A CVS Trip Across Town

I feel like we are ALWAYS at the Children's Hospital. I seriously would like to get an employee parking pass cause we're always there. The thrifty in me HATES to pay $2 everytime we are there. Ugg. And I haven't convinced my husband to park across the street in the neighborhood and just walk to Children's. Oh well.

Anyways, this week, I politely asked my hubby if after my son's therapy appointment, if we could hit up a CVS that's kind of out of the way, but closer to downtown than our house. My bloggy friend Jenny at Momminitup told me that this particular one is very coupon friendly AND they take competitor coupons, along with $/$$ off coupons, and expired CVS coupons up to 30 days. Ok, I'm thinking about moving! :) Just kidding, but occasionally I like to make the trek down there to roll my ECBs, especially if it's not a great week and I need the $/$$ coupon for a boost.

So that's what we did this week, and thankfully my hubby was very considerate with my crazy idea, and very helpful with my son who now instantly freaks out whenever I pull into CVS. Not so much any other store, just CVS. He used to not mind at all, where ever I took him shopping, now that he's nearing 2, he's starting to develop some opinions of shopping, especially when it comes to CVS. I botched that up somehow. Oops.

We did pretty good. I was able to be relatively focused. I had $12 ECBs that expired on that day, so I did my best to get some back. I walked out with $9 ECBs so that's not too bad. The best part was that I didn't just get more razors/medicine/toothpaste, like normal. I actually walked out with a lot of FOOD! Here's what I got: (no picture, right now, sorry)

** 3 Skippy Peanut Butters, 3/$5, minus 1 $0.30 coupon. $4.70. I wish I had more! :(
** 3 Ragu Spaghetti Sauces, 3/$5, minus 1 $0.40 coupon. $4.60. " "
** 1 Schick Quattro Razor, $8.99, minus $4 coupon. $4.99.
** 2 boxes of Rice Krispies, 2/$4, minus 2 $1 coupons. $1 each.
** 2 bags of Gold Emblem nuts (chocolate covered Bridge mix--yum) $0.99 each, minus $2 off any 2 Gold Emblem nuts--coupon took off $1.98. Free
** 2 Johnson's Cucumber Melon Baby Lotions, $1.12 clearance price. Minus 2 $1 off coupons. $0.12 each.
** Bayer 4 ct. Crystals, $2, no coupon. $2.

Total: $29.21, minus $5 off $25 purchase from Rite Aid. $24.21.
Minus all other coupons, New Total: $13.53.
Used $12.47 in ECBs, paid $0.56 out of pocket!
Received 3 ECBs for Skippy/Ragu, 4 ECBs for Quattro razor, 2 ECBs for Bayer Crystals. 9 ECBs total.

The sweet check-out lady was nice and complimented me on my purchase. She said "Now, do you take a class on how to get such good deals?" Looking at the next person in line, she said "She only paid $0.56 for all of that!" :) The person politely acted impressed, but just wanted to check out. :) When someone asks me that, I usually always direct them to Money Saving Mom, cause that's where I got started and it's easy to remember. :) moneysavingmom.com

Long story short, I used about $12 ECBs, got 9 back. If not for that $5/$25 coupon, it would have been kind of a downer week, so I was glad we made it there.

CVS News

I have decided to consolidate my CVS shopping. What?? Ok, maybe not the actual shopping, but the use of more than one card. I know, I probably should just only have 1 card, so that's where I'm going. I started with just one CVS card for myself, when my awesome friend Suzanne introduced me to her great deals. After a couple months, I registered my hubby for one, and then my mom started letting me use hers. I hadn't planned on using hers, but something she bought gave her $10 ECBs, so she gave them to me, but I had to use her card to use them, so the cycle began. :) Since my ECBs have been dwindling anyways, along with the fact that it's torture to get Cooper to even go to CVS anymore, (not so much any other store, but he hates CVS and instantly starts crying when we pull into the parking lot. Yikes.) I've decided to stop using my hubby's card and my mom's. Even though, CVS doesn't limit how many cards you have per person/household, some people get pretty uptight about it, so it will alleviate that issue. I originally wanted additional cards for baby/diaper deals, when there was just a Limit 1 on sales. But now I'm just going to use up their few ECBs and focus on my one card. Maybe I'll be able to grow them more if I concentrate on just one... Hopefully. I MAY use their cards IF there is something that I can get free and get ECBs, but we'll see. That doesn't happen too often. And I'll just turn around and use the ECBs right away on necessities.

