picked an EXCELLENT time to hop back into Walgreens

I have been on quite the couponing break, however with my upcoming changes I felt it necessary to hop back into the "drugstore diva game".  I picked a fantastic time...without even knowing it!
My plans for the next couple of weeks are pretty good.
This week ending 2/6 I need to purchase more soda which is on sale for $3 a 12 pack, $1.25 a 2 liter.  If you spend $20 in a single transaction on Pepsi products you recieve a $10 register reward (RR).  Since we buy soda anyway and this is a good sale price, I will do that deal once more this week...THEN..
2/7 to 2/13
Ritz Crackers (the single sleeve small boxes) are on sale for 99 cents I have 2 $1 off coupons...making them FREE.
Dove's mens body wash is free after RR ($5.99 shelf price)
and Garnier Fructis (which I mentioned in a previous post) is on sale 3 for $10.

Huggies diapers are also on sale for $8.99 and you get a $3 RR when you buy 1 so $5.99 a pack ( I think it is the week of the 7th anyway)..We don't need any yet (and potty train "boot camp" starts tommorrow for O so hopefully I can skip this deal.  It is really not as mean as it sounds :)   ).

I will do 2 transactions that week..
Transaction #1
1.98 2 ritz
5.99 dove mens body wash
20.00 6 garnier items
-$2 (2 nabisco coupons)
-$6 (6 garnier coupons)
-10 RR from pepsi deal this week
= $9.97 + tax OOP and get back $6 for the body wash and $10 for the garnier.

Transaction #2
$20.00 6 garnier items (probably conditioner mostly since we go through a lot more of that than shampoo)
$ 5.99 mens body wash
-$6 garnier coupons
-10 RR from pepsi deal this week
= $9.99 + tax OOP  and get back $6 for body wash and $10 for garnier


I can *hopefully* save another $2.50 on this by getting the coupons from my FIL for the bodywash, IF he still has them.  I HOPE he saved them for me!  I am going to call tommorrow and check.  He had been saving them but when I backed off the coupons, he stopped saving them.  I hope he starts again!

Since I cannot use the RR from the garnier to get more garnier or the body wash to get more bodywash (it won't print another one)  I could lower my OOP by doing more transactions (like using the body wasy RR on the garnier and using the garnier RR and a "filler" to get the body wash free, and so on)  BUT because I only have one store in town and the manager doesn't like coupons.  I will pay a bit more OOP, stay in her good graces and "roll" this $32 into stuff in the coming weeks.  That is basically what the drugstore diva game is.  Starting out with your money, getting back their rewards and using their rewards to get more product.  Some people are very very good at it, using only money making deals to build up their RR and using that to get more products that are free after RR, continously only paying tax (or even making money on the deals).  I do that with some stuff. However a deal is not a deal to me unless someone can use it.  There are some things that are free after RR that I won't do the deal for (like joint juice this week) so I pass and will "spend" my RR on diapers or soda or stuff that we need.  Then I will start the game all over again.  It is fun to me.  I enjoy it and am really glad I picked a good week to jump back in!

I have not dug into the deals on the week of the 14th much yet.  Once I see an ad preview I will.  Hope it is a good one as well.

~Jess~


edit: dove's website has a $1.50 printable coupon on their site..making this a definite moneymaking deal.  WOOO.  After looking over the coupons I printed, those that came in the mail today, and the 2 FIL has for me, I could get 6 of these and have R stocked up for the next year AND make $7.50 (excluding tax).  Sweet deal!