Category Archives: CVS

CVS Groove

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I have mention several times recently that CVS just is not the same. The sales seem less useful and then add to the fact that recently, I can’t find many things in stock, I have lost my CVS groove. But today, that changed!

I decide to make a trip to CVS because Diet Coke are on sale! Prior to going to CVS, I have been drinking my cans for work for the past two weeks, because I refuse to pay more than $1.00 for 2L. The sale price was $0.99 each for up to 5 at a time, the ad also promised a $0.25 off one from the redbox.  The final cost ends up around $0.80 a bottle!  Overall I purchased 10 bottle, 2 bags of candy, 3 sticks of deodorant, 2 packs of gum an 4 disposable razors for $16.19, saving $42.34 or 72%

My plan is to return to CVS mostly likely 2 more times this week to stock up! I know that I will be receiving 5 ECB from the Beauty Club so that will greatly reduce my out-of-pocket!  I hope to have 30 plus bottle stocked before the end of the week!  Welcome Back CVS groove!

Saved 95% at CVS

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I mentioned yesterday that we were currently $0.30 over our grocery budget for the month. I have done most of the grocery shopping this month at Costco but I continue to shop CVS for free stuff and good deals on everyday items like Diet Coke. I did make a trip on Sunday where I purchased 15 2 liters and some other items. I left the store with 5 ECBs. One of the debates was if I was to go back to the store and stock pile more drinks rolling my ECBs. The decision to try to stick within our grocery budget this month made that a no go but of course on the same day, I ran out of hair spray. I attempted one day without using anything and that was not a good choice so off to CVS to use my ECB to purchase hair spray.  I had read on Southern Savers that using a store coupon and one from Sunday’s paper you could get a tube of toothpaste free so I decide free is always good and grab that coupon as well. I was able to purchase a can of hairspray, tube of toothpaste and 2 Diet Coke for $0.54, which is strictly the tax. I saved $10.72 or 95%!!

Saved 88%

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I think that the TV show “Extreme Couponing” has really done massive damage to the couponing in general.  I want to debunk  some of the myths that it has implied with my real world experience. Today I knew I needed to make a stop at CVS to pick up Diet Cokes with a rain check I have been holding, so this is my real life example of how anyone can save money.

On  “Extreme Couponing” the folks spend between 30-80 hours a week couponing. Come on who has that much time to waste? Total time I spent planning, clipping and shopping for this trip was 1 hour.  The next myth is that you need “at least one newspaper subscription per person in your family” or that dumpster diving, begging neighbors coupon inserts or even stealing inserts from empty houses are necessary to get great results. I have ONE newspaper subscription! I gladly will accept any insert you don’t want but other than my own, I usually end up with my parents” inserts as well. However most weeks like this one, I receive the inserts at least a week late or the paper person even forgot a couple. Finally, in order to stay in the rules and have the least out-of-pocket a minimum of 10 transactions are require. I completed 2 transactions today!

Today at CVS, I spent a total of $6.83 and saved $48.35 or 88%. I did start with a $10 Cash card from buying drinks last week. Before work this morning I spent less than 10 minutes on Southern Savers clicking on any items from the CVS list I thought I might wanted, printed out the list and clip coupons while sitting at the store. I also did discover an awesome 75% deal on deodorant so pulled up the coupon database and head back to my car to grab 2 $1 off coupons.

First Transaction
2 Suave Kids Shampoos   $2.00 each    $0.50/2 coupon
4 Suave Body Washes      $2.00 each     B2G1 free coupon
2 Tubes of Colgate toothpaste @2.99 each    2–$.50/1 coupon
$10 CVS cash card
Total out-of-pocket $5.69
received 4 ECB for purchasing $12 in Suave, 2 ECB from Toothpaste and 1 ECB for using Green bag 4 times

Second Transaction
5 2L Diet Cokes    raincheck for $0.88 each
1 bottle each of Tresseme Shampoo and Conditioner     $4.49 each  B1G1 coupon, CVS Coupon for $2/2 bottles of Tresseme
2 Sticks of Advance Control Mitchum deodorant $1.99 each   2-$1 off coupons and CVS coupon for $1 off $4 deodorant
1 Caramel candy 0.33 cent
Used ECB from above
Total spent $1.14.

