Retail Therapy: Two Old Pals, a CVS, and 7 ECBs in Peril!

I’ve been preaching the benefits of coupons and CVS to you all for a few weeks now, and I don’t know how many of you reader readers have taken the CVS plunge, but a few of my real-life friends have and it makes me oh-so-happy to be sharing the joy! A couple of weeks ago my friend Krista, (who has been my friend since the 5th grade!) who is a very busy working mom, e-mailed me that she wanted to give it a whirl and asked for some advice. As I mentioned, Krista works full-time (and she’s a CPA so she’s REALLY busy right now since it’s tax season) and wants to spend as much time with her daughter as she can when she’s off, so she wanted to see if she could make CVS work for her on her lunch hour. She e-mailed me a list (ok it was a spreadsheet! I said she’s a CPA!) of items she was interested in purchasing and what coupons she had and asked me if I could help her coordinate her transactions. Well, as luck would have it, my mom had taken my kids to my Grandma’s that day, so I said, “I’ll meet ya at CVS!” We rendezvoused in the parking lot and I organized Krista’s coupons into three separate groups (by transaction) while she went in and signed up for her ExtraCare card. I also had a couple of coupons for items she wanted to get that I contributed (because I am pretty much the best friend ever).

After Krista got her card we went in together and filled her cart with the items for transaction # 1. I hung out near the counter to make sure everything went ok with her coupons (they let ya stack at this store! Woot!) Everything went well and she got lots of ECBs and her receipt was reallllllllllly long! It was awesome! She then took her things out to the car while I started filling her cart with transaction # 2. Then when she was in the parking lot, something crazy happened. She noticed that the trunk of my car was open. Being a good friend, she went to close it for me. But it was very windy, and her very looooong receipt got caught in my trunk and ripped!! Here’s how Krista tells it, in her own words:

On my first trip out to put things away I noticed Jenny’s trunk was open. I reached over to shut it and my receipt got in the way. So the trunk was shut, but half of my loooooong receipt with my Extra Care Bucks were trapped inside! I run laughing into the store – high on saving money – to tell Jenny. We must have looked like two freaks running around CVS giggling the entire time with my wads of coupons.

I had to go out to the car to liberate Krista’s ECBs! There were SEVEN precious ECBS trapped in my trunk! I got them out and then we continued with transactions 2 and 3. We were indeed rather giggly and high on savings. I have never had so much fun in a store without buying anything!! In the end Krista spent about $25 out of pocket but she got a TON of stuff and had 14 ECBs to take home with her for her next trip! A couple of hours after she got back to the office she e-mailed me ANOTHER spreadsheet – this one of all her transactions and savings! (Did I mention she is a CPA? And VERY organized!)

It was really fun to help Krista get started CVSing – not just because I got to spend time with her (which was the best part), but also because I know that this is going to be a big help to her family just like it is to mine. If you haven’t started yet, I encourage you to jump in like Krista, my sister-in-law Ruthie (mom of SEVEN!) and my friend Bethany have. You don’t have to be all CVS CRAZY like I am. You can put just a little time & effort into it and still save a lot! Feel free to email me with questions, and go here to Money Saving Mom for CVS lessons or if you have no idea what the heck I am even talking about. She also has a great e-book called Supermarket Savings 101 which has helped me conquer grocery stores as well – you can check that out here!

Allright, ready, set, SHOP! And save! True retail therapy is when you get to shop and BUY lots of stuff without SPENDING hardly anything!

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Money Making Monday: Rebate-a-palooza!

Today for Money Making Monday I’ll gab about my newest obsession (like I needed another one!): REBATES! I love, love, LOVE a good rebate. Especially when it’s for something I paid little or nothing out-of-pocket for at CVS or Walgreens in the first place! Right now there are a couple of good rebates out there that you ALL should take advantage of!! The first is the Sambucol immune system booster I mentioned in my Super Savings Saturday post that is a monthly ECB item at CVS this month. This stuff costs $12.99, use a $2/$10 coupon to buy it, pay $10.99, get TEN ECBS back and then send in for a FULL rebate using this form and get a check for $12.99! WOOHOO! Also – it actually TASTES good! Bobby, Joshua and I have all tried it, and Joshua, my THREE YEAR OLD, sucked it down like it was candy. SO – getcha some!!

