Since I've been doing quite a bit of baking, I was out again today to get eggs. I decided to go to Shoppers just because that's the closest grocery store and their prices on dairy/eggs in particular are generally lower than at Safeway or Giant.
Though I usually buy a dozen eggs, I bought 18 this time. Why?
Eggs are usually $1.69 for a dozen at Shoppers:
$1.69/12 = $.141 per egg x 18 = $2.54
The pack of 18 is $2.49 - not a significant savings (5 cents) but I have even more baking to do so I know I'll use them.
I also got my fiance more of the comic book jelly candies (on clearance for $.50 each = $1.00)
Total shopped trip was $3.55 including tax.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
Giant & CVS
Giant's sales this week are particularly good which is surprising as normally Safeway tends to out-sale them, but this week, there are a few things worth mentioning:
Anyway, on to the purchases:
CVS (Sunday):
$4.00 4 bottles Gatorade (on sale 4/$4)
$8.99 Schick Intuition
$3.79 gallon skim milk
- $2/1 Schick
- $1.69 Extrabucks
- $5.98 Extrabucks
- $5.99 Extrabucks
= $1.12 which I put on a gift card so $0.00 Oop
Received $5 EB back for the Schick deal.
Giant (today):
$1.85 8-pack Gatorade mini boxes (on sale 50% on mark-down carts)
$1.85 8-pack Gatorade mini boxes (")
$1.25 Giant brand rice krispies (")
$1.29 cupcake cups
$1.94 5.89 lbs bananas (in reduced bags)
$10.98 5 boxes of various coke products = $2.196 a box
$1.64 honey wheat bread
$1.59 wheat bread
$1.14 Aunt Jemima low fat waffles
$1.14 Aunt Jemima low fat waffles
$3.00 3 boxes mini pizza bagels
$.50 mints (50% off holiday)
$.74 holiday marshmallows
$.74 holiday marshmallows
$2.99 Selenium (recommend by my Dr. for my dermatitis)
$2.99 Selenium (" - these were 50% off so I stocked up)
- amount on giftcard
= $27.67 Oop
- Coke 12-packs are buy 2 get 3 free (yup, cheaper than 50% off) - limit 5 (1 transaction)
- Aunt Jemima frozen items are 50% off - the low-fat 16 ct waffles turn out to be $1.14 a box
- Giant brand mini pizza bagels are 50% off making them $1 for a box of 9
- Schmidt bread products are 50% off making wheat bread $1.59 a loaf and honey wheat $1.64 a loaf
Anyway, on to the purchases:
CVS (Sunday):
$4.00 4 bottles Gatorade (on sale 4/$4)
$8.99 Schick Intuition
$3.79 gallon skim milk
- $2/1 Schick
- $1.69 Extrabucks
- $5.98 Extrabucks
- $5.99 Extrabucks
= $1.12 which I put on a gift card so $0.00 Oop
Received $5 EB back for the Schick deal.
Giant (today):
$1.85 8-pack Gatorade mini boxes (on sale 50% on mark-down carts)
$1.85 8-pack Gatorade mini boxes (")
$1.25 Giant brand rice krispies (")
$1.29 cupcake cups
$1.94 5.89 lbs bananas (in reduced bags)
$10.98 5 boxes of various coke products = $2.196 a box
$1.64 honey wheat bread
$1.59 wheat bread
$1.14 Aunt Jemima low fat waffles
$1.14 Aunt Jemima low fat waffles
$3.00 3 boxes mini pizza bagels
$.50 mints (50% off holiday)
$.74 holiday marshmallows
$.74 holiday marshmallows
$2.99 Selenium (recommend by my Dr. for my dermatitis)
$2.99 Selenium (" - these were 50% off so I stocked up)
- amount on giftcard
= $27.67 Oop
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Budget Summary
I've been a bad blog mommy (?) and still haven't added up my purchases from last week and am nearly mid-week without any trip summaries either! I'm not going to be going through my several CVS purchases over the last few (aside from the one yesterday obviously) but I bought a great deal of loot and adding up my extrabucks this afternoon, I found I had over $60 of them (this is not including the $9.97 worth that I am due from my purchases yesterday) but is still pretty impressive! I'm relieved that I was able to roll over the ones from Black Friday fairly quickly and not have to worry about them expiring.