Ok, on to the CVS deal news, if you haven't been looking, check out all the baby aisle stuff. LOTS of things are going 75% off lately. Some of them not marked--Huggies Natural Care wipes refill (2 refills) are ringing up $1.62. Playskool wipes have been marked down to $0.82 cause they are redoing the packaging. Some of the Huggies Clean Team wipes are 75% off (not sure of price). Some Johnson's Baby stuff is going to 75% off. Many of the Playskool baby items (bottles, toys, etc.) are being marked down. Some of the Gentle Naturals items are on clearance because they are redoing the packaging. Palmer's Stretch mark lotion I just found 75% off in the baby section. Some nursing pads (Lansinoh) I saw on 75% off. ALL great additions to a baby gift basket!!! And don't forget to use coupons to make the deals even better!!!

Here are some of the great clearance deals I have gotten lately:

** 2 Johnson's Cucumber Melon Baby Lotion, $1.12 each, minus 2 $1 coupons for the Johnson's baby site. $0.12 each! Great for a baby gift basket.
** Gentle Naturals Cradle Cap lotion, $2.25, minus $2 off coupon. $0.25!
** 2 packs of the Huggies Natural refills (2 ct.), $1.62 each, minus a $2 off any Huggies tub or refill coupon from the coupon machine, minus 2 $0.50 off manufacturer coupons! $0.24 total!

I am hopefully going to go back and get some of the Palmer's lotion for my gift basket that I'm making (I think it was $1.72 and I have $1 off coupon.) If I can find a Lansinoh coupon, I may get some of those for the basket too (I think they were around $2.)

If your store has a price scanner, load up your cart and check things out! There could be more that I don't know about (do tell, if you find something). I love when companies change packaging. Score!

Something to Talk About

It's been a little while since I posted. There hasn't been much to get excited about. The grocery store deals the last couple weeks have been blah. CVS is less than exciting lately.

I did do the 3M "metal" hook deal--buy $15 worth and get 5 ECBs. They were $2.50 each. So you had to buy 6 in order to reach the $15 mark. Well, 3M (along with Scotch) always has great coupons out on their website. AND they always put them in pdf format, so you can print as many as you want. So they had $2.50 coupons for the "metal" 3M hooks. HOW CONVENIENT! So I printed off 6 of them and got them all FREE, plus the 5 ECBs. So that was the latest good deal at CVS. It would have been even nicer if you could do it more than once per card, but they have been really strict about that, so it was a Limit 1.

Anyways, I do have something to talk about today. Yesterday I had a 2 hour time frame to get out of the house. I needed the me time, but I also had 12 ECBs expiring, so it was a necessity in more way than one. :)

I got all of the items in the following pictures for LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR! Sweet.

Here's how I did it:

First stop: Kmart. (Loot in the middle of the picture.) I remember Kmart was doing doubles up to $0.75 and last time I went (when they were doubled up to $2) I found a big box of the Scotch Pop-Up tape dispensers for $0.99. I had coupons for them, but didn't have them in my stash at the time. This time, I did!

**4 Pop Up tape dispensers $0.99 each, minus 4 $0.75 coupons, doubled. Free.

**2 Halls cough drops $1.34 each, minus 2 $0.73 coupons, doubled. Free.

Paid only $0.32 of tax out of pocket.

Next stop: Target. (loot pictured to the right) I wanted to do the Fiber One gift card deal, with my previous gift card from the Special K deal.

**2 boxes of Fiber One bars $2.39 each, minus 2 $1.35 coupons. $1.04 each.

**1 box of Fiber One toaster pastries $1.79, no coupon, but wanted to try them. $1.79.

**1 box of Fiber One Honey Clusters cereal $2.39, minus $1 off coupon. $1.39.

**1 small bag of Chex Mix $0.99, minus Target $1 off Chex Mix coupon. (No size stated, but it beeped. Cashier pushed it through.) Free, plus $0.01 overage.

