think very carefully about buying it from somewhere that doesn't tack on 10%. Because, why pay even 6% of the price of something I will never use or even find someone to give it to? Kay? I'd suggest keeping track somehow of what you spend, and what they give you back and what you have to show for it. That way, you can have a big picture in several months of whether this game is saving you money or slowly using up funds on stuff you never would have bought without the Easy Saver Rebate program.

So keep good records each week. Which won't be hard, because it's really fun to tell people exactly what you paid for a trunk-full of goods and then inform them of what you'll be getting back.

My Moose Rack

Well, here's how it actually turned out. Kind of differently than I'd planned due to their being out of some stuff (it's what you risk when you wait for the weekend coupon), but with a little patience from my 13-month-old, we worked out a Plan B in the store and ended up with the following:

$19.99 A Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner Starter Kit (impressive name, no?)
$7.99 Walgreens acid reducing tablets
$1.98 (2) Turtle-flavored Chex Mixes (low-fat, they claim)
$11.97 (3) Children's Dimetapps
$4.49 Crest Pro-Health mouthwash
$2.00 The socks we talked about
$1.49 (Ahee) Some really cute summer clearance flip-flops
-$6.00 (3) Dimetapp coupons
-$1.00 Chex coupon (Now that I look at the receipt, it appears that I got credit for only one rather than their adjusting down both to $1.98. Not complaining, just saying.)
-$5.00 Shower cleaner thing coupon
-$10/$40 Walgreens coupon
-$2.00 Register Rewards
_________________________
Total $28.79 (The Register Rewards counted toward the payment, not the coupons. I'm not inclined to do the math it would require to figure out what tax would have been to do it otherwise. But it's all on the up-and-up, I promise.)

So then I walked out of the store with the above merchandise along with $10 RR for the Dimetapp, $10 for the shower sprayer cleaner thing (I'd love to install it in our shower, but it would make a great. . .sorry, "shower" gift too. Hee, hee.), and $4.50 for the mouthwash. That's $24.50 if Saxon Math did it's job on me.

I'm not done, though. Chalk up another $8.79 to the gift card for next month for the acid tablets. (I love adding the 10% bonus right away.)

So, I'm about $4.50 richer in Walgreens cash than I was yesterday. That sound you hear is NOT me complaining.

And what I call the really good news is that we've got a long way to go before we've bought all the free stuff for this month.

This Week's Anticipated Walgreens Trip

Okay, and now for the Walgreens deals we mentioned earlier. I decided to wait for the weekend to see if they send out a coupon, and I was rewarded. I at first thought, "Well, no way this week. I'll never come up with $40 since it has to be $40 after coupons and before tax." But I did it. I have the columns of ciphers on an old envelope to prove it. If all goes as planned, here's what I'll get:

$2.00 Socks (I've never bought socks at a drugstore before, but I'll check them out. We need socks.)
$3.79 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber
$2.49 Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner
$2.49 Scrubbing Bubbles wipes
$2.49 Pledge product of some kind
$11.97 3 bottles of Dimetapp
$4.49 Crest Pro-Health mouthwash
$1.98 2 Chex Mix(es)
$7.99 Walgreens brand acid reducing tablets
$3.99 Excedrin
$9.99 Living Solutions vacuum bag
__________________________________
$54.90 plus tax

-$2.75 Action Scrubber coupon
-$1 Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner coupon
-$1 Scrubbing Bubbles wipes coupon
-$1 Pledge product coupon
-(3) $2 Dimatapp coupons
-(2) $1 Chex coupon (probably only $1.98 after they adjust it)
_____________________________________________
Final Total $41.17
-$10/$40 Walgreens Coupon
_____________________________________________
Final, Final total $31.17 plus tax (which I'll pay for entirely with Register Rewards and my gift card)

But wait. Of course it gets better. After I hand over the total above, the machine next to the register will print me $19.49 in Walgreens cash to be used in the next 2 weeks however I see fit, because I bought the Scrubbing Bubbles and Pledge stuff ($5), the Dimetapp ($10), and the mouthwash ($4.49).

