First off, let me tell you how seldom I shop at CVS. I had $56 in EXPIRED ECBS. Yes, you read that right $56 ALL EXPIRED!
I headed to a store I knew to take expireds up to a month and had to pull out my rainchecks just to shop. They were sold out of EVERYTHING on ecb this week.(hence the reason I stopped CVS shopping)
Well, I had a $2 ecb raincheck for Prevacid and sale price of $19.99 so I wanted to get that for a rebate. CVS was also nice enough to send me a $5/20 health care purchase coupon, so I threw in a $2 First Aid Kit to reach the threshold. Went ahead and used up my raincheck for the GE Light bulb too since I was there.
So I got
Prevacid $19.99 - $6 IP
Ge light $2.99 - $1 insert
Cvs first aid kit $2 - $5/20
-2 $6 ECBS
Paid $1.08 oop and got back 2 $2 ECBs and will mail in for $9.99 rebate
About a break even after you account for my stamp. Well after that things went downhill and FAST!
I went shopping to use up the rest of my $44 in ECBS and was just planning on buying stuff I need that I don't really have coupons to get free. Well, when I went back up to pay, the cashier informed me her manager said they DON'T take expireds and she wasn't supposed to do my first transaction YIKES!
So after that, I decided to hop over to Randalls and use a $4 catalina that was expiring THAT day. I needed milk anyway and picked up a few freebies. I didn't have all my coupons with me so I will have to go back, but I was able to get
free Campbell's soup with this IP
Got paid for Right Guard with IP from here or here and loading coupon from here
Free Halls from All You March issue coupon
and I miscalculated my overage and ended up spending $2.28 oop even after my $4 catalina, YIKES again.
While digging in my purse, I noticed the BIGGEST boo boo of the day I made. I noticed my Prevacid coupons only to realize I decided to tidy the house and drop off my papers at the recycle center and COMPLETELY FORGOT to cut the Prevacid rebates out FIRST. (In the words of Homer Simpson D'OH) :(
On my drive home (with my head hung in shame) I randomly stopped at a CVS and practically BEGGED if they take expireds. Much to my happiness the cashier went and asked the manager and she said YES!!!!!! Yay! I decided then and there, I didn't care if I rolled them or not, I was using ALL $44 before they changed their mind, lol.
The deals were not fantastic, but I did have a $5/15 purchase so I calculated that I needed to purchase $49 worth of stuff. Well, I miscalculated AGAIN(maybe I should have just gone home and hit the reset button, lol). I ended up spending $7.06 oop in additon to my ECBS and got back $14 in ECBS.
I did get some goodies we were going to need anyway, but didn't even bother with coupons for the mayonaise or the toilet paper.
I did find a great tearpad to get $2 off wyb a 20 oz Diet Coke and any Planters product
I found the Unsalted mixed nuts clearanced for $1.37 so combining with the $1.49 on the Diet Coke, just .86 for each set!
I was happy with that.
So why am I blogging about this crazy, sad, poorly planned trip? To show you that not all us Extreme Couponers get it right EVERYTIME either. We are human too and make blunders ourself, but who wants to read a blog filled with all our blunders, lol!
I hope to regroup and bring you better deals this coming week and help you save.(as well as to locate some more rebate forms, lol)
Feel free to leave me comments on some of your biggest blunders in the wonderful game of couponing! I would love to hear them.
11 comments:
I once went to Kroger to take advantage of the Mega deal that they ran in October-November of last year when they had the nestle evaporated milk free after coupon. So, I load my cart with 30 items - all qualifying under the mega & get to the counter. Put my things on the belt & start searching my purse for my coupon envelope. That's when I remembered, I had changed purses that morning & did not put my coupon envelope in the new purse. That was so embarrassing. I asked the cashier to void the order & apologized to her. I felt awful..but oh well.happens to all of us..
Hi ZM,
You did OK! Don't worry, everybody has "not such good days" once in a while.
BTW, which CVS is this one which takes expired ECBs upon request?
It happens to all of us. I probably have at least one blunder a month. You can't worry about it....just carry on. But it is good that you blogged about it to show that even super couponers are just human. Hope your next trip is blunder free.
Hi ZM,
I will not be using my prevacid rebate. I saved it just in case but my doc told me to take just zantac or tums. You can have it.
I'm in Katy.
-Shuchi
shuchi
Please email me at catladyfour4 @ yahoo . com and we can work out a trade!
Thanks
Hi zm,
Your blog has helped me save SO much. I'll be happy to pass all my prevacid coupons to you. I'm by the Galleria.
Cheers!
cheesoo
Hey I received a catalina at Kroger (Westheimer/Mason) for $10/24HR 42ct Prevacid product. I don't use this but it seems like a great coupon... would you be interested?
That happened to me, to, with a CVS in the Austin area that changed their minds about taking expired ECBs. For a while, they would tell me up front "ECBs never expire..." and then one day I went in with ECBs that were only a week expired, and she was mumbling under her breath that she really wasn't supposed to be taking those(but she did)...
so I asked, and she said they'd changed their policy on it. I'm about ready to spend down all of my ECBs I have and call it a day ,as it's getting to be not worth the drive for a couple of items.
I've made so many mistakes...but I just keep plugging along and hope that my good deals offset my bad ones. I have most of my problems at Walgreens. Just last week, I bought 2 Crest toothpastes with Scope for 2/$7 with a $2.50 ECB and used 2 .75 coupons just fine and dandy and then tried to use the $1.50 Walgreens coupon in the February booklet and the cashier said it wouldn't work. So I purchased 2 tubes of toothpaste for $3...not a good deal, especially since I wanted it free, lol.
I know this dosent really pertain to the discussion but, were there three inserts in this sunday's paper? I usually buy my papers from walgreens but I bought them from one of the street sellers this week and I only have P&G and Red Plum.
Yes anon, there were 3 inserts :)
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