**1 Dove chocolate bar, minus Target $1 off Dove candy coupon. (No size/type stated, but it beeped. Cashier pushed it through.) Free, plus $0.01 overage. (not pictured, eaten. yum.)

**4 trial size containers of Band Aids. $0.97 each, minus 4 $1 off ANY Band Aid coupons. (Coupon beeped, but cashier pushed them through.) Free, plus $0.03 overage each--total $0.12 overage.

Total came to $5.25 after tax. Paid with $5 gift card from Special K deal. Paid $0.25 out of pocket AND got a new $5 gift card!

Last stop: CVS. (loot pictured to the left) Like I said, I had $12 ECBs expiring and wanted to make the most of them. I had cereal coupons and the Colgate coupons, so that's what I decided to do.

**3 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, 3/$10, minus 3 $1 coupons. 3/$7.

**1 Colgate Max White toothpaste, $2.99, minus $1 coupon. $1.99.

**1 Colgate Max White toothbrush, $2.99, minus $1 coupon. $1.99.

**2 Russell Stover Private Reserve chocolate bars, (add to Mother's day gifts) clearanced $0.50 each. $1.00.

**1 Gentle Naturals Cradle Cap Care lotion (add to baby shower gift), clearanced from $8.99 to $2.25, used $2 off coupon. $0.25.

Total: $12.23. Used $12 ECBs and $0.23 out of pocket. Got back 5 ECBs for cereal and 4 ECBs for Colgate products.

So all in all, $0.32 + $0.25 + $0.23 = $0.80 for all of that in the picture. I was excited to come home and drag all my bags in and say "I got all of this for about $1." :) Almost everything will go in my stash/stockpile. The gifts will be put in their places. But the Fiber One bars will stay out (yum--oats & caramel) and my hubby already had some Chex Mix. So even if I just wanted the Fiber One bars to have around for snacks, I could never get two boxes for just $0.80 total. I love deals. Love 'em!

Target Paid Me for Candles!

Several weeks ago, I did a deal at Target that gave me a $5 gift card (Buy 2 packs of Schick Quattro for Women razors, get a $5 gift card). I had $4 off coupons, so it made for a decent deal. Then a week or so later, I did a new deal that gave me a $5 gift card, (Buy a Gillette Fuzion and a Gillette shave gel, get a $5 gift card). Again, I had coupons and BUT this time I used the first $5 gift card to pay for the new deal. So I've started this cycle of paying with a gift card to get a gift card! AND...I'M...HOOKED.

So when I read about the NEWEST gift card deal (Buy 2 Glade Fragrance collection candles, get a $5 gift card) I was determined to do it again. This was the best by far. The small candles were $5.99 each. $5.99 x 2 = $11.98. Of course, I wasn't going to pay $11.98 for candles! (even though they really do smell good) I had 2 $4 off coupons, so it was $11.98 -$8 = $3.98! AND I GOT A $5 gift card back!!! Can you believe it??? They paid me to take their candles! Ok, Target, you don't have to twist my arm, I'll gladly take them. Thank you.

I also picked up two packs of Kraft Easy Mac meals to see if the Target coupon would work. The coupon said "$1 off two Kraft Easy Mac Meals." But the picture was a 4 pack of meals. It beeped and said "Item not purchased" or something like that. ??? I said that I thought the Target coupon wording always seemed pretty vague. She said "We have to go by the picture." Like that makes sense. But she let me do it this time, so they were $0.77 each, minus the $1 coupon. In total, I owed $4.94, paid with my previous $5 gift card, and she handed me a new $5 gift card. Good deals are so much fun.

So, get out and do this deal, people. If you haven't heard about it yet, Money Saving Mom gives all the details here and gives the link for the printable coupons (hopefully they are still available for you.) When good deals come along, those printable coupons can go quick! Don't tell my mom or mother-in-law, but they are getting candles for Mother's Day. :) And hopefully some other good deals to go along with them.

Kmart Super Double Sale, Part 2.

