I usually get the free items because they help use other coupons as well. A lot of times I have a coupon for $10 off of a $50 purchase, and if I give them that coupon first before the rest it takes off a huge chunk. THEN I use the free item coupons and my others, and end up getting $50 of stuff for less than $20, plus get extra buck rewards to use later. (Yes, clearly I shop at CVS). So I use my coupons even if it is something that I won't use because it lowers the prices of everything else...
FYI- I will be doing all of my mailings on either Saturday or Monday. I have many auctions, both ebay and Listia, and do all of my mailings once per week. I usually do saturdays, but sometimes miss it since it closes early, and do it on monday instead.