How to Pay with Cash and Keep the Change

This is my latest haul from Rite Aid and CVS.  All totaled it came to $176.28 but I didn’t pay that, I only paid $25.87.  How?  Sales, coupons, store loyalty cards, rewards and coins.  Yes, coins.

I know that planning out a shopping trip takes a lot of time.  I know that clipping coupons, reading flyers and matching deals can drive you crazy.  But let me let you in on what I think is a little known or used strategy when it comes to saving money — when you pay cash, keep your change.  Set aside a jar, a mug or even a ziploc baggie, then once a month count it and roll it.  It’s easy, it’s simple and it adds up!

Don’t have coin rollers?  Go to your bank and ask, more than likely they will give you them for free.  No point going to the store and spending $5 for a bag of coin rollers.  And once your coins are rolled take them back to the bank and cash them in.  I look at this as “free money” which I used to bring my total down on today’s haul.

Saving a large amount of money will take some time and planning, I’m not saying you can get out of doing that.  But if you’re smart and patient you can save BIG!

Here’s the break down of my haul.

Rite Aid

I broke my transactions into 2 (later I realized I would have saved an additional $3 if I would have broken it into 3 and that would have paid for my papers) then I was able to use my Ups Rewards on the 2nd transaction.

Transaction 2:

This was the biggest transaction.  I took the rest of the money from the coins,($16.00)  plus $2 I had in my pocket and $5 from my husband to complete this transaction.  We were short $3.62 which I had to put on my debit card.  Still not bad for this big haul.

1 bag of Skittles

4 Dawn dish liquids

1 Oral B power toothbrush

1 Colgate whitening toothbrush

2 Aleve

4 Aquafresh Toothpaste

2 Pantene

2 Old Spice Body Wash

For a total of $81.41

Wellness Card savings: $25.24

Coupon savings: $29.55

Making my total $23.62

I paid using the rest of my coins that I cashed in – $16

Hubby donated -$5 plus I had $2 in my coat pocket

Also had $3 in Ups rewards from previous transaction

Making my total $3.62.

Now I know some of you will think that’s a stretch but the $33 in coins to me is free money.  The $2 in my coat pocket, more free money. Plus the Ups rewards — more free money.  So I guess to be fair I should ad Hub’s $5 in.  Okay, so that makes the total I had to pay out-of-pocket $8.62 for $122.80.  Still not bad- right?

If I would have planned further ahead I would have taken the Ups Rewards from the second transaction and made a 3rd transaction …. maybe next time.

Now for the CVS haul which is also pictured in the photo above

I have to admit I didn’t do as well at CVS which is a surprise to me.  I usually come away pretty well from CVS and urge new couponers to start there to sharpen their skills but the CVS I go is sometimes a disappointment since they don’t always have sale items.  But that being said, they are always willing to give you a rain check.

I did this all in one transaction.  I scanned my CVS card when I walked in and got $3 in Extra Bucks but decided to save them until I could buy the rest of my merchandise with my rain checks since they will give me additional Extra Bucks.

My total was $53.48

But with sales and coupons I saved $31.19, making my out-of-pocket $22.29

This transaction included:

2 (5 pks) gel pens

2 Tide with bleach

4  Dawn Dish liquid

2 beef jerky

Not as good at Rite Aid but when you add both transactions together I spent $32.87 if you don’t count the cash we had in our pockets and $25.87 if you do.  Our total trip was worth $176.28 so all in all I think it was successful.

Do you have money-saving strategy that you’d like to share?

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