Hold the presses. Guess what I did today. I shopped at a drug store. I can’t even remember the last time I did that. Sort of sad, really. I know I’ve missed out on some good deals.
But I know my physical limits. My body is much, much better, but my endurance is not quite there yet. That’s why I’ve been concentrating my energies on the grocery deals. It just makes sense for me right now.
That said, CVS lured me in with their 4th of July sale. Tide is part of the spend $30 bucks, get a $10 gas card promo and I had good coupons.
When all was said and done, I paid $2.97 a bottle which is pretty decent for Tide. Not stellar, but solid. And I like the way it makes my clothes smell. I have a thing about my clothes smelling like a baby’s bum. Sort of odd, I know.
Oh, and just to be clear. I mean like a baby powdered bum. Not an “I just ate prunes” bum. That would suck.
After CVS, I ran over to Stop&Shop and wreaked all sorts of havoc on their gas points items. Candy bars, bags of M&M’s, canned tomatoes, Nature Valley granola bars. Enough products to keep my car fueled up for weeks.
The only problem with this purchase was that it made me look like an extreme couponer. Which is pretty darn funny since I had zero, zip, zilch, coupons for this transaction.
Knowing that it didn’t look good, I scurried on over to the produce department and placed a blanket of spinach over my otherwise calorie laden cart. As a bonus, it was buy one get one free baby spinach.
If you place the produce carefully over the top of your cart, no one will be the wiser. It’s all about product placement, people. Learn from a master candy bar hider.
A little protein doesn’t hurt either when it comes to deflecting attention. Fish, spinach, tomatoes. Looking good if you ignore the 20 pounds of chocolate.
This Halloween I’m going to be the most popular house on the block. King sized bars for everyone!
Speaking of chocolate, as an added bonus the M&M’s bags qualify for the free movie ticket promo. So, not only did this entire purchase cost nothing once you figure in the 6,300 gas points, but I’ll get $36 in free movie tickets.
M&M’s and movies go together like coupons and binders. Don’t you think?
A super successful couponing day that involved practically no coupons. I’m so inspired that I think I just might get up early tomorrow and hit the drug stores. Maybe.
How about you? What do you see that’s hot this week?
 |
Can I be nosey and ask what coupons you had for the tide deal? i love tide!!! (and cvs!)
Goodness, of course you can be nosey. $1/1 non insert coupons I found at the doctor’s office. Odd place to find them, but I love Tide. Happy to find Tide coupons anywhere!
agreed! i sometimes find really good coupons there too (never tide though, bummer!)
btw i had a dream i met you the other night, i ran in to you and your family in Boston or something. you never know, maybe it will happen someday! i was so excited to meet you!!!
Stephanie- Stranger things have happened. I’ve met readers in the funniest places. It’s always an extreme pleasure to meet my readers. It feels like you are all my pen pals.
one last thing, i just want to thank you so much for pushing me to take advantage of the gas points at stop and shop. i never really paid attention before, and when you first posted about them i really wasn’t sure if i could handle trying to do the deals (one more thing to have to plan out!) but since i knew about the possibilities it was hard to ignore them. i have been doing pretty well now (i filled up at 2.16 a gallon yesterday, not too bad!) also it has helped me really get in to the grocery store deals (my weak point) and i am saving lots more money now! my wallet is happy and so is my husband, so thank you again!
Stephanie- You are so welcome. The gas points program is kind of hard to wrap your brain around. The problem is that there is a lot of money being shelled out up front which is hard for the mind of a couponer to cope with, lol. It’s worth it to figure it out though. The forum for S&S at weusecoupons.com is one of the best resources for keeping on top of the gas points. They do a bang up job!!
I like the Wisk deal at CVS this week. $4.99 each and I have 3 $2 coupons and a $1 coupon. After the $5 Saving Star rebate, I pay $1.99 each. What’s even better? I have a ton of extra bucks to use up.
I like the Wisk deal too. I’m partial to Tide, but for that price I’ll add Wisk to my stockpile! Isn’t it great when you have a surplus of Extra Care Bucks? I sure miss that. I’m thinking that it’s time for me to at least add CVS back to my shopping routine. Baby steps.
Thanks for suggesting the S&S forum on weusecoupons, you’ve inspired me to try to figure it out. The other day I got 800 points!
Jen from Quincy
The magic CVS machine has been spitting out a lot of good coupons lately. I got about $45 worth of beauty products for around $10 in the past couple of weeks using their coupons and mfg. coupons. I now scan my card every day and as many times as I can until it says there are no coupons available.
The best part? I scanned it on Friday and got $5 in extra bucks for spending $50 on beauty products.
You need to get back there, Melanie. There have even been some coupons for free items lately.
can you possibly give a break down of what u bought to get that many gas points? You did great !!
Wow! Great gas points Melanie! I chuckled out loud (CoL?) when I read your clarification of the exact baby’s bum smell you were describing. I also liked your strategic product placement to hide your apparent extreme couponer candy purchase. Too funny! Enjoy the cheap gas and free movie tickets! Well done!
Hi Melanie!
My cart looked very similar to yours today! I’m up 2400 gas points and still have more to do! Loving the spinach positioning – I may have to do that. I decided to do the scanner thingy and hide them in a brown paper bag pronto! ha! Cheap candy table – loving it! So nice of them to have this promo right before the little guy’s party! Thank you Stop and Shop!! Judy
Ooh loving that candy deal! Thanks for the head’s up, I will definitely be making the rounds at S&S this week!
I wish I would have done the salad cover up idea! I had a cart full of the candy bars and edys ice cream deal and ran into a fellow mom from the kids school!