Category Archives: CVS

CVS- Black Friday on Sunday

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thI love to shop at CVS. This week the reason is that I can shop their Black Friday special on Sunday morning instead of Friday morning when I will be 800 miles away. I did plan ahead just a bit by getting my list all organized on Thursday and I also prepared a baked oatmeal for Matt and the kids to eat.

I am very pleased with my trips. Yes, I ended up making a total of 3 trips CVS on Sunday: however only the first was strictly for couponing.  We decided to order a calendar for a gift and after picking it up on the first trip, it had not been bond so the second trip was to get the calendar fixed. Our third stop was part of date just because we were driving by. I was disappointed in several things, the first was they started giving me a hard time as I walked into the store about using 2 cards, I responded by stating “I have two households and they should  call corporate before making policy changes.”  They ended  up being very nice and did not have a problem with my separate transactions at all. The other problem was a  bigger problem, neither of the store carried several of the main sale items, nor the one that was a money maker.  In addition, neither store would give rain checks because they were not items the store usually carried, in the past, I have gotten rain checks and used later at larger stores . But this only put a damper on the trip but did not ruin it.

For the sake of ease and because in reality it was a single  day,  I am combining all receipts to one big item.

By the numbers:
3 trips to 2 stores
12  separate transactions on 2 separate cards
7 transactions that the total it including tax was less than $0.94, one was free and 5 were less than fifty cent.
Total spent $26.96
Total Saved $83.97 or 76%, this does not include remaining ECBs.
$6.36 in Extra Care Bucks left.
2 rainchecks, one for Laundry Detergent and one for Parmesan cheese.

CVS Shopping

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I made a couple of stops at CVS this week and am super excited to share what I was able to purchase for $9!

I guess the first thing to explain is why I made 2 separate trips. I usually on Friday go ahead and check out Southern Savers to put together and print out my shopping list for CVS. Because of my attempt to stay on budget for September and October, I decided to wait until at least Wednesday before shopping. I just added the list and coupons in my purse. I ended up with a little bit of extra time on Wednesday so I decided to stop at a different CVS.  The first thing that made this a great trip was that quarterly ECB printed on Wednesday as well. I was able to save an additional $6 by using the ones that print for the fall quarter. I also did not realize that Twizzlers were part of the printable deal for the week so I had not found any coupons for them on Wednesday when I stopped.  I was able to locate several excellent coupons on Wednesday night. Twizzlers are Matt’s favorite candy so once he found out that I was going to be purchasing Twizzlers he was ok with making a quick stop during our busy Thursday.

Now to the fun stuff! I spent $9, and saved $53 or 86%.  I was able to purchase 9 bags of candy including 3 bags of Twiizzlers and 2 pack of Listerine Pocket pacs!   I have hidden most of the candy so that we can use for Halloween at the end of the month!  I just could not pass up a deal for candy at less than $1 a bag!

Unfortunately I have already looked at the list for CVS starting on Sunday and don’t even plan a trip this week. But since we are stocked up on candy it is not a loss!

Stockpile Full?

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photoThis is a picture that I took today of one of the 3 closet/areas that I use to keep most of my stockpile items in. If you can see most of this shelf is complete full and it actually has about another 2 foot of space above it as well. I have been working over the past several days to straighten and organize my stockpile. One of the reason is that I have been making some pretty awesome purchases over the past several weeks, such as Scott Extra Bath Tissue for $0.32 a roll and needed to make room to store it. Another reason is that I have been looking at our budget for the next several month in an attempt to locate enough money for a trip at Thanksgiving.

I have discovered several things during the arranging and rearranging of items. The first of which is that quite literally, we are out of space. I have moved and boxed and rearranged but at the end of the day, my stockpile is full!!  I can honestly say it is overflowing. A second thing that has occurred to me is that most of our freezer space is full as well. This would not normally be a huge deal; however I have recently order and paid for a huge 120# order of chicken breast that will be picked up the second weekend in October. So I have to find a place to store this food. The final thought that occurred to me was no wonder my grocery budget is slowing climbing higher and higher each month. I am focusing on buy the great deals but failed to realize that I have 20 boxes of cereal already purchased on a great deal. Taking into account all this information in addition to the trip that we would like to take over the Thanksgiving weekend, I have decided that I will be limiting the amount of shopping and purchasing that I am going to be doing over the next two and half months.

