BOGO's and Coupons and +Up's OH MY!

My favorite type of couponing are the more subtle deals. The ones that require combing this sale and that coupon and getting that incentive or rebate. The type of bargain hunting the average person can't or won't do.

The weekly sale at Rite Aid starts on Friday in Southern California and often the big coupon matchup sites don't have their drugstore matches up until late Saturday but I wanted to shop today so I had to make my own deals. The early start usually gives me a chance to use coupons that expire before Sunday which is a nice perk

 This week select Gillette and Old Spice Bodywashes, sprays and deodorants are on sale BOGO50% which for those of you not familiar with the slang means Buy One at full price Get One 50% off. There is also another promotion which is spend $50 on select P&G products get $15 +UP's back. I had some $2/1 Gillette Bodywash, $2/1 Gillette Deodorant, $2/1 Old Spice Body Spray and $1/1 Any Old Spice Product coupons that expire 10/31. So I wanted to put them to good use.

Now Rite Aid has a coupon policy that only lets you use 4 like coupons per transaction and the register will actually beep at the cashier when they try to scan more than 4 so you can't be sneaky and try and sneak an extra coupon or two through. Now my cashiers at my local Rite Aid know this and will ask you if you want to do multiple transactions which is why I like that location. I don't actually ever DO multiple transactions but it' nice to have the option. I had preplanned my trip to only use 4 of each coupon as the P&G coupons have wording on them that limits them to 4 like coupons per shopping trip and I like to honor that where possible.

I bought 4 Gillette Body Washes, 4 Gillette Deodorants, 4 Old Spice Body Sprays and 2 Old Spice Body Washes. I had $2/1 coupons for everything except the Old Spice Body Wash which I used the $1/1 ANY Old Spice product coupons on. All of them were $4.99 regular retail which makes the math really easy. The regular retail price was $69.86. With the BOGO50% the precoupon/tax total was $52.36 which was enough to trigger the spend $50 get $15 deal. After coupons the total was $26.36. I used a $15 +UP from last week. Paid $11.36 + tax in cash and got a $15 +UP to replace the one I spent.

An 84% savings over regular retail price. Now of course the bargain doesn't stop there. Each bodywash came with a free mini deodorant. These travel sized deodorants normally sell for about $1 at Target so thats another $6 in retail value. If I had done separate transactions and not gotten the Old Spice Body Wash and gotten another 2 of the products I had $2/1 coupons for I would have gotten change from a $10 bill.

I'm happy with the deal I got though 20 items for $12 thats 60c each which is my buy price for premium body wash and deodorant. Besides I'm an Old Spice girl. Don Coupon will be smelling good for a good while to come.

Even Squirrels Love Coupons!

Filmed this little guy outside my apartment. I was being frugal and licking the last remains of the peanut butter from the jar. Then through the corner of my eye I see this squirrel barreling down the driveway making a beeline for my door. He stood outside sniffing. I put the jar outside to see what would happen.

The Skippy Peanut Butter was naturally purchased with a coupon I think I paid about 50c for the jar. Secret Squirrel appreciated and approved of my purchase! Maybe he'd like to try the Planters next time.

Tell me a story...

I'm a sucker for a good story. A color story that is.

To quote Mary Lisa Gavenas 

"A story. That's what women get when they come to the beauty counter. A parable that takes strange, scary styles and explains them as something any women can own and wear. A diversion, an amusement, a distraction from woes and worries. A fantasy, a fable, a romance with a role for them to play"

With couponing to get the best deals on makeup you have to buy multiples of single items. Blushes or lipsticks or eye shadows. To get the whole story, the whole package will cost you a whole lot more. But let's face it we crave the story. We can't look like the model and live the fantasy like but you can wear the lipstick.

I wanted to see if I COULD buy the whole story and see how much I would save. I KNEW I wouldn't get it down to free but I could keep the OOP down and with using drugstore rewards maybe not pay any cash out of pocket.

