Jingle--All the Way!

Walgreen's' is having their Jingle Cash promotion again this year. That's were you can earn additional savings qualified by the dollar amount of your purchases to be used the following week at the store.

Get $ 5 Jingle Cash when you buy $30

Get $ 10 Jingle Cash when you buy $50

Get $ 15 Jingle Cash when you buy $75

Get $ 20 Jingle Cash when you buy $100

There are a few rules about how to earn the bonus "cash". Jingle Cash is earned on the amount spent after all applicable discounts (i.e., employee discount, AARP, in-ad coupons) have been deducted. Jingle Cash is earned on the amount spent before any manufacturer coupons or register rewards are deducted
Jingle Cash is earned on the amount spent before any taxes are added.
Save the Jingle Cash and use it on qualifying purchases of $30 or more the following week:

Jingle Cash earned 12/4-12/10 Can be redeemed 12/11-12/17
Jingle Cash earned 12/11-12/17 Can be redeemed 12/18-12/21

Jingle Cash can only be redeemed on a purchase of $30 +Only one Jingle Cash coupon may be redeemed per transaction. [If you have more than one Jingle Cash, make sure that you divide your transactions up into the number of Jingles that you have. Save, Save, Save!] Qualifying Purchases exclude Gift cards, Phone cards, Prepaid cards, Prescriptions, Dairy, Items prohibited by law, Tobacco, Alcoholic beverages, Sales tax, Lottery tickets, Money orders / transfers, Transportation passes, Postage stamps, Prescription savings club membership, Healthcare services, Charitable contributions.

If you need more information on what this program is or what qualifying purchases means...go to http://www.walgreens.com/.

Deals of the Day...

Deals tend to run in highs and lows. Some weeks are like bumper crops of retail greatness and other weeks are just plain drought-worthy. But I'm a firm believer in plugging along. But it does seem somewhat out of my routine not to be heading to my favorite drug store every morning this week--while just last week, I became personally acquainted with at least 20 "beauty advisers" in my extreme shopping escapades in the greater Spokane area. I'm taking a well-deserved break from the big W--until, maybe, tomorrow...

Case in point--you know it's a "great deal" when the man of the house isn't complaining about how long I'm gone or that it's the sixth store in one day or that I've been to Walgreen's six days in a row. Last week I stocked up on costly razors for pennies on the dollar, loads of toothpaste and toothbrushes, granola bars, Kettle chips (yum!), OxyClean tablets, maxi pads, and Carmex body lotions...just to name a few. After using the 12 cent Halloween cups as my "filler item" on every transactions--let's just say, I have enough cups for half of the kids that go to our local elementary. (CrAzY!! I know...but it was the cheapest item in the store last week to use for the blessed little transactions that needed just one more item to let me use all of the coupons in conjunction with the register rewards as well). After accumulating the stockpiles I planned for, and then some--I still had over $60 in Register Rewards that don't expire till 10/15.

Most weeks work great when you can just roll the previous register rewards onto the next week's deals. But this week is kind of dry. I usually like to place my register rewards on items so that it will also generate a new reward and still be able to use a manufacturer's coupon. There aren't a lot of those kind of deals going on at the big W this week...so I'm going to hold back a few to use on the next week's ad. That's the beauty of the register reward--while they have a shelf-life--it's usually a couple of weeks that you can cross them over onto new and different ads.
I did stock up on Act II popcorn tonight while I was waiting for one of my kidlets' dance lessons to get over. The individual packages are on an in-store coupon for 4 for $1. I purchased 36--using $8-worth of register rewards--and only had to chip in $1 for the difference!! Since there is no sales' tax on food items in our state--it was a clean transaction with only one greenback being handed over. That was worth it too! Most boxes of popcorn go for $2-3 a box, with only 3-4 bags per box. Register rewards paid the bulk of the price and left me paying around 2.5 cents per package. For that price...let them eat popcorn--instead of cake, right?

