Earth Day!

Today I did a few things to save me money AND help the planet.

#1: Carpooled! I do this as often as I can anyways since it helps the planet and puts $ in my pocket directly (gas $ and office incentive program) and indirectly (mileage on my car), but we made a special effort to make sure our schedules allowed us to carpool on Earth Day.

#2: Went to WAGS with my 15% off and free bag coupon. I didn't realize til it was too late I didn't get the 15% off- nothing beeped, and it seems a little odd- but it was still a good transaction. I did get my free bag though and, since good 'ol california is going to start mandating a charge on the use of non-reusable bags come July, this one will help save me cash in the future. Don't tell Mama Earth, but I may have to stockpile a few plastic bags before July for my bathroom sized trash cans. No OOP here- my WAGS gift card finally came!

#3: Went to CVS to look for the Dove Revitalizers. No luck, but it's a sale so you can get a raincheck, and my scanner gave me a $2.50 CRT for a Dove face product; hopefully yours will too! I also got a $2/$10 CVS brand CRT and the CVS TP is on sale for $5/12 double rolls, so I got 2 packs of those for $8 after CRT, and used my $7.98 EB from the Colgate sensitive toothpaste for an OOP of $0.02. No EBs back, but this is a good price on TP I like.

#4: Went to the Pavillions (Safeway) in the same parking lot, and walked over instead of reparking (again, I normally do this, but every bit helps right?). I bought zuccini, squash, a cucumber, salad, spinach, a steak, 2 store brand yogurts, and raspberries for $15.16 and used my $14 in CATS to get all the way down to $1.16 OOP. Sadly, the raspberries rang up as $4.99 instead of the $2.50 I thought they were on sale for (trixy strawberry signs! i really wanted raspberries, too), but customer service still gave me a cash refund for the berries. So I used up $10.17 in spending power, but somehow left the store with $3.83 more cash in my pocket.

#5: Got gas in route rather than stopping out of the way- I didn't need to fill up yet (but this is the cheapest station around) so this only cost me $12.25. I paid cash, which saved me a $0.45 debit card fee- the station doesn't take credit cards (which charge merchants boatloads of fees), which is why they're the cheapest.

#6: Downloaded and printed my FAR Reynold's Recycled Aluminum Foil form. This isn't available anymore, but hopefully lots of you got it too.

My Challenge: $71.43 left to spend

Holy Bertolli!

Thanks to Dancinmama for this fantastic deal!

14*$2.00 Bertolli premium sauce pouch

1*$2.50 Bertolli sauce jar

-5*$1/1 Bertolli premium sauce pouch Q's

-5$$1.50/2 Bertolli any sauce Q's

=$18 OOP, got back $10 ONYO for spending $30 on "feeling great" products (look for the background on the price labels in stores for participating products) AND 7 $2 ONYO from Bertolli (this is $2 for buying 2... it may only be for the pouches, and it MAY only be through today, I don't have confirmation of that either way)- That's a $6 Profit!!! On food!

Then bought this stuff with the $10 Cat (hey, a gal can't live on pasta sauce alone... especially considering I can't eat it yet- the sauce has stuff in it that can get caught in my wisdom tooth sockets)

6*$0.70 Yoplait

$2.50 Safeway Ice cream

$2.50 Imitation crab legs

$0.79 Salt

2*$1.65 Healthy request tomato soup (I hate that these aren't on sale, but I need some tomato soup for lunches this week)

-$0.40/6 Yoplait Q, Doubled to $0.80

-$0.55 Imitation crab peelie, "Doubled" to $1

-$0.40/2 Healthy Request soup Q, Doubled to $0.80

-$10 Catalina from previous purchase

=$0.69 OOP

And before this stop I'd gone to WAGS for some free stuff

Trans 1:

$2.99 Skintimate

$2.00 Scunci Hairties, 18 pk

-$4 GC from yesterday

=$1.15 OOP, got $3 RR and $2 RR back

Trans 2:

$3.29 Toothbrush

$1.99 Chapstick

-$3 RR from Skintimate

-$2 RR from Scunci

=$0.77 OOP, got $3.50 RR and $2 RR back

Eulogy of the Olay Gift Cards

That's right. I used both of mine up today. They were very good to me, I must say, money well spent! $6.74 I spent at WAGS on the Reach deal, and the balance I turned into a $23.26 gift card to Vons, which I promptly used.