Color stories are usually consisted of a few lipsticks a light one, a dark one and a crazy one and warm and cool eye shadows and sometimes matching blushes and eyeliners/mascaras. I'm normally inspired by the eye shadows and that's usually what I buy assuming I can match it up with a lipstick when I get home. I used to end up with eye shadows and no lipstick and no blush or only lip glosses.

 I was originally inspired by the L'Oreal Project Runway Fanciful Fowls collection and in particular the Watchful Owl color way. Color stories don't tend to stay on the store floor very long. Stock is limited so despite this collection being heavily advertised in all the Rite-Aid flyer's this month it was no where to be found in store.

I had seen it in store at CVS but Rite Aid had the far better deal this week with all L'Oreal being Buy One Get One 50% off PLUS $15 +UP rewards when you spend $50 before coupons. I DID end up buying two color collections. The "Color of Hope" collection. This collection is produced every year in support of ovarian cancer and L'Oreal donates $1 for each item purchased from the collection. The collection itself consisted only of eyeshadow palettes and lipsticks. I got the warm palette "Nostalgic Beauty" and the cool palette "Sentimental Splendor" and two lipsticks "Faithful" and Courageous" I chose what I thought were complementary blushes and a grey and brown eyeliners which I think are more wearable than black.

For coupons I had several $1/1 any L'Oreal Cosmetic, $1/1 any L'Oreal Eyeshadow and $2/1 any Blush. I also had a Rite Aid Video Values Coupon for $2/1  Color Riche Lipstick. With all the coupons and +UP I had from last weeks deals I paid $22.83 with taxes and got $15 +UP back. Not bad for 2 "stories"

Just dab a quarter sized amount on.

A quarter sized checkout that is as in 25c.

I really like taking good care of my skin and Sephora has traditionally been my first stop for my skin care needs but when you think about it Sephora's whole concept is to have a drug store like feel where you can browse or shop without the sales people getting in the way. Or it used to be. I remember the first Sephora's so nice and clean, it was fun to sample and play but now they have too many makeup artists annoying you and the displays are alway s empty and grotty dirty that it doesn't really make me want to buy. That and my coach wallet has a hole in it.

So as part of my savings adventure it makes sense to see how far my skin dollars can go. I have been buying my Retin-A from Mexico for years so I'm not stranger to skin care adventure.

Everything you see was purchased for 23c + tax cash OOP. I DID use some ECB/+UP/ so if you were to recreate these hauls without any ECB or +UP's banked up You might pay $15 for over $100 worth of skin care products. In addition to only paying 25c out of pocket I received back $10+UP from Rite Aid $10 ECB from CVS and $10 CVS Beauty Bucks.

The first transaction at CVS I did I picked up the Lumene Anti-Puffiness Roll-on Eye Serum. It was on clearance for $2.10 and I used a $4 off Lumene coupon. The coupon should have been adjusted down but was not and the overage applied to the rest of my transaction.

The second transaction at CVS was the Lumene deal. Spend $20 get $5ECB I bought the Lumene Radiant Touch Toner and the Arctic Touch Deep Cleaning Peat Mask. Both were $11.79 each and I used a $4/1 coupon on each.

The third transaction was at Rite Aid. The sale was buy one get one 50% and then also buy $30 get $10+UP. Then you could submit for the $10 Olay rebate  as well. I used the $3/1 any Regenerist Moisturizer or Cleanser coupons. This was the transaction that was 23c OOP. The other two came out a zero balance.

 If you just wanted to buy moisturizer you could use the $10/2 coupon thats for the more expensive moisturizer only. It would be $35 for 2 of the moisturizers -$10/2  plus submit for the rebate and get the $10 +UPs so $5 for 2 expensive moisturizers.

For a money maker you could buy 6 of the $7.99 cleansers and use 6 of the $3/1 coupons and receive the +UPs and the rebate for a $3MM. You'd have to do two transaction because of the P&G limit and Rite Aid's own limit 4 of each kind of coupon.

