I LOVE Rite Aid!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am just about in LOVE with Rite Aid. It seems that I always come out of there paying ZERO (after rebates). I don't shop Rite Aid nearly as much as other stores, but when I do, it's ALWAYS profitable. Here's the scoop on Rite Aid in case you don't shop there.. Rite Aid does something called a single check rebate (SCR). These are VERY simple to do. You look in either their sales paper or in the monthly SCR booklet (found RIGHT beside the sales paper in the store) and find items that offer a SCR. You buy the item and use whatever coupon match ups you may see at the store. When you get home, you go to http://www.riteaid.com/ and click on the SCR link (about mid-ways down the page). After you sign up for an account, you click on "submit receipts" or something like that and you enter the store #, the register #, the Transaction #, and the date from your receipt. It will take about 2 days before your rebate will show up in your "account". After a couple of days you can go in and check to be sure it's crediting you for all the correct rebates. DO NOT REQUEST A CHECK YET!!!!!! They will ONLY send you one check/gift card per month, so wait until you have made all of your purchases for the month. The current SCR booklet is good through 9/26/09, so you wait until 9/26 and then go back to riteaid.com and request your check. In about 2 weeks from that date you'll get a check in the mail which you can either deposit in your bank or take to the store and use just like real money (cuz it IS real money).

 It took me a couple of months to catch on to how profitable rite aid could be. The THIRD month however, I made out like a bandit. I went in and purchased quite a few items using LOTS of coupons. I spent $16. I came home and submitted every dime of it for a rebate. I went in again during the same month and spent  7.00 which I came home and submitted all of it again for a rebate. At the end of the month, I got a check for 23.00 - EVERY dime of what I had spent in there. I then took my 23.00 check back in rite aid and spent all of it on items that had a SCR for them. I paid a TINY bit of real money and the next month I got another check for 2.00 and am currently waiting for a 25.00 gift card from rite aid.

Here's a couple of deals I did this morning. I have no patience and just could not wait for my $25 gift card, so I went and and did a very CONFUSING but profitable deal on Cover Girl. If any of you still have the 2.50 off 2 Cover Girl products (ONLY GOOD THROUGH TODAY!!!) I would HIGHLY recommend this deal if you use Cover Girl... Here's the breakdown of what I did...

I purchased....
Cover Girl Simply Powder Foundation (I LOVE this stuff) @ 8.29
CG Simply Foundation #2 @ 4.14 (all CG is buy one get one half off this week)
CG Mineral Bronzer @8.19
CG Mineral Blush @ 4.09 (50% off)
CG Lip Gloss @ 4.65
CG 3 in 1 Sharpener @ 1.49 (50% off)
Post It Flag Plus permanent marker @ 5.49
another post its marker at 2.74 (it's also buy one get one 50% off)

Thus far, my regular price for all of these items would have been 51.58!!

I used the following coupons...
-$5 off a $25 Rite Aid purchase (you can print this at http://www.southernsavers.com-%20always/ - ALWAYS make this the first coupon you hand the cashier-if your total drops below $25 after other coupons, it won't work)
-Buy 1 CG Foundation and get another Face product Free (this was in this weeks paper) -8.19
another of the same coupon  -8.29
-2.50 off the purchase of any 2 CG products (I used 2 of these coupons)
-1.00 off purchase of Post it Flag Plus items (I used 2 of these also)
-my 2.00 SCR from last month

My grand total for all items was 10.94 at the store (would have been ZERO if I had used my gift card that has not arrived yet)... Here's the cool part. There is a rebate for 10.00 when you purchase $30 in CG items, so after my rebate, I will have paid a total of  .94 for $51.58 worth of makeup and office supplies....

I know this is long and somewhat confusing. If you are just starting out doing Rite Aid, I would suggest (as with ANY store) start SMALL...This was a confusing transaction and if you don't feel comfortable combining coupons with sales yet, just start small until you get the hang of it. One day, it will click and you will start saving all kinds of money!!! Rite aid is a great place to shop if you don't want the "instant gratification" that you can get at CVS. One big thing about Rite Aid, is don't depend on them to tell you which deals in the paper have a rebate because they do NOT list all of them. You have to do your homework!!! You have to go through the sales paper and compare it to the SCR booklet and do your own match-ups. Jenny lists some of them on Southern Savers, but not all. I have found MANY deals that were neither in the sales paper or on the web site. Another suggestion of mine would be to enter ALL of your rite aid receipts ALL the time. You never know when you've missed a rebate and if you enter your receipt (even thinking there is no rebate for anything), sometimes you'll find out about one you did not know about.

I hope this has helped anyone who has been struggling with Rite Aid or anyone who thinks they might want to try it. It's quickly replacing CVS as my favorite store to shop at!  I USUALLY only go once a month and that is on the day my SCR comes in the mail. I go and spend it and then wait for it to replenish itself for the next month. Email me or leave a comment if you have any questions about the process. I'll be glad to help!