Back In The Saddle, As It Were

Today I got back in the saddle.  While I wish I were talking about riding a horse, something I enjoy doing, alas I am not talking about horseback riding.  I'm talking about the drug store coupon game.  

Back before I was pregnant with Liam I would hit up Walgreens, RiteAid, and occasionally CVS and come away with a nice haul.  I was, by no means, a shelf clearer, but I did pretty well attempting to be frugal with the money God blessed us with.  While I was pregnant I just seemed to be too tired to trek from Meijer (for regular groceries) to Walgreens to McCords (for great produce and meat!) to RiteAid so I quit the drug store game and stuck to two stores.  I didn't do nearly as well but it wasn't that bad either.  Once Liam was born I thought about starting up again but lugging his car seat in and out of stores was rather cumbersome and annoying.  Plus car seats don't really fit on the little carts often used at drug stores.

Recently a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of her excellent trip to Walgreens and it made me miss finding those deals.  Not only that, but as we live on one income I realized that we could stand to benefit from the free and almost free items you can often find at drug stores.   One of the drawbacks for a lot of people (especially since gas pole vaulted from $3.82 to $4.09 today!!!!) is the cost of gas to travel to different stores.  Thankfully for me RiteAid and Walgreens are both on my way to Meijer so it doesn't really take extra gas to stop there as long as they coincide with my trips to Meijer.  Plus now that Liam is riding in a cart like a big boy I no longer have to lug his car seat in and out of stores!

So yesterday I decided that I would join in the fun again and I did some serious coupon clipping.  Today I headed off to RiteAid (and Meijer) and I came back with this:

I know it doesn't really look like much but I was pretty happy with my first trip.  I paid $7.53 out of pocket for all of this and then got $6 in +UP Rewards to use on my next purchase.  Sigh, I love it!

As I mentioned on Facebook earlier, I am a Fantasy Football Draft Widow tonight so I'm off to dig into my ice cream (I had a coupon so I got Breyers Mint Fudge Brownie instead of Moose Tracks) and start up Pride and Prejudice!