Coupon feast or famine

I just purged my coupon file for all those expired at the end of October. We also happen to need toilet paper. I have one coupon -- a ridiculous Cotonelle one that is really only useful if you're buying enough tp for a college dorm. I've been to: KMart, Walgreens, CVS and Duane Reade--no one has any name-brand toilet paper on sale and it's one thing I refuse to buy generic.

I hate paying full price! 

Rebates

Walgreens tally sheet (PDF) is out for the September rebates. Doesn't actually look like much I need although the $5 on 2 bottles of Pantene isn't bad. The Energizer rechargeable Double As isn't a bad deal, but I don't need two packs. Just need one set to replace the ones that lost their get up and go.

I love that Walgreens allows you to do it all online. So much simpler. I like the bonus on the gift card but I understand why that's not always a good deal. To me though, it's the same as Duane Reade Dollar Rewards or CVS Extracare--if you're going to be shopping there anyway, might as well take the bonus. On the note of drugstore shopping, the one generic I haven't been able to find-an equivalent of Act Restoring. I used to use knock-off Listerine without any problems, but my dentist recommended I switch to Act and they seem to have fewer knock-offs.

I just did the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber rebate, makes me love Walgreens on-line one even more as this one was the mother of old fashioned rebates. Send the completed coupon (no copies accepted), original store receipt and UPC code. Eek.

But I guess if they were easy, they wouldn't be profitable for the companies

Buying generic

Since college, at least, I've been a huge fan of buying generic. To that end, I was thrilled with an e-mail I received from Walgreens announcing the launch of wbrand.com. Although Walgreens lacks a loyalty program along the lines of Duane Reade, I am still subscribed to their weekly circulars as I'm not in there as often as I am Duane Reade and might miss a sale on something I need. 

While there are some things I won't buy generically, I'm generally brand agnostic. Even for things that others don't like, I'm fine with buying generic ibuprofen (I currently have one from Wal-Mart where I bought bottles of 200 tablets 2:1, for a total of $3 vs. Advil's ~$8/100 ct). They work fine. Oddly enough the only thing I don't like off-brand is zip-lock bags especially the freezer ones. They just don't cut it.

Interesting article, Top Five Items to Always Buy Generic. Among other things, it backs up my experience with Advil, which I've also had with other similar products:

The Food and Drug Administration requires that any products with the same active ingredient must meet the same efficacy standards. In consumer-speak, that means your drugstore ibuprofen must be just as effective as its brand-name counterparts, which includes Advil, Motrin and Pediacare Fever, among others

I really wish a blog search about buying generic didn't return such crap. Link/adsense spammers are so un-original. Even filtering doesn't help much.

Anything you will or won't buy generic?