My last transaction was a MM transaction and a zero balance before taxes even without ECB. I have two CVS cards so I was able to get the Lumene deal twice. These little pots were $3.99 each and I had a $4/1 coupons. Now the coupon DID say they were not to be used on trial products but I researched and it seemed this company makes an even smaller pot that is the trial size and that others had not had any problems using thing coupon on this item. So due diligence done and my CVS had no problem with them and if they had I wouldn't have fought them on it.

So my total was -.05 before taxes plus I received $5 ECB making it a $5MM. It also triggered me over for another $5 Beauty ECB.

Not bad for a budding frugalista.

The Green Bag Tag

In my haste I forgot to mention the third reason I love CVS: The Green Bag Tag.

The way it works is pretty simple. You buy one for  $1. They are available at the checkout counter where the CVS giftcards are usually kept. The cashier will scan it every time you make a purchase and decline a plastic bag. You can either use your own bag : reusable, recycled plastic, paper etc type doesn't matter OR just hand carry your items out. For ever 4 scans you will receive $1 ECB so 25c a transaction.

Fine print: You can only get the credit once per card per day. Picking up prescriptions count which is good since they come in their own bag. If you a shopping with a friend you can both use the same green bag tag as they are not tied to a particular card.

I keep mine on my keychain so I never forget it.

Big Box Mart

'Cause now my house is full of crap and it used to be empty!

I still giggle at this video. It's an oldie but a goodie from '05 but it rings true now more than ever.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Except you probably don't still have a house or credit cards but Walmart is still there for you *wink wink*

Oh CVS how I love thee

I heart Huckabees  CVS

Unlike Walmart which I do NOT heart CVS is really the apple of my couponing eye. It's easy and friendly to coupon at and the staff is friendly and the store is well stocked and red very very very red.

There are three things that makes CVS my first choice in stores to coupon at and the one I recommend that people learn to coupon at first. The Extra Care Rewards Bucks, the Green Bag Tag and the "Magic Coupon Machine."

Extra Care Bucks are store credit that you can earn on certain deals to make the actual cost of the item lower or even free. ECB's as the are commonly called can be used on basically anything thing in the store except booze, pills and ciggies. The are tied into your CVS Extra Care card so your going to need one in order to earn and spend them.

If you've never shopped at CVS before the FIRST you need to get is a CVS Extra Care rewards card. You can pick them up in person from the store or they will actually mail them to you if you register online ( you can print out a temporary card )

Now you can just march yourself into the store and just start saving OR you can take your card and log onto CVS.com and register your card and sign up for Email Savings and CVS will send you a $4 off your $20 purchase. Also go to the "Moneytrashers Pledge' site to earn $2 free ECB to spend on your next purchase.

Ok so now your in the store the first thing you want to do is scan you CVS at the big red kiosk aka the MAGIC COUPON MACHINE. It looks like a price scanner which is what it doubles as. You scan your card or key fob and coupons will print out the side. Don't just scan it once, scan it until it tells you no more coupons. Sometimes the coupons are coupons you can "stack" or use at the same time as another manufacturers coupon or a coupon for x amount off your next purchase. But the BEST coupons are for free times. The free coupons that have printed out in the last few weeks: ALL kinds of candy, band aids, body wash, Advil and cookies.

Ok you've scanned your card and got your coupons and maybe scored a CVS coupon for something free. Whats next? Well your next move will depend on whats on sale that week. Something I recommend planning ahead but your awesome and you can do ok doing it on the fly. Some deals you don't even NEED coupons for.

Here's the deal I did this week:

1 Box of pur-Absorb Iron Supplement $21.99 On Sale for $15.99 Receive $15.99 ECB
4 Bags of M&M's 12oz 2/$5 Buy $10 get $3 ECB

So before coupons the math was something like this

$15.99 + 4($2.50) = $25.99

Now I had a $5 off $25 coupon that I used. You could use your $4/20 that you have in your hot little hand. Remember if you have any coupons that are based on purchase size like $4/20 you want to hand them over first before any other coupons

So that makes my total: $25.99 - $5 = $20.99

Then I handed over my CVS coupons I had 2 0.50c off one bag of M&M's 12oz coupons that I had collected from the magic coupon machine.