It's only the beginning of October, but now is the time to start watching for deals on Halloween candy. Walgreen's has their Mars candy bags on sale 2/$5 with a $1 off coupon in their monthly coupon booklet. Most of the coupons from that book expire on 10/22--so consumer, beware, lest you miss the chance to buy the candy on sale with multiple coupons allowed! If you can get your hands on some of the manufacturer's coupons that are in circulation, you are allowed to use a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon--and combining those towards the sale price, you can get the bags as low as $1 each! That's tremendous, especially if you get as many trick-or-treaters as we do!!

One other great deal I noticed that doesn't have a register reward--but may just be too good to pass up--is the deal on Cover Girl Cosmetics at the big W. They are on sale for Buy 1, Get one 50% off. Not too shabby, as sales go. But there was the most amazing coupon in the Sunday paper that will have this one flying off the shelves. The coupon was Save $8/2 on Cover Girl face products. Uh. Yep. That's noteworthy because a pressed powder is around $5.99. The second one would be $3...add the coupon and you are paying 50 cents a piece (plus sales' tax). I love that kind of deal ;) I just may have to use a couple of my register rewards to make up the difference and call this one the "extreme deal of the day"!!

Remember to look at everything as a potential deal to be made. Just because it's not set up the way you thought would be best or most savings--maybe a strategically placed coupon will make it a better deal in the long run. You never know what's out there. The best shopping is done on-line (comparing ads with available coupons) or with the newspaper before you even get to the store. Have fun--and happy shopping!

Walgreens......I HEART Them!!

With the exception of Sunday, I've been in a Walgreens' store everyday for the last 8 days! Human behavior masters say that it takes 30 days of repetitious behavior to form a habit. I don't know about that! I think habits can be developed in fewer repetitions then 30! Try...6 or 7 times, for me.

In the past, I've been pretty dedicated to Rite Aid with their Up Reward program. I love rolling the savings into the next week and seeing how much money I can save by layering the coupons on top of my Up Rewards as well. I've come home with some mega deals. For example, Stayfree Maxi pads were last week's hottest commodity . I got six 48ct packages for less than $1.50 for all of them. Yep! That's 288 pads for less than 1/2 a cent. Ok. They'll keep, for all of you wondering--or they will go to the local women's shelter for a FULL PRICE tax deduction. Ahh..........I LOVE the law of reciprocity! It pays to be generous. Anywhoo--I digress.

So I've been fairly monogamous with Rite Aid because the Walgreen's advertising gimmickry made it seem some limited and harder to work a great deal. And I was running into so many things that I wanted at Rite Aid that have become limited to so many per household and store card. I mean--Really! How many Rite Aid cards can a girl have? I've limited myself to 4. Ok. Maybe 5. But I'm OUT of phone numbers I can use! I'm having a difficult time keeping track of which card was the one used with the "limited" items. So I started looking at the competition for an easier game. What I noticed in the Walgreen's ad was that there were no exclusive limits...but rather, a limit of "per transaction". That's a whole 'nother way of thinking--and shopping! I know I can do multiple transactions...I'm a patient woman when it comes to not paying full price--and if I layer the Register Rewards in my knowledgeable way--with a fantastic coupon...I can save a truckload of money and still go home with a truckload of goods.

So I gave it a whirl last week with some of the back to school items and toothpaste. [I'm in accumulation-mode for items that we need for building hygiene kits]. What started out as just a few items turned kind of crazy by Saturday. Revlon had their nail polish on sale for $3.99, producing a $3 Register Reward per transaction. I added the $2 store coupon and the $1 manufacturer's coupon...and I ended up getting more in Register Rewards then I paid for the lone bottle. My OCD kicked in, and I ended up with 30 bottles of nail polish and $90 in Register Rewards. [The endorphins are going cerebral and zingy just thinking about it :] So how could I not buy them. Many thanks to the patient checkers. I've yet to have a bad experience with a single employee! That's really something to be said, as well. (By the way, Ashley's getting a heck of a Spa birthday party...and her friends are getting 3-4 bottles of polish each...because I'm cool like that!)

