Rite Aid's New Coupon Policy

Rite Aid has a new coupon policy, a lot of things are the same, but some things are different!
They used to accept a buy one get one free coupon in addition to a buy one get one free (BOGO) sale, but now they wont. You can use an "amount off" coupon with a BOGO free sale or another BOGO coupon. So it is not bad. I'm not sure why the change, but I think I will survive.

Another change (and I'm very excited about this one actually) is that they are limiting the the number of identical coupons you can use.
New Policy: "Rite Aid may accept up to 4 identical coupons for the same number of qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers within the store manager’s sole discretion."

This one is going to be awesome! In reference to the post before about clearing the shelves, this will help certain people from clearing them and give others of us a chance to still take advantage of the awesome deals! (which may be one reason they've done away with the doubling up on BOGO coupons and sales... hmmm, there's a thought.)

So those are the big changes to the policy, if you want to look at the full policy, you can find it here: Rite Aid's NEW Coupon Policy. Feel free to download it, and print it out so you can be familiar with it.

In light of the new TLC show Extreme Couponing series, people are really starting to notice coupons and know how to use them. This means changes like this are bound to start happening a lot more frequently until everyone (shoppers, stores and manufacturers alike) can reach that happy medium. Just hang in there all my fellow coupon-savvy friends. It may be a bumpy road, but we'll make it through OK and together! :)

More Coupons In More Places!

If you've been couponing for a while or are just starting out, you know that most of the coupons you use come from your Sunday paper (75-85% of your coupons) and if you aren't getting the Sunday paper, you're missing out!

How many papers do you need?
GrocerySmarts.com rule of thumb is to have one Sunday paper per person in your household. That helps give you a great baseline to judge how much of anything you need for your family when "stockpiling" for the next 3-4 months.


So where do you get all these Sunday papers?
If you go to the Newsstands, you can get them. But here is the problem with getting them from the stands. You are not always guaranteed the coupons inside! Coupons are reserved for people who have a subscription. If there are any coupons inside the papers at the stands, it is only going to be whatever "extras" the printers had.

On top of that, I knew a gal that went early on a Sunday morning to pay for a couple Sunday papers so she could get the Inserts, and she saw the lady in front of her pay for one paper and go through all the rest of them and steel all the inserts from the others. This is totally dishonest and rude not to mention a million other things that are going through my brain, but the point is, you can never be sure you'll get coupons if you go to the stands.

Another thing to think about is the price. If you go on Sunday morning to the Newsstand, you can pay anywhere from $1.50-$2.00 for the one paper in Utah and it's much more than that in other areas. Right now, you can get subscriptions through me for less than $1 per paper, and that's with the guaranteed coupons inside!

I've got some great news that I'm very excited about!
I am now able to offer Newspapers to the following areas:

Utah:
Anywhere in the State

Northern California:
Sacramento County
Yolo County
Sutter County
Colusa County
Yuba County
Nevada County
Placer County
El Dorado County
Amador County

Southern California:
Orange County

Nevada:
Clark County

Idaho:
Preston

Contact me for prices and papers available in your area.

On another note, be sure to watch the June 8th episode of TLC's Extreme Couponing.
The person featured is a user of our GrocerSmarts.com lists, and is in a "Normal" grocery environment (Las Vegas, where stores DON'T double coupons)! I'm pretty excited to see this one! Check your local listings for air times.

Free Raffle for a Gift Basket June 4th

June 4th, from 4pm till 8pm, there will be a boutique in Riverdale Utah!!! It is going to be so much fun, and I will be there in person to answer any questions you may have about couponing and GrocerySmarts.com. If you've wanted to book a class before, but haven't because you were hesitant, come by and ask me anything, you can book a class there!

There will be different booths set up by others as well, including: Scentsy, Discovery Toys, Slumber Parties and many more!

If the thought of a night out and refreshments and friends isn't enough to get you there, I'll also be having a raffle for a gift basket at the end of the night! It is still a work in progress, and I'm hoping to get a few more nice things for it before then, but here is a sneak peak of what will be in there...



A lot of the other booths will be having raffles as well. So come, have fun and just enjoy the evening out with friends!

