Melissas Bargains

It has been a GREAT week for shopping at Walgreens (at least in my opinion!). Here are a few pictures from my ten (yes, ten!) shopping trips this week. Fortunately, we have a Walgreens on just about every street corner where I live and I happened to be travelling between schools quite a bit this week, so I was able to fit my trips in while I was on the road (which means that I also got to do them kid free).

Here’s what I’ve ended up with so far:

*20 boxes of Reynold’s (20 sq ft) foil – it is on sale for $.89 this week with an in ad coupon. There were $1/1 Reynolds Wrap Foil (excluding 25 sq. ft.) coupons in the 2-8 SS insert, so I’ve gotten .11 overage on each box (these coupons expire on 4/4….the newer coupons exclude the 20 sq ft size)

*7 The Fragrance Collection by Glade Soy Candles – I got to try these initial thanks to a Bzz Agent campaign and I LOVE them! The smaller ones are $5.99 and there is a $2 off Walgreens coupon in the April Easysaver catalog. There were $4 printable coupons from Right at Home last week and I also had some $3 coupons from the Bzz campaign. These will be great items for gifts to have on hand (if I don’t use them all myself!)

*2 Edge Shave Gel – These are $2.99, and you get back a $2.99 Register Reward when you buy one (it’s the 7 oz variety) this month, so they are free after Register Rewards! My husband was almost out of shave gel, so this deal came along right in time!

*4 Chapstick Naturals – This week these are on sale for $1.99 (they regularly retail for $2.99) and you get a $2 Register Reward when you buy them. The Register Reward deal is good through the month, but it works best this week since they are on sale!

*2 Schick Quattro razors – My Target stores were cleaned out of these all last week when the “deal” was on and I had lots of coupons to use. The regular retail price on these is $9.99, but there is a $4 coupon in the Easysaver and I had the $4 manufacturer’s coupons, so it was $1.99.

*6 Disney sticker books – These are a great filler item this week and a great filler for Easter baskets, too! They are 3/$1 with the in ad coupon.

*2 Kid card games – These are $1.99 or $2.99 each and Buy One, Get One Free this week and are also a great filler item and filler for Easter baskets!

*2 coloring books – These are also $1.99 or $2.99 each and Buy One, Get one Free this week and a great filler item for Easter baskets!

I got all of this for less than $1 out of pocket by using Register Rewards and overage from coupons. Here are a few answers to questions I’ve had already:

*Can you get overage at Walgreens? The answer is yes, but it is tricky. I have found that my Walgreens stores are SOOOO picky about coupons! I went to ten different stores this week and I had a problem at every single store in one way or another. There are three “tricks” to getting overage. First, if the way you are getting overage is by using a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon, make sure they scan your store coupon LAST. Sometimes I hold the store coupons back until they have already scanned my other coupons because they usually want to scan the store coupons first. Second, make sure you are buying enough to cover the “overage” (this is where my little sticker books and some of the other small things come in). Third, if you are just buying one or two items, this tends to raise a red flag, so try to buy a few items in one transaction.

*Why ten trips? First, because I could pull this off since I have so many Walgreens stores around me. Second, some of my stores were out of the foil. Third, I don’t believe in being a shelf clearer. Fourth, the limit on the foil is 3 in the ad. Fifth, I don’t like to raise red flags, ESPECIALLY at Walgreens because they are so picky already!

Here are a few other “noteable” deals this week: (so yes, I will still be making a few more trips)

*Printer cartridge refill – $7.50, get a $7.50 Easysaver MIR – the black ink cartridge refills are normally $10, and this “deal” will last the entire month, but they are on sale this week, which makes them free after rebate. The timing is great since my printer cartridge is almost out of ink (I wonder why?!?) If you’re wondering if this really works, it works better for some brands of cartridges than others. I have refilled our HP cartridge several times without any problems, but the Lexmark ones do not work as well when refilled.

*Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, Life or Captain Crunch Cereal – 2/$5, get a $2 RR – There are LOTS of great printable coupons for this deal on coupons.com and Smartsource.com
$1/2 Quaker Chewy Granola bars printable on Smartsource.com
$1/2 Quaker Life cereal on Coupons.com (see the blue sidebar on the right to print)
$1/1 Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar Life Cereal printable here

Some helpful tips:
*At Walgreens, you cannot do a promotion more than once in a transaction and earn Register Rewards. So, if you buy more than 1 Chapstick Naturals in one transaction this week, you will only earn one $2 RR.

*You also cannot use the Register Rewards earned from a promotion on the same promotion and earn Register Rewards again. For example, if you buy a Chapstick Naturals, get a $2 RR and use it to buy another Chapstick Naturals, another RR will not print.

*Register Rewards are considered to be “manufacturer’s coupons” and you can only use one manufacturer’s coupon per item. You will have to add “filler” items. The in ad coupons often have good, inexpensive filler items. (this week the Easter sticker books are a graet filler!)

*If you are buying items that would result in a “free” item or “overage” when combining a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon, give the manufacturer’s coupon FIRST, and the store coupons LAST to avoid beeping/issues at the register!

*If your Register Reward doesn’t print for some reason and you have fulfilled all of the obligations for the “deal” DO NOT let them tell you it is because you used coupons! Chances are they didn’t print because the catalina machine is not working. You have two choices: you can return your items and try again or you can contact the catalina company by doing the following:
*The store will give you a form to fill out and mail in to catalina
*Call 1-888-8coupon, option 3
*Use the online form to contact them: Contact Catalina Marketing (when I have tried contacting them this way, my results have not been very good….your best bet is to call)