Ice Cream on Rite Aid (Almost)

The three major drugstores (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens) each have a reward dollar program. You have to sign up for a reward card, which is free.When you purchase certain items on sale, listed in their Sunday ads, you get reward dollars.The deals can often seem overly complicated though some are pretty straight forward (like buy product x get $1 reward dollars). At the bottom of your receipt is a coupon like ad that if scanned deducts the listed amount from your next purchase. However, if you have a $2 coupon and use it on a $1 dollar candy bar the other $1 of the coupon  magically disapears. The key is to use them so you get their full bang without buying stuff you don't really need just to use them (as you'll see I'm not so good at). The easiest way to do this is to make two or three small purchases each using the reward dollars from the previous purchase to defray the total cost. The cashier might look at you funny, like the guy did to me, but screw him its my money.

So this week at Rite Aid (7/25/10-7/31/10) they have some good offers of which a few were useful to us.
Stayfree Pads 2/6 or $3 each
RP Coupon 6/27/10 Stayfree BOGO (Buy One Get One Free)

1st Purchase
Stayfree Pads x2 $6.00
BOGO Cp.          -4.29(This is off the regular price not the sale price)
Subtotal                 1.71
Tax                          .56 (on both products)
Total Cash Outlay  2.24
Reward Dollars      2.00 (at bottom of receipt)

2nd Purchase
Colgate Toothpaste $3.00 (enamel protection variety)
Colgate Coupon      -1.00 (available at website, must register, Colgate )
Reward Dollars       -2.00
Subtotal                    0.00
Tax                            .26
Total Cash Outlay     2.50
Reward Dollars         3.00

Now the wise choice would be to save your $3 rewards coupon for another product on sale or next week's ad but my kids were with me so.

3rd Purchase
3 Ice Cream Cones  $3.87
Reward Dollars        -3.00
Total                            .87 (no tax)
Total Cash Outlay      3.37 (2 Stayfree (16 ct.), 1 toothpaste, 3 single scoop ice cream cones)

The average price per item is 58 cents which is a good price for the pads, and ok price for the toothpaste, and a terrible price for the ice cream (I remember when it was 29 cents a cone). But seriously my wife got something I got toothpaste to add to the stockpile (I won't need any until I can get it for almost free again) and my kids each got an ice cream cone which stopped them from whining about shopping. My trip isn't neccesarily the deal you want to follow but the point stands, which is with a little planning and two or three seperate purchases you can get good discounts and you would have a $3 reward coupon in your pocket.