My new addiction (warning - long post!)

I have recently become addicted to finding great deals via sales and coupons. I think I first saw posts about this on Brea's blog. I've seen a few other posts since then and have found numerous blogs about the subject. Some relate to particular stores (such as Walgreens and Target) while others focus on combining sales and coupons. Walgreens is often more expensive for a lot of items. However, when certain items go on sale, they're cheaper than other places (such as Wal-mart or Target). If you have a manufacturer coupon, it's an even better deal.

A few weeks ago I saved an amazing amount at Walgreens. (I planned to post this earlier, but forgot I had just saved the draft to come back to later!)

I got the ad for Walgreens Saturday evening and decided to look through to see what was on sale. I noticed there were many things we were in need of on sale - laundry detergent, hand soap, soup (for my lunch), toothpaste, razor rills, trash bags, foil... In the ad, there were several coupons for good deals/sales at Walgreens. I was also able to go through my coupons and go online to find several additional coupons.

My total OOP cost was $48.94, including tax ($45.00 before tax).

My savings was $51.89!!!

I used $22.34 in Walgreens coupons, $17.05 in Walgreens advertised sales, and $12.50 in manufacturer coupons. Here's the breakdown:

• 2 Arm and Hammer detergents -on sale for 2 for $7, plus 2 coupons for $1 off A&H detergent. Original price - $15.58. After sale/coupons - $5.00
• 1 Tide detergent (26 loads) - on sale for $5.49, plus used a $1.00 coupon = $4.49
• 2 cascade action packs - on sale 2 for $7 (unfortunately, I had no coupon for this)
• Dove minis (caramel and milk choc. - yum!) - on sale 2 for $6, plus a coupon for $2 off 2. Original price - not quite sure. I think the Dove are originally at least $4 each. After coupons - $4 for 2 packages.
• Schick Intuition razor - $9.99. I lucked out and found one with an additional cartridge. Normally, 3 razor refills is over $11. I used a $3 off coupon, getting a new razor plus 2 cartridges for $6.99.
• 4 Campbell's Soup at Hand - on sale 4 for $5, plus a coupon for $1 off 4 containers. Original price - $8.76. After coupons/sale - $4.00
• Softsoap hand soap - no sale, used the Walgreens coupons for $0.99 softsoap. Original price ($2.99 each) - $8.97. After coupons - $2.97
• Walgreens whitening mouthwash - on sale for $3.50
• 2 All 12-Load detergent - used Walgreens coupon (to make it $1.79 each) and 2 mfr. coupon for $1.00 off. Original price - $7.58 After coupons - $1.58 (for 24 loads of laundry!)
• 2 snicker nutcrackers - yum! :-) - $1.00
• Aluminum foil - originally $2.59. With a Wags. coupon - $1.99
  
• Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste - used a mfr. coupon $1.50 off and received register rewards $2.00. Original price - $2.99. After coupons - $0.51 overage (yea!)
• Glad trash bags (45 count) - on sale for $5.99, plus a coupon. After coupons - $4.99
• Used a $5 off a $25 purchase coupon from Walgreens

The $51.89 saved includes the coupons mentioned above as well as advertised sales through Wags. I don't remember some of the original price of the items. I think I did quite well today! Here is a picture of all the items I bought and the receipt showing the savings: