Another Great CVS Deal

Yesterday I got a box of Pampers diapers (64 count) for $3.49. Well, it's basically like that. Here is how it worked:

• CVS has Pampers for sale (not on sale) at $21.99
• I had a coupon for $1.50 off.
• I also had $3 in Extra Care Bucks from my last CVS purchase.
• I also had $4 in Extra Care Bucks because every few months, CVS gives you 2% of the TOTAL amount spent back to you. So even though I've only actually spent about $30, my Extra Care account shows that I spent $84.11. If you do the math, (which I'm horrible at) you'll see that 2% of $84.11 is NOT $4. So I'm not sure why I got 4% back but I'll take it!
• With ECB's and a coupon, that brought my total to $13.49 (cheaper than Target brand!)
  
• When you buy 1 box of Pampers diapers, you receive $10 in Extra Care Bucks.
• Bringing the grand total to $3.49. Wow.

Now granted, I actually had to pay $13.49 of actual cash yesterday. But what I'll do is spend those $10 ECB on something where I only pay the overage to reach $10. So I'll wait for something that is "Buy $10 of Cover Girl products and get $3 ECB's." See this post for an example of this.

What it comes down to is I get a box of diapers and $10 of other merchandise for only $13.49. I'm loving getting things for dirt cheap. Now that I've been couponing and CVSing for almost 2 months, I feel like I've learned a few things and understand everything a lot better. Be looking for a post in the next few days about it. I'm still hooked!

All of This . . . for only $0.61

That is not a misprint. I got 2 Suave kids shampoo/conditioner in 1, 1 Suave shampoo, and 3 Suave body washes for only $0.61. Oh . . . and I got 3 Snickers too. I ate one on the way home.

In case anyone misunderstood my last post, I'll still be posting about my coupon adventures and lessons I'm learning, but I'm going to do it on this blog, and only as I have time. If you want to blog for income, you have to keep to the specified niche of the blog, blog often, and do a lot of networking on like minded blogs. That is what I didn't have time for. I still have time to release some verbal steam via this blog as I share with you what fun deals I'm getting. Thus . . . the point of this post.

So how did I get all of that for $0.61? Awhile ago I posted about CVSing. Today I was finally able to start rolling those ECB's. On a previous purchase, I earned $10 ECB's. This week at CVS, they had a deal for Suave products: 3/$5 on Suave shampoo, body wash or lotion. If you spent $10 on Suave products, you get $3 ECB. I also had 3 coupons for Suave products. So after coupons, the total amount of money owed was about $8.50. I had those $10 ECBs to spend so I used it to pay for the Suave products. BUT . . . when you spend ECBs, you also have to spend the full amount. So I needed to find $1.50 worth of things to buy to reach $10. I grabbed 3 Snickers at Buy 2 get 1 free, and the total due was $0.61! For all of those things that's a really good deal! AND . . . and . . . I still got $3 ECBs back which I will use on another purchase that will earn me more ECBs.

So do you get it? Can you see how CVS can be a goldmine for free or next to nothing stuff? If I would been more on top of it, I could have milked my $10ECB for even more on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. CVS had a deal on those days where you could buy a package of ball point pens, or a small pair of scissor for $0.99. In turn, you got $1 ECB back. ($1 for the pens, $1 for the scissors.) Had I done that, I could have recieved $5ECBS back and spent only a few cents!

I'm so glad to finally have a better hang of things. And you can't beat getting things for practically nothing!

"CVSing"

My very first trip to a CVS Pharmacy . . .

I headed out the door with my Wal-Mart coupon organizer and CVS Sunday ad in hand. As I walked in I scanned the store looking for an employee who could help me sign up for the Extra Bucks CVS reward card. Standing in line I remember thinking. "This is a memorable moment. Someday it will be a fond memory of the day I started making money off of CVS." And then I took a tissue and dabbed at my tears while I composed myself.

OK, most of that didn't really happen. But I was excited to finally give this CVS goldmine a try! It was fast and easy to sign-up for the card and the cashier even gave me my very own card right away. It came with 2 key chain versions as well.

Next, I headed for my target: a 64 count box of Huggies diapers on sale for $19.99. With the CVS card, the price went down to $9.99. And did I mention I had coupon for $3 off? Oh yeah. That brought my total down to $6.99. Seriously? $6.99 for a BOX of diapers? That's almost half the price of the Target brand I usually buy!

When I arrived at the cash register I kind of felt like a teenage guy asking out his first date. Do I hand them the coupon first? Are they going to roll their eyes at yet another Mom using coupons to get free stuff? Turns out you first hand them your CVS card, so they can ring up your sale purchase. If you have any coupons to use, hand them over next. On my receipt, there was a bar code at the bottom and a note that said I earned 10 extra care bucks(ECB's). Woo hoo!

I was feeling very ambitious now. So I thought about toiletry things I needed but haven't yet bought because I didn't have coupons. I went back down the aisles and grabbed a few items totaling $7.

When I arrived at the cash register for the 2nd time, I was excited to use the ECB's to purchase these things and then get more ECB's back! Turns out I was wrong . . . I COULD have used my ECB's to purchase those things, but the amount needed to equal at least $10. Darn it . . . So I talked to the cashier and asked questions to make sure I understood the whole system correctly.

When I arrived home, I read the CVSing guide on http://www.southernsavers.com/ which explained what I'd missed: The first time you buy an ECB item, you pay real money. You can then use those ECB to buy other ECB items. AND, you'll get the new ECB bonus. So they just keep rolling over! You can use ECB to pay for normal items, which I'm sure I'll use once I get a better hang of this. But you get the real things for free when you use ECB to purchase other ECB items.

Whew. I'm so glad I got my first CVS trip done. I may have felt like a fish out of water but now that I understanding it more, I can't wait to keep rolling those ECB!

Anyone else a CVSer? What deals are you finding?

UPDATE: Thanks Kaci for the tip about Money Saving Mom. I check her blog frequently but I didn't know that she listed the specials for ECB's each week at CVS! Click here if you want to read more about it!