Friday, December 11, 2009

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is on Fire!

Hmm, let's see. Its about 20 degrees out, there's ice and snow everywhere and the wind is gusting around 25 MPH. Those sound like ideal conditions for roofers to come out and work on my building, don't they? These poor dudes. This is the view from my window: two huge ladders right in front of my window and a monstrous dumpster blocking my garage. Doesn't it figure they would be doing this on the coldest day we've had in forever?
Since I live on the top floor, I can't even tell you how loud this process is. The pictures on my walls are shaking! And my poor kitties are terrified. They've spent the better part of the day cowering under my bed.
Luckily, I went out shopping before they moved the dumpster, which would have blocked me in. I had a bunch of errands to run - DMV to renew my license (always fun), getting gas, a couple of Walgreens runs, a trip to JCPenney and a trip to Victoria's Secret. Here's how I did:
Victoria's Secret - had two $10 off $10 coupons. I got one in the mail for my birthday and my sister gave me one that she wasn't going to use. I asked the cashier if I'd be able to use them both if I did separate transactions and she said sure. I bought Very Sexy Dare perfume for $19.50 and paid $10.17 with tax and then bought another perfume for $9.50 and a itty-bitty bottle of antibacterial gel for $3.50, totaling to $3.21 after the coupon. The store had smaller bottles of a perfume I love for only $10, but I overheard the cashier telling another customer that she'd have to spend at least $11 to use her $10 coupon, so I didn't even bother trying those.
JCPenney - I had a $10 off $10 coupon for here too, and I found a pair of jeans on clearance for $11.99, so only $1.99 OOP. I hope they fit! I almost never try clothes on in the store.
Walgreens - only two stores today, but did two transactions at each
  • Renu Multi-Purpose Plus Solution Twin Pack (8 oz each) $9.99, used $2 coupon and got back $10 RR = $2 profit
  • Stayfree Femine Care Maxi (16 or 24 pk) or Ultra Thin Pads (16 pk) $1.99, used $1 coupon and got back $2 RR = $1 profit
  • Neutrogena Men's Skin Care $4.99, got back $5 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Conair Brushes $2, got back $2 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Just For Men Touch of Gray Hair Color $6.99, got back $7 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Used $8 RR, total was $16.64, got back $5 RR for spending $25

I hate to spend this much money OOP, but there was no way around it. I couldn't have used any other RR's that I had, because they were all from these same items. And I've read that if you use the $5 RR (WYB $25), you won't get another, so I couldn't use that to bring down my OOP. I bought all these items so that I'd have RR's to use to buy some more Eucerin for my sister. Sometimes Walgreens is so tricky! I wish it were like CVS where you could use your rewards to buy anything, even more of the same item.

Then I bought:

  • 2 Eucerin Calming Creams $11 each, used two $1 coupons (or 11/1 RP) and got back $8 RR (WYB $20) = $12 or $6 each
  • Living Solutions fleece throw blanket $1.99
  • Kraft mac 'n cheese $0.69 with in-circular coupon
  • 3 Gift sacks $0.13 each with in circular coupon
  • Used $5 RR, $7 RR and $10 RR, total was $2.78
At the second store
  • Renu Multi-Purpose Plus Solution Twin Pack (8 oz each) $9.99, got back $10 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Stayfree Femine Care Maxi (16 or 24 pk) or Ultra Thin Pads (16 pk) $1.99, got back $2 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Neutrogena Men's Skin Care $4.99, got back $5 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Conair Brushes $2, got back $2 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Just For Men Touch of Gray Hair Color $6.99, got back $7 RR = FREE/$0.01 profit
  • Used $8 RR, total was $19.64, got back $5 RR for spending $25
And then finally, I used up the last of my Eucerin coupons:
  • 2 Eucerin Calming Creams $11 each, used two $1 coupons (or 11/1 RP) and got back $8 RR (WYB $20) = $12 or $6 each
  • Kraft mac 'n cheese $0.69 with in-circular coupon
  • Gift tags $0.39 with in-circular coupon
  • Gift sack $0.13 with in circular coupon
  • Used $5 RR, $5 RR and $10 RR, total was $2.79

*Meant to buy a fleece blanket in this transaction but I totally forgot! My total before coupons was $24.87 -- a measly $0.13 away from the $25 mark so I'd get back a $5 RR. Don't you just hate when you do things like that?
Aren't these adorable?

3 comments:

joelle said...

My OOP was higher than I normally like too at Walgreens this week. It is just the way it had to be. They had some good deals though! I messed up and threw in one of my $5 holiday rewards and of course didn't get one back! GRRR. So annoying when I make those mistakes. Glad it's not only me! :-)

cksknitter said...

Hi, I just wanted to give you info about Victoria's Secret coupons. My local VS store always tries to find some way to not accept my coupons. I chose an item for exactly $10 and they wouldn't honor the $10 coupon. I e-mailed customer service and they apologized and said the store would be notified so that such an unfortunate incident wouldn't happen again. VS also sent me a $l0 gift card in the mail for my trouble. The next time I shopped they had no problem taking my $10 coupon for a $10 purchase. If you have the same problem, I suggest e-mailing customer service.

frugalsuz said...

cksknitter,

That's really good to know! I'll have to keep that in mind when I get another one. Thank you!!