Then I'll go home and type my receipt information into our computer, and that will assure my getting added to my gift card a whopping $21.97 for buying the acid tablets ($7.99), the Excedrin ($3.99), and the vacuum bags ($9.99--if you're curious about this one, see MoneySavingMom's post about it here). And that's not counting the 10% bonus.

So let's do the math. I pay them (roughly, since I'm not sure when tax gets figured): $33.04

They pay me (and let's tack on the 10% bonus just for kicks): $43.65

I'll take it. And that's not even all the free stuff for this month. Hooray! I'm particularly pumped about the vacuum storage bag.

Walgreens and Why I Like It

All over the coupon, money-saving, frugal blogs (at least the couple I've frequented), CVS is the big hero. And they may have started the whole thing. I have no idea. But I'd like to say a word on Walgreens's behalf. (By the way, the Chicago Manual of Style stipulates the " 's " after a proper noun ending in "s." I'm not sure I'm a huge fan either, but after editing some according to Chicago, it's hard to flout their authority. So, try not to let it bug you. I did it on purpose.) At any rate, I'd like to go on record as saying that for the three months or so that I've done the drug store thing, I've found more out-and-out free things at Walgreens than anywhere else. Plus, you absolutely cannot beat the 10% bonus. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I am indebted for this information to the tutorial and subsequent "deal updates" I've read on MoneySavingMom. She (the aforementioned mom) provides an in-depth guide to Walgreens shopping on her website.

By "in-depth," I mean really in-depth. If you've avoided drugstores like the plague because they are always more expensive than WalMart, you're smart. They are. Unless you're selective. But I digress. If you're not familiar with drugstores like Walgreens, you might get lost in her terminology. I'd advise you to get a copy of the Easy Saver Catalog and see for yourself what the store is doing. Skip the first half with coupons for a moment and peruse the Rebate Items. The first several will likely be stuff touted as "free." If you're willing to think about it like Walgreens, the stuff is actually free. No really, it is. Here's what happens:
1. You buy the stuff with actual money
2. You go home, create an account at walgreens.com and enter the receipt information
3. You repeat steps 1 and 2 until the end of the month
4. You request (via walgreens.com) that your rebate be put on a Walgreens gift card
5. You wait several weeks
6. You check your account numerous times during those weeks to see what progress has been made on your rebate's return to you
7. You receive in the mail a genuine Walgreens gift card

"How much is my gift card for?" you ask. Well, for the moment, let's suppose you bought only the stuff touted in the catalog as free. And that you used no coupons, and that the total price of everything for the month was $20. (Now adjusting for my state's 6% sales tax, that should come to $21.20.) Since Walgreens will tack on 10% of your rebate amount, your gift card will be good for $22. So, if you adjust for sales tax, what just happened is that you received $20-worth (which is debatable, I know, but stick with me) of necessary or fun products for -$0.80. You're 80 cents ahead of where you were before you started shopping there.

Now it gets fun. What if, say, Proctor and Gamble want to help you buy something they make? So they issue a coupon. So you buy something touted as free from the catalog. You pay Walgreens $4, P&G (by means of a coupon) pays Walgreens $1, and Walgreens pays you $5.50. It's intense. If you like Sudoku, you'll go for this.

That's Walgreens.

(By the way, since this is my blog, I get to share another, more sappy reason I love drugstores. My husband and I had our first date at, among other places, a CVS. Okay. We were actually going to breakfast, but we had to get some pictures developed first, so we dropped them at the drugstore. We had a few left on my roll--and I admit I wanted a picture or two of both of us--so we had the store clerk snap a few. Henceforth in our dating, we tried to get a picture in a drugstore near every major major attraction we visited. Everyone together now . . . "Awwwww!")