I didn't use all my coupons from my first Kmart trip, so Monday I went out and tried out another local Kmart. This Kmart had tons of the new Spring Beauty coupon booklet out for people to take! Yay! And I found a huge clearance section of products that I used coupons on! I love clearance sections and have never seen a Kmart with one that included Health and Beauty products. I will remember that, believe me. I didn't see as many couponers this time, but I did run into a nice Mother/Daughter combo and we chatted a little. They graciously gave me some Huggies coupons, which was super nice and I told them to make sure and grab some of the Spring coupon booklets. They also mentioned CVS was a great place to get diapers and I told them I LOVE CVS too. We bonded. :)

So here's what I got on my second trip:

**Softsoap Body Wash $2.24 on clearance, minus $1 coupon, doubled. $0.24.

**2 Veet Lotions on clearance $3.50 each, minus 2 $2 coupons, doubled. Free.

**Dial Body Wash $2.24 on clearnace, minus $1 coupon, doubled. $0.24.

**Clean and Clear toner $4.49, minus $2 coupon, doubled. $0.49.

**4 Aveeno lotions $3.15 each, minus $2 coupons, doubled. Free.

**2 Dry Idea deodorants $3.49 each, minus 2 $2 coupons, doubled. Free.

**Samy Mouse $2.99 on clearnace, minus $2.25 coupon, (forgot this wouldn't be doubled--oops.) $0.74.

**2 All Small and Might detergents $4.19 each, minus 2 $2 coupons, doubled. $0.19 each.

**Oust Air Sanitizer $4.19, $2 coupon was skipped and so I returned this, which much annoyance by the rude cashier. $4.19.

**Diet Pepsi 20oz. $1.49. $0.50 coupon also skipped, also returned, still annoyed. $1.49.

**Milk $2.49
**Hormel Compleat meal, was supposed to be $2, rang up $2.79, she said I had to buy 3 because they were 3/$6. Ugg. I got it because I was afraid I would be under by $50 limit, to use the $5/$50 coupon. Used $0.75 coupon, doubled. $1.29.

Total: $57.88 (around $61 with tax)

Minus $5 off a $50 purchase, Minus all other coupons: $6.59

Tax: $2.07

Total before returns: $8.66

Minus $6.08 in returns.

Total after annoying return, including tax: $2.58

The customer service lady was SO rude. If any of you know me, I am not mean or loud or rude and just politely told her the situation. She grabbed my receipt and basically told me there was nothing she could do. She spent 10-15 minutes going through the coupons I used (all the while Cooper has been a gem the whole time, thankfully.) She comes back with more excuses and I say I just want to return them. She huffs and puffs and bangs things around loudly, hands me my money and receipt and says nothing. Ugg. People like that! I just don't get it. Yes, I understand Super Double coupon week may be extra stressful. I get that. But I did nothing to deserve that treatment. I had 18 items and 17 coupons (no coupon for the milk) and so I knew that coupons weren't taken off. Oh well, I got my money back and her attitude is not my problem. Of all the stuff, I really needed the milk, which was $2.49 and so I paid just a couple extra cents for the rest of the stuff.

Kmart Super Double Coupons, I'm lovin' it!

On Sunday, I hit up Kmart for their Super Double Coupon event. And this is not your typical double coupon situation. They were doubling up to and including $2 coupons! Wow. I was excited. I love the thrill of conquering a great sale. I made it out about 1pm. I didn't have any problem with a lack of inventory, which is great. I did run in to quite a few other groups of people with their coupon stashes doing the same thing. I also made sure to sign up for and print off my $5 off a $50 Kmart purchase coupon you can get for registering at kmart.com, I believe, so I was hoping I could use that too.

I luckily made the trip by myself so I had all of my brain and attention to use towards getting some great deals. An interesting thing is that Kmart sets up their computer system that the coupon will double, but will not give you more money off than the actual price of the item. The cash register does all the work. However, occasionally the cashier will have to push a button to pick which item the coupon is for. My cashier wasn't into precision, but mainly tried to do things quickly. So she did miss one coupon (which I ended up returning that item) and she did somehow give me overage for one item, just because she quickly pressed a button without looking at what she was pressing. Here's what I found:

