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.

Yummy delicious deal of the week.

In this past Sunday's coupons there were $1 off for Pepperidge Farm granola cookies.

Pathmark is running a 2 for 1 sale on these treats, I tried them and they are soooooooooooooo delicious.

Grab two $1 coupons from last Sundays coupons and buy the two for one cookies at Pathmark and these scrumptious treats will run you 80 cents a bag.

Everyday things you need that can get for free or nealy free.

Dont ever pay full price for any of these items, between sales and coupons you should be able to get some of these items for free or nearly free. Your best bet is combining coupons with sales and rebate campaigns from drug stores like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens.

Cereal

In New York cereal typically runs around $4 to $5 a box, however, lucky for you nearly every weekend in the Sunday paper, someone has a cereal coupon or two. If you dont grab the Sunday paper, you can always search online for coupons. For example:

This past week Rite Aid ran a sale for 2 for 1 on Fiber One cereal, all varieties, starting price was $4.29 a box. I managed to be sitting on a few coupons for $1 off per box. Net cost per box of Fiber One? $1.15 or $2.29 total which is a far cry from the $8.58 cost of buying the cereal on any given day and about a 75% savings.

Deodorant

Luckily for all of us, the deodorant industry is highly competitive. CVS tends to be more aggressive in this area than some of the other drug stores. A couple months back they put Secret deodorants on sale for $2.99 then offered an ECB of $2.99 making that item free. Every weekend I find coupons for deodorants, clip them and wait for them to go on sale. The most recent deal I got in that area was from Rite Aid, the new Secret Flawless which usually runs about $6 was on sale for $3.99, again a $2 off coupon in this weekend's paper brought the cost down to $1.99 each.

Toothpaste

Last week Walgreens ran a sale on Colgate toothpaste, $1 per tube. In last Sunday's coupons there was a coupon for colgate for $.50 bringing your net cost down to 50 cents at Walgreens. I am a bit more fussy about toothpaste but you can still get some good deals out there if you keep your eyes open. Rite Aid put all sorts of Crest toothpastes on sale for $2.99, including my favorite, the crest pro health whitening which usually runs almost $5 a tube. This Sundays coupons yielded an additional $1 off coupon so I stocked up. Savings of almost $3 per tube.

Pain relievers/OTC medicines

I have two other awesome Rite Aid examples from last week. The new Rite Aid was offering a $5 rebate on the new new Claritin liqui-gels. They retail in the store for $19.99. On top of that $5 rebate if you grabbed the paper last sunday there was another coupon for $5 off bringing your total cost down to $10.

Rite Aid was also running another special, buy any three bayer products and get a free $10 Rite Aid gift card. I bought two 50 count bottles of aspirin and 1 bottle of their low dose aspirin for a whopping $10.97 all together. Total cost after getting that gift card back? 97 cents. That doesnt include applying a $5 coupon Rite Aid gave rebate customers for purchases of $20 or more on Friday and Saturday last week.

Hair Dye

All right so maybe you dont NEED hair dye, but those of us who dye our hair sure do. Another example from Rite Aid (Sorry, I think they tend to be the best at helping maximize weekly coupons). Garnier Nutrisse was on sale for 2 boxes for $10 (usually runs around $7 a box) and they were offering another $5 rebate bringing the price down to $5, then couple that with the $2 off manufacturers coupon that was in the paper the week prior and your price went down to $1.50 a box.

Free Kashi frozen entree

The very kind folks over at kashi are so confident you'll love their frozen foods that they are offering a coupon for a free entree while supplies last!

Head on over to:

http://www.kashi.com/picturehunt

And sign up for yours. They are made with all sorts of delicious whole grains and appear to be a healthier alternative to the usual frozen meal! Enjoy!

Quiznos giving away free subs!

Quiznos is offering a million free subs to anyone signing up for their email list at the free sub promotion page.

Just head over to the following link:

http://www.millionsubs.com/Reg.php?x=1

And sign up.

After you get signed up, Quiznos has quite graciously offered you the opportunity to opt out of their email list if you head back to the same link!

Bloggers rejoice in Ile de France Cheese

The fine folks over at Ile de France Cheese are offering bloggers the opportunity to try then review their cheeses. If you have a blog head on over to:

http://iledefrancecheese.com/Hello-Bloggers.html

Then fill out your info and maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones to try one of their cheeses. I opted to try their brie as I tried their goat cheese before and it's quite heavenly!

Come back for my review of their Brie if I am one of the bloggers they choose!

If you're not a blogger head over to the web site anyway, there are $1 off coupons on the site for you to try their cheeses!

Spendthrift giveaway!

To launch the blog properly I thought it might be nice to start with a giveaway.

So I bring you a Keurig Elite B40 Coffee Maker...Brand spanking new, and still in it's original packaging...



From Amazon.com:

"Ideal for entertaining, this 1500-watt single-serve home-brewing system brews a fresh cup of gourmet coffee or tea in less than a minute. The unit uses Keurig's patented K-Cups, which offer over 70 varieties of pre-measured gourmet coffee and tea from a variety of premium brands. The brewer's patented one-touch technology ensures precise control of brewing, and there's no messy grinding or clean up. Simply open the lid, insert a K-Cup, close the lid, and select a cup size. Two brew-size options include a 7-1/4-ounce cup and a 9-1/4-ounce mug. The machine fits both regular and travel-size mugs easily, and comes with a two-hour automatic shut-off for safety. Other useful features include a descale indicator, a removable 48-ounce water reservoir, and a removable drip tray. Providing a convenient size and quiet performance, the single-cup home-brewing system measures 13-1/4 by 10 by 13 inches and carries a one-year limited warranty.

Product Description

The elite coffee brewer can brew either a regular or travel size mug from 7.25 oz. up to 9.25 oz. at a time. Other features include a removable 48 oz. water reservoir, and the removable dip tray is dishwasher- safe. 13"H x 10"W x 13.25"D "


How to enter:

Please comment with your best money saving tips, you can get additional entries by following this blog on blogger or writing about this contest in your own blog. If you can't be reached via your blogger ID please leave an email address.

Entries due in by 9pm EST Feb 16th.

Thanks!