Creative Me: Couponing at CVS

I haven't written about couponing for a while because, frankly, there wasn't much to say. The deals were few and far between and mostly involved child related deals. We're empty nesters - so cereal, lunch snacks and diapers are not on my radar. I stocked up on razors, bath gel and shampoo, but there were no real deals - until this day.

I found a bunch of deals at CVS that I rolled as much as I could, and I still have $7 in CVS Extra Care Bucks to use next time.

Total out of pocket $13.32 (doesn't include the $7 ECB for next time, so net is $6.32 for EVERYTHING)

Here's how I did it:

First I went to my 3 favorite couponing sites. JillCataldo.com to see what she found for the week, then to CouponMom.com to see everything on sale at CVS with coupon matchups. Between those two sites, I determined what I wanted to buy. Then I went to CouponTom.com to search for any coupons they may have missed.

Then I figured out the best grouping and order to roll ECBs as much as possible. I'm a bit of a geek, so I used a spreadsheet, but you can do it on a pad of paper.

When I got to CVS, I scanned my Extra Bucks card and got coupons for $3.00 off any cosmetic purchase over $10 and $1.00 off Crest. Happy dance!

First transaction:

Dean Milk $2.99, 2 Almay eye $8.29 each, trial size shampoo $1.99

I had to throw in the shampoo to keep it from going into negative. That allowed me to use all the coupons.

Used coupons:

$10 CVS ECB from prior week, 2 Almay coupons $2.00 each, $3 off cosmetics, $ .50 off Dean milk.

Earned: $4.00 ECBs on the Almay and $1.00 ECB on the milk.

Total out of pocket $1.55! Happy Dance!

My second transaction was the toilet paper. A 12 pack of Angel Soft was sold out at $5.00, so I went with twelve double rolls of Quilted Northern Ultra Plush for $7.00. Used $5.00 ECBs earned from transaction 1. Had the Angel Soft been in stock it would have been Free after ECBs.