U-pick!!

It's that time of year! Currently we are in peak picking season for most berries. I've gone picking with my 3-year old twice in the last two weeks. If you're unsure where to go, visit http://www.pickyourown.org/ and find a u-pick farm in your area.

Yesterday I went and picked strawberries, rhubarb, and blueberries at Sandy Farms for $1 per pound. I left spending $7 which equated to 3 lbs of strawberries, 3 lbs of blueberries, and 1 lb of rhubarb. I've compared prices at the grocery store and the comparison is shocking. At the stores, blueberries are about $3/lb minimum and rhubarb is over $2/lb. To save yourself some money, take some kids and go picking!

Last week I bought 11 lbs of strawberries and 7 lbs raspberries at, again, $1 PER POUND! SO CHEAP considering the price of most berries in the stores.

Wear close-toed shoes and long pants (if picking strawberries), and bring some water along with containers. Don't forget to have your containers weighed BEFORE you pick. The strawberries at that farm are HUGE and the blueberries are REALLY easy to pick. Next week, I'm picking more blueberries and pie cherries. By next week, they will also have marionberries, loganberries, more raspberries, and more!

An added perk? Somehow there are NO MOSQUITOS over there so I didn't get any bites. However, I did get several by walking out in my backyard to pick strawberries...

How to shop Rite Aid!

This post is for the purpose of helping you be more successful at Rite Aid. Here's an example of what you can achieve:

Saturday 7/3/10 I went to Rite Aid. Paid $8.84 with a $2 rebate after three separate transactions making total cost $6.84. Total before coupons would have been $73.83 so I saved 92% using coupons. This was with last week's Rite Aid deals but I'll give you ideas for what you can do every week.

#1- Look for the FREE items. First, free OOP. Second, free after rebate. Third, free after Wellness Credit (new Rite Aid program). These items will help you reach your $20 total without costing you anything.

#2- Use $5 off $20 purchase coupon by watching some short advertisements with Rite Aid Video Values program. You get a coupon for each advertisement you watch, it's FREE to join, AND every month after you earn 20 credits you get the $5/$20 coupon. Make sure you print all the coupons you will need for the month because you can only use the print option on each coupon once.

#3- After you have the previous two things, get your total up to $20. Depending on how many free items I have, I will try buying things I need that I don't have coupons for. This way it's like the $5 is applying toward that item.

EXAMPLE:
1 Pampers $11.99 (+ $2 SCR)
1 Veet Hair Removal $6.49
1 Playtex Sports Tampons $3.99

Used $5/$20 purchase
$3/1 Pampers Mailer coupon
$3/1 Veet In-ad coupon
$3/1 Veet Video Values coupon
$3/1 Veet IP
$1/1 Playtex Video Values
$1/1 Playtex IP
PAY $3.47
Submit for $2 SCR
Total OOP $1.47

The Veet was a FREE/Moneymaker item. I ended up "making" $2.51 on it. I needed the tampons and diapers. Since I had a high value Pampers coupon and there was a rebate, I chose Pampers brand. That still only made the diapers $6.99 which isn't very cheap until you take the $5/$20 coupon off and the Veet credit. I'm still at -52 cents. Tampons after coupons were $1.99 which is a pretty good price and now we're at $1.47 total.

The point? Manipulate your purchase to your advantage. I normally wouldn't buy Veet but it's a free/moneymaker so it's worth it. So before you go shopping, make a list of items you need, items you use that are cheap, and free items. Then try different combinations to get your total barely above the $20 minimum and making your OOP pocket change! That easy... :)