$20.99 - 2($0.50) = $19.99

Then finally I handed over 2 coupons I had printed off the internet for $1.50 off 2 bags off M&M's. You can find it here M&M's coupon

$19.99 - 2($1.50) = $16.99

Ok so at this point we are done with all our coupons. Now I had ECB form previous transactions so I used those to "pay" with and only paid for tax in cash. If you didn't have ECB's to spend you'd just pay the old fashioned way. You always have to pay for tax sadly though.

So you give the nice cashier $16.99 + tax and she gives you a receipt and at the bottom you'll see two vouchers. One for $15.99 for the Iron Supplement and the $3 for the M&M's so if you quickly do the math you'll realize you got $18.99 in ECB but only paid $16.99.

They PAID you to shop.

This is a very simple and common transaction at CVS. There is almost always something that is free after ECB or ECB and coupons.

The "RITE" way to save

At the beginning of my savings adventure I gave Rite Aid a whirl but didn't really find any deep savings or anything that wowed me like CVS did. I plan to write a post soon about just how much I love CVS but Rite Aid or "Righty's as my sister visiting from New Zealand called it has been slowly winning my heart. First with some free body wash and toothbrushes and then BAM! with this weeks monster haul.

First of all let me say YES I do have two Rite Aid Wellness Cards because I have two addresses. I have 2 CVS cards too and I think it's more than fair. If you have a compelling reason why I shouldn't feel free to let me know.

So here's what I got.

4 Rite Aid Hand Sanitizer $1 - $1UP+ = FREE

( I had one from last sale this comes up for sale a lot) Your allowed to get 4 per card so I could get 4 more if I felt like it. I'm a nurse who goes out in the field so having bottles of hand sanitizer that I can leave everywhere and not worry about the cost is a bonus.

2 Cepacol Sore Throat Drops $2.50 - $250 UP+ = FREE (
2 Burt Bees Natural Throat Drops $1.49 - $1.49 UP+ = FREE 
8 John Frieda Shampoo and Conditioners $5 each - $2 coupon - $5UP+ WYB 2 = 50c bottle  
6 Colgate Optic White Toothpaste 4.0oz 2/$7.98 - 2 $1/1 coupons - $6UP+ WYB 2 = FREE
2 Colgate Optic White Toothbrushes 2/$7.98 - 2 40c/1 coupons - $6UP+ WYB 2 = 60c each
1 Preparation H Totables Wipes 10ct $3 - $3UP+ =FREE
2 Comtrex Cold and Flu $3.99-$3 UP+ = 99c
2 Blistex Lip Ointment $1.49 - $1.49 UP+ = FREE
1 Bayer Asprin $2.99 - $1/1 coupon - $2UP+ = 0.01 MM
2 Neilmed Nasal Mist $5 - $5UP+
1 Choraseptic Throat Drops $3.99 -$1/1 coupon - $3 UP+  = 0.01 MM


Overall I spent just a little over $4 OOP. I did multiple little trips to reduce my OOP and partially because I only realized certain things were on sale until later. So far as limit goes most of the freebies except for the hand sanitizer were limit 1 per card. The Optic White was a limit of 4 UP+ rewards per card so you can get a combo of 8 toothpastes or brushes. The John Frieda is a limit of 2 UP+ Rewards so you can get 4 bottles but this is a monthly deal so if you did it last week you can't do it this week.


I WILL use everything I bought. I DID pass on some deals this week


WYB = When You Buy
OOP = Out of Pocket
MM = Money Maker
UP+ = A form of store credit Rite Aid gives you as an incentive to purchase.

Friends dont let friends pay retail

Today I had a chance to show my strut my savings off to a friend of mine. We went to Rite Aid where the sale in Southern California breaks on Friday to grab some of the special fall flu savings they have this week.

I kept my list short and sweet and only had coupons for the toothpaste *shock* because everything else was free after UP+ rewards.

