Baby week at Rite Aid

 I hope that everyone's still doing well. I'm still working hard, but I have to say that this is the slowest fourth quarter since the Recession. However, I'm still working as much as I can and hope things will pick up once the election is over & done with. 

Last week I purchased $200 Macy's gcs at RA. The deal wasn't in our local ad, but I had seen it in an ad preview online. It was Buy $100 get $20 BC. Since I'm planning on buying my favorite perfume at Macy's, I just decided to get the gcs since I'm not one to shy away from free cash/rewards. So I earned $40 BC, not knowing how handy it would come in this week. 

A friend of mine is due with her first baby next month. When I saw a great deal at Kroger last weekend, I decided to just stock up for her. When we talked about 2 months ago, she mentioned just having people drop off diapers at her house, since she can't have a baby shower due to Covid. Then I checked my RA coupon group & holy smokes, RA has an amazing Huggies sale this week!! Again, the ad preview didn't show this deal, but it was being talked about. I was crossing my fingers that it would be in our ad and was so happy when I saw it!

The deal is spend $30 on Kotex, Huggies (I forgot what else), earn $10 BC (limit 2)

There's also a $5 CAT WYS $25 on Huggies (monthly deal. This deal runs at Kroger too)

Buy 1 Huggies Snug & Dry earn $3 bonus cash (monthly deal. limit 2)

Buy Huggies Snug & Dry earn $1 Ibotta (limit 5)

There are also $2/1 Huggies qs, but we were away that weekend, so I didn't get any newspapers

Trans 1

4 x Huggies diapers $35.96

1 x All detergent 2.99

1 x Snuggle softener 2.99

Less 10/40 mailer q (10.00)

Less All q (1.00)

Less Snuggle q (1.00)

Tax 1.92

Total $31.86 Paid with BC from the Macy's deal

Earned $16 BC ($10 Huggies + $6 Huggies monthly deal)

Earned 2 x $5 CATs 

Earned $5 Ibotta ($4 Huggies, $1 All)

Earned 89 Fetch points for each Huggies pack

Total earned (excluding Fetch) $31.00

The cashier started ringing up my items, I entered my phone number and said Yes, I want to use my BC. So the register automatically applied the BC without my coupons. I think the cashier is new, because she didn't know what to do. Manager comes over, voids the transaction and rings everything again. Handed me my receipt with CATS rolled up inside. I get into my car so I can study my receipt in peace and notice that I received 2 x $5 CATS. Apparently the Catalina machine printed a CAT for both transactions, so I just received both. Happy dance!

I bought the All & Snuggle to get my total to $40. I could've done the free Colgate instead, but I didn't know if that $3 in ad q would affect my $10/40 mailer q. This girl was playing it safe...lol

I waited on Ibotta to reset then headed back to RA today. Since the Huggies deal tracks, I only needed to spend another $24.04

Trans 2

3 x Huggies $26.97

Less BC used 24.14

Tax 1.62

OOP $4.45

Earned $10 BC + $5 CAT + $3 Ibotta 

I didn't use any of my CATs, because I didn't know if it would roll. Gosh, I haven't shopped at RA in so long, that I can't even remember how things work anymore.

I now have $25 to use at RA ($10 BC + $15 CATs). I'm happy with paying $4.45 OOP for 7 packs of diapers and detergent. That Macy's deal sure was a blessing in disguise :)

Meijer

This week (and next) Meijer has Spend $15 on Dove, Tresemme, Axe earn $5 CAT. When I took out a new deodorant from my stockpile last week, I noticed that I only have one extra left. So I knew that I needed to find a deal soon. Along comes Meijer & my world is right side up...lol

Fetch also has an offer of Spend $30 on Unilever, earn $10 reward (limit 5) It tracks, so you don't have to restart your reward amounts every time

Trans 1

1 x Dove b/w $6.29

1 x Axe shampoo 4.19

1 x Dove deodorant 5.09

Less Dove b/w IPQ (2.00)

Less Axe Q (2.00)

