remember back in the day, when i used to post something coupon related almost every day? oh, and when my cabinets were puffed out with extra band aids and shampoo, and i had an overflowing box of donate items for the preble street resource center? man, those days were nice.
but then it happens- COUPON FATIGUE.
after a year or more of wringing every possible deal out of every possible store in town, a girl gets tired, or distracted, and let’s those weekend coupon fliers pile up, and even… EXPIRE.
i recently cleaned out my folders to realized that i had indeed lost almost 2 full months of coupon time. blacked out unconscious, i must have been paying full price for everything- TRAGIC. expensively tragic (the worst kind of tragic).
now at this point, the serious coupon clipping mantle has clearly been handed off to maine’s very own extreme couponer, i love to gossip, which is quite liberating (also, she’s a lot better at it). no longer do i feel the pressure to try to keep up with the rest of the coupon bitties, and have time to do other crazy shit like throw clothing swaps and complain about “easy feet”. but this weekend as i leafed through my sunday circulars, i realized that i actually missed it.
i remember feeling so high (remember that money making vaseline lotion at shaw’s?) when i could grab something for free. like i was pulling off a tiny bank robbery or something.
i also remember having 5 unopened dove deodorants in my supply drawer. now i’m sadly chasing a single stick around my apartment… and sometimes i CAN’T FIND IT.
so this week, i decided that i’m actually gonna start trying to get back into the coupon game. i have an empty paper box ready for preble street donations, and i feel mentally ready to be able to find my antiperspirant again.
well, it’s going to have to be a gentle re-entry, because there’s kind of shit for deals this week. and actually, i was zooming through the comments on this week’s iheartcvs.com deal rundown, and people seem grouchy that there hasn’t been anything awesome for a while. has the deal climate changed when i was away? are there still bargains to be had out there in the wild? here is what i’m stalking this week (better to start slow i suppose), let me know if i missed anything:
rite aid:
better than free oral b toothbrushes. i’m personally using a complete shit colgate toothbrush that i hate (my stash of good ones ran out months ago), so an upgrade is definitely in order. you can get $2 in +UP bucks (2 per household) when you buy oral b cross action toothbrushes for $2.99, and i’ve got a couple $1.50/1 coupons from the most recent P&G brandsaver. there are also similar $1/1 coupons for the glide floss and the 3D white rinse that will also work, but i never floss (sorry dad!), so fuck that.
similarly free colgate toothbrushes. there is an identical deal for the very fancy looking colgate 360 surround toothbrush @ $2.99 w/$2 in +UP rewards back at ya (limit 2). i mysteriously have 2 $1/1 coupons for just that product (all you?), so it’s totally toothbrush time at casa broke207.
that’s about it for rite aid, but i may try to see if there’s anything else i can score with my video values coupons and the $3/$15 that i got for taking a customer satisfaction survey.
cvs is complete crap this week (which sucks because they emailed me a 25% off coupon). the only thing really worth attempting is the free neutrogena sunscreen deal (assuming it works). not that i wear sunscreen as often as i should… maybe this is the summer that i decide not to be a shriveled old prune?
and then there’s walgreens. yes, walgreens. now that we have one on the peninsula (marginal way!), it might be time for me to finally break the seal on that one . there is free colgate pro clinical toothpaste– 2 of them actually after register rewards and $1/1 coupons (which i have from somewhere). i have absolutely no idea how to sign up for register rewards, and how it works, but i’m almost out of toothpaste, and i think it’s probably emotionally healthy for me to finally overcome my irrational walgreens fears.
any advice from the pros? am i so rusty that i’m missing out on some amazing this week? please, i need your guidance.
broke 207 
There must be something in the water because I have barely been drugstore shopping for the past few months and haven’t even really cared. Luckily my stockpile from when I was a coupon madwoman is holding me over pretty well (all except for diapers of which I have been paying more for than I’d like- damn kids need to come out of the womb potty trained).
I finally went through and threw away about five pounds of expired coupons the other day so now I feel like I have cleansed my soul of laziness and hopefully will jump back on the coupn bandwagon. I’m glad my husband is completely oblivious to our household budget because he would have otherwise shit himself if he know how reckless I’ve been with our money (my husband actually loves when I waste money because then he feels like it excuses all of the dumb and expensive crap he buys).
Good luck getting back into the game!
Auggh, me too! I picked up the paper this weekend and much to my dismay only came away with a couple of McDonald’s coupons that I really shouldn’t use. I also discerningly went through the coupon inserts and much too late realized I didn’t want to fish through the trash to pick out a ‘Method’ laundry detergent manf. coupon to pair with a Whole Foods store coupon that’s good through 5/31/11. Coupon malaise: yes.
What if we get together an email group of crazy local coupon ladies and all get ‘assigned’ one store? That’d make it easier, for sure, and definitely more ‘doable.’
See you on Saturday!
I checked out the new Walgreen’s yesterday and was prety excited to see YOUR TOTAL SAVINGS: $26.31 at the bottom. Spent $14.84 and left with three bags of stuff I actually needed.
My coupon binder has been so neglected! I finally went through the other night and put in and organized all of my “food” coupons. I still need to do my “non-food.” I also have $17 in +Ups expiring Saturday and I am pretty underwhelmed by the RA deals this week. I need to get back in the game!
Couponing confuses me! I will gladly absorb and hopefully use any info you care to share.
tiny bank robbery = genius!
A couple of Walgreens tips for you:
You don’t sign up for Register Rewards. They print out of the Catalina machine at the end of your transaction. There is no loyalty card with WAGs.
1 annoying thing about WAGs is that they count RR as a manufacturer’s coupon, not as cash (like CVS & Rite Aid do). So you have to watch out for the # of items + # of Qs and get friendly with cheap filler items. If you want to buy 3 items and have a coupon for each of them + a RR, you need to throw in a filler because WAGs considers you to have 3 items & 4 coupons. Make sense?
Also, you cannot roll RR. In this week’s ad (5/22) there is a deal on different bath items (Vaseline, Suave, Caress, Dove, etc.) Buy 4, get a $4 RR. You can’t do the deal again (even if it is different items), pay with that RR, and expect to get a $4 RR back.
Once you get the hang of it there are good deals there. I personally think their grocery deals are much better than CVS/RA, but beware for shelf clearers. Because there is no way to track and restrict good deals (ie loyalty card), folks will clear shelves and be total assholes about it.
Good luck!
thank god for you! i was about to fly in there with no understanding of the system. it would have been disastrous! i’m gonna head over there tonight after yoga- i’ll let you know all the messy details!