I am definitely going to commit to and be accountable for living off our stockpile until December, approximately two and half months away. Because I know that as soon as I make the commitment to do this undertaking then we will start to run of things or will need to purchase milk and eggs or even worse Diet Coke.   I am going to budget $100 a month for groceries during October and November. I have a CVS gift card from our recent toilet paper purchase for $10 so this will be my play money to keep shopping the best deals. If you are wondering about the grocery budget for September, we have $7 left which may or may not get used at CVS as well. My goal with allowing $100 in spending is to purchase only items that we are “out” of.  I know that I may miss some really good deals but I also realize that I need to make some space prior to the first of the year when my local store usually runs the best sale of the year. I also will be able to grab “free” items and pay just tax! I will be the first to say that this is going to be hard for me as I enjoy the “shopping game” and love to play it especially at the grocery and drug store but I also realize that this is a great opportunity to prove my self control, manage to save at least one half of the money need for our trip, reduce our overall grocery budget for the year and clean out the 10 boxes of mac and cheese that have been hiding in my closet.  I am going to plan to provide a weekly update on my spending just to make myself accountable!  Does anyone else have a stockpile that is full?

Food Facts

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I realized the other day that groceries are the single biggest category of expense that we have each month, yes it is more than our mortgage payment! So it is fitting that I share some interesting, at least to me, facts about this number.

  • Based on the budgeted amount for July, we spend about $3.90 a day per person for food, toiletries and other supplies. That averages out to $1.30 a meal.
  • For the month of July, I am currently $4 over budget but I know this will go up by at least $10 due to the swim team party on Thursday, I need to purchase several items to use for my dishes.
  • Included in the spending for July are school supplies, I decided to stock up with the sale prices. I also had to purchase a new book bag for Lily and several new lunch containers. The only remaining supplies I know of for the girls are new 3 ring binders.
  • Matt and I have been shopping in our freezer today, we have no ground hamburger and no chicken at all.
  • We will be picking up 40# of ground beef on Friday from Zaycon. My plan is to cook at least 20# and freeze in individual bags.  The other will be used to make “sloppy joe mix, meatloaves (4) with the remainder to be frozen uncooked for anything else that may show up!
  • Our menu plan this week included the swim team party and at least one night of leftovers.
  • Over the last 2 weeks we have been attempting to eat most of the leftover food from Kendall’s birthday party. We did end up throwing out a couple of hamburgers but otherwise we have been successful. I am going to bring the plates, cups and napkins to the beach as well.
  • I have already cooked and frozen 4 dinners and 1 breakfast meal for the beach. We most like will eat out 2 times and use the final night as left overs.
  • I am a recipe follower- I am afraid to just try things most of the time because I don’t want to waste food; however, I made a chicken/vegetable casserole today without a recipe and it turned out great!
  • We have been able to cook and freeze at least a couple of packages of stewed tomatoes a week to use in the winter.
  • I made approximately 10# of mashed potatoes today because I realized that the potatoes in our closet were starting to go bad.
  • The current plan is that any unused grocery money for August  prior to our beach trip will become “fun” money. To assist with this I will not be going to Costco until after the trip in addition to purchasing only items at CVS for stockpiling. The overall goal is to add $300 to our fun money!

10 Things Tuesday

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Decided to join Carla over at her blog for this  10 Things Tuesday.

  1. We had our last “swim meet” of the year today. Next Saturday, we will participate in our county swim meet. I am really glad to see the kids all enjoying a sport that encourages physical activity.
  2. Both Lily and Kendall attempted to swim the “butterfly” stroke today, unfortunately both were disqualified because of their feet but I am so very proud of them for trying!  Lily is now able to swim all four strokes, in fact she earned a first place in the breast stroke today!
  3. My work schedule this week is awesome, I get to work a day and have a day off.
  4. Today, I spent the majority of the day running errands for the kids. Our stops included the orthodontist for Lily, Public library, Education store in town, piano lessons and finally the swim meet.
  5. Lily and Kendall both have become excellent readers this summer. They are spending about an hour each day reading for pleasure!  Kendall has been work on the”  Junie B Jones” series.  At the library today, we were able to find another 10 of these chapter books for her to read!  Lily is reading a series called “Baby Sitter Club” in addition to some of Laura Ingles Wilder books!
  6. The stop at the Education store today has been the excitement. The kids enjoyed a train table and shopping area while I was in search of some Math work books. I am really disappointed to not be able to find a work book of addition and subtraction problems on a first grade level. I will be using flash cards instead to work on this skill.
  7. I made a quick trip to CVS tonight after reading about a great deal on Pantene Hair products. I was able to purchase 9 bottle of shampoo for $10.03 including tax. This is great timing as we were running low on shampoo!
  8. The little kids have been attending Vacation Bible School at my brother’s church this week. The church is providing a meal for them each night. Because of this we are still eating leftovers from Kendall’s party. I hope this will help to reduce our overall grocery budget for the month as well!
  9. Matt was able to make some repairs to  my car last week and it is currently driving like when we first bought it. The even better news is that he spent half of what we had originally thought the repair would cost.
  10. This weekend marks the anniversary of Amanda’s accident and Remington death    I know that it will be hard for both of the older girls so prayers are appreciated.