So I started using the Register Rewards first thing Monday morning on the items that also generated more of them. I bought an ungodly amount of Keebler cookies (remember, Register Rewards+coupons=free and a new $5 Register Reward), some really expensive Colgate Sensitive Toothpaste for 50cents (normally $5.49), which also generated another $4 Register Reward, Dial Body Wash (no coupon) but generated $3 Register Reward, Keri Body Lotion for zilch (generated a $5 Register Reward), and so on. I know that every week is NOT like this one. But I bought over 20 tubes of deodorant, 30 tubes of toothpaste, 20 bottles of lotion, 30 packages of cookies, tons of toilet paper, countless oddball school supplies, scotch tape, plastic cutlery, dental floss, Dove soap, and more!

On this Saturday, I'm loading up on the Revlon sale--again. It's 40% off--with a $3 Register Reward for each $10 purchase. I'm going to use the $2 store coupon plus $1/1 manufacturer's coupons in conjunction with a previous Register Reward. I anticipate that each transaction of $10 will quickly come down to no more then $1-2 per transaction, tops...and I'll get a $3 Register Reward each time. Ten transactions should do me and get me off to a great start for the following week's ads. The Register Rewards that I have right now don't expire till September 6th. So I may hold on to a lot of them to use for the ad after next, instead of the upcoming one. And if all else fails to spark my interest to stock up on--I won't let them go to waste. It might be time to replenish the birthday wrap and cards or stock up on Halloween candy early. Ooh. No worries. I'll spend it and it will be for a some great cause or another ;)

Deals of the Week......

(This really should be a picture of Rite Aid and Walgreens =)

I have no more babies or shelving space lost to cases of diapers...but I still seem to have a homing device that senses a good deal for diapers. This week at Rite-Aid, there just might be one. Huggies jumbo packs are regularly $8.99. There is a UP reward (like the Catalina print-outs) for $2 a package. But it is also marked with the blue "Buy and Save" mark--which means it qualifies for the $20 Up reward when your totals of items with the blue "Buy and Save" marks reach $100. So, if you don't have a Rite-Aid savings card (free at any register)--it might be worth a trip to the local Rite-Aid this week. This cycle on the $100 worth of purchases end this Saturday, February 26th. Most likely, a new time period and selection of products will start on Sunday, February 27th. So there is still time to get that $20!


Going back to the Huggies deal at Rite Aid--the $6.99 price is before any manufacturer's coupons and discounts from any other Up reward incentives. If you are buying multiple packages of diapers to accrue the dollar amount towards that extra $20 in savings--it will actually total up fast with the diapers because of the higher dollar value. And another way to save even more is to not only use a coupon, but apply previous Up reward savings coupons.
Bonus with the Rite Aid plan--you can buy multiple packages of diapers in one transaction and the register totals them and prints off the Up rewards at the end of the receipt. Whereas, in the deal that I outline below, you would have to do one package at a time/per transaction, in order to generate the register reward. [I was a non-biased diaper user, especially when it came to which I could get the better deal on--but it seems to me that Huggies' may win this competition based on expediency and overall savings].


A similar deal is going on with Pampers at Walgreens this week. Pampers are $8.99 with a $2 Register Reward, making them $6.99. Apply coupons, use other rewards and come up with a much better deal. Not that Pampers aren't a great product--but there isn't the $20 advantage on the store level. If that's inconsequential to you and you are a loyal Pampers-user--this may be the better game plan for your ankle-biter. Suggestion: if you are doing other purchases at Walgreens that will generate register rewards, do them first and then apply them to your diapers for additional savings. You still get the $2 reward from the package you buy. With Walgreens, you have to be careful not to use a register reward that came from a Pampers product on the Pampers you are currently buying--a new register reward will not generate at the end of your transaction. But if you use register rewards that you got from cereal, hair products, etc...it will. So just be careful [methodical]--and all will be well.


