Ramblings from a Housewife: Couponing for Two: Shopping at CVS

If you are anything like I was, before I learned to save with coupons, you look at the CVS and Walgreen Sunday inserts and think, "well...that does not seem such a great deal!". You would be soooo right if you were just going to walk in and buy something. But if you are going to prepare, learn the "deals" and invest your time into saving, you will know that, quiet often, the deals are great.

What you have to know is it does take a bit of prep work, time, and most of all PATIENTS.

Here are some deals I got, just last night, at CVS:

CVS

Before I post ANYTHING about CVS, please understand to get any kind of good deal at this store you MUST have an Extra Care Card.

Although I went to CVS last night (Saturday), most of these items are from THIS WEEK'S (Sunday) sale cycle. I have find it is much easier for me to do my CVS shopping late Saturday so I have a better chance of finding the items before they are sold out. One thing to note about the drug stores is they have limited stock on hand.

Here is what I bought:

Dentine gum

CVS Body Wash

Pantene Deep Conditioning treatment

Pantene Hair Spray

2 bottle of Infusium hair treatments

Hydro 5 Razor Cartridge

4 Ozarka Sparkling Waters

6 SoBe Flavored Waters

Bandages

Kens Dressing

3 boxes of Special K Cracker Chips (YUM!)

Conair Hair Straightener

(the Premium Saltines, Fritoes, and Bean Dip were bought at Big Lots next door without coupons, they do not take them as their prices are very low due to close-outs...the manufactures will not reimburse if they took coupons. I will post more about these kind of stores at a later time)

For all of this....I paid 10.61 (and got back 10 Extra Care Bucks to spend next time..so "like" .61 cents!!!!)

Here is how I did it:

Dentine Gum 2.00 on sale - 1.00 CVS Magic Machine Q - 1.00 Manu Q= FREE

CVS Body Wash = FREE for "liking" CVS Minute Clinic on FB

Pantene Deep Conditioning treatment = FREE (came in the mail...I do not remember why)

Pantene Hair Spray = 1.24 on clearance (I used a 3.00/2 Pantene Manu Q with the Pantene Products*)

2 bottle of Infusium hair treatments BOGO 6.99- 2 1/1.00 Manu Qs = 4.99 (for BOTH)

Hydro 5 Razor Cartridge 8.49 on sale and you get 5.00 ECB - 4.00 Manu Q (Kroger 8/21 insert**)= 4.49

4 Ozarka Sparkling Waters .99 each - 2 BOGO Q (IPs***) = 1.98

6 SoBe Flavored Waters 1.59 each - 2 1.00/3 and a B2G1 free CVS Q = 4.36 (for ALL 6)

Bandages = FREE (CVS Magic Machine Q)

3 boxes of Special K Cracker Chips (YUM!) 2.00 on sale**** - 1.50/3 IP Manu Q = 4.50

Conair Hair Straightner 12.49 on clearance and you got 5.00 ECBs with purchase of any Conair Appliance

I also used a Magic Machine print out of 10.00 off a 50.00 purchase.

The way this worked is you MUST hand over any $$$ off $$$ purchases BEFORE you hand over your coupons. This way the total is high enough to get the discount.

Before any coupons my total was around 67.15 (might be slightly off due to tax)

I saved 45.54 with coupons

That is 45.54 I now have to spend on something else...that I would have paid because I wanted or needed everything I bought. When I think of walking into CVS, spending 67.15 dollars for that small of order...I want to choke. Really. And then I think of what all this would cost if I waited until I absolutely was out of the product and had to pay FULL price when it is not on sale and did not use any coupon? Before any savings whatsoever, this order would have been 118.79!!!!

With the ECB on the Razor Cart, it was like I got them for .49 cents!!! These are expensive so .49 cents is a great deal!!! and the Straightener was regularly about 35.00 (forget exact price) so with that being 7.49 cents (after ECBs)...who wouldn't pick that up? I need a straightener and Jordan (my darling niece) has complained all summer that I did not have one.

A key to remember is to buy products when they are on sale with a coupon to stockpile so you are not paying full price for ANYTHING. You do not have to have a huge stockpile, there are only 2 of us so I have no plans to have a large stockpile of anything. You will have to determine the amount you need. As this series goes along I will post more about that and we can learn together. Another advantage to stockpiling is that you always have products on hand so you are not running out to the store here and there...THAT always leads to larger spending / bills.

You see in the photo that I have 2 bottles of Infusium, for example. I had a bottle I bought a month or so ago so I now have 1 in use and 2 in my stockpile. This will last me at least 4 to 6 months, even with my long hair. By then, I will have a few more coupons and it will be on sale again since the sales cycles go in 12 week rotations, usually. The Special K crackers, however, will not last that long, unfortunatly. LOL. I know that I should not have those in "stock" because then I would eat more than I should. You have to know what will work for your family.

Here are a few notes:

* The Pantene coupon was 3.00 off any 2 Pantene Products. I was unsure if I could use that Q so I asked the cashier to make sure. She was not the most helpful gal and not the nicest, either, but she said "yes" so I did not argue. I did not see anything on the Q that prevented the exchange, except that it produced an overage...but that was applied to the rest of my order. If anyone reading knows that I misused this Q, please comment so we can all learn from this. Thanks!!!!

**We got a Kroger insert in this weeks paper with a few Qs. They are NOT "Kroger" qs but Manufacture...so they can be used anywhere that accepts coupons.

***IP stands for Internet Printed. Manufactures put out these coupons from their websites, facebook, coupons.com, redplum.com, and smartsource.com. There are a few other legit sites that have IP coupons but PLEASE know where you are getting these and only use them if you KNOW for a certain fact that they are legit. I have recently learned there are ALOT of counterfit coupons on the internet. To see a list of SOME, not all I am sure...visit Coupon Information Center.

****When I got to CVS late Saturday evening, the sales cycles have already switched over (your store may vary) but the CURRENT week is also still available. This is very confusing, at times. If you still want some products from the current sale, yet want to pick up items for the next cycle, this is a great time to go. just bring your ads because not all sales are posted...some have been taken down while others might not have been put up. Lots of times, while I am there, they are working to change the signs.

To learn more about CVS and how to shop there please go to Hip2Save's website. Collin explains this much better than I could.