Lots of free items at Rite Aid next week

Erin at Coupon Cravings reminded me that there's a long list of cold and flu-related items that will be free after SCR at Rite Aid next week. If you never shop at Rite Aid, next week might be a good time to give it a try. Check out the list and see if there's anything you know you'll need in the cold months to come. And remember, if you're out here in Los Angeles (or other areas of California), the deals will start this Friday.

This Week in the Drugstore Game

I hit all of the big three this week and made one trip each to CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens.

At CVS, I got the free-after-ECB photo books and some free-after-coupon Sally Hansen nail polish. It was the first time I've ever used CVS's photo center, and I wasn't surprised that they were out of the 6x8 books - they were free, after all. (You could get two 6x8 books and one 4x6 book for free.) The woman working at the photo center was super nice, though, and told me she would substitute the 5x7 books and ring them up as 6x8s. None of the computers were set up for 5x7s, so it took her a while to figure out how to get that done. Then I messed up by not checking the number of pages when I did the 5x7 books so I ended up with 15 pages when the free book only came with 10. The woman was nice again, though, and didn't charge me extra for those pages when I told her I had assumed the computer just squeezed the pictures into the right number of pages. The register beeped on my $3 off manufacturer's coupon, so I only pressed her to use one of the three. They were for the larger books, and since I was getting two for free after ECB, I just wanted to make sure I didn't "overpay" on the third. I paid in two separate transactions so the math got really confusing and I even burned through almost all of my gift cards. But I know I got a good deal on the books, and I was grateful to the lady at the photo center for being so helpful that I sent CVS an email via their web site. I didn't want to say anything that might get her in trouble, so I didn't specifically mention the substitution or not charging me for the extra pages, though. Hopefully, she'll get some recognition out of the whole thing.

My stop at Rite Aid was super fast, since I only wanted the free Electrasol dishwasher detergent and the free Crest Whitening Expressions toothpaste. Actually, both of the items were moneymakers this past week. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Rite Aid, they were out of Electrasol. And the only Crest left on the shelf was the cinnamon flavor. I grabbed it anyway, since they were paying me 75 cents to buy it.

My trip to Walgreens was also short. I picked up a bottle of Powerade, two packages of Schick ST disposable razors, a bottle of L'Oreal Vive shampoo, and a matching bottle of conditioner. After coupons, the Powerade was free (with overage of 11 cents), and so was the shampoo and conditioner (they were on sale for buy one, get one free, and I had a buy one, get one free coupon). After the $2 off coupon in the July EasySaver book and a buy one, get one free coupon, the razors were a mere $1.99. With tax, I paid a total of $3.38.

To put the razor deal at Walgreens into perspective, yesterday's Friday sale at Amazonincluded a deal for three of the same packages for a whopping $16 (OK, technically, it was $15 and change). Instead of $1 per package, that works out to over $5 per pack. And that's why it's worth playing the Drugstore Game!

Read about more drugstore deals at The "Cent"sible Sawyer.

Free Electrasol (with overage)

Thanks to Consumer World for alerting me to a great deal at Rite Aid this week:

Electrasol dishwasher detergent is on sale for $2.99. There is also a Single Check Rebate of $2.00 (#257) this month. And, there was a coupon for $2.25 off Electrasol in yesterday's newspaper, which turns the deal into a money-maker. You'll pay 74 cents at the store, and get $2 back on your SCR. Not bad!

(Note: Apparently not all areas got the $2.25 off coupon - I hope yours did!)