**1 St. Ives lotion $1.79, minus $1 coupon, doubled. Free.

**3 Aveeno lotions $3.15 each, minus 3 $2 coupons, doubled. Free.

**3 Bic Soleil razors $2.50 each, minus 3 $2 coupons, dobled. Free.

**1 Garnier hairspray $3.99, minus $2 coupon, doubled. Free.

**3 Lysol toilet bowl cleaners $2.79 each, minus $1 coupons, doubled. $0.79 each.

**1 Scrubbing Bubbles toilet bowl cleaner $3.50, minus $1 coupon, doubled. $1.50.

**1 Cascade Rinse Agent $3.49. Coupon for free rinse agent, minus $3.49. Free.

**1 Dawn dish liquid $2.39, minus $1.50 coupon that cashier doubled to $3 off. $0.61 overage.

**1 Febreeze air freshener $2.79, minus $1.50 coupon, doubled. Free.

**3 Pledge multi-surface wipes, minus 2 $2 coupons, doubled. (She missed the 3rd one) Paid $3.89!!! (I will be taking the 3rd pack back.)

**2 Carvers dog treats $3.19 each, minus $1.50 coupons, doubled. $0.19 each.

**4 Hormel complete dinners $2 each, minus $0.75 coupons, doubled. $0.50 each.

Total for all products: $69.77

Minus $5 on a $50 purchase coupon: $64.77

Minus all other coupons: $4.53

Tax: $2.50.

Total: $7.03.

Minus cost of returning Pledge wipes: -$4.17

Actual Total Cost, including tax: $2.86 JACKPOT!

Now, when relaying this trip to my Dad, he said "Did you really need all the stuff you got?" Always rational, my dad. But the answer is "No." I really didn't need it all, but it is all stuff that I will either eventually use, pass on to friends or family, or donate. But of the things I did need and was currently out of (4 Compleat Meals, 2 Pledge Wipes, 4 Toilet Bowl cleaners) I would not have been able to get those for $2.86 total anywhere if I just ran and picked them up on the spur of the moment. So the other things I scored were all just bonuses to me and my stockpile.

$0.00 Laundry Detergent! I'll take it!

I hit CVS a couple times this week. Free Sobe Water was nice (it was BOGO and there's a BOGO coupon). I also got the free after ECB's Colgate toothpaste and Softsoap Body wash, of course. I had coupons for those, so I made more ECBs than I used. :) :)

But Thursday was the best trip of the week. Money Saving Mom posted about a BOGO Purex detergent coupon on coupons.com. What was EXTRA SUPER SWEET was that CVS had this detergent on BOGO sale also this week. BOGO sale, plus BOGO coupon=F-R-E-E. Free! The printable coupons usually let you print two of each coupon, per computer, so that's what I did. I was even going to print some off at my parents, but the coupon reached it's limit FAST and was gone either the same day or next day. Oh well, Four detergents will last awhile (along with the 3 I already have in my stockpile.)

My cashier (a very nice one that is always friendly) wasn't sure if I could use the BOGO coupon. I didn't want to be a problem, and I told her that I thought it would, but if not it's fine. She asked the manager (a new guy--I'll be so happy if the old guys leaves--he so reminds me of a used car salesman, I can't stand it.) Anyways. The new guy read the coupons and said it should be fine. Technically (I didn't tell him this, but this is how it works, and CVS coupon policy states that you can use a BOGO coupon with a BOGO sale--but the workers don't always know that), but technically, CVS is offering the BOGO sale, however they do that in conjunction with the manufacturer, and then Purex is offering the coupon (which CVS will be reimbursed for), so there's really no reason why they shouldn't but sometimes they get all crazy about it. If they wouldn't have let me, I would have bought them at a different CVS. Earlier in the week, I did the same sort of thing with the Sobe Life Water deal and it wasn't a problem.

Again, I don't have a picture, but I'll let you use your imagination to visual 4 bottles of Purex detergent. :) I also grabbed two Sobe waters. I had CVS coupons for $0.50 off these, used 2 of them and so they were about $0.49 total. With tax and everything, my total was $1.58. Strangely enough, I had an ECB for $1.58. I didn't think I could use it, but this particular cashier will take it and just adjust it however she needs to. So I ended up paying $0.00 out of pocket! And I actually got back a Surprise $1 ECB from the Softsoap that printed the wrong ECB earlier this week and I called and they fixed it.

I love when $0.00 happens. It doesn't happen often, but you get that A-Team feeling when it does... "I love it when a plan comes together."