Tax 0.93

OOP $12.50

No CAT prints. So I head to CS to get my $5 back. Except (in typical Meijer fashion) CS is clueless. I asked her to get out a copy of the ad so I can show her the deal. So she finally did (after I asked her a few times, because Meijer cashiers never know their head from their *ss). So I show  her the advertised deal and she tells me that I have to bring her the $5 coupon so she can give me the cash back (insert face palm). WTF?! I was very polite and explained that it's not how the deal work. So now I'm trying to get her to understand that the register's supposed to print a $5 coupon, but she's just not getting it. So I asked her to get a supervisor. So she gets on the phone with the supervisor and explains the situation to her. 5 Minutes later the supervisor rocks up with a $5 gc. No hello, no explanation. How about apologizing to the customer, then training your cashiers better?! Ugh. I swear you need to carry a tub of Tums with you when you shop at Meijer, cause something ALWAYS goes wrong. 

I'm kind happy with receiving a gc, because it doesn't expire

Earned $2 Ibotta (Dove b/w) and I could've sworn there was a deal for Axe shampoo, but I must've missed it. 

Also submitted receipt to Fetch and earned 500 points for buying 2 Unilver products. I didn't even know about this offer.

Then I found $2.50/2 Dove deodorant IP Q, so I went back to Meijer today

1 x Dove b/w $6.29

2 x Dove deodorant 10.18

Less Dove IPQ (2.00)

Less Deodorant IPQ (2.50)

Tax 0.99

OOP $12.96

Earned $5 CAT. Phew! I was worried the CAT wouldn't print again. 

The register wouldn't accept my $2.50/2 Deodorant q. It kept saying "too few items sold". Can you see the kinda crap we have to deal with at Meijer. Got cashier over to manually enter the q.

Earned $2 Dove b/w (Ibotta) and $10 Fetch reward.

Total OOP $25.46

Total earned $24.00 ($10 CAT/GC, $4 Ibotta, $10.00 Fetch). I actually earned around 60c+ on Fetch, but I'll stick to the round figures.  So $1.46 for 6 items and I'm stocked up on deodorant for a while. Well I might do the deal again next week, if I can find good Qs. 

Remember the WAGS fiasco where they didn't bag my toothpaste I bought. Well I had all but given up on that and completely forgot about it when I got a call from the WAGS store manager. Now I laid out the whole case for CS who sent the info to the store. Yet the manager didn't know what the problem was (I wonder if WAGS & Meijer are somehow owned by the same holding company, cause service is crappy at both stores). So I explained what happened and he asked how he can fix it for me. I asked him to just add $9 (that I was out) to my account. He agree and this mama was happy. Except, when I checked my account 5 minutes later, I saw that he added $12 to my account! Thank you Mr WAGS!...lol

We've been really good sticking to our new weekly $60 grocery budget. However, Aldi gets me every time. I'll go there for one or 2 things and end up spending almost $20. Not to mention DS costs me almost $4 every time he goes to Aldi with me. He loves their chocolate Brioche bread. I can't say I blame him, cause that bread is heavenly and it makes the best french toast. DS insists on us buying the bread every time we go to Aldi (I only eat the wheat bread). The downside is that I usually find something new to try at Aldi. I found some veggie chips (not the fake stuff whose ingredient list reads 'insert veg name' powder). This is the one that lists the veggies itself. I bought oodles of it at Dollar Tree about 2 years ago, then they stopped carrying it. I think DT is like Ollies where they mainly purchase closeout, so you never know how long they'll stock your favorite products. 

Then when DH went to Aldi, I told him to take a pic of the chips bag and buy me some more. The man comes home with the fake stuff. Ugh. Now he usually just brings whatever he can find, when he doesn't want to look for an item. Now that I've been to Aldi, I noticed that it's not his fault, cause those good chips are gone. Shhh, I'm not gonna admit that to him though...lol

I've also found Beet Tortilla chips which was really good. I love beets, but felt that there wasn't enough of a beet flavor to it. It's still good though, so I might buy it again.

That's about it for me. Hope everyone stays safe & healthy!

I don't know why my spacing is so weird. It happened when I changed the blog background. I'm gonna switch back to the original background to see if that will help.

Ibotta Double Dip Bonuses

My Ibotta account currently has  $10 WYB 15 items (number of items may vary by user). Then the $5 Mid Week bonus (WYB 12 items) popped up. So I made a list and headed to the stores.