Open House & Boutique
What better way to kick off the month than a day out with the your friends. We are going to have something for everyone! There will be many consultants and vendors from all the companies that you have grown to love and trust. 15 booths so far and the list is still growing! There will be lots of FREE drawings and great prizes given away-just for coming out you will be entered for your chance to win! Be sure to visit all the booths and enter. So, grab a few friends, come visit and meet all the vendors, get a little retail therapy, enjoy some delicious food and most importantly-have FUN!

Saturday, June 4th from 4:00-8:00pm

ARC Club House
5100 S 1050 W Riverdale

Hope to see you and all of your friends there. I know I'm very excited!

My Walgreens Shopping Trip Yesterday!

I paid $5.09 for over $65.oo worth of stuff! That's a 92% savings!!! I basically paid the tax and pennies for the shaving cream and razors (I got one of them for totally Free!)

I went to Walgreens, and they were totally out of the "Proglide Razor Systems" that were on sale, so I asked if they had any of them in the back. The nice lady told me no, and that they had been out for a few days. But, that they were substituting these these Proglide Packages ($12.99) for them since they were out of stock! These have a razor, cartridge and batteries just like the other ones, but they also have shave gel, cooling lotion and a thermal scrub!!! AWESOME! So I was very excited about that!
NOTE: Not all stores will do substitutions like this, but it never hurts to ask!

I could have gotten up to 7 of those razors, but I didn't want to clear out the shelves. Same reason I only got 2 shaving gels. Responsible;e couponing at work! :)

Discovering Self Reliance - Part 5: Learning New Skills - Maintaining Your Vehicle

When we think of being self reliant or learning to be self sufficient, one thing we tend to maybe forget is our vehicles. If we can learn how to maintain our own vehicles, we will be able to not only save money, but be able to help ourselves if we ever need it.

Here is a small list of things that would be prudent for everyone to know how to do if they ever drive, or plan on driving.

Check Your Oil
This is the most basic thing to know in my opinion, as well as one of the most important things. My dad made me learn how to check the oil in a car before I was even 14 years old. It is probably the easiest thing you can ever learn to do on your car, other than knowing how to fill the tank with gas. If you can properly check the oil, you can do it frequently and know exactly how your car uses it's oil, as well as when to fill it. More problems could be avoided all the time if everyone knew how to do this, and did it on a regular basis.

Change Your Own Oil
Learning how to change your own oil as well as check it can save you some big bucks! All you'd have to pay for at that point would be the cost of the oil, rather than the labor as well. Not to mention avoiding all the "ad-ons" that every company will try to push on you every time you pay for an oil change.

Changing Filters
Once you know how to change the oil, learning how to change the oil filter as well as the air filter, in your car should be a natural next step. Think of all the money you'll save over a few years just by knowing how to do it yourself.

Changing The Tires
Everyone should know how to change a tire as a basic safety precaution if nothing else. If you are on a long drive, alone, in the middle of no-where and you get a flat... What do you do? If you don't know how to change a tire, this can be a very frightening thing! If you have a cell phone you can call for help, but who knows how long it will take help to come. If you don't have a cell phone... well, you can just imagine.
The point is, if you know how to change a tire, you can pretty quickly put the spare on yourself, and get back on the road to safety.

Know Your Car's Symptoms
Believe it or not, your car shows different symptoms when something is wrong just like a person does. If you can train yourself to know the basics, then you can save a lot of money by catching some problems early on before something big breaks and you have to pay for a large repair.

One you can get to the point where you can do a lot of these things on your own, you will be able to save money on routine tune-ups as well as money and time on bit things. In today's society, our vehicles are our life-lines at times, and in many cases needed for our livelihood. If we could all just know a little more about how to take care of them, then I think we would be far better off.
There is obviously so much more we can all learn how to do on our cars but the above is, what I think, a great place to start.

