On sale at Walgreens

Go go go to Walgreens before it goes off sale. 1 liter bottles of Listerine Total Care mouthwash is usually 6.49 a bottle. On sale for 2/$11 with $5.50 in register rewards if you buy 2, if you head over to the Listerine web site:

http://www.listerine.com/

You can get $2 per bottle off. So, in summary.

Listerine Total Care:

Usual price: $6.49 (x 2 = $12.98)
Sale price: 2 for $11 (or $5.50 each)
Use two $2 coupons for $7 total (or $3.50 each)

Then get back $5.50 in register rewards which brings your total down to $1.50 for 2 bottles.

They do weird stuff with the tax so it ended up being $7.92 but after the $5.50 coupon both bottles, all in, were $2.42 or a whopping $1.21 a piece or 82% off including tax.


Go now....

Quit smoking for free in New York.

Ah smokers. You are indeed plentiful in the city. I smoke. I neeeeeeeeeeeeed to quit. My boyfriend does as well and we are both going to try and embark on that journey.

Smoking in New York is expensive, really expensive. We smoke American Spirits, those run up to $10 a pack in the city. At a pack a day for 2 people, that's about $600 a month in cigarettes, $6600 a year. That could pay for a couple of really nice vacations.

I never thought I'd say this but 311 to the rescue. They referred me here:

http://www.nysmokefree.com/newweb/default.aspx

Most New York state residents qualify for a free program in NY to quit smoking. They'll send you free patches and gum to help you quit. They do want to call you and follow up, if you stay on course they will keep sending you patches or gum until you quit.

Come on, it's free, like really free, like you dont even pay shipping and handling. So your choices are free and saving $3600 a year or spending $300 a month that I bet you dont have and dragging down your health.

So go ahead, quit smoking, it'll save you a ton of money and NY loves you enough to send free stuff to help.

Why you shouldnt shop in Manhattan.

If you are one of the lucky ones to live in the Borough of Brooklyn you'll notice that it's a bit easier on the wallet than it is if you lived in NY.

My local Key Foods is clean, well stocked, and cheap. My local C-town, maybe not as clean, not as well stocked, but does indeed offer the occasional good buy, for example I got some very delicious stonyfield farm organic yogurt there last week 4 for $3.

On the other hand while D'Agostinos, Balducci's, Garden of Eden and others are not only shiningly clean and well stocked the other thing they'll gladly clean out is your wallet. That said, a few tips on getting some good buys at local stores.

Let's start with CVS. CVS offers a great program, ECB, extra cash back, great items, on sale, extra cash back and most specials are usually in conjunction with some coupons from the sunday papers. The CVS locations in Manhattan...they dont offer it, their store circs are 4 pages...that's it. However, go to their web site and check the circs in Brooklyn and it's 20 pages and filled with not just good but GREAT deals.

For example. Tide detergents. 50 ounces, at Duane Reade they run 11.97...usual price at CVS in Brooklyn about $9. On sale this past week in Brooklyn (not Manhattan) $5.97, on top of that I had a dollar off coupon. $5 a bottle, I bought 4 of the Tide total care. There were other items on sale on that page of the circ...Dawn detergent, Crest toothpaste, Puffs. If you bought $20 worth of merchandise on that circ page you got a free 6 pack of Charmin ($5 value). Lucky for me they were all out of the 6 packs so I got a 9 pack worth $7.50. Lesson? Spend the extra $4 round trip and go to brooklyn to shop, even if you live in Manhattan.

Oh Walgreens, I have noticed how cagey Walgreens has become with dealing with circs. Last week Walgreens was running Formula 409 at 2 for $5...bargain. Again, I had $1 off coupons so $1.50 a bottle. I went in to the Union Square store to stock up and was told, no joke, they dont carry Formula 409. Really? You dont carry one of the most popular cleaning solutions in the United States??? What? Same story with the memory formula Walgreens was offering free after rebate. Didn't exist in the store.

Duane Reade. Seriously don't even bother. Nothing is ever on sale there that you cant get on sale cheaper at Rite Aid.

Pathmark. Pathmark in Manhattan is a bit tricky. Honestly, the circ is pretty much the same for the city as it is in the boroughs. The difference is the coupon policy. You are limited to 4 coupons for the same item. You cant use a coupon for a "get one free" (buy one get one free) item so you cant really roll out 2 coupons for 2 boxes of cereal. So there are more restrictions. If you really really want those Pepperidge farm granola cookies that are 2 for 1 on sale for $.80 a bag (using 2 coupons) your choices are suck it up and leave the city or pay a smidge more ($1.30 a bag) at the Cherry St location.

And seriously, do not bother with Duane Reade. Don't do it.

Go get some free toothpaste at Walgreen's this week.

Walgreen's is running a sale on a new toothpaste called Colgate MaxFresh or Colagate MaxWhite. All you need to do is roll up, buy one of the varieties and you get a quick register rebate of $3.29 good on your next purchase.

Bundle that with the $.50 coupon on any Colgate from last week's Sunday coupons and you make $.50 on the deal.

For some reason, the Walgreen's at union square is issuing $3.50 credits on the toothpaste so I got a plus of $.71

I'll go back tomorrow, pick up their 2 for $5 deal on Formula 409, couple that with two $1 coupons on 409 for this morning's coupons and I got a pretty sweet deal.