Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer (a blog I adore even if it doesn’t have much to do with saving money!) usually hosts a weekly Works-For-Me-Wednesday feature with loads of helpful ideas, inspiration, and information–especially for moms!
She’s mixing things up today and asking everyone to share what doesn’t work for us. I thought it would be fun to share some bargain-shopping things which I’ve found don’t work well for me at this current season of my life:
1) Sending in for manufacturer’s rebates. Believe it or not, I usually find mail-in rebates to be more work than they are worth. In addition, since we are on a strict $40/week grocery budget, I don’t have room to pay for extra things just because I get a full rebate back.
My only exception to the no-rebates-rule is when I buy something at CVS that is already free after ECBs and there is a full manufacturer’s rebate I can send in for. Then, and usually only then, I’ll normally take the time to send in for it.
2) Buying groceries more than once per week. I rarely shop outside of my designated once-a-week shopping trip. Otherwise, I find myself wasting time and money buying things I probably didn’t need in the first place. As an added bonus, I like staying home and find I am much more productive and calmer when I make an effort to stay home more.
3) Shopping at Walgreens. Should I admit this?! I stopped shopping at Walgreens almost eight months ago and have only been back three times since then to hit some exceptional-can’t-miss deal. I shopped there regularly for a few years but after I had my second baby, I felt the need to streamline my shopping in order to keep things simple.
I’ve found that one or two transactions at CVS each week keep us plenty stocked on household items. Plus, I prefer the CVS system and cashiers to Walgreens. If we ever move somewhere that does not have a CVS, I will certainly be happy to go back to Walgreens shopping again since I know there are lots of great deals to be had there!
So there are my bargain-shopping "what-doesn’t-work-for-me" confessions. What about you? We are all in different situations and locations with different families, different diet preferences and restrictions, and different time constraints so it should be interesting to hear what doesn’t work for others.
Also, I’d love to know if I’m the only person who only shops once per week, doesn’t send in for rebates, and skips Walgreens most of the time. Do tell!
And speaking of things that don’t work, if you want to hear about one of my biggest over-achieving, first-time mothering flops, you’ll enjoy this post.
{ 8 comments }
I don’t have Walgreens, and I’ll stop at CVS on my way home sometimes, but other than that I got Sunday mornings since my stores run out of everything so quickly….
We don’t have a CVS and I’ve never been inside one….so for me it’s Walgreens or nothing. I do the Walgreens rebates because I find them easy to do. I keep all my Walgreens receipts and RR in one side of a two snap wallet and it takes me all of 5 minutes to fill out the paperwork for the rebates…now that they offer them online it may be even easier.
I shop once or twice a week. On the first and third Wed of the month my son has youth group about a half an hour away. I have to take the younger kids too because my husband works into the evening and so while my son is enjoying his youth group the girls and I are shopping. We usually hit Walmart to do some coupon shopping. And if I want/need a second trip to Walgreens that week we hit it to.
We also like to hit thrift stores or yard sales on Fri, but that is not an every week thing…maybe once a month.
Me….I haven’t tried either because the way the deals work confuse me. Really they do. I am fairly intelligent but I just don’t seem to get it. I shop just once a week and just started stockpiling 5 weeks ago. I need to be so that i can stay udner $5 but with graduation coming up that’s been hard PLUS pop kills us[ and diet coke it is although we have cut way back the consumption- if it's on major sale I STOCK UP!!!!]
I don’t drive due to being epileptic and live 30 minutes from the stores, so once a week it is or my husband would flip out.
I THINK IT IS SO WEIRD THAT WE ALL HAVE SUCH DIFFERENT OPINIONS
I HAVE 5 NEARBY WALGREENS AND LIKE 7 CVS’S
I PREFER CVS 2 TO 1 OVER WALGREENS
WELL REALLY 10 TO 1 AND THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE EXTRA BUCKS!
IN MY AREA THE WALGREENS CASHIEERS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO OPERATE THE REGISTERS!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE VERY COUPON UN-FRIENDLY.
NEVER HAD THAT PROBLEM IN CVS.