Anyway, the amount spent last week:
December 14th- 20th:
Sunday December 14th CVS: $3.00
Sunday December 14th Safeway: $13.38
Tuesday December 14th delivery pizza: $21.12
Wednesday December 15th CVS: $1.39
Wednesday December 15th Giant: $49.92
Wednesday December 15th Giant: $13.02
Saturday December 20th Shoppers: $15.92
Way over budget this week mostly due to the Giant trips for gift cards and the pizza - although we've been using the pizza for meals this week and still have leftovers in the freezer!
total: $117.75, ouch! $67.75 over!
However, thanks to Hannukah leftovers from my parents, stocking up on cereal and CVS paying for our milk, this week we've spent $2.26 so far, and thanks to the Christmas holiday and our annual Chinese dinner, I don't imagine we'll be spending much more either.
For all who celebrate any holiday, Happy Holidays!
Anyway, the amount spent last week:
December 14th- 20th:
Sunday December 14th CVS: $3.00
Sunday December 14th Safeway: $13.38
Tuesday December 14th delivery pizza: $21.12
Wednesday December 15th CVS: $1.39
Wednesday December 15th Giant: $49.92
Wednesday December 15th Giant: $13.02
Saturday December 20th Shoppers: $15.92
Way over budget this week mostly due to the Giant trips for gift cards and the pizza - although we've been using the pizza for meals this week and still have leftovers in the freezer!
total: $117.75, ouch! $67.75 over!
| DAYS | MONEY SPENT |
| SEP 28 - OCT 4 | $49.18 |
| OCT 5 - OCT 11 | $13.88 |
| OCT 12 - OCT 18 | $75.08 |
| OCT 19 - OCT 25 | $10.04 |
| OCT 26 - NOV 1 | $43.58 |
| NOV 2 - NOV 8 | $42.00 |
| NOV 9 - NOV 15 | $20.94 |
| NOV 16 - NOV 22 | $80.16 |
| NOV 23 - NOV 29 | $16.39 |
| NOV 30 - DEC 6 | $25.49 |
| DEC 7 - DEC 13 | $24.32 |
| $117.75 | |
| DEC 21 - DEC 27 | $2.26 |
| DEC 28 - JAN 3 | $? |
| JAN 4 - JAN 10 | $? |
| JAN 11 - JAN 17 | $? |
| JAN 18 - JAN 24 | $? |
| JAN 25 - JAN 31 | $? |
However, thanks to Hannukah leftovers from my parents, stocking up on cereal and CVS paying for our milk, this week we've spent $2.26 so far, and thanks to the Christmas holiday and our annual Chinese dinner, I don't imagine we'll be spending much more either.
For all who celebrate any holiday, Happy Holidays!
Monday, December 22, 2008
CVS - Utter Disaster
I have had several CVS trips between yesterday and today but have not had time to blog due to my crazy work schedule and holidays. I am working part-time at a makeup store in the area for the holiday season and have recently gotten some crazy hours that force me to get up at 5am. I am not exactly my best at 5am, and even less so if I would so happen to stop at a store after an 8 hour shift on my feet.
That being said, I absolutely love working at the store that I do because customer service is really our #1 focus and it's so fun working there - we can do so many things for customers that other retail stores would never do, so it's a complete 180 when I stop at say, CVS and run into one problem after another. At "makeup store" we go above and beyond. Our return policy is basically, if you ever dislike a product, you can return it no questions asked (though if you return without a receipt over $100 worth of products, it needs a manager's ok). We sample out products, we give things away.
So, today's CVS shopping trip was especially annoying (might I add, after being on my feet for 8 hours and having just come in from the freezing cold).
I get my items. I go to check out. Everything is fine, until the receipt prints out, or should I say, doesn't print out, unless you count a mangled white piece of paper printing out.