I got 4 tubes of the Colgate Optic White toothpaste I've been trying to find since I seemed to be striking out on each and every toothpaste bargain I found. I also got the Blistex Lip Balm, some Cepacol drops, 2 bottles of hand sanitizer and some Preparation H tote able wipes because my ass is precious.

It came to $10.63 including tax after I used my 4 $1/1 coupons for the toothpaste and my $12.50 UP rewards from the Covergirl and Scope deal from last week. I got $20.99 in UP+ back though the cashier miscounted and told me I got $18 :).

So the final cost when calculating UPs received and UPs used was -4c plus tax.

For those new to couponing you always have to pay tax on the precoupon total. Sad but true. Some times all you have to pay is tax. So my full after tax costs was $2.14 for 8 items.

To my fabulous friend who may be reading this a good couponers price for the M&Ms 1.5oz bags is about 9c each.

Smashbox HALO Hydrating Perfecting Powder Alternative?

Ok since my post yesterday I have decided to make it my mission to find a cheaper alternative to my favorite powder foundation from Smashbox. I love Smashbox products. I love the colors I love the packaging and I love the brushes. The prices not so much.

What I use now is Smashox's HALO Hydrating Perfecting Powder. Wow what at mouthful. According to Sephora it's made from "an advanced formulation of pure gold, 48 minerals, 11 amino acids and a powerful peptide."

Seriously people gold? That put gold in that stuff? Does this even serve a purpose other than make it super expensive. It's $60 a pop btw. I really don't need all the amino acids I don't think. What I LOVE about this powder is a) its a pressed powder with a twisty shaver that turns it into loose powder. So thats just the packaging really and not a quality of the actual formulation. And b) I love that I can dust just a little on and look flawlessly airbrushed.

So do you think there's a cheaper alternative out there or should I just stick to a good (expensive) thing?

Oh Make Me Over!

Well thanks to that lovely $8/2 any Covergirl FACE product coupon from the October P&G insert. I think I own nearly every shade and type of blush that Covergirl makes. Add that to the haul of free Revlon lipsticks I got a few weeks and my already extensive eyeshadow addiction err collection I'm probably set for awhile.

However what to do when my favorite powder foundation runs out. I currently use Smashbox their HiDef loose powder and this stuff is AMAZING. It's lasted forever so far but its $60!. I can't believe I paid that much and that was 2 years ago ( when I was a student and didn't have a job.) Sad thing I'll probably fork over that much again unless I can find a good (free after coupons?) alternative

PSA: Nivea lip balms are $1 at VONS this week. Combined with the coupons from last sundays $1/1 equals free lip balm and this stuff is high end lip balm my personal favorite. There is also a $3/2 coupon out but seeing how VONS doesn't give overage thats an overkill

It has been suggested that you could price match it at Walmart then use the $3/2 coupon and net some overage but I have had issues with Walmart and shall have to be satisfied with merely free.

Oh what a night!

Well the month started with a real couponing bang. 7 coupon inserts in the paper this weekend. That's a lot of clipping. If you could get your hands onto any papers that is. I usually pick up a Weekend Edition of the L.A. Times which is the Sunday paper on Saturday. Sold out everywhere. When my husband tried to buy a Sunday paper after his Sunday run he was told by the 7/11 clerk that he was 5 hours to late.

Apparently an overzealous Extreme Couponing inspired lady got there at 4am and bought 50 papers. How do I know this is a newbie? No experienced couponer would buy that many papers at retail price $2 bucks a pop. They would either negotiate a bulk rate, have them delivered or just order the inserts for waaay less.

All over the couponing boards I have heard stories of stolen coupons, stolen papers and sold out newsstands. Now while I was inspired to resume couponing by the TLC show I did start my journey before I had even seen an episode. I think if I had I would have turned out and dropped out. I'm just not that crayzee.

Judging from the manila folder I found tucked into my glove box I think I resumed clipping about January but stopped and then made a concentrated effort around the middle of July. Things started to click in mid August, started to get serious in September. Now it's October and I'm on fire thanks to some HOT coupons from this weekend.

Oh and to newbie keep your eyes off my newspapers.....