I ALSO HATE THE FACT THAT AT WALGREENS WHEN YOU RETURN SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO WAIT 5-12 MINUTES AND LIKE 2-3 PAGES TO RETURN SOMETHING WITH A RECEIPT,(THEY HAVE TO PAGE THE MANAGER) AND THEN THE MANAGER THAT COMES OUT HAS AN ATTITUDE. SOME HAVE THE NERVE TO TELL YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE SAME STORE WHERE YOU BOUGHT IT TO RETURN IT!!!!!???? AFTER ARGUING WITH THEM FOR LIKE 5 MINUTES AND CHALANGING THEIR LOGIC…..”IF I HAD BOUGHT IT ON VACATION IN HAWAII, YOU MEAN TO TELL ME I HAVE TO CATCH A PLANE BACK TO THE ISLAND TO RETURN THIS!)
WALGREENS IS ALSO HORRIBLE FOR ITEMS NOT RINGING UP CORECTLY. THIS IS RARE TO HAPPEN AT CVS, AND IF IT DID THE MANAGERS APPOLOGISE TO ME. THE DON’T TALK DOWN TO ME AND TELL ME THAT “I AM TRYING TO GET STUFF FOR FREE” LIKE THEY DO AT WALGREENS.
I DONT KNOW WHAT ELASE TO SAY
OBVIOUSLY THIS VARIES BY REGION, BUT IN MY AREA IT MUST BE MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO CUZ ALL THESE WALGREENS HAVE RUDE MANAGERS AND HORRIBLE CASHIEERS, I THINK THEY WANT TO SEE WHO CAN BE RUDER!
I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THIS AT CVS. Oh yeah and the cvs stores are more organized. At Walgreens there are always carts of junk lying around and stuff allover theh floor.
I can just assume: that the district manager for my area cvs does a wonderful job; the walgreens district manager( if they even have one) is horrible.
I just started Budget shopping again after about 3 years of not really watching the prices. I have just a couple of weeks ago started CVS’ing. I’m sure I will start slowing down and only going in to CVS a couple times a month, but for now, since there are CVS’ on every corner where I am, I have been going in 1-2 times a week. THere is one actually on on my way home from work, so it doesn’t take me out of the way at all. On Saturday, I have a route I take to Wal-mart, then Costco, then Ukrops (local), then Healthway. THey are all within a few miles of eachother. My food budget is pretty high in comparrison to what I am seeing here, but I am feeding 6-10 people organically and with Farm food. I used to spend 3-400 a week and so far I have pared it down to about 200. I only send in for rebates on large purchases like appliances or cell phones, and there are no Walgreens around me. Another thing that doesn’t work for me is taking my Son(16) with me shopping anywhere. My daughters(13) do ok and actually are very helpful, but any time I have my son with me, I buy way too much! Shopping alone is not good for me either, because knowing that I am teaching my girls by example helps me to make the better choices, without that accountability, I tend to splurge on stuff like chocolate bars, bottled teas…I’m sure that as I streamline my budget, menues and shopping trips I will be able to get my grocery budget down even more.
Thanks for your website-I enjoy it.
Oh my gosh! I thought it was just me with the Walgreens, and my 15 year old son does not want to go with me anymore. The one closest to my home the cashiers were rude (they refuse to take the $10/$40 until after ALL coupons) and worse yet were the managers! They actually would not give me the Register Rewards because the item was a B1G1F – the manager found a way to print it then threw it in the trash! I said I would never return to that Walgreens.
I found 2 Walgreens in a different area with varying degrees of success depending upon the cashier. One cashier showed me a 2 page printout from the corporate office which said you were only allowed to use 1 coupon per item, and she decided that meant she would only use 1 of my 3 coupons but not tell me! I got home, looked at my receipt, and returned only to be told I couldn’t use all 3 coupons. The manager tried to tell me that I wasn’t paying enough (I owed $1.08) but ended up correcting the error and giving me the additional $10 Register Rewards that printed after he voided the first order and rang it again.
In contrast, the CVS is coupon-friendly, and when there was a glitch and my $10 ECB did not print, the manager immediately gave me a $10 gift card.
Does anyone know the address and/or customer service phone number of the corporate office of Walgreens?
Has anyone had any success complaining about the attitude of the help in Walgreens?
I thought it was just me and Walgreens! I am so glad to hear someone else say they can’t mail in those rebates! I gave up on Walgreens eons ago because they never have the products in stock! However, they are building a new store 7 miles away, right across the street from my CVS. So I decided to learn to do the coupon/rebate thing. I went every week and did get some good deals, but NOT without those cashier/manager problems others mentioned. I saved my receipts….too long! I missed the deadline for filing for the rebates. So my good deals weren’t so good and I got mad at myself for not being frugal enough. Now I am giving myself permission ignore those “free after rebate” temptations!
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