Weekend Rambling

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I have enjoyed 4 full days off work in a row!  I am excited and feeling accomplished that I just had to share all that we have been up to.

  • Both Friday and Saturday, we spent over 5 hours enjoying the pool. I can finally say that I have a tan now!
  • The weather has been awesome, much cooler than in the past week and much cooler than I expected, temperatures have been in the mid 80s by day and even some 50s at night.
  • Because of the nice weather, I was able to spend several hours working not only in our square foot garden but also working in the flower beds around the house. I am very pleased with the results!
  • The square foot garden continues to provide us with fresh vegetables daily, our cherry tomatoes are awesome! Hopefully by the end of the week, we will have some full size tomatoes to go with our cucumbers and squash. Because of the really hot weather, I am not sure if we will be getting any more beans this year but the kids loved planting and picking so they will be repeated next week.  My most exciting discovery this week has been that we have 4 watermelons and 2 cantaloupes growing! I can’t wait to eat these.
  • I have been grabbing some good deals at both CVS and Food Lion this week. I will say that I was most disappointed to find that Diet Coke was not on sale at Food Lion after being told it was by 2 different people.
  • Both the little girls are really enjoying swim team. Lily is now able to swim all 4 strokes but needs to work on her endurance. Kendall is able to swim the back stroke and freestyle without stopping. Kendall has also been working on the butterfly but I am not sure she will be able to compete in this stroke this year.
  • Our new dryer arrived on Saturday and we were able to dry a load of towels in less than an hour!
  • One of the best deals I got at Food Lion was ground chuck for $2.67 a pound, this afternoon in less than an hour, Matt and I put together 5 meals. We decided to combine the ground chuck with venison that we had previously purchased.  All the meals were frozen because we are still eating leftovers from Kendall’s party.  We packed 2 bags of cooked ground beef; these will be used for Hamburger Helper or other meals such as pizza that started with cooked meat. I made a meatloaf and cheeseburger pie and finally Matt made a container of Taco rice that we plan to take to the beach as a meal in August.
  • On Friday, which was the Fourth of July, Amanda came and took Kendall shopping for her birthday. She purchased a dress, 2 complete outfits, a pair of shorts and a couple of Disney shirts. Kendall is so excited to have new clothes to wear!  Haley decided to spend time with us as well. She actually went to the pool. The little kids absolute LOVE when their big sister spend time with them!
  • Tonight, all three of the little ones are attending Vacation Bible School at my brother’s church. I am excited and surprised because Zach wanted to go and did not even get upset when we left him eating with his cousin. I hope they all have a great time. This is the first time that Zach has been able to stay somewhere without either of his parents. He will sometimes stay at the child watch center at the YMCA but other time he refuses so for him to want to stay is AWESOME! I hope the trend continues all week!

Sunday Shopping At CVS

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This is one of the best weeks in a long time at CVS, I knew that I needed to get to the store today if I want to grab the couple of deals I spotted.  But the reason I am so excited tonight is not only did I get the deal but made money in the process.

In the past, there has been some debate on a couple of websites as how to count your ECB and figure in your savings., however today no matter how you do the math, I made money by shopping.  The one slight issue I had was that the red coupon machine did not work so I had to wait till after the transactions to get most of the coupons that have been advertised. I just kept things simple and am sure I did better by the machine being broken in the end.

I started out with $1.00 ECB on my card and $2.50 on Matt’s card.

Transaction #1 (my card)
M&M on sale $0.75 and Skinny Cow Carmel Delight on clearance for $0.59
Total spent $0.37 and Earned $0.75 for the M&Ms

Transaction #2 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
Total Spent $1.83 and earned $4 in ECB and an additional $5 in ECB for meeting $50 in the beauty club.