 

 

Free At CVS

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I actually have made 2 trips to CVS this week.

The first one was the best. I was able to bring home 3-12packs of Diet Coke and 4-2L of Diet Coke for FREE!!!  I used a combination of 4 different things all of which I received for things I normally buy. First was the free 12 pack from Coke Rewards. I try to submit Coke points from lids and boxes at least once a week. You can always get a free 12 pack with 250 points. At Christmas, I was able to get this free 12 pack for 30 points! Next I used 1 ECB, received for 4 scans of my green bag tag and 5ECB that printed for spending 50 in Beauty Care. Haley purchased some make up right after Christmas and this was a pre-coupon total, so again FREE! Finally, I used a cash card to pay the difference from last week. Remaining on my cash card is $6.02!

The second trip was to purchase body wash for Matt. He was currently out so this was a change to grab a couple of months supply. I purchased 4 Right Guard Body Washes, used the peelies located on them for $1 off each (there is a printable coupon as well). I ended up using the remainder of my cash card for these. Total out-of-pocket $2.77 or $0.69 each. I also got back 3 ECB that I will be using next week to stock up on soda for the summer!

Remaining in my grocery budget for the month $15.22

CVS Candy Trip

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25 cents a bag is definitely a stock up price around here!

I have not done any coupon shopping since our trip to Michigan. One fo the reasons, is that I have been sick for the past week or so. As I was looking at Southern Savers last  night, I remembered that I had around 20 ECB from the Black Friday event that would expire soon. So I gathered my bags and headed to CVS this morning. I am so glad I did. I was able to grab 8 bags of candy for $2.00, that is $0.25 a bag!!!! The other way to look at it is that I spent $2, saved $34 or 94%.   I definitely don’t need any more candy before Christmas now!

Shopping- 11/05/2012

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I was super excited to learn that Harris Teeter was running a coupon event this week. The news got even better when I learned that due to my location, the stores to the North were having Super Doubles and the store to my south was having Triples. The choice was going to be difficult until I learned that Triples included coupons up to $1!! To the south and Salisbury it was. I have actually made two trips already, one on Thursday and one as a date on Saturday night. I have spent a total of $56, saved $160 or 74%. Saturday night was my single highest saving amount of $97. Matt was not impressed until I reminded him that $18 of my $33 spent was on Tide Laundry Detergent. I am brand loyal to Tide because it cleans the clothes which prolonges their lives. So this was definitely a stock up trip!  I also made a trip to CVS this week for deodorant, I really like Mitchum and Matt really likes the new Right Guard 5 so I was able to make both of us happy for $12!  I spent a total of $18 saved $35 but the best deal of all was the 2 rainchecks that I have now for Diet Coke 2 L at 0.88 each!!

Total spent this week is $74 or less than 1/5 of the budget!!

Free CVS Shopping

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For the second week in a row, I have been able to shop for free at CVS:

I used 2 $0.75 off coupons from SS 8/26, a printable $1/3 for the candy, and  from the Red box at CVS I had a Soft Soap coupon for $1.50 off, this was several weeks old. I also used  5 ECB but got back a total of 3.67 in ECB. I did use 0.61 from a gift card that I received several weeks ago for purchasing $30 before coupons. After looking at my receipt, I realized that this was actually the tax!  I still have 1.75 on the gift card. Stay tuned to see if I can shop for free again next Sunday!

Shopping Success

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I have been shopping several times in the last week. On Thursday, aka payday, we hit Aldi and Costco. I was actually very pleased that we managed to spend only $150 between the two stores and grabbed items that keep us on track with no eating out this week.

However the best shopping trip this week by far was on Sunday to CVS. I was totally out of cans of Diet Coke, which I take to work with me. I did have a free 12 pack coupon but was still not liking the idea of using it alone for only one weeks worth of sodas.  The red machine at CVS this week is giving out some awesome coupons so I was able to do 2 separate transaction, spending $13.21 and saving $47.88 or 78%. The best part of all is that I ended up with 3 -12 packs of Diet Coke in addition to 4 bottles of nail polish, 2 sticks of deodorant, 2 boxes of Cheerios and 2 travel size bottles of shampoo.  I started with $10 ECB and ended up with $12!  The soda cost were 0.86 a case or 0.07 a can. CVS is still my favorite place to coupon!

