This week's RA and CVS shopping

One of my goals for this year, is to not spend any oop (out of pocket) for Rite Aid and CVS purchases the entire year. Last year, I purchased $100 RA gift cards for $80 which will be used for this year's shopping. I've also ordered a $25 CVS gc from one of my point earning sites to help pay sales tax. RA's new Bonus Cash program, no longer covers sales tax so the gc will come in handy.

I did spend $7 oop at CVS earlier this month, because my gc wasn't available yet, when I needed to go shopping.

I think I've only been to RA once this year, to buy some cheap Crest t/p that I paid for with the last of my Plenti points. I did have $1 BC on my card.Here's what I got

2 x 18ct Cottonelle $13.98
2 x 6ct Kleenex $13.98
2 x Garnier shampoo $7.00
2 x Loreal Elvive $8.00
1 x Softsoap bw $3.99
2 x 3ct Dial soap $4.00
Total $50.95
Less 2 x $1 cottonelle qs (2.00)
Less 2 x $1 kleenex qs (2.00)
Less 2 x $2 Garnier qs (4.00)
Less $3.00/2 Loreal q (3.00)
Less $2.75 Softsoap (2.75) $2 in ad and 75c Man q
Less $1/2 Dial L2C q (1.00)
Less $1 BC (1.00)
Total OOP (incl sales tax) $38.26. Paid with a GC

Earned $20 BC and $5 CAT (catalina q that prints at register) for spending $25 on Cottonelle/Kleenex
I will get back $1 Dial Savingstar credit.

I also purchased a $50 Gap gc with cash that I got as a Christmas gift and earned $8 BC. I'll take $8 cash out of next week's grocery budget (because BC is used for household and HBA items. Our grocery budget covers food, HBA and cleaning) and add the cash to my Christmas savings jar

Then at CVS I got the following

CVS sends me a $10 off $40 email q every week, so I added the candy to get my total to $40. I started this week's trip with $20 EB (Extra bucks rewards) and received $3 EB from the Q machine (spend $30 on beauty get $3 EB. Your beauty purchases are tracked every time you purchase qualifying items).

1 Persil detergent $4.99
3 x Right Guard deodorant $9.49
4 x Speed Stick deodorant $10.00
2 x Almay lipsticks $14.98
2 x Hershey candy bars $1.25 (BOGO - buy one get one free)
Total $40.71
Less $10/40 (10.00)
Less $2 Persil (2.00)
Less $4.99/3 RG (4.99)
Less 2 BOGO Speedstick (5.98)
Less $4 Almay (4.00) register wouldn't accept my 2nd Q. No biggie
Less $12 EB (12.00)
Total incl tax $3.12. Paid for with my GC. I only have a $4.78 balance, so I need to order another gc.

I don't understand CVS math. Their items never ring up at half price. The Speed stick is 2/$5 this week, but rings up $2.99 and $2.01. The manager deducted $2.99 for each item.

Earned
$15 EB ($4 RG, $5 Speed stick, $5 Almay)
$6.99 from Savingstar ($4.99 RG, $2 Persil)

Now I'm up to $26 EBs. Started with $20, used $12 and earned $14 + $3 Beauty

 Then I stopped at Meijer, because I wanted some Italian sausage for dinner. I also had a $3 off any beauty CAT that someone had left behind at the register before. I could've used a man q with this CAT, but Meijer cashiers are the pits and I didn't want to waste time arguing with them.

4 Superpretzels (BOGO) $5.70
1 Italian sausage $4.39
1 Loreal cleanser $5.59
1 Sub buns $3.00
Less Loreal Q (3.00)
Less Superpretzel q (1.00)
Less Mperks reward (4.00)
OOP $10.93

Earned $2 Ibotta (Loreal) and $1.00 Savingstar (Superpretzel)

So in total I spent $10.93 OOP for everything (over $100 worth of merchandise) and earned $10.99 in Savingstar and Ibotta credits. That's like me making a profit of a whopping 6c! But yay, it's still a profit.

The Savingstar rewards brought my balance to over $10, so I ordered a $10 Starbucks gc for Teacher's Christmas gifts (we'll talk about saving rewards for holiday gifts soon).

Welcome

Hi and welcome to my new blog. For the first time readers, this blog is all about teaching people how I shop for deals on clothes, shoes, accessories, groceries (including HBA and cleaning products).

Why is my shopping so much different from other couponers? I DO NOT pay for clothes (at least not from our household income). We don't have a clothing budget. I use my skills to earn extra cash or gift cards that pays for all our clothing needs. We love name brand stuff, but there is NO way that I'm paying name brand prices. It takes some work, but it pays off in the end. But more of that later.

I've been a serious couponer for 10 years and have used everything that I've learned from my couponing friends/community to clothe and feed my family of 3 for much less.

So join us as we share our deals.