Pharmacy Discounts and Grocery Shopping

So, today I had to get a prescription filled. Turns out that Rite Aid is having a deal where you can get a $25 gift card if you transfer over a prescription - $50 in gift cards if you transfer over 2! I did this once back in December and got a $25 card, then did it again today for another one. The December one was great because I used it to pick up a number of little stocking stuffers and that kind of thing. This time I just happened to need a refill and instead of going to CVS I asked Rite Aid to transfer it over. One suggestion: if you are going to do to this, bring along your old prescription bottle or the printed information sheet that is stapled to the prescription bag that has your name and the dosage on it. That makes it a whole lot easier. If you stop in a Rite Aid they should have the coupons in their flyer, but if not you can print them from the link above.

To be honest, I am not a huge Rite Aid fan. The one that I go to always seems to have slowest cashiers. However, they do have a pharmacy card that is rather nice. It helps out on the one 'script' that I get that isn't covered by my insurance. (The card is free, by the way.) It also has discounts on Rite Aid products. My plan is to use the gift card I got on Rite Aid cleaning products and things like that, combined with the prescription card, I should be able to stretch that gift card out quite a bit!

In other grocery shopping news....

I'm starting a food pricing spreadsheet. Basically I've got a spreadsheet divided into different categories - bread products, dairy, meat, beverages, etc. and I am tracking how much I spend on different items. This isn't something that I have ever paid any attention to in the past, but now that I am tracking it, I am finding huge differences in cost. For example, my favorite brand of sparkling water is almost a dollar more at the dingy little local grocery than it is at the big mega-supermarket. The funny thing is that if you had asked me, I would have guessed the opposite! I think it is because to me, dingy little store = lower quality which should = lower cost. I sometimes swing in there to pick up standard things I use, (though never vegetables - the place has the worst produce.) but I don't like shopping there. It just happens to be fairly close to my house. Big mega-supermarket, on the other hand, is considerably nicer inside and cleaner. It also has better produce. It's right across from work, so is handy if I am planning on shopping. I would have thought it would be more, but the numbers prove me wrong! It is rather refreshing to know that the place I enjoy shopping is actually less than the place I don't - at least on this item.

Anyway, since I tend to only by staples and very little preprocessed food, the spreadsheet is taking quite awhile to take shape, but it is still interesting. I admit, I love figuring out stuff like that. I'm not good at math, but this is the kind of computer-geek stuff I love!


Photo by: nasirogues