Posts Tagged ‘CVS’

I have to say the best thing I have found on the Internet at this point in my life is CVSing and just how to get the most out of the Extra Care Bucks program!  I look forward to the weekends even more now because that is when I get to see what I can get for literally nothing at CVS!  So far my spending for 2010 looks like this:

That breaks down to over $71.00 in merchandise for a profit of .40 currently!

I stopped by my favorite store today to pick up a few items before they went off sale and here is what I got today:

SoyJoy Strawberry 6pk (I am beginning to like these!) 6.00
Crave NX Diet Spray (hoping this really works!) 7.99
Nalene French Tip nails 2.99
Cherry Coke Zero 20 oz. 1.49
PowerAde Fruit Punch 1.69
Glade Fragrance Collection Candle 3.29
Sunday paper 3.00

used the following coupons:

1.50 off Nalene French Tip nails (printed on my CRT last month)
.50 off single serve Coke product from CVS website
.50 off single serve Coke product from CVS website
3.00 off any Glade Fragrance Collection (printed when I scanned my card today at the price check machine in my store)
5.00 off 20.00 Fresno Bee cpn. thanks iheartcvs! (Expires 1/16)

used $14.00 in ecbs from last week
earned $14.00 in ecbs today
6.00 from SoyJoy
8.00 from Crave NX
used $2.00 from my CVS gift card

Grand total for 2010 so far:

ECB Balance: $24.00
CVS GC Balance: $69.40
Merchandise Value: $71.85
Total OOP: -.40 – yay!  A profit!!

I am headed to plan out my trip for tomorrow now.  I need to increase that profit a little bit more!

Oh yeah, I stopped at Kroger & Sack ‘n Save and picked up my groceries for the week for 87.00!  Not too bad for what I got!  Meals for 4 for the week, food for 2 dogs and 1 cat…and snacks & lunches for the week.  Sure beats the $130 plus I had been spending at the last part of 2009 which just proves that a little bit of time planning pays off!

If you answered “no” or “what is that?” to this question then you are truly missing out!  Stop by the CVS Advisor Panel website and get signed up!

Yesterday evening I received an email asking to do a survey.  If I qualified, I would earn $5 Extra Care Bucks.  Well, it was easier than ever to qualify & even easier to complete the survey! I am $5 Extra Care Bucks richer and that makes up for my having to spend $3.60 from my gift card last weekend…YAY for CVS & ECBs!!

Well, I made my plan, clipped my coupons, thought I would be a real smartie and shop 2 stores and guess what?  Bad idea!  The first CVS store I stopped at was a MESS!  They still had Christmas stuff up and unopened boxes of new products all over the place!  I didn’t get to use the scenarios I planned but I still think I came out a winner.  Here is how it went:

Starting ECBs for 2010 balance: $18.00
Starting GC Balance: $75.00
Coupon from CVS email: $5.00 off $25.00

Transaction #1 (the CVS Store from h3ll!)

Items Purchased:

Colgate Total Whitening 6oz – $2.50
Colgate Max White 6oz. – $2.50
14″ Floppy Christmas Doggie – 75% off – $1.99
Nivea Pure Moisture Lotion -$4.00 (said $7.99 but rang up $4.00!)
Colgate 360 Manual Toothbrush – $2.99
Gold Emblem Sour Gummies – .99
Gold Emblem Sour Gummies – .49
Nivea Lip Balm – $2.99
Nivea Cherry Lip Balm – $2.99

Coupons Used:

$5/$25 CVS Coupon from email (it was used before the lady told me I bought the wrong Nivea – I didn’t realize it until I got home and totaled everything)
B1/G1 Free Nivea Lip -2.99
$1.00 off Colgate Max White
$1.00 off Colgate Total Adv. Whitening
$2.00 off Nivea Lotion 13.5 oz.
$1.00 off 2 GE Candies

ECBs used $7.00
ECBs earned $3.00 (ouch!  The price on the Nivea is why I didn’t get the 5 ecbs but I took care of that in transaction #2)

Total merchandise value: $21.44
Total paid by GC .47 cents

Transaction #2 – my CVS that I love!!  Nice & clean and had all of the bonus items in their place!!

Items Purchased:

GE Energy Smart Bulb – $2.99
Oust Surface & Air Sanitizer – $3.99
Oust Surface & Air Sanitizer – $3.99
SoyJoy Mango Coconut 6pk – $6.00
Nivea Body Wash – $6.99

Coupons Used:

$1.00 off GE Lightbulbs
$2.00 off Nivea Body Wash
B1/G1 Oust -$3.99

ECBs used – $14 (ouch!)
ECBs earned – $19 (YAY!)

Total Value: $23.96
Total GC: $3.13

So for $3.60 off of my gift card I got $45.40 worth of merchandise & even earned a ecb back.

