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Thursday, September 9, 2010

How to Save Big $$$ at Drugstores


I know a lot of you guys (ok, girls) are intrigued by the whole coupon thing and would love to save money on groceries. I also know most of you hate the idea of clipping coupons, "stockpiling" random food you don't need immediately and/or you only buy natural, organic, locally-grown/harvested/produced foods which are rarely, if ever, on sale or have coupons available for them.

Now I personally don't know many people who are concerned about buying organic shampoo or all-natural toothpaste. If you are, great. But if you're not...then there's a TON of money to be saved when shopping for things like Crest and Pantene Pro-V. You can easily (translation: no clipping coupons) save big money on items like toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, diapers, etc. and either bank it (woo hoo!) or spend it on your "splurge" food items.

The secret my friends is your local drugstore.

Most people only visit a drugstore to fill a prescription or grab some Nyquil if the grocery store is closed for the evening. But there is a whole world of savings to be had if you learn how to play the drugstore game right. You might even have fun doing it.

Case in point- I bought all of this today at CVS:


1 jumbo pack (84 count) of Huggies diapers $23.99
1 6 pack of Scott paper towels $7.49
2 packs of Crest toothpaste $5.99
2 packages of Clorox wipes $5.00
1 Johnson & Johnson Baby Bubble Bath $4.50
1 Johnson & Johnson Baby Lotion $4.50
(child not included)
Total cost of goods: $51.47

But... every item was on sale, so the total cost of these goods came down to: $41.48

AND - each of these items offered a "reward" for buying them in the form of instant money back (Extra Care Bucks in CVS language). Bringing the total down further: $23.48.

Lastly - three items had printable coupons online, for an additional savings of $5.00. That brought the total paid for this stash to: $18.48.

(There was also a newspaper coupon for $1 off the toothpaste which I TOTALLY forgot to pull out because the cashier started talking to me about potty training. That's what I get for being sweet and chatty. And for buying diapers. But you hate clipping coupons anyway, so I prefer my illustration without the clipped coupon anyway.)

Again, $18.48 folks. Hopefully you all recognize this as practically stealing. Or as I like to think of it, getting the diapers for a really decent price and the rest of it for free.

I didn't have to stockpile anything. I'll use every one of these items this week. I didn't have to subscribe to a newspaper or get out any scissors!

Here are a few links that explain much more thoroughly than I could how to work the system at several drugstores. If none of these are close to you, let me know and I'll find a site that teaches how to work the deals at your local stores!



If you're in the area and are interested, e-mail me! I would love to show you how to save like this on the essentials.


3 comments:

  1. You are such the coupon queen Katie!
    I've heard other folks saying how much money you can save at drug stores but my only issue with it is just having to go one extra place. There isn't a drug store super close to me, so it's just one more place I would have to go out of my way. But maybe it would be worth it!!

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  2. Did you tell the clerk you forgot to give the coupon? I know at Kroger and Publix you can take your receipt and the coupon back to customer service, tell them you forgot, and they give you the cash. Hey, it's worth an extra $1!

    BTW ... my CVS story of the week was the B1G1 Wisk laundry detergent. $8.49 total - $6 (via two $3 off coupons from the newspaper) - $2.50 extra bucks = FREE!!

    I also did a stop 2-3 weeks ago where I used a save $5 when you spend $25 coupon. I purchased 2 Tide Laundry Detergents (Big Size), 2 tubes of Crest ProHealth toothpaste. My total before coupons was $27.58 - $5 instore coupon - $4 extra bucks for tide ($2 each) - $3 (Tide Coupons from paper) - $1.50 (Crest coupons from paper) - $5 extra bucks (for Crest) = $9.08 ... which is cheaper than 1 bottle of the big tide on sale at most stores!!

    I LOVE COUPONS! It's so fun to hear your stories!!

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  3. I love the drugstore game. I once got 4 things of windex multisurface for $1.71!!!

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