My first stop was Wags, because DH had a $5/20 on his account. I only got a 10% off $35 on my account. 

WAGS

1 x Scott t/p $5.00

2 x Dove mens deodorant 9.98

1 x Suave shampoo $3.50

1 x Suave mens shampoo 3.50

1 x Suave kids shampoo B2G1F 0.00

Less 5/20 (5.00)

Less Scott IVC (1.25)

Less 2 Dove IP Qs (3.00)

 Less $2/2 Suave Q (2.00)

Less BR Points (10.00)

Tax 1.02

OOP $1.75

Earned $8.35 Ibotta ($3 Sauve, $5 Dove, $0.25 Scott)

I forgot to print the 50c Scott IP

The Scott also tracks on Fetch (spend $30 earn $2) plus it adds points too. 

Walmart

1 x Perfect Bar $1.98

1 x Butterfinger 0.88

1 x Ragu 1.48

1 x Oikos yogurt drink 1.94 FREE after Ibotta

1 x 4ct Chobani yogurt 3.96

2 x Chobani flips 2.44

1 x Danimal yogurt 2.98

1 x Breakstone cottage cheese 1.06

2 x Celestial Seasonings tea 4.76

1 x Kotex liners 2.97

Tax 0.18

OOP $24.63

Earned $28.39 Ibotta ($12.89 + $15 Bonuses + $.50 Monthly level 1 bonus)

Walmart was out of half the items I had planned to buy, so I had to improvise. 

Total OOP $26.38

Total earned $36.74

$10.36 MM (if you don't count the WAGS points I used)

This sure was a nice way to turn my WAGS points into a new GC.

I also purchased an Airwick plugin ($2.97+ tax) which is free on Fetch. Today's trip added enough points for me to redeem for a $10 Fetch gc. 

I also redeemed a $25 Walmart gc on Ibotta. I cash out as soon as I have enough available funds. Just yesterday I read that Fetch shut down someone's account, citing fraud. She had to jump through hoops and contact BBB to get her account reinstated so she could withdraw her funds. A similar thing happened to my friend, so I don't take any chances.

Total OOP for everything today = $29.53

Redeemed $35 GCs (I started with a $6 balance on Fetch & still have a $11 Ibotta balance). 

Yesterday I also purchased 2 Christmas gifts at Kohls. They had $15 Kohls Cash for every $50 spent. Also double rewards (triple if you have a Kohls charge). So 10% rewards instead of the usual 5%. Paid with $100 gcs and earned $30 KC and $10 Y2U rewards and 2% Rakuten. So free gifts and still $40 to spend. Whoo-hoo!

Some odds & ends

 Hi everyone

I'm still here. Things have been crazy busy around here. The days just seem to fly by. Just a few things that have happened around here.

* I haven't done any drugstore shopping 2 weeks ago. There just wasn't enough good deals for me to venture to the stores. I just did a quick CVS trip last week. Nothing spectacular

* I've heard that WAGS will be changing their rewards program AGAIN. Oy vey. No details yet about how it will work in future. All I know is that we'll have to sign up for new accounts to have our points transferred. Between DS & I, we have $63 in rewards. I'm just going to spend those rewards. There have been fewer and fewer deals, so I'll just spend it on things that we need.

* I had a nightmare trip to WAGS a few weeks ago. The cashier messed up my entire order and I was charged $9 for toothpaste, she never bagged! grrr. It was the wrong toothpaste too (placed on wrong spot on shelf), so I didn't even earn my rewards on it.  This was a store that's about 20 minutes from my house. Live Chat CS was unhelpful (told me to drive back to the store. Like I'm gonna waste an hour of my day for their mistake. Eventually got hold of a different CS dept and they forwarded everything to the store. Its been a month and no contact from store manager. I contacted CS about this again, but got no response from them either. That's why I've decided to take a WAGS break.

* Our stockpile is basically complete. I shopped hard for 2 months (July & August) from the time our state reopened and I can finally heave a sigh of relief. I'm still adding a few small things every week and our grocery budget is now way down. I'm hoping to keep it at or around $60 per week, because we eat lots of fresh produce.

