Faster Internet = More Shopping Blogs!!!

I'm excited people!  We got MUCH faster internet the other night.  Josh ordered it as I was attempting to watch the UK pros vs. Dominican Republic by streaming on WKYT.  The picture was much clearer halfway through.  I've got a sweet guy, that one.  And this means it will be much faster to upload pictures, so I'll be back to my crazy couponing and blogging ways!

Tonight, I stopped at the big three drugstores.  It was a classic Mary shopping trip.  I needed to use up some ECBs, Up Rewards, and Register Rewards before the expiration date.  Just getting me into the stores made me spend almost 35 buckaroos - and all we really needed was milk and women's deodorant!  But, I did also save 67.21.  And after sitting down to inspect my receipts, I forgot to give the Rite Aid lady 3 dollars worth of coupons!!  And the Walgreen's guy should have taken off 2.20 more than he did with one of my coupons.  Again, classic Mary with not checking until I'm already home.

Oh well, let's get to the good part.  Here's all my loot!

At CVS I got:

4 packs of Diet Mountain Dew

2 Gatorade Fit Series Recover juices

1 20-count box of bandaids

1 Revlon nail polish (like the one Jessica Alba uses, yeah, I'm cool)

1 Hershey's cookies and cream bar

1 caramel (33 cents - had to use it to get my total above 25 bucks)

After coupons and sales I paid: 14.73

Saved: 64%

Earned: 9 ECBs for next time

At Walgreen's I got:

1 Dove body wash

1 Dove shampoo

1 Dove Leave-in conditioner cream (for the 'fro)

1 Dove women's deodorant

2 Dove men's deodorant (B1G1)

After coupons and sales I paid: 7.82

Saved: 76%

Earned: 5 Register Reward for next time

At Rite Aide I got:

4 packs of Scunchis hair bands (I should be set for about 5 years now)

1 Playtex tampons

2 Mentos gum

1 Skim milk

After coupons and sales I paid: 12.22

Saved: 60%

Earned: 2 Up Rewards for next time

Also, you'll note the LifeSouth bag in the picture.  Connected to the handle is a little green leaf (hanging between the Dove body wash and shampoo).  This is called a CVS Green bag tag and it's a little way to earn some extra Extra Care Bucks.  Each day that you bring in your own bag and buy something, they will scan your green bag tag.  Every fourth scan, the computer will print out a $1 ECB.  I don't know that I've seen any other company do this.  (Aldi might have something where you save a nickel for every bag you bring in, but we don't have Aldi down here.)  If you have heard, please let me know.

Let me state now, I am not a greenie.  I do not believe that humans are lice to our planet, and I believe that man-made global warming is a huge governmental/commercial scam.  So, I'm not one who trumpets using my own bags when I go into a store.  I have all kinds of plastic bags from various shopping trips in my pantry right now and most will get reused for some purpose.  However, I am willing to bring my own bag to a store if it is profitable.  And in this instance, it is profitable for me with earning an ECB, and it is profitable for the store because they have found a way to get me coming back week after week.  It's smart - so I participate.  :)  I wanted to share that little tidbit with you so that you can profit too.

There is a one time fee to buy the green bag tag.  It's 1.00.  Often, CVS will run specials on the green bag tag.  Just the other day I got a coupon at the scan machine for 50 cents off.  Other times, they will run a promotion where you get $1.00 ECB when you buy the green bag tag.  The only conditions are - you can only scan once per day, even if doing multiple transactions, and you have to remember to take your bag in!

Look forward to more posts soon!  (And maybe even a few more rants!)  :)