I like to take the Up rewards or Register Rewards and pay for my purchases with them. They act like "cash" and pay for my new purchases, saving all but the out of pocket expense of sales' tax. For example, last week I purchased 30 bottles of Speed Stick deodorant, earning me $30 in Up rewards ($2 for every set of 2). I paid for all but $2.76 (tax) with Up rewards from Colgate toothpaste that I had purchased the week before--also free except for sales' tax. I just rolled the savings from one week onto another and still walked away with another $30 in Up rewards to use next week. Valuable savings tool: If you apply the Up rewards to items that also generate an Up reward, then apply a coupon, you are doubling your savings and still getting more Up rewards to use next week. [I'm so enthralled with Rite-Aid right now that it's getting kind of addictive. But at least it's an addiction that doesn't cost very much or make me fatter!]

Another fair deal at Rite-Aid to look for is the Dove shampoo and conditioners. They are normally priced between $4.49 and $4.99 a bottle. They are on sale 2/$6 with an Up reward of $2 for a purchase of 2, theoretically making the product $4/2, or $2 each. There are coupons for $1 off each bottle available in cyberland. If you use Up rewards earned from the purchase of another item, you can buy this product for free and still have Up rewards to use on something else. Similar deals can be had on Kotex, dental products, household cleaners, snacks, and personal use products--all the time.

A similar deal on Herbal Essenses/Aussie/Pantene/Head and Shoulders started today at Walgreens. Everyone has to see what the best combination of goods works for their budget and which coupons they can get. I find it hard to pay over a certain dollar amount for hair care products because of what I was able to purchase them for in the past.

Tip: if you can get a great deal...stock up on the product, enough to get you buy till it comes on sale again, especially if it's free or near free. But don't clear the shelves of a product if it's not something your family normally uses. Other shoppers and the stores can get a little miffed at the inconsideration of hoarders, especially on the first day of a sale. But if it's a product that is regularly in stock, see if the store will give you a rain check for the sales' price (post-rewards price), rather than waiting for the product to come in past the sales' date, eliminating the possibility of the Up reward or the Register Reward. Most stores want to keep customer loyalty and will give a rain check for the product at the lower price. That creates a window of opportunity of having a "sale" whenever you want it, within the time frame of the rain check. Good luck and happy savings to you.

Register Rewards

You know I'm talking about Walgreens when I say that I love Register Rewards.... And if you're frugally minded, you know that you'll have to pay special attention to the deals going on there because you can get your personal care or household stuff for free if you are patient and make a little effort from week to week.

Some of the deals that I noticed this week are truly tremendous. If you have rug rats in need of diapers...Proctor and Gamble (the manufacturer's of Pampers) is doing a Save $5 on $25 purchases. Diapers are $8.99 a package and the monster package of wipes is $6.99. You'd have to buy 2 diapers and 1 of the wipes to make the $25. So if I had a kid in diapers and saw this for the deal it could be, I'd do something like this: Buy 2 packages of diapers and the monster wipes; use 2 $2.00 off coupons (one for each of the diapers) and a $1 off for the wipes. Then--there are coupons for additional free wipes when you buy the packages of diapers. It's for a container of wipes that is 72ct or less for every package of diapers you purchase. So this transaction would be $20 before the register rewards for 2 packages of diapers, 1 large pack wipes, and 2 smaller containers of wipes. Then you get the $5 back at the conclusion of the transaction. So for $15...you get $30-35 worth of baby lovin'. *For all of the coupons needed, I went to http://www.ebay.com/ and put "coupons pampers" and "coupons pampers wipes" on the search bar. I always use "buy it now" also. I had to scroll down through all the sellers and eliminate all the "Target" coupons, but there are lots of manufacturer's coupons available for the goods. Almost wish I had a baby right now.