What's concerning is that I'm still seeing half empty shelves at Walmart. I've been to different locations and they all look like this. I haven't seen a Prego sauce sale yet, so I've been adding a jar to my shopping trip every week. I also need bread flour. I do have 10 lbs stockpiled, but if I'm gonna bake our bread during the entire winter, then I'm gonna need more bread flour. Now if I can only find bread flour in store. 

* I'm so happy to see most stores accepting cash again (I really prefer cash over a card, even though we pay our cards in full every month),  so I went to the bank and withdrew $300 for this month. I'm adding a little cushioning, because the monthly produce market trip always makes me broke...lol

* I've started freezer cooking again. With me being so busy, it's just easier to have some things already cooked. It's so nice to just heat and eat most nights. I did so much cooking last week, that I really don't need to cook this week. I might just make some veggies on the side. 

* We've also cut down on Friday night carry out a lot. I've been making my veggie pizzas again and we're loving it. This is why I stock up on pesto and artichokes (my favourite). I use pesto instead of pasta sauce on our pizzas, then top it with mozzarella and veggies of choice. Our favorite is artichoke, mushroom, peppers & onions.

* I found more disinfecting wipes. We don't need any more wipes and I'm not even looking for it. I was at Walmart last week and as I neared the cleaning aisle, I noticed people had big wipes containers in their carts. So I rushed to the wipes aisle only to find the shelves empty. Then a woman showed me that the end cap still had 4 tubs. I was in such a rush, I didn't even notice the end cap...lol. There were no limits, but I only bought 2. The crazy part is that when I found wipes at Sams the last time, I told myself that I'll buy some for my close friends (in other states) if I found wipes again. So now I'm planning on surprising them with wipes and other essential items. 

* I'm almost done with Christmas shopping. We've decided to just have a low key Christmas this year. None of us really need anything. I actually paid full price for a gift for DS last week. I did it, because I didn't want to wait on a possible sale (who knows if that will happen this year) and risk it being sold out by the time holiday season rolls around. I need to pick up 2 more items for DS, but I have Target gcs for those. I'm hoping for some sort of discount on those items before the end of next month.

* I bought my own Christmas gift at 80% off. DH and I have an agreement (actually it was all my idea...lol). I buy my own gift, because he hates shopping. This way he doesn't have to stress about what to get me (he insists on getting me gifts) and I get exactly what I want. The best part is that I ALWAYS buy my gift on clearance. He just pays for it and wraps it at Christmas time. I never have a set item in mind. If I find something I like during the year, I buy it and save it for Christmas. My gift was  originally $328 (excl tax) and I got it for $70 (incl tax). I also earned cash back through Rakuten (I think it was 2%. I'm not quite sure now).

* I also picked up a Christmas gift for $5.05. Originally $60. Item was marked down to $4.99 and I get a 5% discount and free shipping. Also got 2% back through Rakuten.

I know that many people say they unsubscribe or delete store emails. I do the complete opposite. I sign up for whatever stores I can. I have an email address specifically for that. So when I see a really good deal on something (y'all know I mean 80%+ off 😊) and I know it's perfect for someone on my list, then I buy it. This has saved me thousands over the years and it's usually really good items. I don't believe in buying a cheap gift, just because it costs so little. I still want a good, quality item, just without breaking the bank. 

* I'm not sure what's gonna happen with BF this year. I usually only shop Kohls online. I never venture to the stores, except CVS and RA. Most stores have announced that they'll be closed for BF, but no word on whether they'll still have an online sale. I'm just hoping that the Kohls sale will still happen. Who knows if they'll have enough inventory for a BF sale. I just want our athletic shoes that I buy every year. We all still have an extra new pair or 2 from last year, but I always stock up enough for when one pair breaks or the thread is worn down. I'm keeping fingers crossed.

* Business has been good and I am swamped. I've been busy since this pandemic started. We've been so blessed throughout this pandemic, that I actually felt overwhelmed by it all at one stage. I'm so thankful for it, but some days I'm so busy that I don't even know my own name....lol

I hope that everyone stays safe and healthy. I'll try to post again within a week or so.