ECB Balance: $19.00
CVS GC Balance: $71.40
Merchandise Value: $45.4o

Since August, when I first started this blog, I have learned some pretty cool things about saving money.  I am only a little sad that it took my husband losing his job for me to really grasp how easy it was.  I could kick myself for not learning about the great ways to get “something for almost nothing” at CVS.  I guess like a lot of people, I used the excuse that I “didn’t have time” to figure all that mess out.  Well, thanks to some really awesome sites out there, I don’t have to.  At least not too much.  Great sites like iheartcvs & slickdeals do much of the work and we get to reap the benefits.  Now this doesn’t mean that there is no work involved at all.  I mean, I do have to collect & file my coupons, figure scenarios for items we use and do the shopping.  Walking out of CVS with $50.00 worth of merchandise for little or nothing gives me such a rush, even after almost 5 months in to it.

I started CVSing in August with a $20.00 bill and a hand full of coupons.  I walked out with close to $50.00 in merchandise, $6.00 in change and $14.00 in ECBS (Extra Care Bucks).  In essence, I got my purchases for FREE.  Since that day, I make an effort to visit CVS at least once a week.  For me and CVS, the year ended well.  I came out with $100.00 in CVS gift cards, one of which I gave to my daughter in her stocking, and the other $75.00 for me to use in 2010.  I also have a balance of $18.00 Extra Care Bucks and just today I got a coupon in my email for $5.00 off of a $25 purchase.  It seems like I get something about ever 2 weeks from CVS.  I would highly recommend signing up for offers via email from them!  My 2010 goal is to see just exactly how much I can get for the $93.00 – I would love to be able to roll all of my future purchases in to ECBs and not have to spend any cash out of pocket for the whole year!  As long as I don’t have an emergency and have to use those GCs, I don’t intend to.  I will keep my readers updated weekly as to how it’s going.  Sunday is the start so keep checking back to see how I did!

Today I took my 14 year old daughter along with me to CVS & Walgreens because she needed some make up and she didn’t think I could choose the appropriate color for her.  It was fun for her to tag a long anyway since I want both of my girls to get a taste of frugality in it’s finest form!  Our trip to CVS was fairly simple.  We picked up the following items

(1) Arm & Hammer Spinbrush 1ct. – $6.99 get $2.00 ECBs back
used -$1 off Arm & Hammer Spinbrush Powered Toothbrush 10/18/09 SS

(1) Complete Contact Solution $8.99 – get $8.99 ECBs back
used -$1 off Complete Multipurpose Solution, 12oz   10/25/09 RP

(2) Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kit – $5.99 (Regularly $12.00)
used 2 -$5 Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kit, any SS 11/15/09

1 Newspaper – $3.00

I had a $5.00 off $30.00 in my email and it expired today so I used it.

My total before coupons was $30.96  and after $13.96.  I handed the cashier $14.00 in ECBs from last weeks shopping trip (I thought I handed him a $10 and a $3 but I realized while typing this I handed him the $4.) and my total was $0.00 and after tax (don’t ask me…haha) I paid a whopping $.03 cents out of pocket and I earned $10.99 in ECBs.  That was when my daughter looked at me and said my husband was right…I was a thief…lol.    I loved it!

I knew that my trip to Walgreens was going to cost me since I had to buy some bigger ticket items and didn’t have any RRs to spare so I was happy to walk out of CVS for pennies!

My Walgreens trip went something like this –

Transaction #1:

2 Theraflu – 2/$10.00 get $3 RRs back
I used the following coupons – $3.00  off any 2 Theraflu 10/18/09 SS  and $2.00 off Theraflu from the Healthy Savings coupon booklet at the cash register for a total of $7.00 off.

2 Triaminic – 2/$10.00 get $5 RRs back
I used the following coupons – $3.00 off any 2 Triaminic 10/18/09 SS and $2.00 off Triaminic from the Healthy Savings coupon booklet at the cash register for a total of $7.00 off

1 Rimmel Pressed Powder make up – $5.49 – $1.00 off any Rimmel Cosmetic 09/13/09 RP

My total OOP – $10.61 RRs earned – $8.00 (like getting all that stuff for $2.61!)

Transaction #2:

2 Carefree Panty Shields 22ct – 41.49 each (.99 with coupon from Walgreens November Savings book)
1 gallon Schepps milk – $2.29
Werthers Coffee hard Candies – B1G1 -$2.29
Riesen Chocolates – free
Jolly Rancher Doubles – $2.39
Revlon 1875 Watt Hair Dryer – $9.99
Kitchen Gourmet Single Burner – $9.99 (w/ coupon in WAGs ad $6.99)

I used 2 $1.00 coupons from Carefree samples & the $8.00 RRs from 1st transaction for a total OOP of $17.06!  Not too bad considering the Burner & Dryer would have been more than that!

So all in all, today wasn’t too terrible even having to purchase a few things I wouldn’t normally have had to purchase.  My total OOP was $27.70 for $88.67 (really more if I wouldn’t have used the sale prices to figure my total) worth of merchandise!!

Now, if you want to get even more detailed since I got back $12.99 in ECBs it only cost me $14.71!  Now that’s the kind of shopping that I love!!

In my email this evening I found a coupon for a free gift from CVS.  Mine is a choice between a 4 pack of CVS toothbrushes or any single Absolutly Divine Chocolate Bar.  I should choose the toothbrushes but that chocolate bar looks really yummy!

Be looking for an email from CVS…hopefully everyone will get this one!

Night, night everyone…I need to get caught up on some of my tv shows and try to get to bed early!