So shopping did not start out well today. My ususal policy is to NOT go shopping on the first day of a sale. The stores are always crazy busy and it just makes shopping too stressful. But this afternoon, I was beginning to think I should’ve shopped on Friday!
The day started off with us heading to our local – you guessed it – Walmart. I figured beginning a beautiful Sunday afternoon it wouldn’t be to bad. I was wrong. The parking lot was nuts and the store was even worse! Our store is in the middle of a renovation so things are every where and with all the great deals people were littering all the isles. On top of it being more than difficult to move about the store, of the first 5 items I was after, our store was sold out of 3 of them. I was less than impressed by this point and Ryan and I decided to head to a different store out of town.
On our way out, we decided to stop at Canadian Tire to scoop up some of the free Vim. Guess what, Sold Out. I wasn’t very optimistic about heading out of town at this point but figured the score would be worth it. So we headed to the new Supercentre that I really enjoyed the last couple times we visited. Before we got to Walmart though, we stopped at Canadian Tire.
We walked in and right away, there were the $0.89 Snuggle Sheets. I had 2 of the no exclusions coupons left so I grabbed them up. We then did a walk around the store to try and find the Vim cleaners. We couldn’t find them anywhere – found all the other $0.89 products just not the Vim. So we headed back to Customer Service to ask where we could find them. She directed us to an isle and they weren’t there. So we slowly browsed around the few ajoining isles to see if we could spot them. I was pretty sure by this point that we weren’t going to find any. Then we stopped at an end display where there were a bunch of other $0.89 items. I was staring judgingly at the other products when Ryan piped in with – “There they are!” They were on the bottom shelf of the display and there weren’t many left so you had to actually crouch down or bend your head to be able to see them. Either way, I had all the products I was after. As we were walking to the checkouts, Ryan and I joked about whether or not they would take the coupons. Canadian Tire doesn’t have the best reputation (or personal experiences) as being very “coupon friendly”.
So we got to the checkout and she rang through the Vim. I handed her my coupons and she looked at it and immediatly said “I don’t think I can take this”. I gave her a brief explaination knowing she would call for a CSM anyways. And she did. They stood away from me and looked over every centimetre of that coupon front and back. This is what she came back with – “We can take the coupons but we have to raise the price of the item to $1.00″ ?!?! HUH?!?!? This was a new one for me. I’ve NEVER heard of a store INCREASING THE PRICE of a product to accomadate a coupon. I was kind of taken aback when she said that but figured at least they are going to take them!
So the cashier raised the price of all the Vim and the 2 Snuggle to $1 and rang all my coupons through. This is how it ended.
Total before coupons: $10.17
OOP: $1.17
With Canadian Tire ending on a fairly pleasant note (I really was anticipating walking away with nothing!) I was looking forward to Walmart. We pulled in and parked right away. Already off to a good start. The store was great, there weren’t many people in there and lots of products to be found! We walked around the store and got everything but 3 items from my list. I wasn’t too worried as they weren’t really that important. I’ll just pick them up tomorrow. We headed to check out and there was the cashier I’ve had everytime I’ve been there. She was working the express lines but since they weren’t busy she told us to come in.
This cashier is great! She does her job well, she makes sure everything matches up and is legit but does it in a timely and friendly manner. She is chatty and seems impressed with all of our savings. We had an extra pink bag with us so we gave it to her to say thanks. I also told her to check out the website, so if she’s reading – Thanks again!
This is what we got:
8 x Dawn Dish Soap $1.37 – 4 x $1 WUB2 = $0.87ea
4 x Glade Decor Scents $1.98 – 4 x $2.00 = FREE (price matched Giant Tiger)
4 x VH Steamers $2.97 – 2 x BOGO = $1.48ea (price matched Giant Tiger)
1 x Dove Shampoo $2.99 – $2.00 = $0.99 (price matched Rexall)
4 x Gillette Pro Series Skin Care $2.99 – 4 x $2.00 = $0.99ea (NOTE: As I’m typing this post, I just noticed the cashier rang this item in as $2.99 instead of the $3.99 price match from Rexall. Oops – but yay! I feel bad that it was price matched incorrectly kind excited about the extra $4.00 savings though!)
2 x Gillette Body Wash $2.87 – 2 x $2 – $0.87ea
6 x Gillette Deodorant $1.97 – 2 x $5 WUB3 = $0.30ea
1 x Off! Aerosol $7.67 – $12.00 = + $4.33
1 x NeoCitran Warming $5.99 – $3.00 = $2.99 (price match RCSS)
4 x Stride Spark $1.58 – FPC = FREE
3 x Mr Big $0.58 – FPC = FREE
1 x Maynards Wine Gums $1.97 – $5.00 = +3.03
2 x Shreddies $3.97 – FPC = FREE
3 x Kinder Eggs $1.17 – FPC = FREE
I had planned to save up these FPCs for a 100% savings trip but I figured with all of the other great sales on right now, I might as well use them.
Total Retail Cost: $130.87
OOP: $27.58 ( savings = $103.29)
On our way home, we stopped at Macs to grab our free chips. I was a little surprised when the cashier quickly took all 3 (got the third in a trade with MIL) and rang them all through together. This coupon does say one per customer but he took them no problem. So we got 3 bags of Ruffles Spicy Ketchup chips to try for FREE!!
Shopping today was fantastic! We scored lots of great deals and saved tons of money!
Days Total Retail Value: $146.23
Days Total OOP: $28.75
Total Savings : $117.48
Even though shopping was great, the best part of the whole day was getting to pack my items in to my pink SaveaLoonie.com bags and walk proudly out of the store!