There are some other great deals right now as well that could really help that Pampers purchase out or take even more off your future "earnings"--hehehe. There's a great deal on Playtex tampons. They are $2/8 with a $3 register reward, making them $2/$5. But if you hurry and order the coupons that save $2.50/2 (they expire 8/8/10), you have a great deal. For the visually-challenged, like myself--free Complete multi-care contact solution is always a good thing; of Alive multi-vitamins, or Crayola crayons. If you were to buy the 3 high-dollar register rewards items in the first transaction, you could apply it to a second transaction of Pampers (if you are so inclined that way)--for tremendous savings, but you have to remember to use "filler" items because you are only allowed the number of coupons per items and no more. So be prepared with a handful of cheap gum to match with your transactions. Awesome Rewards=Awesome Deals. There are lots of other deals, but these had me lifting my eyebrows. For more match-ups, check out http://www.walgreens.com/ for your own viewing pleasure.

*Just remember that if you are only doing the pampers deals, the register will NOT generate a second $5 if you use the $5 register reward from the first transaction on the next pampers tranny. You have to "stagger" the transactions in order to keep the register rewards printing. So buy the contact solution in one transaction, then the pampers deal...alternating however many times you want to get the items you need. On the last transaction, you will go home with the last register reward $$ to start the savings for next week.

Walgreens is Supreme....

I've been couponing for years, but I've never really taken advantage of the drug store programs that are available until recently. Several of the stores have had image over hauls and introduced programs that often get overlooked unless you are serious about saving some cash. So I've had to take my own advice and research the store policies for Walgreens and Rite-Aid because they have some amazing sale pricing if used by a savvy shopper--like myself. Knowing store policy is everything when it comes to whether we pay for it or get it for free! I have a new favorite in my savings game--Walgreens. They have a "Register Rewards" program that is similar to the Catalina coupon program in grocery chains, but differs in a few ways with how to maximize your savings.

Each week there are items in the ad that state when they are purchased a register reward is generated. For example, Schick Proglide razors are normally $10.99+. They are on sale for $9.99 and the ads says that when you buy one, a $5 register reward will print at the conclusion of the transaction. Taking the savings into account, the product can be advertised at $4.99. This gets a little tricky because you don't pay $4.99 on the first transaction--you pay $9.99, minus whatever coupon you have for it. In this case, I had a $4 off coupon for it. So the sales price comes up at $9.99, then the manufacturer's coupon reduces $4 off, down to $5.99. I conclude the transaction and pay $5.99+tax. Then a $5 register reward prints out that I can use on anything in the next transactions. By placing that coupon with the product at check-out, and deducting the value of the register reward, the real cost of the razor becomes 99cents. That's a pretty good deal for a very expensive razor.

Where it differs from the Catalina program is if you use it on the same product that you just purchased--another razor, it will not generate another register reward. But if your buy something else that generates a reward as well, pay for it with the register reward from the last transaction (the razor in this situation)--a new reward is generated. It will probably take a few tries to get the hang of the program, but once you do--great savings will be rolling in your way, especially on items like shampoo, soap, razors, household cleaners, and body care products.

The registers at Walgreens view the register rewards as "coupons"--even though technically they are not and can be combined with manufacturer's coupons. But the since the register sees the register reward as "coupon" and you are not allowed to exceed the number of coupons to items purchased ratio, you must use a "filler" item to even out the number of items purchased to "coupons". This means--grab a 25 cent piece of candy or pack of gum to bring up your number of items purchased. It seems kind of silly to start throwing extras into your cost-saving transactions, but you have to play by the store's rules and you want to use the manufacturer's coupons AND the register reward/store savings program.

Week after week, there are different items that are featured in the drug store ads that are fabulous deals. Don't be greedy and ruin a good thing for everyone else by mass purchasing an item to the frustration of the store. Purchasing little bits at a time over a period of time will add up quickly and turn out to be quite a stash in your family's inventory. When you combine the freebies with coupons, the cost-savings is extended to everything that you buy and you still go home with register rewards to use on the next weeks' deals. It has been a lot of fun to add another dimension and variety to the home and storage inventory.