The cashier's printer basically destroyed my receipt, including the $10 or so Extrabucks along with it, and oh, all the products I bought, along with their prices (usually, I double check my receipt after purchasing to make sure they haven't charged me full price on marked down items... I'd say 1/2 times at least they have and it has to be checked and I get refunded the money on a gift card) so of course I wanted my receipt printed. The supervisor claimed that he could not reprint extrabucks (false) and that I needed to call the 1-800 number (no way was I waiting on hold for 10+ minutes for a store mix up). There was also no way for him to reprint the receipt, help me or do anything else. I was pissed. So I said that I wasn't calling the 1-800 number and that he should do it for me and I've been to several CVS locations that do know how to reprint extrabucks. He claimed I was lying. It took him 10 minutes to go to the office to call the 1-800 number - he came down to say that he was tired of waiting on hold (oh really? How funny! That's exactly why I wanted him to call!) and was going to give me the extrabucks in cash. Now this of course does not correct the receipt issue but I accepted the $10 and walked out of the store and my purchase summary below will confirm or deny whether or not I was overcharged. If so, I am calling the 1-800 number and going... umm [expletives] and demanding some amount of my money back.
Anyway, here's what I got, roughly - since I have no receipt!
$5.98 2 Listerines
$3.99 Excedrin
$4.50 gallon skim milk (I have no idea how much this cost but let's say $4.50 to be safe)
$2.99 Physician's Formula bronzer (clearance)
$1.75 Styli eyeliner (clearance)
$1.00 WetnWild cream eyeliner (clearance)
$1.00 WetnWild brow kit (clearance)
$1.99 Rimmel Foundation (clearance)
$1.99 Rimmel Foundation (clearance)
$.75 Essence of Beauty lipgloss (clearance)
$.75 Essence of Beauty lipgloss (clearance)
$7.99 Revlon lipgloss (supposed to be 50% off and buy 1 get 1 free)
$7.99 Revlon lipgloss (supposed to be 50% off and buy 1 get 1 free)
should have cost $3.995 for both
Plus some 75% off Altoids (I have no clue, let's assume $1)
- $1/1 Listerine
- $1/1 Listerine
- $2/1 Excedrin
- $2/1 Physicians Formula
- $2/1 Styli
- $1/1 Rimmel
- $1/1 Rimmel
- $2/1 Revlon
- $2/1 Revlon
- $2/1 Essence of Beauty (from CVS beauty book)
- $2/1 Essence of Beauty (from CVS beauty book)
= $14.685
I was told it was $22 before my Extrabucks (I only paid $.21)... looks like it was the Revlon. Looks like they overcharged me at least $7.99 - not insignificant. I'm going to call.
See? Wasn't that fun?!
*edit*
I just called the store and told the supervisor that I dealt with that he overcharged me for the items. He was pretty unapologetic (I was not surprised - he was nasty in the store) and told me to call the store manager tomorrow.
I basically ignored him and called CVS customer service, where I spoke to a lovely lady that apologized several times and is fixing my Extrabucks and told me to keep the $10 that the supervisor gave me in lieu of the extrabucks for the things that I overpaid for.
That being said, I absolutely love working at the store that I do because customer service is really our #1 focus and it's so fun working there - we can do so many things for customers that other retail stores would never do, so it's a complete 180 when I stop at say, CVS and run into one problem after another. At "makeup store" we go above and beyond. Our return policy is basically, if you ever dislike a product, you can return it no questions asked (though if you return without a receipt over $100 worth of products, it needs a manager's ok). We sample out products, we give things away.
So, today's CVS shopping trip was especially annoying (might I add, after being on my feet for 8 hours and having just come in from the freezing cold).
I get my items. I go to check out. Everything is fine, until the receipt prints out, or should I say, doesn't print out, unless you count a mangled white piece of paper printing out.
