Do I Follow the Scenarios I Write for Walgreens and CVS?

I’ve had several questions lately about my scenarios.
Do you buy everything in your scenarios?  Do you use all that stuff?  What do you do when something on your list is out of stock? Where do you put all of it?

To be honest, there are weeks that I only buy one or two things in the scenarios I write. Or I may not shop at the drugstores at all.  Once you have a good stockpile built up you’ll be able to do this with no regrets too.  I was mostly pleased with the result of my shopping trips today so I’m going to walk you through a little bit of what I do. 

First of all, I don’t write the scenarios I post for me, I write them for my readers. I used to write them for me and post them, but then I realized that when I write a scenario and it just has 1 pk of diapers, 2 pks of wipes, and a pack of floss, it’s not really helping many people figure this drugstore game out.  You really need to see how to roll the RRs between many items and see how it works with fillers.

Second, I don’t usually write a scenario for myself because the stores in Tyler are more than likely going to be out of something on my list.  I’ll usually have a loose plan, knowing a few combinations of items to use the RRs I have.  To play the Walgreens game, you really need to know and understand the rules.  It’s not a perfect world and you have to be able to roll with it if something on your list isn’t in stock.

Third, I make mistakes.  And I make a lot of them-especially when I have no other option but to shop with my kids like today.  I’m going to show you my transactions from today and see if you can figure out the mistakes I made.

1st Walgreens Transaction 1
Reach TC + Whitening Floss @ 2.99
Goody Barette @ 3
6 Dove Chocolates @ 4.77
used $2/1 Reach
used in ad Q for dove (took off $2.43)
used (3) $.75/2 Dove
used $4 RR
total: $.08 +.01 tax, got $3 RR and $2 RR

1st Walgreens Transaction 2
4 Easter Tumblers @ 2  (I had 6, but set 2 aside)
2 Huggies 184 ct wipes @ 11.98
1 jumbo pk Huggies @ 8.99
1 Reach TC + Whitening @ 2.99
1 Goody Clips @3
used (2) $.50/1 Huggies wipes from 3/20 SS
used $2/1 Huggies
used Wags $2/1 Huggies wipes
used (2) $3 RRs
used $1 RR
used $2 RR
total: $10.30 + .85 tax, got back $2 RR, $3 RR, $5 RR


2nd Walgreens 1st Transaction
2 Huggies 184 ct wipes @ 11.98
1 Huggies jumbo pk @ 8.99
2 Nestle Chocolate chips @6.58
2 M & Ms @ 4
2 Mini Hair Brushes with hair ties @ .50
used $2/1 Huggies Diapers
used Wags $2/1 Huggies wipes
used in ad Q for Nestle (took off $3)
used $2/2 M & Ms
used Wags $1/2 M & Ms
used $1.50/2 Nestle from 4/10 (found this yesterday!)
used (2) $2 RRs from Reach
used (2) $3 RRs from Goody
total: 8.55 plus $.53 tax, got $5 RR

2nd Walgreens 2nd Transaction
2 Dove @ 1.59
used in ad Q (took off $.81)
used $.75/2
total $.03

CVS
1 GE Energy Smart bulb @ 2.99
1 Easter grass @ .99
2 Green Bag Tags @ 1.98
1 Easter Egg kit @ 1.99
used $7 ECB
used $1 ECB (reduced to .95)
total $0.00, got $2 ECB, $1.98 ECB, $1.99 ECB, $1 ECB (they had to manually push the Easter grass ECB through)

All totaled this was $102.41 retail for $18.30 OOP before tax.  Less than the cost of 2 pks of diapers.  I lost (used more than I earned) $1.03 in ECBs and $3 in RRs.  That’s like paying $21.33 for everything!  In case you’re wondering how many ECBs and RRs I hold, I’ve got about $23 in ECBs and $11 in RRs.  That’s pretty typical for me.  I don’t like to have too many RRs in case there are 2 slow weeks.  CVS is a bit easier to manage with more.

So did you find the mistakes?  I’ll give you a hint, there was nothing wrong with my first transaction or my last.  Can you find the other things in the middle 3 transactions? I have a post scheduled for 8:30 in the morning that will tell you what I did wrong.