WAGS:

$3.00 Reach Toothbrush 2 pk
$3.00 Reach Floss
$3.00 Listerine Mouthwash
-$3/3 From Diabetes Magazine by the pharmacy
=$6.74 OOP, paid for by Olay gift cards. Got a $6 RR back.

CVS:

3*$3.50 Dove gofresh deodorant
$7.00 Dove exfoliating bar 6 pk (I recall from my precoupon days that I ADORE these)
$4.99 Irish Spring Body Wash
$2.99 Colgate Toothbrush
2*$1.50 Paper (I actually bought these first so I could get the Dove Q's out)
-$0.50 Irish spring MC
-3*$1.25 Dove gofresh deodorant MC
-$1.50 Dove 6pk bar MC
-$13.97 EBs from Act, L'oreal, Venus, and the Vitamin D (this last one is a monthly deal if you haven't gotten yours yet)
=$9.89 OOP, got back $12.98 EBs. I did the Dove deal here because I was not impressed with WAGS prices, even at 25% off. I may try the single bars though, having heard they'll still work for the deal.

Pavillions aka Safeway (sorry no pic on this one, I put stuff away without thinking):

Trans 1:
$3.00 Baked Lay's
$0.99 Quaker Granola Bars (with in ad coupon and $10 purchase)
$0.99 Peter Pan PB (with in ad coupon and $10 purchase)
$0.97 18-ct Eggs (with in ad coupon and $10 purchase)
$1.97 Tropicana OJ (with in ad coupon and $10 purchase)
$5.49 Liquid Plumber (which I will be submitting for their "guaranteed" refund since it didn't work either! The good news is my drain wasn't 100% clogged, but it is slooooooooow)
$2.79 Dishwashing wand... the old one broke :(
$0.93 Bananas ($0.67/lb)
$2.72 Salame Genoa from the deli (1/3 lb)
$4.00 Black Forest ham from the deli (1/2 lb)
-$1 Baked lays MC ($0.55 "doubled" to $1)
=$22.49 OOP, paid for with converted Olay gift cards.

As I was loading up my car my roommate called, and we're having a BBQ tonight. So I went back in for more chips. The meat is to go with the provolone Sargento from Ralph's yesterday... and it made for a tasty sandwich this afternoon!

Trans 2:
2*$3.00 Baked Lays
-$1 Baked lays MC ($0.55 "doubled" to $1)
-$0.55 baked lays MC (apparently we do not double more than 1 of the same Q. I looked at my Ralph's receipt from yesterday and the same happened with my Ocello and Scotch Guard Q's in that store. My OOP was correct, I'd just assumed they'd all doubled. Lesson learned.)
=$4.45 OOP, $0.77 from the converted Olay gift cards $3.68 cash.

Farmers Market:
I have to let you know, if you are offended by pictures of b-e-a-utiful strawberries and asparagus, STOP HERE. I went to get lettuce and asparagus, but the berries were absolutely everywhere and super fragrant- we are definately in the height of their season. Sadly, the one stand that sells sunflower sprouts was out of them... those things are scrumptious!
$6 3 pints strawberries
$5 3 bunches asparagus
$1 Romaine lettuce head
=$12 OOP

I try to rinse and prep my strawberries as soon as I get home so that they're just waiting for me to eat them the rest of the week. I sliced up one pint for putting in yogurt and ice cream and the other two I just cut the tops off 'um for snacking. There may have been more pre-pic too... I tend to eat a lot of them when I prep. But hey, a gal can't risk letting the really ripe ones go bad in the fridge!

