John Frieda Hair Products Promo at Rite Aid

This promotion has already expired, but I wanted to show you as another example of how to get great deals.  I went to Rite Aid this week and bough JF shampoo, conditioner, and foaming hair color.

Shampoo $6.99

+ Conditioner $6.99

+ Hair Dye $12.99

Total Retail Value $26.97

What I paid:

Promo:  Buy 1 JF Shamp/Cond get one 1/2 off

Shampoo $6.99

+ Conditioner $3.49

Promo: Buy 2 Shamp/Cond get $3 Register Rewards

- $3.00

Promo: JF Hair Dye $11.99

+ Hair Dye $11.99

Promo: Buy 1 JF Hair Dye get $2 Register Rewards

- $2 Register Rewards

Coupon: Buy two JF hair products, get $10 off JF hair dye

- $10 Coupon

Total Paid: $ 7.47

That's a total savings of $19.50 or 72%!!!  Yeah buddy!

Bring Home the Bacon

Instead of bringing home a pound of Oscar Mayer's shrink wrapped pork product check out the butcher's case at your local grocery store.  They may have a better product for less money.

Here in San Diego, CA a pound of regular bacon (not on sale) cost around $8.49.  That is RIDICULOUS!  I used to only buy it if it was BOGO or a great sale/coupon.

Before going grocery shopping one day I was looking in the store ad and saw that the butcher's cut applewood smoked bacon was $1.99/lb.  I thought it had to be a typo so I had to investigate.

Sure enough, when I went up to the butcher's case there was a sign for $1.99 on the bacon.  What surprised me even more was that the normal, non-sale price was only $3.99!  I have been paying more for bacon that isn't as fresh, has more preservatives, and doens't taste as good.  Unbelieveable.

Buying the  bacon this way also gave me a great idea of how to stretch my dollar even more.  When we buy the pre-packaged stuff I just throw it in the freezer until we need it.  I cook the whole package and that's the end of it.  Since this bacon wasn't prepacked I decided to layer it between sheets of parchment paper/aluminum foil (it's double sided).  I put 4 pieces on one side then folded the paper in half and added 4 more.  I continued wrapping and stacking until I had all 3 lbs wrapped.  I wraped it again with press and seal plastic (you want to keep as much air out as possible to prevent freezer burn) and placed it in a flat, open spot in the freezer.  Once frozen, it will keep it's shape so you can put it anywhere.

This keeps the bacon slices completely free from one another so you can take out exactly as much as you need even when it's still frozen.  Now, instead of cooking up 16 pieces like I used to, I only take out 6-8 pieces that we need and put the rest in the freezer.  Not only is it saving money, it's also saving the extra calories from when I'd graze on the extra bacon througout the day.

Get the Drug Store Deals

This is one of those things that I thought was too good to be true.  I can, with 100% confidence, say that it is a very real thing.

I wanted to use a current example, and what do you know, it was the first item on the first page I looked at when I opened this morning's paper.

This is from the Rite Aid ad.  I know it's hard to read, but it says Crest Toothpaste, Oral-B Toothbrushes, and Scope Mouthwash is on sale for $3 with your wellness plus card.  The red/yellow part on the left says that when you buy any of these items you get a
$3 +UP Reward (Limit 2).

There are also coupons for $.75 off Crest Toothpaste and $.75 off Scope Mouthwash.

This is the same advertisement from their website.

Time to save!!

First things first:  you need a +UP card.  If you don't have one, get one.  It's one of those annoying little cards that you put on your keychain but it is totally worth the annoyance.

If you purchase one Crest Toothpaste and one Scope Mouthwash your total would be $6.00 plus tax.  Take off $1.50 for the coupons and your total is $4.50 plus tax.  You will pay that out of pocket but in return you will get $6.00 back in +UP Rewards (+UP Rewards are just like store credit, so it's almost as good as cash at Rite Aid).

For these two items you are making $1.50 minus any taxes you had to pay (it varies state to state).

YOU ARE MAKING MONEY BY BUYING THINGS!

Save your +UP Rewards for next week.  You get to a point where you are only spending a dollar or two out of pocket because you have so many +UP Rewards saved up.

When you start to get the hang of this it gets to be so much fun.  I haven't even looked through the rest of the paper but usually there are a lot of free or almost free items.  Getting free items is great but making money when you buy things is a feeling like no other.

Additional information:
+UP Rewards do expire a couple weeks after they are issued.
+UP Rewards cannot be use to pay sales tax and value will not be returned.  To know how many +UP Rewards you can use, ask for your subtotal.  If your total is $5.50 but your subtotal is $4.99 you can only use $4.00 in +UP Rewards and will have to pay the additional $1.50 out of pocket.