Grocery Store Challenge Update 8/2/2012

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What is my challenge? Spend as close to $20 a week at Food Lion over the next 4 weeks while purchasing items we need or to add to the stockpile based on sales. I am also going to give myself $10 a week to spend at CVS to keep rolling ECB. So that is a total of $30 a week for the next 4 weeks to feed our family of 6.

Week One Shopping: I stopped at Food Lion after work on Wednesday. I purchased Coffee Filters (a need), 2 12 pack rolls of toilet paper, 1 6 pack of paper towels and 3# of ground beef. I used the 5/25 and 2 $0.75 coupons on the toilet paper. Total spent $20.15, saved 12.50. I also got a Catalina coupon for $2 off $10 of the house brand products. My plan is to save this for next week to use to increase my saving.
CVS- After looking at the ad on Thursday and Friday, I decided that their were really only one deal that started on Sunday that I would be interested in. So Friday night, Matt and I headed to CVS to use his card for another Twizzlers deal , free candy and an I-Tunes card. I was surprised to learn that I could not use ECB for the purchase of an I-Tunes card.  I ended up spending $12.01 with a total of 7 ECB for the next couple of weeks!
Total Spent- $32.01

Week Two- Matt and I went to Food Lion on Wednesday night. I had a list of four items that we were completely out of. So I purchased Olive Oil, Sour Cream, Freezer Bags, Sandwich Bags, 4 2L Sodas and a pack of gum.  Total Spent $19.00. I did receive another Catalina coupon for $1.50 off 10 of the house brands. Fast forward to last Saturday, stops at both CVS and Food Lion. CVS, I scan my card and received a free Children’s Gummy Vitamin. So I purchased a total of  4 AMP energy drinks and the vitamins total spent  $1 with 6 ECB earned. You can read the highlights of the Food Lion trip, we spent $64.24. Definitely, failure.  Total Spent– $84.24

Week 3- This week started off much better. I stopped at CVS on Wednesday to complete the Suave deal. Purchased 2 bottles of Kid’s Shampoo and 4 bottles of Body Wash. Total Spent $5.84 with 4 ECB earned.   After looking over the Food Lion ad and realizing that we were completely out of milk and cheese, I decide that this week would also be a fail. We had to have the car serviced in Winston so I planned at stop at Target and Costco. Target was awesome, I purchased a swim top for me, dress for Lily, school supplies and cups and napkins for the party for $43. In the spirit  of the challenge, I only purchased items at Costco that we were out of. I spent $150.00 Part of the rationale for my decision was that if I stuck to the challenge and purchased milk and cheese at Food Lion, I would have spent the $20 this week in addition to another $150 or more in 2 weeks when the challenge is over. In addition, I am on vacation next week so I want to have options to eat at home without the urge to spend money out on meals.

Thoughts?

 

Shopping This Week Including Renovations

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Sunday, our local Big Lots offered 20% off everything. My mom grabbed a coupon for me and then both Kendall and Zach stay at their house while we shopped. I was hoping to grab several things for the renovation.  We purchased 2 bedding sets one for Haley and one for Lily, in addition we found a coordinating blanket for Kendall’s bed. My current plan is to use the extra pillow shams as topper for windows. Matt has scraped and painted the ceiling and started working on the walls. It will take at least 2 coats of paint so no new pictures for a week or so!

Updated Spending Totals for Renovations

Budget information:$1000
Total spent $470 with $530 remaining. 

Big Lots spent $55. for new bedding. Lowes- Spent 70. for blinds, wood for Lily’s bed and miscellaneous. Total for the week $125

Total spent $595 with $405 left, we are half way with our budget. Hopefully the majority of the rest will be spent on new furniture at IKEA.

 

I also shopped at CVS on Sunday, I came away really disappointed because I spent $4 more than I should have because I forgot to use my ECB on  my first transaction. I ended up spending $16 overall. I was able to purchase 4 bottles of Head and Shoulders shampoo, 1 bottle of sunscreen, 1 candy bar, 5 2Liter Sodas, and 3 bags of Twizzlers candy. Not really a bad trip just one I screwed up and it took about 10 minute for me to rethink and fix the problems.

 

I also stopped at Food Lion today, but more details regarding this trip and my 4 week grocery challenge will be up tomorrow.