Category: Bargains

It’s official. I am HOOKED on couponing and bargain shopping! I just returned from an amazing trip to Target and CVS. I got some AWESOME deals! When I called my husband to tell him I was coming home, I said, “No offense, honey, but I think I’ve just had the most exhilarating night of my life!” (He WAS, indeed, offended.) It’s almost midnight, I usually go to bed around ten, and I’m so hyper I’m annoying myself. I’m on a couponing HIGH! I am ADDICTED! Bobby just asked me, “WHAT are you on?” ’cause I’ve been dancing around the living room like a 13-year-old mixing Pop Rocks with Red Bull!! What’s got me sooo excited? How about the fact that I got all THIS:

for $6.03 out-of-pocket at Target. That’s four glade scented oil candle trios, six travel packs of Huggies Wipes, a Hudson Hornet car for Joshua (Merry Christmas!) and two packages of post-it-notes. I LOVE Target and I usually spend WAY TOO MUCH there. Not tonight!! Thanks to my BFF Crystal at Money Saving Mom, I learned that when you buy said Glade candle or the Glade Wisp Flameless Candle, you get a $5 Target gift card. Well, I had two B1G1 Free coupons from Coupons.com for the scented oil candles, plus, coupons for $4 off from a newspaper insert a few weeks ago. Crystal also alerted her blog readers to a $3 off two huggies products coupon good only at Target. Those travel packs of wipes were 97 cents each, and so the coupon took an extra $1.06 off my total! So, I paid $5.27 for two candles and two packs of wipes and got $10 in gift cards. THEN, I went back and did the deal again, but this time I got FOUR packs of Huggies wipes, and used TWO $3 off coupons in addition to my B1G1 and $4 off Glade coupon. This time my total was only $4.14, and I put it on a GIFT CARD and got $10 back in GIFT CARDS! Making my total profit $15.86. HOLLA! I then used those gift cards and some $2 off post-it-note coupons (post-its were $1.19) to buy my rubbermaid drawer which we really needed, and the Hudson Hornet car for Joshua for Christmas. My out-of-pocket total was 76 cents on this final transaction. So all in all, I spend $6.03. NOT. TOO. SHABBY!!!!

My CVS haul was awesome too. My kids now have plenty of stocking stuffers, but I will save that post for SUPER SAVINGS SATURDAY!

Allright, I am starting to come down from my shopping high now…better get to bed before I start getting the shakes!!

A couple of days ago I gave Money Saving Mom a “Your Blog is Out of the World Award”. Here’s why: thanks to her blog, I’ve learned how to get CVS to PAY me to shop there! Not in actual dollars, but in CVS “Extra Care Bucks”, which you can use like cash at CVS stores. I am going to give you the short version of how I do this, click here to go to Money Saving Mom for the long version.

First, you have to apply for one of CVS’ free Extra Care cards. Just go in the store and getcha one. This card allows you to get the sale prices at CVS and also to get “Extra Care Bucks” (ECBs) back on the purchases of certain items they have on weekly and monthly specials. There are usually at least one or two monthly items that are “free” after ECBs. For instance, this month there is a new mouthwash by Sensodyne called “Oasis” that is on sale for $5.99, and you get $5.99 ECBs back when you purchase it. So it’s like getting the item for free, but if you happen to have a manufacturer’s coupon for the item, you can actually “make money” on the deal. I had a manufacturer’s coupon for $1.50 off the Oasis mouthwash, so when I bought it I “made” that dollar fifty. CVS also often has store coupons for say, $2 off a $10 purchase or $4 off a $20 purchase that you can stack with manufacturer’s coupons to “sweeten the deal”. Here’s an example of a transaction I did Sunday at CVS.

I bought one of those Oasis mouthwashes, a Gillette Fusion Razor, and a Febreze candle. The total before tax & coupons was $22.97. I used a CVS $4 off of $20 coupon, a $4 Gillette manufacturer’s coupon, a $1 Febreze manufacturer’s coupon, and that $1.50 Oasis coupon. That brought the total down to $12.47. I used $11.99 worth of ECBs I had from a previous purchase, and paid $2.04 out of pocket, including tax. Great deal, huh? Especially since I got $16.99 back in ECBs as well! ($6 for the razor, $5.99 for the mouthwash, and $5 for the Febreze candle. Although I should mention you had to purchase $10 worth of Febreze to get this benefit – I had purchased the other Febreze products on a previous transaction).

So, now I am an official, full-on, CVS nerd! I live for the weekly and monthly CVS ads so I can get out my calculator and my coupons and start figuring out my deals! I’m like an addict, always ready for my next high. I’ve even got my husband into it. He got his own Extra Care card so we can do some deals more than once if they have a limit. Here is a picture of ALL the stuff I got at CVS on Sunday. I did it in three transactions, using both my and Bobby’s Extra Care card.

I spent about $60 in Extra Care Bucks and got about $34 BACK in ECBs. The total dollar amount in real money I spent out of my pocket was…drumroll please…$6.94!!! WOOHOO!!

That’s right my peeps, I got five 100 oz. Tides, two jumbo packs of Pampers, two swiffer wet refills, two swiffer dry refills, some Kashi crackers, Febreze fabric refresher, air freshener, and candle, the Fusion razor, a four-pack of Charmin, and four Oasis mouthwashes for $6.94. HOLLA!

So now, get started with your CVS deals! Head over to Money Saving Mom to read her CVS 101, and check with her every week for the CVS deals and coupons! Other places that are helpful with coupons are the CVS forums on SlickDeals and Deal of Day.

And, because I love you dear readers, here is the $2/$10 some coupon link to get you started!
CVS $2/$10

Happy Shopping! I look forward to hearing your bargain tales!