The cashier's printer basically destroyed my receipt, including the $10 or so Extrabucks along with it, and oh, all the products I bought, along with their prices (usually, I double check my receipt after purchasing to make sure they haven't charged me full price on marked down items... I'd say 1/2 times at least they have and it has to be checked and I get refunded the money on a gift card) so of course I wanted my receipt printed. The supervisor claimed that he could not reprint extrabucks (false) and that I needed to call the 1-800 number (no way was I waiting on hold for 10+ minutes for a store mix up). There was also no way for him to reprint the receipt, help me or do anything else. I was pissed. So I said that I wasn't calling the 1-800 number and that he should do it for me and I've been to several CVS locations that do know how to reprint extrabucks. He claimed I was lying. It took him 10 minutes to go to the office to call the 1-800 number - he came down to say that he was tired of waiting on hold (oh really? How funny! That's exactly why I wanted him to call!) and was going to give me the extrabucks in cash. Now this of course does not correct the receipt issue but I accepted the $10 and walked out of the store and my purchase summary below will confirm or deny whether or not I was overcharged. If so, I am calling the 1-800 number and going... umm [expletives] and demanding some amount of my money back.
Anyway, here's what I got, roughly - since I have no receipt!
$5.98 2 Listerines
$3.99 Excedrin
$4.50 gallon skim milk (I have no idea how much this cost but let's say $4.50 to be safe)
$2.99 Physician's Formula bronzer (clearance)
$1.75 Styli eyeliner (clearance)
$1.00 WetnWild cream eyeliner (clearance)
$1.00 WetnWild brow kit (clearance)
$1.99 Rimmel Foundation (clearance)
$1.99 Rimmel Foundation (clearance)
$.75 Essence of Beauty lipgloss (clearance)
$.75 Essence of Beauty lipgloss (clearance)
$7.99 Revlon lipgloss (supposed to be 50% off and buy 1 get 1 free)
$7.99 Revlon lipgloss (supposed to be 50% off and buy 1 get 1 free)
should have cost $3.995 for both
Plus some 75% off Altoids (I have no clue, let's assume $1)
- $1/1 Listerine
- $1/1 Listerine
- $2/1 Excedrin
- $2/1 Physicians Formula
- $2/1 Styli
- $1/1 Rimmel
- $1/1 Rimmel
- $2/1 Revlon
- $2/1 Revlon
- $2/1 Essence of Beauty (from CVS beauty book)
- $2/1 Essence of Beauty (from CVS beauty book)
= $14.685
I was told it was $22 before my Extrabucks (I only paid $.21)... looks like it was the Revlon. Looks like they overcharged me at least $7.99 - not insignificant. I'm going to call.
See? Wasn't that fun?!
*edit*
I just called the store and told the supervisor that I dealt with that he overcharged me for the items. He was pretty unapologetic (I was not surprised - he was nasty in the store) and told me to call the store manager tomorrow.
I basically ignored him and called CVS customer service, where I spoke to a lovely lady that apologized several times and is fixing my Extrabucks and told me to keep the $10 that the supervisor gave me in lieu of the extrabucks for the things that I overpaid for.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Shoppers
I figured I'd make a Shopper's trip today even though I know when I do my calculation tonight I'll be way over budget this week, but I'm ok about it considering in the past 2 weeks I've only spend $25 a week, so I have money in the "bank" so to speak. Anyway, this shopping trip was a breeze and I guess because everyone is in the holiday spirit people apologized if rounding the corner too fast and weren't mean in line. I had the same cashier as last time and she was a hoot - also the ladies beyond me were basically in awe after they heard my total and I told them about the Vocal Point program (which really helped me out this trip - can't wait to use the $2 off the Kashi bars whenever they go on sale).
