Wheeling & Dealing - 9/24/08

I hit 3 stores; Kmart, Walgreens, and Publix. I had my list in hand and my plan all worked out. It turned out to be a good day at Publix - many of their buy one get ones this week matched up with my coupons. I didn't use many internet printables because I had a bunch of Sunday paper and All You magazine coupons that matched up perfectly.
After store sales and coupons the Toaster Strudels were less than $1 a box, the Dole Parfaits were around $.55 a pack, the hamburger helper was $.75 a box, and the Cheerios were $.99. I used many more coupons but those are the ones that stand out.
I would usually never spend money on the Viola but they were only $1.50 a bag with my coupons and I used one bag, added more pasta, some frozen veggies and some cheese last night and made a meal big enough for my family of 8 plus leftovers. Everything but these cheese had I bought very cheap with coupons and discounts making the entire meal cost around $3. And remember, there are leftovers - I'll set the left overs out with cheap tortillas we purchased from the discount bread store to create an entirely new meal!

• 2 boxes of Cheerios
• 8 boxes Toaster Strudels
• 2 Viola 10 minute meals
• 12 pack of eggs
• package Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
• 1 package cheese singles
• 1 bottle salad dressing
• 6 boxes hamburger helper
• 12 Kool-Aids
• 6 Dole Parfaits (the Apple Caramel kind is unbelievable!)
• 1 box wheat thins
• 1 bottle of Ketchup
• 2 six packs of Yoplait Kids Yogurt
• 4 bottles of Glade fabric & air
• 3 2000 Flushes
• 5 Royal Gelatins
• 1 L'Oreal Revitalift
• 4 rolls of floss
• 3 Robitussins
• 1 Triaminic
• 10 eight packs of Hershey's candy

Before store promotions, sales, and coupons my total was $172.57.

After store promotions, sales, and coupons I paid $53.97.

I received $34.99 back in rewards and rebates to bring my actual out of pocket down to:

$18.98!!! (that includes tax)
It started out as more but Publix overcharged me on an item and their policy is to give you that item for free if you are overcharged! The graciously followed through with the policy as promised and refunded me $2.40! So, make sure you check your receipts at Publix (other stores do this, too).

So far this month I have built up more than $80 in rebates from Walgreens and I still have two more rebate deals to work in tomorrow or Saturday (double dipping days!). Once I submit them this weekend online here it will take less than 2 weeks for them to automatically be added to my Walgreen's re-loadable gift card. I can use this money on anything at Walgreens that I need (diapers, wipes, peanut butter, etc...) or I can roll my rebate dollars onto next months 'free after rebate items'. I'll probably do a little of both depending on sales and register rewards.