4/21/2011

It's a great week for deals around town, in preparation for Easter!


At CVS this week, I picked up everything shown in this picture for around $1 and these purchases generated $5 in Extra Care Bucks (like a CVS gift card to use on future purchases). That included: 2 gallons of skim milk, 3 cans of black olives (our family LOVES black olives, though they are only for an occasional treat), 1 bag of green Easter grass and 1 Paas egg-coloring kit.

At WalMart this week, I found dozens of deals and picked up multiple free items.


In this picture is everything that I picked up for free or better-than-free (meaning that I used a coupon that was for more than the purchase price but they took off the full amount of the coupon). Free Nivea body wash for men, free Nivea body was for women, 4 free Reach dental floss, 2 free Reach flossers, 1 free Degree trial-sized deoderent, 2 free packs of gum, 1 free pack of M&Ms, 1 free tube of Poligrip (not for our household use!), 1 free Purex 3-in-1 laundry package, 1 free coffee creamer and 5 free Similac ready-to-feed formula containers (will be donated to homeless shelter). All of it was completely free. Much of it was better than free. The Similac formula, for example, cost $3.84. I had a coupon for $5 off any Similac product. WalMart puts those coupons through for $5, so it's a bit like WalMart is paying me $1.16 to take that item out of their store! Amazing, I know! And totally legit! That $1.16 is called overage and you can use it to help you buy other items that do cost money. I used the overage to help me buy some fresh fruits and veggies and a few other grocery items that I didn't have coupons for.

All of the items in this picture were also from WalMart and cost less than $1 each after coupons. Colgate toothpaste, Taco Bell taco sauce, French's dijon mustard, McCormick black pepper, Ken's ranch dressing, Dole pineapple, 3 bags of Steamfresh veggies, 2 bags of shredded cheese, 2 bags of Kraft homestyle mac and cheese, 1 Viola skillet entree. Each item was anywhere from 18 cents to $1 after coupons - a great price for any of these brand-name products!

I love to watch my subtotal come down and down and down as the coupons are swiped. My total at WalMart went from $103 down to $40.20 (that included items not in these photos). It takes some advance planning to get such a deal, but it definitely pays off in the end!

Those are the best deals I found this week. My secret is to let others do most of the work for me. I check Money Saving Mom and a few other similar sites that list the store deals and match up the coupons for me. All I do is find those coupons (whether online or from the Sunday newspaper inserts) and take them to the store to make the purchases.

Another tip is that WalMart will price match any other current store ad. I knew that Walgreens had eggs on sale this week for $1.29 a dozen. WalMart's price was higher, so I asked them to price match and they did. I also knew that grapes were on sale at my local Kroger for 99 cents a pound, at least 50 cents less per pound that WalMart's price. So I asked them to price match Kroger and they did. That saved me a few dollars as well... just by knowing the deals at other stores and asking them to price match. And it saved me a trip to Walgreens for eggs and Kroger for grapes - got it all in one place at the lowest price.

Found any deals lately? I'd love to hear about them!