New Personal Shopping Record!

Yesterday I set a new personal "super shop" record. I bought $199.51 in nonfood necessities for $7.73! I have had a lot of people asking how I did it, so I plan to cover some of the details of my strategy in this blog. Unfortunately, because of the number of items purchased, I will not be able to share all of the details for every item - to do so would result in a blog resembling a short chapter in a novel.

Rite Aid was the first stop on my shopping expedition. From reviewing the Rite Aid sales flier, and preparing my coupons in advance, I knew that I would be purchasing Colgate toothpaste, NoDoz, Nivea Lip Care, Sally Hanson fingernail polish, Venus Embrace razor, and Finesse shampoo and conditioner.

Colgate toothpaste was on sale for $2.59 with a $1.84 rebate from Rite Aid. I had a $1.00 coupon (that I got through a free sample offer), making my net cost -.25¢. (That's right, they paid me .25¢ to take home the toothpaste!) NoDoz was on sale for $5.99 with a $5.00 Rite Aid rebate; combined with my $1.50 coupon, my net cost was -.51¢.

The Nivea Lip Care sale price was $2.99 with a $2.00 rebate, the Sally Hansen polish was $1.99 with a $1.00 rebate. I had a $1.00 off coupon for each of these items. The Venus Embrace razor was on sale for $7.99 with a $5.00 rebate and I had a $3.00 coupon. Combining the sales price with the Rite Aid rebates and my coupons make my net cost -.01¢ each of these items. In other words, Rite Aid paid me 3¢ to legally walk out of their store with some great cosmetics and an awesome razor. (This is better than shoplifting, Mark! LOL)

The last two items on my list where the Finesse products, which by the way, I did actually pay money for....

The Finesse was on sale for 2/$6.00 with a $4.00 rebate on 2. This brought the net price down to 2/$2.00. I had two .75¢ coupons that I applied to the purchase bringing my net price to .25¢ each.

The net total spent on my Rite Aid shopping trip was -.29¢! (Hmmm, maybe that should read "The net total earned on my Rite Aid shopping trip was .29¢!") I left with $38.23 in merchandise, based on regular store prices.

Please keep in mind that this technique only works if you actually apply for the rebates! Rite Aid makes it very easy to do this. When you get home from your Rite Aid shopping trip, just go online to their website and fill in the appropriate receipt information. On the last day of the rebate period, if you have not already submitted all of your information for your rebate, the website will automatically do it for you. This way you never miss out on getting your money back for the qualifying purchases.

The other place that I shopped yesterday was CVS. CVS does their "rebates" in a different manner - they issue CVS "Extra Care Bucks" at the register when you purchase an item. Some people don't like this, but I love it! As far as I'm concerned it's just like getting cash back. (If you think of it in terms of a Walmart gift card you'll make the correlation, too.) The only catch is that you have to make sure that you use the "Extra Care Bucks" within the next month or they will expire.

The CVS trip made up the bulk of my shopping trip so you will understand if I don't cover everything that I bought. I will, however, cover the "Big Three"...

CVS had a sale on Febreeze products - Noticables starter kit, $6.50; fabric refreshner, $5.00; air effects, $3.00. They offered $5.00 in Extra Bucks with every $10 purchase of these products. I had 3 coupons for $4.00 off Noticables starter kit, 3 coupons for .75¢ off fabric refresher, and 3 coupons for "buy one fabric refresher get one air effects free". The math works out this way -
(6.50 x 3) + (5.00 x 3) + (3.00 x 3) = $43.50 - (5.00 x 4) - (4.00 x 3) - (.75 x 3) - (3.00 x 3) = .25¢. In summary, my net expenditure for 3 Febreeze Noticables starter kits, 3 Febreeze fabric refresher, and 3 Febreeze air effects was .25¢!

Pantene Expressions was on sale for $4.99 with $2.00 Extra Bucks reward. I bought 1 shampoo and 3 conditioners (the sale limit), and because I had a total of $2.00 off in coupons towards the purchase, the net cost was $6.97 . However, I also picked up 1 Pantene styling product, 1 Pantene conditioning masque, and a 4 pack of Duracell AA batteries for free by combining additional coupons with the Pantene purchases.

While I was there I also purchased 4 packages of the new Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets for -$5.01 through a really weird series of circumstances that included BOGO's, a rain check with sale prices and Extra Care Bucks, coupons, and a manufacturers rebate. I don't think I could pull that one off again if I tried... The only thing that I can really say is, ask and you may receive.

Now that I have you completely confused, everyone should run out and buy 2 copies of the Sunday paper so that they can start saving on things that they need every day!

Seriously though, while I don't save like this every week, I do spend very little money on toiletries, cleaning and laundry supplies, and personal care items. It didn't happen overnight - it took a couple of months of coupon clipping and saving to get to the point where I have the coupons in hand to combine with the sales. And, yes, most of my coupons do come from the regular Sunday newspaper.

The two most common arguments I hear against clipping coupons are (A) it takes time, and (B) you can only get coupons for "junk" food. I have to agree with both points.

I very seldom find coupons for the kinds of foods that I eat. However, when stores are paying me to take home a $3 tube of toothpaste, buying organic produce without a coupon isn't as hard on my budget.

As far as the time argument is concerned.... I estimated that it took me three hours of clipping, sorting, planning and shopping to save $191.78 yesterday. That's like getting $63.926 an hour NET pay. Frankly, I don't personally know too many people who are taking home $133,000 a year. I've done the math, and I've determined that it is well worth my time to coupon shop. If you decide that it's worth your time, and need some help getting started, give me a shout. I'm happy to help!