Discovering Self Reliance - Part 1
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 2: Living on Welfare
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 3: Realizing Your Talents
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 4: Emergencies & Really Being Ready For Them
Discovering Self Reliance - Part 5: Learning New Skills - Maintaining Your Vehicle

Top Free Things: Now Through May 21st

Walgreens:
Activ-On Pain Relief 2 oz Arthritis or Joint & Muscle - Use $7.99 Mail-In Rebate printed at checkout
FREE after Rebate
Tylenol Precise Patches or Cream - Use Tylenol Precise $3/1 Walgreens Coupon HERE Paired with manufacturer coupon: Tylenol Precise $5/1 This Link Walgreens allows you to use a manufacturers coupon AND Store coupon on the same purchase
Free after Coupons
Scotch Magic Tape 3/4x300 or 1/2x450 in - Use Scott Magic Tape $1/1 This Link Buy 1 get 2 free, print off two coupons and you should be able to get
3 Free after Coupons
Nova Max Plus Blood Glucose Monitor - Receive a $10.00 coupon (Register Reward) with purchase of 1.
Free after RR

Rite Aid:
Oral B Cross Action Manual Toothbrush, 1 ct - Use Oral-B Pulsar, CrossAction or Advantage Toothbrushes $1.50/1 or (2) Indicator or Cavity Defense Manual Toothbrushes (05-31-11) PG-5/1 coupon and get a $2 off Up Reward to use later.
Free Plus Overage after Coupon and Up Rewards
Aquafresh Toothpaste, 5.6 - 6.4 oz - Use More than one $1/1 Aquafresh Advanced coupons at This Link-04/03 PAIR with STORE COUPON, Rite Aid, Aquafresh, any (You can only print ONE of these, Rite Aid will let you use this IN ADDITION to another manufacturers coupon for the same purchase!) $1.50/1 (active) This Link-05/01 and get a $5.00 Up Reward at Checkout. (must get $15 worth of qualifying items to get UR)
Free Plus Overage after coupons and Up Rewards

Fresh Market:
Ronzoni Garden Pasta, 12-13.25 oz. - Use Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, any $1/1 (09-10-11) SS-5/15 coupon
Free after Coupon

Maceys:
Propel Zero Calorie, 24 oz. bottle - Use Propel Zero Calorie, any 20 oz. or 24 oz. single serve bottles $1/2 (05-31-11) SS-2/13 coupon
Free after Coupon
Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, 12-13.25 oz. - Use Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, any $1/1 (09-10-11) SS-5/15 coupon PAIRED with in-ad store coupon: .88 each with coupon and purchase of 1
Free after Coupons

Associated Foods:
Ronzoni Garden Pasta, 12-13.25 oz. - Use Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, any $1/1 (09-10-11) SS-5/15 coupon
Free after Coupon

Wal-Mart:
Carefree Pantiliners 22 ct - Use Carefree, any 18-22 ct. FREE up to $1.00 or save $1 on any (1) Carefree product (06-30-11) SS-5/8
Free Plus Overage after Coupon
Noxzema Bikini Razors 4 pk - Use Noxzema Spa Shave 4-Blade Shaver 4-pack, Super Smooth Triple Blade Shaver 4-pack or 8-pack, Premium-Pivot Twin Blade 12-pack or Bikini Shaver 3-pack $2/1 (06-30-11) RP-5/1
Free after Coupon
Reach Dental Floss 55 yds - Use Listerine Antiseptic 500mL or larger OR Reach Floss OR Reach Access Flosser, any $3/3 (12-31-11) JohnsonsSS-1/9
Free after Coupon
Similac Ready Made Sensitive Formula, quart - Use Similac Product, any $5/1 (05-31-11) SS-4/3
Free Plus possible Overage after Coupon

Wal-Mart's prices are APPROXIMATE, prices vary by location. To see the full list of all these stores (and more) check out GrocerySmarts.com
Also, remember to be gracious to your fellow shoppers. Go ahead and take advantage of these free items, but only get what your family can actually use in the next little while.

Here are some of my latest posts you might find interesting:
Smith's Shopping Trip 5/13/11
Raising, Molding & Influencing Our Children
We Cut Our Grocery Bill by 56% - Part 1

How I Make My Shopping List

This is my very first video blog attempt! Sorry if it is jumpy, I'll learn better for next time :)
I've had a few people ask me if I could do a video blog of one of my shopping trips from start to finish so that you could all see exactly how I do it. So, this is how I start. I've even done it with my kids awake and first thing in the morning so you can see exactly how I do it... and that if I can do it, you can too!