Around the town

My 5 mile sunday loop consists of all my favorite stores, except for Rite Aid and Target (those are on another loop that is lacking a WAGS). I feel like I got a lot of good deals, minus one misstep at safeway. I do have pictures now, feelin' pretty spiffy about them too.

Stop 1: CVS

$0.19 Necco valentine's candy

$7.99 Venus spa breeze razor

4*$5.00 L'oreal mascaras (two with a free bonus eyeliner... yeeesss!)

$6.00 Goody hairbrush (desperately needed, I've been bumming from one of my roommates since mine disappeared into an unknown abyss)

2*$0.99 Act total trial size

$2.99 CVS Vitamin D caplets

-$2 Venus Q

-4*$3 Any L'oreal makeup Q (back from 1/4)

-$11 EBs

=$16.32 OOP, got back 13.97 in EBs, for a true cost of $13.35

Stop 2: Pavillion's (a safeway store)


My favorite items here are the mini wheats, because they were totally free! A&W was as close as you can get to free in California- $0.10 deposit.
$0.00 A&W Rootbeer (with in ad coupon and $10 transaction purchase)
$0.10 Cali deposit
2*$1.00 Del Monte no salt added diced tomatoes
$0.99 Mini Wheats (with in ad coupon and $10 transaction purchase, Q below makes it free)
$2.00 Vodka pasta sauce, safeway brand
$2.12 Bernstein's Burgendy Garlic salad dressing
$4.19 Kraft greek EVOO based dressing (this was the slip- it was marked as being $2.99 which is a decent price here especially when you need to get to $10 for the free cereal and rootbeer, but the sucker rang up at $4.19 under the description "GD SSNS SLD DRSG", and I have no idea what that's suppossed to be, but I'm not driving back to the furthest spot on my loop for $1.20)
$0.97 Dozen eggs (already in the fridge come picture time)
$0.99 1 lb butter (with in ad coupon and $10 transaction purchase, also already in the fridge)
- $0.70 Any kellogg's cereal Q
- $0.30 Double Q on the kellogg's- I didn't know we doubled here... awesome!!!!
-$1.00/2 Del Monte no salt added tomatoes Q
=$11.37 OOP






Stop 3: WAGS, where I would have done the blink in transaction 1 if I'd realized it was a RR not a FAR... oops.
Trans 1:
$2.50 409
$2.50 Clorox Clean up
$3.29 Colgate Max Fresh
-$1 409 Q
-$0.75 Colgate Q
=$7.22 on GC, got back $3.50 RR for Colgate (should have been just $3.29... bonus!), $1 RR for Cleaning products


Trans 2:
3*$1.00 Barilla spaghetti
$4.99 Bertoulli EVOO
3*$0.99 Walgreens sandwich/storage bags
$7.99 Blink tears
$2.99 Walgreens headache relief
$3.99 Wal-zyr allergy medicine
$5.99 Axe Shampoo
-$2 Blink tears Q
-$3.50 RR from Trans 1
- $1 RR from Trans 1
= 10.33 on GC, $18.72 OOP, got $8 RR back for Blink tears, expecting $12.97 back in rebates, $14.25 with the bonus 10% for getting it as a WAGS GC.





Stop 4: Ralph's (a Kroger store)
Jennie O was BOGO, and I was going to get the regular lean stuff, but I didn't have any Q's and I found $1/1 peelie's on this extra lean stuff, which made it the same price- horray! FYI the extra lean stuff only has 7.5 grams of fat in the entire 20 oz package, which should make for a pretty healthy dinner tuesday.

$6.99 Extra lean Jennie O ground turkey
$0.00 Extra lean Jennie O ground turkey
-$1/1 peelie
-$1/1 peelie
=$4.99 OOP