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Thrifty Thursday: Making your prescriptions "work" for you!

November 6, 2008 by

You may have seen those coupons in the paper advertising a free gift card for new and/or transferred prescriptions, but weren’t really sure how it “worked” or maybe it seemed to good to be true. It does work, and it’s very simple. I posted here about how I was able to use my gift card from transferring a prescription to buy groceries for almost nothing out of pocket.

Here’s what I do:

*Every time I see one of those coupons, regardless of the store, I clip it and hang on to it. Most stores (in my area at least) will accept competitor’s pharmacy coupons. This includes CVS, Walgreens, and all of the major grocery stores. Target (in my area at least) does not accept competitor coupons and I’m not sure about Walmart. If you’re a Walmart shopper, it’s worth calling and asking.

*If you’d like to transfer a prescription, all you have to do is call the pharmacy and give them the information off of your prescription (usually your prescription number, the old pharmacy name and number, and the name of the prescription). If you are planning on using a competitor coupon, you may also want to check and see if they honor competitor coupons when you call.

*Pick up your prescription, give them the coupon and you’ve got money to spend! Most stores will only allow you to do this once per prescription.

You probably want to weigh out the pros and cons of doing this. Many insurance companies offer a discount if you do a 90 day mail order supply of your prescription. My retail co-pay for a 30 day supply is $10. My co-pay for a 90 day supply is $10. Even if I pay $30 out of pocket to fill my prescriptions at the “Retail” rather than mail order rate for 3 months, if I have three $30 gift card coupons, I still come out $60 ahead, so it’s worth it to me.

Be sure to check your prescription benefits before doing this. Some benefits only allow for you to fill a prescription a certain amount of times at the retail rate before raising the rate or requiring you to fill the prescription by mail order. Usually, you have 3-4 times that you can fill it at the retail rate and usually, at this point, I’ve transferred the prescription everywhere I want to so that I can get a gift card anyway, so I just switch to mail order.

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Target deals for the week all in one spot

November 5, 2008 by

There are so many Target deals this week, and I have been posted them sporadically as I find them, so I thought it would be nice to post them all in one spot.

Here they are:

Green Giant carrots – FREE!
The Green Giant bagged baby carrots are on sale for $.99 this week. There is a $1/1 printable Target coupon (you can get it through the coupon generator on Afullcup.com or on Hotcouponworld.com – see links at the right)

StarKist tuna pouches – FREE
StarKist tuna pouches are $.99 this week at Target! There were $1/1 coupons in the 10-12-08 RP insert. There are also $1/1 coupons from Vocal Point. So, if you have those coupons, you can get free tuna!

Prego – .80 or .84/jar
Prego is on sale this week for $1.67. There are $1/3 and .75/2 (it depends on your area) manufacturer’s coupons and $1/2 printable coupons on Target.com. If you have the .75/2 manufacturer’s coupon it ends up being .80/jar and if you have the $1/3 it will be .84/jar.

Kellogg’s cereal – get free milk or a $5 gift card (depending on your area)
There is a deal this week where you get either a $5 gift card or a free gallon of milk (check the ad for your area because it varies by market) when you buy 5 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal (the ad says priced at $2.75, but at my store they had several different boxes that were less than $2.75 and still part of the deal).

There is a printable coupon for $1/1 Kellogg’s cereal here: http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=rjnefah1098550&bt=wi&o=54148&c=KC&p=uU1wzMHO

You can print it 6 times. There are also various cereal coupons on Kelloggs.com. So, if you use five $1/1 coupons, you either get 5 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk for about $8 or you get five boxes of cereal and a $5 gift card for about $8 (if you’ve done the candles deal, use your gift card from that, and you only spend $3!)

Glade holiday candles:
Buy four Glade holiday candles in the following scents and get a $5 gift card: Apple Cinnamon, Gingerbread or Glistening Snow scents. The participating items are priced at $2.50/each, and if you scan them, it will say “buy 4, get a $5 gift card” on the scanner. The deal is good through 12/15.

There are BOGO coupons on Glade.com and on Coupons.com (which you can access through the banner on the right). There were also several coupons in Sunday’s paper for Glade items.

***You can only get the gift card once per transaction

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Instant Win Wednesday

November 5, 2008 by

(Click on skip intro, then click on Nabisco Prize Giveaway in the lower lefthand corner. No purchase necessary!)

When you are done playing the instant win game, click on “Season’s Savings” for a link to a printable coupon for Nabisco crackers.

Fresh Express Instant win game: http://chiquita.eprize.net/complete/index.tbapp

Win a Clinique 3 piece face cleanser set (full size) from Macy’s: http://www.beautymacys.com/3step_landing.html

Lindor Truffles Instant Win game: http://lindtlindortruffles.com/index.php/giveaway

Last week’s games (in case you missed them): TinkerBell DVD, Pace Picante sauce, and more http://melziemomsbargains.blogspot.com/2008/10/instant-win-wednesday-tinkerbell-dvd.html
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This is what you can get for $5.83

November 4, 2008 by

I post a lot about the deals that I get, but I thought it would help if I posted a picture because, as they say, “A picture is worth 1,000 words.” If you’re wondering if couponing is really worth it, it is.

I got all of this at Randalls and Target. I don’t usually shop at Randalls, but I got a coupon in the mail offering me a $30 gift card to fill a new or transferred prescription and $10 off a $50 purchase.

Here’s the breakdown for Randalls:

6 boxes of cereal

2 bottles of Tide

1 bag of Fresh Express lettuce

2 bags of string cheese

1 bag of grapes

1 bag of celery

1 roast

Used $10/50 Randalls coupon, used $1 off Tide in store coupon, used .50 Tide manufacturer’s coupon (which doubled), used $1 off Tide manufacturer’s coupon (from a home mailer), used 3 Kellogg’s $1 off printables, used 1 free Cheerio’s coupon, used 1 free Post cereals coupon, used $1 Quaker cereal coupon, used $1 Fresh Express bagged salad coupon (from a tear pad). It also took off an instant $5 for the cereals. I used the $30 Randalls gift card for filling a prescription and paid $5.30 out of pocket.

Target:

5 boxes cereal

6 pouches Star Kist tuna

2 bags Green Giant carrots

2 jars Prego

1 gallon milk

1 GG Valley Fresh Steamers frozen vegetables

Used: 5 $1/1 Kelloggs coupons, 2 $1/1 Target Green Giant carrots coupons, 6 $1/1 StarKist tuna coupons, 1 .75/2 Prego manufacturer’s coupon, 1 $1/2 Prego Target coupon, $1/1 Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers coupon. Milk was free with the purchase of 5 cereals. Used $5 Target gift card from the Lilaguide deal and paid .53 out of pocket.

I also have a $5 catalina to use toward the purchase of a gift card at Randalls for buying the 2 Tide.

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Tip of the Day Tuesday: catalina coupons

November 4, 2008 by

Catalinas are coupons that print off at the register, typically in grocery stores (Walgreens also has them). They are usually triggered by an item you are purchasing. For example, if you purchase Pampers diapers, you may get a catalina coupon for Luvs diapers.

Some of them are like regular coupons and good for a certain dollar amount off the purchase of a specific product. They usually will say “redeem at” and have the store logo where you got them. Some stores will accept catalina coupons from other stores, so you may want to ask your stores about that.

Other catalina coupons are good for a certain dollar amount off your next purchase (so they can be used to buy anything). I usually try to save these and use them toward the purchase of produce or meat, since coupons for these items are not as easy to find.

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