Is It Really a Deal?

Here are the deals I got this week at CVS.

Sweetie had a hard time understanding why I chose to purchase the Just For Men hair color, because according to him, "I am NOT coloring my hair!" He said, 'A deal is not a deal when it's not something you need or will use'. Ok, that's a good point. But here was my response, to which he just shrugged his shoulders in an approving kind of way.

This week I started my CVS shopping trip out with $5.99 in Extra Care Bucks that I earned from last weeks trip. (Now, I must note here that I was not as organized as I thought I was and wound up leaving these ECBs at home. Our CVS is 12 miles up the interstate, so there was no way I was going back home to retrieve them). My INTENTION was to first purchase the Just for Men hair color. It was on sale for $7.99 and I had a $2.00 coupon, making it $5.99... just the amount I had in ECBs (well, IF I would have actually remembered to take them). So I was going to use my $5.99 in ECBs to pay for the hair color and in purchasing this I would have earned $7.99 back in ECBs!

Now, I ask you, HOW can that not make sense? I don't spend any money out of my pocket (except for the .36 in tax on the Hair Color) and in turn get back $7.99 to spend on something else? No, we will not ever be using the Just for Men, but I have a brother-in-law who could really use it! LOL! And if he is like his brother and flatly refuses to color his gray, then I'll stick it in my yard sale I'll be having this summer and make a couple bucks off of it. So I could potentially MAKE $4 off of this free box of hair color... $2 from the difference in ECBs when I purchased it and $2 from sticking it in my yard sale! How awesome is that?

So yes, I do agree with Sweetie on his 'it's not a deal' philosophy. But not in this case. When someone is going to PAY me to 'purchase' something, then to me it's a GREAT deal, don't you agree?

Ok, so on to how this week's deals went. Because I left my $5.99 in ECBs at home (as I have mentioned several times already), I wanted to leave CVS spending as little as possible so this is how I did it...

Transaction #1:
*(2) Aquafresh Extremes @ $2.99 each
Used (2) $1.00 coupons making them $1.99 each
Total spent out-of-pocket: $4.34
ECBs earned: $5.98 (one penny shy of what I left at home!)

Transaction #2:
*Just for Men hair color: $7.99
Used $2.00 coupon making it $5.99
Used $5.98 in ECBs earned above to pay for it
Total spent out-of-pocket: .13 (for tax)
ECBs earned: $7.99

Transaction #3:
*One-Touch Diabetic Monitor: $19.99
Used a $20.00 coupon making it FREE!
*6 packs of 3M Post-It flags @ 2/$5 making the total come to $15.00 for just these
Used a $3.00 off a $15.00 purchase CVS coupon bringing my total down to $12.00
Used (3) $3.00 off of 2 Post-It Flag coupons bringing my total down to $3.00
*(2) Aqua Fresh Extreme Clean toothpastes @ $2.99 each
Used (2) $1.00 coupons making them 1.99 each
*Always Thin pads: $3.69
Used a coupon that gave me these FREE!

Because this made my total only $6.98 and I was going to use my $7.99 in ECBs earned in Transaction #2, I let the kids add on some candy so I wouldn't lose $1.01 in ECBs. (That's the one thing I keep forgetting... that, for example, if you have a $7.99 ECB then you need to spend at least that much when you go to use it or you will lose the extra). Anyway, with the candy my total out-of-pocket for this transaction was $1.65, which Baby Girl paid most of because she wanted to buy her siblings some candy! Yay her!
ECBs earned: $7.99

So MY total out-of-pocket expense for this trip (not counting Baby Girl paying for the candy) was $4.47 and I left with $7.99 in ECBs for next time. Had I not left my original $5.99 in ECBs at home (can you tell I'm really upset about leaving them at home...LOL), I would have left there only paying pennies. But because I DID leave it at home, I now have $13.98 in ECBs to start out next week's shopping trip! Yay me!