Anyway, my purchases:
$1.79 Gerenic Rice Krispies (my FMIL -future mother in law- sent us 3.5 lbs of Plush Puffs and Rice Krispies are the only cereal we don't seem to have in the house so I bought generic so I'll make treats sometime this week)
$1.50 Sweet n Low substitute
$2.19 Minute Rice instant brown ($.19 after $1 off that doubled)
$2.00 4 smaller bags of those Marvel gummies I bought last trip
$4.00 4 Sobe Life Waters (had $.40 coupons for each that tripled, made me $.80)
$15.96 4 boxes Hillshire Farms turkey breast (once again there are $1 off coupons attached to these that double)
$10.00 8 del monte fruit cups (wound up costing $2 total after Vocal Point coupons)
$1.49 Wholly Guacamole (made me $.50 cents after $1 off that doubled)
$2.39 Green Giant steamfresh veggie blend ($.50 that tripled)
$1.99 Colgate toothpaste (free after $1 off on back of circular that doubled)
$2.39 Nivea chapstick ($.39 after $1 off coupon that doubled)
total was $15.92 out of pocket including tax after coupons
"You saved a grand total of $33.29 or 68%"
Anyway, my purchases:
$1.79 Gerenic Rice Krispies (my FMIL -future mother in law- sent us 3.5 lbs of Plush Puffs and Rice Krispies are the only cereal we don't seem to have in the house so I bought generic so I'll make treats sometime this week)
$1.50 Sweet n Low substitute
$2.19 Minute Rice instant brown ($.19 after $1 off that doubled)
$2.00 4 smaller bags of those Marvel gummies I bought last trip
$4.00 4 Sobe Life Waters (had $.40 coupons for each that tripled, made me $.80)
$15.96 4 boxes Hillshire Farms turkey breast (once again there are $1 off coupons attached to these that double)
$10.00 8 del monte fruit cups (wound up costing $2 total after Vocal Point coupons)
$1.49 Wholly Guacamole (made me $.50 cents after $1 off that doubled)
$2.39 Green Giant steamfresh veggie blend ($.50 that tripled)
$1.99 Colgate toothpaste (free after $1 off on back of circular that doubled)
$2.39 Nivea chapstick ($.39 after $1 off coupon that doubled)
total was $15.92 out of pocket including tax after coupons
"You saved a grand total of $33.29 or 68%"
Friday, December 19, 2008
Hooray!
I went to another Giant today to try to find $15 gift certificates and I lucked out! I'm not counting the $25 I spent out of pocket today to buy these gift cards, since gifts are not a part of my "grocery" budget, but I spent $25 and got the following, even the cashier was excited!
$15 Itunes (for my brother)
$15 Itunes (for my dad)
$15 Starbucks
$15 Starbucks
$15 Starbucks
= $75 worth of gift cards
So it turned out not to be "too good to be true" after all. I'm fairly relieved.
It was absolutely disgusting today but I might go out before the evening is over to Shopper's to get some stuff for the double/triple coupon promotion, although, really, we are rather stocked over here so I'll only be buying free after coupon or very very cheap after coupon items.
$15 Itunes (for my brother)
$15 Itunes (for my dad)
$15 Starbucks
$15 Starbucks
$15 Starbucks
= $75 worth of gift cards
So it turned out not to be "too good to be true" after all. I'm fairly relieved.
It was absolutely disgusting today but I might go out before the evening is over to Shopper's to get some stuff for the double/triple coupon promotion, although, really, we are rather stocked over here so I'll only be buying free after coupon or very very cheap after coupon items.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Yesterday's Last 2 Giant Trips
Looks like I am going to be keeping my 9 tubes of toothpaste after all, reference my last entry where I work the numbers.
Anyway, the last 2 transactions were wonderful because I managed to find folded up $1 off coupons in the bonus packs of Crest. I was able to use 6 of them for all 6 tubes of toothpaste making each $1.99.
transaction #1:
$8.97 3 tubes of Crest (I picked up a few more with the coupons in the bonus packs)
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
= $6.51 including tax Oop
transaction #2:
$8.97 3 tubes of Crest (I picked up a few more with the coupons in the bonus packs)
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
= $6.51 including tax Oop
Tomorrow I'll be hitting another Giant in hopes of finding some $15 giftcards!
Anyway, the last 2 transactions were wonderful because I managed to find folded up $1 off coupons in the bonus packs of Crest. I was able to use 6 of them for all 6 tubes of toothpaste making each $1.99.
transaction #1:
$8.97 3 tubes of Crest (I picked up a few more with the coupons in the bonus packs)
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
= $6.51 including tax Oop
transaction #2:
$8.97 3 tubes of Crest (I picked up a few more with the coupons in the bonus packs)
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
- $1/1 Crest
= $6.51 including tax Oop
Tomorrow I'll be hitting another Giant in hopes of finding some $15 giftcards!
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