During the week of Aug. 5 to 11, stores we surveyed offered a few pretty darn good deals that involved more effort than plucking an item off the shelf and taking it to the check stand.

Few of us have the energy, time or patience to cash in. But those who know exactly what they need and are poised to pounce can find some terrific bargains.

For example, Office Max offered 15 percent off all merchandise you could put into a brown paper bag provided in the Aug. 5 newspaper.

All the items on our list would have fit into the bag, and if we'd stuffed them in there, our Office Max total would have dropped from $32.63 to $27.77.

The week we shopped, Walgreens' in-store flier included coupons offering notebook paper at 39 cents for 150 sheets, pocket folders for 10 cents each and Erasermate pen four-packs for 99 cents.

Using the coupons would have brought the Walgreens total from $45.16 to $29.22.

We didn't count these offers. However, despite the dramatic changes in the totals for Office Max and Walgreens, their rankings on the list would have stayed the same.