My last post was about getting some great deals at Walgreens, and also receiving my first set of Register Rewards. That makes it sound like I got china for my wedding, but hey, it’s almost as exciting.
I wondered what I should use my RRs for, since I have them and they expire soon. Crystal, AKA Money Saving Mom, wrote that when she goes to CVS, she usually only spends pennies for all the things she gets because she’s built up enough of their rewards program deals combined with regular mfr. coupons. Someone wrote a comment asking her what her target price for toilet paper was, and she responded by saying FREE, because she uses coupons and her ECBs (a CVS thing).
I don’t want to perpetuate buying stuff just for the sake of buying it, or in this case, getting stuff for free, just because it’s free. All in all, we’ll use everything we got at the last shopping trip. And if I can start getting all my hygiene supplies for our family for free? Why ever pay for it? I like the idea of free toilet paper, because good Lord, toilet paper is way too freaking expensive for something that touches your butt. And I’m partial to Cottonelle. I know it’s elitist and all, but it’s better quality and we use less because of that.
I waited for this week’s Walgreens ad to see if there were any other deals I wanted. There was an Aquafresh Advanced on sale for $3, producing a $3 RR. I’ve seen some confusing stuff on some blogs about how the RRs work in reality. Sometimes they don’t print for people. Word is, you can’t “roll” the RR’s for the same product, meaning you can’t use an RR you got off of one item to pay for that same item to produce another RR.
So for example, I couldn’t take the $3 RR I got for the St. Ives body wash, use it to buy another St. Ives body wash, and get another RR. Some blogs say they’re item or parent-company specific, and some say you can’t do it for any item. You also can’t have more coupons than you have items.
I wanted to see if if the toothpaste would produce an RR if I used the $3 RR I got last week to pay for it, so I planned on getting that. I was also going to see what they had in the way of toilet paper and was planning to use my $5 RR for that.
So I get to Walgreens and find out that they only carry the four-packs of regular, single-ply Cottonelle, and for $3.99. $3.99!! That’s $1 a roll! I couldn’t use my $5 RR on one, because the RR was higher than the price of the toilet paper. I would have to buy a filler, or buy two packages. I didn’t want to buy a filler.
I couldn’t even scrap getting the toothpaste and use both RRs because the RRs came to $8 and the two toilet papers would have only been $7.98. That was the moment I started getting frustrated with Walgreens. So much for my free toilet paper.
I decided to get two packages of toilet paper and the toothpaste. I still wanted to see if using RRs to buy something would produce another RR. I also had a $.50/2 coupon for the Cottonelle for that size, so that gave me three items and three coupons, so I wouldn’t go over my coupon-item ratio.
I ended up paying $3.52 for my stuff, a savings of $9.79 (about 74% - booya!), considering the sale price of the toothpaste as well. If I apply the $3 RR to the toothpaste, that means I only paid the tax on that item ($.29), so I got two packages of toilet paper for $3.23, or about $1.62 each, or about $.41 a roll. I also got another $3 RR to use on my next visit, so we’ll see how this working towards free stuff works out.
Can I just take a minute and insert a rant here about the price of toilet paper while we’re at it? There’s all kinds of size of packages, so the best deal is to look at price per sheet, right? YOU WOULD THINK. But then you have to figure out price per sheer per ply. I mean, whose brain works that well, standing in the grocery store aisle with two kids pulling tampon boxes off the shelves and trying to open Wall-E toothbrushes when there’s one-ply and two-play, and now, good Lord, three-ply? I know mine doesn’t. Not to mention the rolls are getting thinner - kind of like you used to buy ice cream by the half-gallon and now you pay the same price per 1.5 quarts cause the box is thinner.
And toothpaste while we’re at it! There’s like a dozen different size tubes, not to mention the trial sizes. And there’s tartar control and baking soda and whitening and myriads other choices you have to take into consideration. I just want a good toothpaste, for a good deal. Really. Why is this so difficult? I’m on a quest to figure out, aside from free, the optimal price per ounce.
Tiffany and I have been back-and-forthing this and she has a good post up about applying your RRs to make things free. Check it out.