Getting Our House In Order

My name is Meg and I live in Buffalo NY with my husband Andrew and our cat Jake.
We are working on getting our house in order by saving money, getting organized, and simplifying things.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Walgreens Challenge! 2nd trip

I am working on my Walgreens Challenge.  I have a $100 gift card and I am challenging myself to see how long it will last, and how much merchandise I can get for it.
After week 2 here are my totals (combined)
Merchandise total $59.03
Dollars spent: $5.07
Remaining balance $94.93

It was pretty slim pickings for deals at Walgreens this week.  Remember, I only buy things I have a use for. I also don't buy anything I already have more than a 12 week supply on hand, unless it has a long shelf life and the deal is great.

Here is what I got:

 
2 Purex 3-1 complete laundry sheets on sale 2/$9 and get a $1.00 RR
I used the Buy One Get one Coupon from the paper last week (It expired today!)
1 box of raisins $1 (this was a filler)
Total before coupons and sales would have been $17.77 (includes tax)
I used a $5 Register Reward from last week in addition to the coupon.
I paid $1.29 on the gift card and received $1.00 in Register Rewards.

A few things about Walgreens for those who are not familiar with their register reward program...

Walgreens register rewards typically expire in 2 weeks.  You need to keep track of them so you don't let them expires without being used.  The main reason I did this deal at Walgreens today (I don't really need the purex sheets per my 12 week rule, but I really like them (no waste! I actually get 20 loads from the 20 load package becasue there is no overpouring!) and the BOGO coupon was expiring.  If you recall, I received $14 in register rewards from my deal last week.  They will expire on the 10th.  I didn't want to have to spend them all next week. If the deals are similiarly light next week, I'd have to spend them on "non-deal" things so as not to waste them. Not a great situation for the challenge, since I am trying to maximize my gift card!
The other difficulty with Walgreens is that they count register rewards as a manufactuers coupon, and you can't have more items than coupons.Also,you can't use them cover tax, or get change back. These are the reasons for "fillers".  I bought the raisins today (I got oatmeal for .50cents a few weeks back.  Can you say cookies??!!) so that my total would be high enough to use my $5 register reward.  It can be a bit of a pain sometimes, but if you plan ahead clearly the savings are worth it!

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