You know how weird couponing has made me? So weird that when my grandmother told me that she really wanted some Viactiv vitamins this week, I was thrilled because it gave me an excuse to get over to Walgreens and combine the 15% off Friends and Family coupon with the Spend $25, Get $5 Register Reward offer.
Sadly, in my case the two deals worked against each other and I had a bit of a fail. Still got a nice deal -- paid $13.82 for $28 worth of merchandise -- but not the great deal it could have been. I COULD have, really should have, gotten that merch for $6.82.
I stopped into a Wag's far from my neighborhood (I had just picked up my stoopid Toshiba laptop from the repair shop) and bought:
2 packages Viactiv (60 count + 15 "free") $7 each
1 Snuggie (Christmas present) $14.99
I thought that because my purchase before any coupons would ring up as $28.99 before coupons I would be fine. However, looking at my receipt, I think that the original total was calculated using the 15% off price. The calcium chews were $5.94 each and the Snuggie was $12.74.
Then, although I tried to stop her, she rang the store coupons before the manufacturer's coupons. The in-ad $4 off Viactiv Q, which normally would have taken off $8, took off $6.80 -- 15% less, due to the Friends and Family coupon. Fair enough.
I also used a coupon for $2 off a Snuggie, which can be found in the black-and-white stapled pages of coupons found near the registers or somewhere like that. That one was NOT reduced by 15%, probably because it rang up as a manufacturer's coupon.
Finally, the two $2/1 Viactiv coupons from last week's Parade magazine. For reasons that are completely obscure to me, these rang up as $1 off instead of $2 off. I have no idea if this is how the bar code rang them or if the cashier punched them in like that. It's not like they needed to be reduced to avoid overage -- the Viactiv was $2.54 after the Wag's coupon so the $2 coupon would not have put it into a negative price.
At any rate, I ended up paying $13.82 for my Viactiv and Snuggie and not getting the $5 RR back. Which is still a good deal since the Snuggie alone would have been $14.99 anywhere else, but still, wah. Without the 15% coupon, if everything worked properly, those $7 tubs of Viactiv should have been just $1 each; with the coupon, because of the weirdness, I ended up paying $1.54 each.
I think the reason I did not get the RR was because the 15% off coupon brought my total just below $25, to $24.62. This is particularly maddening because I was looking for those little 34-cent caramels that most Wag's have at the counter so I could use more of my Register Rewards, but this store didn't have any. Had I added just one caramel, I probably would have gotten that $5.
Oh well, I got a gift that was on my list for less that the regular price, and Grandma will be happy to pay just $1.50 each for her Viactiv.
Anyone else out there successfully combine Friends and Family and the $5RR deal? Or have a plan to?
2 Comments
jen60647 said:
I didn't get the RR either. I had the F&F and purchases of $26.40 but after coupons it came to $17. Still a good deal.
The cashier rang my manufacturer coupons first so I don't know why mine didn't work.
EmmaGirl said:
Didn't work for me either! I was well above $25 with F&F and minus Wags coupons, but below it after mfr coupons. Last week, one manager specifically said the RR is calculated after Wags coupons...mfr coupons should have no effect on it. Today, another manager argued with me that mfr coupons affect the $25 minimum. And, if you pay with a RR it better result in a balance that's greater than $25 if you want to earn another RR. I'm so confused - which is correct? Shouldn't the rules be written clearly somewhere?
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