Drugstores Week 4

This week I spent very little cash but I only got six things. I only shopped at two stores (Wags didn’t seem worth the trip). At CVS I got four products (2 Wish detergents and two Revlon eye shadows) for a total of $2.09. At Rite Aid I got two products (1 crest toothpaste and 1 Hershey bar) for $0.75. I didn’t really need a candy bar but even I give in to impulse shopping sometimes. So for less than three bucks I got some useful stuff, a candy bar (shameful impulse shopping), and $7.00 reward dollars.

The breakdown is as follows.

Store	Cash Outlay	Reward $	Retail Cost
CVS	$2.07	5.00$	$30.36
Rite Aid	$0.75	$2.00	$5.29
Walgreens	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$2.82	$7.00	$

So the four week tally is:

Store	Cash Outlay	Reward $	Retail Cost
CVS	$33.45	$41.99	$121.37
Rite Aid	$18.15	$9.00	$53.12
Walgreens	$20.54	$43.99	$41.20
Total	$72.14	$50.99	$215.69

Ralphs Has Adjusted its Coupon Policy

Ralphs has recently modified their coupon policy. I found this out when I went in to get my two boxes of Ronzoni pasta. The cashier rang up both boxes and took my two coupons. But rather than being free the total rang up as $0.45. I asked the cashier what happened? She explained that only the first coupon, where a customer uses duplicates of a specific coupon in a single transaction, is now doubled.
So the first coupon doubled to $1.00 and the second stayed at $o.55. Which means two boxes of pasta cost $0.45. This is not a bad deal but I’ll be damned if I shell out cash when I don’t have to.
I had her void the coupon and the second box. Then ring them up separately. There wasn’t a line so nobody was inconvenienced (as if I really care since it is my money). The cashier was not very pleased.
So from now on you will need to spread out your transaction to take full advantage of duplicate coupons at Ralphs. While I understand the company wants to boost profits this is an ineffectual way to do it.  I personally do not mind standing in line twice. It only takes a couple more minutes. That few minutes equaled about a buck and half.
All this does is waste the cashiers time which incidentally costs the company money. Personally I was happy with the limit of two duplicate coupons even though I often have three or four copies (two from the paper and two printed online).
Just be aware. If you generally have duplicate coupons you will notice your discounts being eroded.

Pasta on Ralphs

Through tomorrow you can get a couple of boxes of Ronzoni pasta from Ralphs for free. It is on sale for $1.00 with club card. At Coupons.com you can print a coupon for $0.55 which doubles to $1.00. Then you can print it again for a second copy (the limit is two).

Obscene Coupon Savings at Ralphs

So yesterday I went into Ralphs to get toothbrushes. Select Colgate single brushes are on sale for $1.00 with club card. With the coupon from last Sunday’s paper you get it for $0.20 plus tax. But on the shelf Colgate had a two pack of brushes as a BOGO deal (two in one pack for the price of a single brush). These were on club card card for $1.00.
With the coupon ($0.40 doubled to $0.80) it cost $0.20 for two brushes. That is $0.10 a brush or with tax that comes to about $0.14 a brush. So for a quarter I got 2 brushes. Since I had two coupons I got 4 brushes for a half a buck (I’m telling you most weeks it pays to get two papers).
I don’t know when we’ll see this good a bargain again (and these are not the nice fancy toothbrushes but I’m not picky). If you have the coupons rush out and get some super cheap toothbrushes. The sale ends Tuesday. If they’re out don’t be afraid to ask for a raincheck (Ralphs is real good about rainchecks).

Drugstores Week 3

10 products for under nine bucks

This was an excellent week for bargain shopping. Though I could have done better. CVS had some stellar deals when combined with coupons and ebs. I did two transactions, which I rarely do even though it is an effective cost cutter, which netted ten products for under nine bucks including tax. But I have 12.50 in ebs left over for next week.
At Wags I got grocery products and my wife got some cosmetic beauty tools.
Rite Aid was practically throwing crap at me. I had to go to another branch since the shelves at mine were bare. But I got five things, plus $1.00 +up, for $1.61.

  All this for $1.67

All told the stuff was about 60% off and I still have $12.50 ebs and $4.00 +up to use next week. So for around twenty bucks I got 28 items and 13.50 reward dollars (remaining from a total of $23 this week. That averages $0.73 an item. As usual you can check out the individual pages for a more intensive breakdown.

The breakdown is as follows.

Store	Cash Outlay	Reward $	Retail Cost
CVS	$8.60	$21.99	$28.03
Rite Aid	$1.67	$1	$11.85
Walgreens	$10.11	$0	$20.31
Total	$20.38	$22.99	$60.19

So the three week tally is:

Store	Cash Outlay	Reward $	Retail Cost
CVS	$31.38	$36.99	$90.91
Rite Aid	$17.40	$7.00	$47.83
Walgreens	$20.54	$0	$41.20
Total	$69.32	$43.99	$179.94

Comparison Shopping

One of the keys to successful bargain shopping is being aware of the multitude of retailers near you home and work. You can save a lot of money shopping at the same grocery, drug and bigger box retailers every week. By being flexible you expand the savings potential exponentially.

In Orange County we are lucky to have about a gazillion choices. Within five miles of my home there are at least one of each major grocer (and in the case of Ralphs specifically there are at least three). Each of the drug chains has at least two (CVS has closer to five). There is also a Walmart and a Target.

This allows me to take advantage of whichever retailer is offering the best deals (I am really lucky since CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens are literally all about two minutes away from each other).
But to many choices leads to confusion especially when it seems like everybody has the same product on sale.

This week it seems like every one has Colgate toothpaste on sale. Some stores are offering better deals than others. Both Stater Brothers (through Tuesday) and Rite Aid (through Thursday) have a 2/3 deal. So a tube is $1.50. So it shouldn’t matter where you buy it right? Wrong. If you buy it at the grocer two will cost $3.00 and tax. But if you buy it at Rite Aid it will cost $3.00 and tax but with a $1.00 +up reward dollar (on two). So it is effectively $2.00 for two.

But with coupons from last Sunday’s paper (8/29/10) you can knock off $0.75. S0 at each store it would cost $2.25 and tax for two. At Rite Aid that would effectively be $1.25. If you are buying two papers, like me, that would further cut the cost in cash to $1.50 or an effective $0.50 for two.

Yet if you run over to Ralphs this week (through 9/5/10) Colgate is $1.00 (with card select varieties). Ralphs doubles coupons up to a total of $1.00. So for the price of tax you can get one, or two, tubes of toothpaste. (If you have more coupons you need to stand in line twice. Only two of the same coupon will be doubled in any single transaction.).

However, Ralphs has a limited set of varieties on sale whereas Rite Aid had almost every type on sale (4.2 oz. to 6.0 oz.). If you are picky Rite Aid is the better choice, especially if you shop there often and have + up dollars from previous purchases. Though if you can manage not to be picky it is basically free at Ralphs.

Modifications to NCS

I’ve changed, and added, tags on the postings. I’ve also changed a few grammatical, and syntactical, mistakes. The numbers are all the same though. I’m just trying to clean up the posts a little.

I’m also reworking the lay out of the drugstore pages as well as how they are organized internally. Here again the numbers are all still the same (Its just me tinkering away).

Also look for the upcoming posts about Target bargain shopping (towards the middle of the month). I’ve been working on this for a while. There are some fantastic deals available at Target if you are still shopping there. Frankly I can’t afford not to. They literally gave me three cans of Chef Boyardee a couple weeks ago.

If your pissed at them just ignore the post. The rest of you might be interested to see what sort of deals to watch for.