What's up with my battery?

Some random thoughts:

• There have been a lot of new followers this week - welcome, welcome, welcome! Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have and be sure to check out my Hounding 101 section for some helpful info. If there's anything I've missed that you think would be good to include, please let me know.
• My cell phone battery is on the fritz. I had three bars on my battery this morning and by the time I left work this afternoon, the phone was totally dead and had shut itself off. Not exactly a good quality in a portable phone, huh? I have an LG phone, and its only a year or so old. Do I have to use an LG battery? Can I get a cheap no-name battery for cheaper? Any suggestions?
• I think this has been a record setting week for rainchecks for me. I have a raincheck for four more Rayovac batteries at A&P, two CVS rainchecks (my card & DBF's card) for the free Philips earphones, two CVS rainchecks for the free school boxes and two CVS rainchecks for the J&J travel first aid kits. I've never relied on rainchecks so much before, but its a relief not to have to keep checking store after store for an item. Love it!
• It is getting harder and harder to find this type of Tidy Cats litter. I love the Breeze system but have a feeling it may be on its way out. I don't understand because its relatively new. I've only ever seen the litter sold in Petco, Walmart, Acme and sometimes Target. That's it! So when I can get a great deal on it, I really stock up.

Here's a great A&P deal. I'm going to do this tomorrow but since Thursday's the last day of the sale, I didn't want to just post it then. Here goes - buy six Ziploc containers at $2 each, use four $0.55 coupons (7/26 SS) and one $1.50 off 2 coupon (7/26 or 8/9 SS) = $6.10 OOP and get back a $10 catalina = $3.90 profit (the $20 is based on shelf prices so make sure your prices add up to $20 before you check out)

A&P

• 4 Rayovac batteries $0.99 each, used four $1 coupons (6/21 SS) = $0.04 profit *The coupons didn't beep b/c of the overage, I was shocked!
• Goody Ouchless Hair Clips $4.79, will submit for Try Me Free rebate (up to $3.99, form found in store right by these) = $0.80
• Got $0.02 bag discount, used $3.50 catalina, total was $1.36

I paid with the gift card I received last week for signing up for a month's delivery of the Star Ledger, so no OOP.

Acme

• Jello Pudding $1
• 2 Crystal Lites $2 each = $4
• 4 Wheat Thins $2.50 each = $10
• 2 Chips Ahoy $2.50 each = $5

Got back $5 catalina and will submit for $20 rebate (at my parent's address, rebate form printed at checkout) = FREE *Note I didn't use any coupons here but it still worked out to be free. I was more concerned with using up some expiring catalinas than making money on this transaction. And since I'm submitting for the rebate, I basically turned $20 in cats into cash. Works for me!

• 5 Tidy Cats litters $6.99 each, used five $1 coupons (8/9 RP) = $29.95 or $5.99 each
• 5 Tidy Cats litter pads $4.99 each, used five $1 coupons (8/9 RP) = $19.95 or $3.99 each
• Used $10 cat and ten $5 cats, total was $14.09

I probably should have planned this better so that my OOP was lower. C'est la vie. I used self-checkout and the woman working there asked to see my Tidy Cats coupons after I'd scanned a couple. She closely examined them and then said ok, so I kept scanning them in. Then when I was using all my cats (looking over my shoulder the whole time, just waiting for someone to ring an "excessive coupon alarm"), she came back over and took a look at those too. Then after I'd scanned them all, she had to approve the transaction which took a good minute or so. As I walked away she caught my eye and I was fully prepared for a "coupon talking-to" but she was so nice! She asked me how I'd qualified for the catalinas. I told her and then mentioned the Kraft deal this week and that it equaled free groceries even without coupons. She said she could never get "these deals" right. Oh well, I tried! :)