Transaction #3 (Matt’s Card)
Crest Pro-Health mouthwash on sale for $4.99 and a coupon for $1.00 off
M&M on sale for $0.75
I did use $4 ECB from the previous transaction, total spent $1.09 with $4 ECBs

Total Spent out of Pocket = $3.29 plus $3.50 in ECB      equals $6.79
ECBs remaining = $10.50
Total profit $3.71!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Making Money at CVS

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I am excited to report that CVS paid me $0.36 to take items out of the store today. I have figured this saving several different ways but this was the easiest, so I will start with it. I had $5 ECB from a previous purchase, I am counting this a spend amount. In addition to the original 5 ECB out of pocket I spent 6.60, total spent 11.60. I came home with 11.96 in ECB! Profit of 0.36!

 

In addition to the 5 ECB from previous purchase, the red box gave me another $2 in ECB from my Spring spending. I used one newspaper coupon for $4 off a Gillette Razor the remaining coupons were given to me by CVS.

Here is what I purchase:

11 boxes of CVS chewy Antacid, these are a month long deal, Buy one for $1.49 and get $1.49 back in ECB. The limit is 10 per card. I have 2 cards.

1 Gillette Venus Razor with 2 refills, coupon above
1 can of Skinimate Shaving gel- Use a $3 off $10 coupon that printed last week.

1 2L of Ginger Ale
1 1L of Diet Coke- I wanted to use all ECB on my first card because that makes it easier to keep up with.

Taking the ECB that I ended with out of the equation I spent $6.60 and saved $36.65 for an 82% savings. This will definitely make my next couple of purchase free or very close.

 

Random Thursday Thoughts 2/20/2014

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I have lots of things that I would like to share but none is enough to really make a full post so I am going to share some of these random thoughts today!

Budget things- I have one week left in our February budget. So far for the month, we have spent $601.30 on groceries. I decided not to do any shopping until next Saturday. That does mean I will be missing the Harris Teeter Super Doubles event.
-I have a second receipt from CVS this week that shows 100% savings. This time I used 2 coke rewards coupons. 2 12 packs ended up costing me $0.51. I again made the decision not to purchase any additional.
– I am enjoying my gift fund. I have already purchased Haley’s birthday present in addition to most of Easter and re-stocked part of my gift closet using the fund!
– Our hair fund is again empty. I went today and got a color. I would never have guessed that this fund gets the most use. I am very lucky that our hair dresser is very budget friendly but we average $50 a month on hair for the 5 of us!

I have been able to get to the Y to exercise 3 times this week. I am averaging 2 a week but to make it 3 times is an achievement for me .  In addition, I have lost 3 pounds so far this month.

Our water heater in the main part of the house is slow not working. This means we will need to purchase a new one in the next 2 months. Gas is not an option in our area but we are considering a tankless electric one.  This will be a huge expense but one that is needed.

I have purchased the little girls matching dress for Easter and a matching tie for Zach. Hopefully we will be able to coordinate everyone for a family picture! The goal being using it as part of the “collage” over our bed that we want to create.

Matt is picking up several more jobs which will be a nice boost to our goals this year. I just hate the waiting part of this process.

CVS Shopping 2/16/2014

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Although we still have some snow still laying on the ground, things have pretty much returned to normal in our state, so back to shopping I go.  I really debated this trip to CVS but decided some of the deals were too good to pass up.   I was really surprised today when one of my receipts showed a saving of 100%. I ended up pay $1.16 for this transaction but that was entirely taxes. I usually including taxes in my spending vs savings so I was excited to come home and check out my real savings. I am going to be very detailed with this trip because just about anybody could do the same.

I started with 5 ECB that I received on Friday for purchasing Diet Cokes.

First transaction:  1 Child’s  Culturelle      regular price 27.49 on sale for $10.00 Spent $5.68 got back 10 ECB

Second transaction: 4 bottles of Suave Kids 3n1 Body Wash/Shampoo,  regular price 3.79, on sale for 2.75, coupon B2G1 Free (deducted $3.00), 2 Suave Men’s Body Wash, regular price 2.77 sale price $2,coupon B2G1 Free (deducted $3.00), 3 packs of Mega M&M, regular price 1.48 sale price 0.75, coupon  B2G1 Free (deducted $1.29) used the ECB from above. Paid 1.16 received back 4 ECB and 0.75 ECB.

Trip total:   Spent $6.84 saved $46.76  or 87%