I'm Happy to Announce...

I am once again in love with CVS! Every single transaction I did yesterday went through perfectly. Well, almost. But we won't dwell on that last one in which my ECB's didn't print like they were supposed to and the manager had to come up and couldn't figure it out and wound up just giving me money back instead.

Anyway, here's my stash from this past week. Crystal does a much better job at explaining everything pertaining to CVS, but I'll explain to you what I did on this trip.

First of all, I plan my trip before I leave the house. I write down what to buy, what coupons to use, how much it should cost me (approx.) and how many ECB's to use and how many I should earn back. This saves me lots of time and confusion. I take my ads with me just in case they're out of something I had written down to purchase so I can rework my plans.

Ok, so here's how this trip went...

I started my trip out with $11.97 in ECBs.

Transaction #1:
*Buy 3 Excedrin @ 1.99 each = 5.97
Use (3) 2.00 coupons = +.03
Earn 3.00 ECBs
(I only bought 3 instead of the limit of 5 because I only had 3 coupons)

*Buy 3 CVS Pain Relief Gelcaps @ 3.99 each = 11.97
Earn 11.97 ECBs

*Buy 3 sets of Essence of Beauty toe dividers @ .99 each = 2.97
Earn 3.50 ECBs (this was supposed to be $5 ECBs back, I just noticed this...hmmm)

Total before coupons = $20.91
Total after coupons = $11.92 (I also used a $4 off $20 CVS coupon)
Used ECBs to pay entire amount
Spent out-of-pocket: $0.00
Earned $18.47 in ECBs (should have been 19.97 ECBs)


Transaction #2:
Couldn't do what I had planned because they were out of the Softsoap Spa Body Wash, but had they not been I had planned on buying 4 of those at 4.99 each, making the total 19.96 plus tax, using my 19.97 in ECBs to pay for them and earning 19.96 in ECBs back.


Transaction #3:
*Buy a Precision Xtra Diabetic kit for 19.99
Use ECBs
Spent out-of-pocket: $1.52
Earn 19.99 ECBs back


Transaction #4:
*Buy 1 Swiffer Sweeper Starter Kit @ 8.99
Use 1.00 coupon = 7.99

*Buy Swiffer Dust refills @ 5.99
Use 1.00 coupon = 4.99

*Buy Febreeze Fabric Refresher @ 3.99
Use .50 coupon

*Buy Febreeze Noticeables Starter Kit @ 6.99
Use 2.00 coupon = 4.99
Use coupon for Buy Starter Kit Get 1 Febreze Air Freshener Spray FREE!

Total before coupons = $28.46
Total after coupons = $21.46
Used all of my $19.99 ECBs plus $1.98 out-of-pocket
Earned $10.00 ECBs back


Now, the SMARTEST thing to do is to roll those $10 ECBs over to my next trip to start out with, but I made the mistake of going down the dollar isle. I bought a 10-pack of tissues so I could stick some in my purse, a pair of men's dress socks as a joke for Sweetie because he's forever looking for dress socks (that match!) so I told him I'd rather spend $1 a day on new socks instead of constantly finding his matches that seem to disappear all the time, I bought a lint roller Sweetie has mentioned we need, Baby Girl asked for a bag of pretzels, and I bought a shower curtain. All of that came to $8.67, so I'll be starting out with pretty much no ECBs again, but you can't beat the deals I got. I'm just going to have to discipline myself to SAVE those ECBs for the next trip because it really does save more money in the long run.

My total out-of-pocket this trip was a whopping $3.50! If I were to buy everything in the picture at their REGULAR (not on-sale) prices, without any coupons or ECBs, my total would come to $161.90!! I saved $158.40!! Now THAT'S what I call a bargain!

So, all-in-all I am a very happy CVS'er! And this week I had two wonderfully sweet ladies checking me out and that made my trip even better.

Sigh... I'm a happy gal I am.