Now my good friends at Glade and Walgreens have teamed up for another stellar deal on Glade Scented Oil candles. Now, I need more GSOCs like I need a hole in the head, but GUESS WHAT?? I got FOUR MORE today because THEY ARE FREE!! They are B1G1 free at Walgreens this week, and there are B1G1 free coupons at coupons.com, PLUS there was a coupon in yesterday’s paper for a FULL REBATE up to 7.99!! So, since my receipt shows the price paid at 6.99, I am getting $6.99 back on my FREE CANDLE. Holla!! (Note: if you didn’t get the coupons in the paper, you can get one of these forms on eBay for about $1. You would still make $5.99!)

Another awesome deal in the newspaper yesterday and also available online here is the RX Essentials rebate. RX Essentials are vitamins you take that go along with prescription meds that you might be taking. This week they are B1G1 free at CVS. Use two $5 off coupons found at coupons.com, get 2 bottles for $4.99 (or use a $2/$10 coupon and pay $2.99!!), and then send in for the rebate and get a check for $14.99. You just made $10-$12! I got these vitamins for my mom, and sent the rebate in for myself, but I am going to go back and get some more for my Grandma and send another rebate in her name, as most rebates are one per household and Gma can always use a few extra dollars. (She is also getting a Glade Candle rebate! Woot Woot!)

Ok – final rebate for the week! Purell Gentle Foam is on sale at Walgreen’s for $3.49. There was a $1 off manufacturer’s coupon in yesterday’s paper, and there is a $1 off coupon in the Walgreens ad which you can stack. So…use both coupons, get your Purell for $1.49, and send in the rebate form here for a $3.49 rebate! Yee-ha! Sanitized hands that now hold an extra $2! Rock on!

Ok, my peeps, I think I am about rebated-out. Plus I have a lot of rebate FORMS to fill out and mail so I better stop here. 🙂 For more Money-Makin’ ideas, head over to Money Saving Mom!

**Edited to add**
I just got a rebate check in the mail for a purchase of Pert Plus. The rebate form said get $5 back on your purchase of two bottles of Pert Plus. I got two bottles that were on clearance at Walgreen’s for $1.79 each. I used a $1.50 off two manufacturer’s coupon, and paid a total of $2.33 with tax. The check I got today was for the full $5.00! So I hope that helps – most of the time manufacturer’s will reimburse you your purchase price before coupons – in this case even more than that!

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Saving Moola at Meijer and CVS deals!!

It’s time for another edition of Super Savings Saturday! This week I was REALLY excited to get some great deals at Meijer! I usually do my grocery shopping at Kroger, but if Meijer has some great deals, I’m there! I posted here about the deal Meijer was running with Colgate/Palmolive. If you bought 5 Colgate/Palmolive products, you got a $5 off coupon to use on your next order. I bought 2 Colgate toothpastes (2/$4) and 3 Palmolive Scrub Busters (3/$5). I used 50 cent off and one 40 cent off coupons for the Palmolive (all doubled by Meijer). I also used a $1.50 and a $1 off coupon on the toothpaste. With tax, I paid $4.80 and got the $5 coupon. Then I turned my cart around and finished my shopping! I got all this in the picture for $22.87!!

(That’s Sophie’s hand on the chicken nuggets. She wouldn’t leave them alone!)

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I got two 4 lb. bags of chicken tenderloins ($14.98, but they were B1G1 free), 11 boxes of Totino’s pizza rolls, two packs of chicken nuggets, a dozen eggs, and two small tubs of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” for $17.07. I used one 55 cent off coupon, (doubled to $1 by Meijer), two $1.10/2 and three $1/2 coupons for the pizza rolls. I had a 50 cent off coupon for the (not) butter – it was on sale for $1, and since Meijer doubles coupons it was FREE. I can’t remember how much the eggs were, but anyhoo, after using all those coupons and the $5 off, the total was $17.07. I was elated!

Now, on to CVS. There were SOOO many CVS deals this week and SOOO many CVS coupons, I went to CVS many, many, mnay times this week. TOO MANY. I am gonna have to cut back this week cause thanks to CVS I am behind on my laundry! But here are a couple of the great deals I got. These were actually both engineered by me but executed by my hubby! Go Bobby!

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Not pictured is a $4.99 gift bag that we got for our buddy Owen’s first birthday party. So mentally add that to the picture! Bobby spent 45 cents on this transaction after coupons and ECBs!! He spent $13 ECBs but got back $13.99 ECBs! Woohoo!

This transaction I think of as the “mmm…chocolate” deal:

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On this one Bobby spent 74 cents, used $14 ECBs and got $15 ECBS. ( $2 for the big Hershey bars, $1 for the Reese’s Whipps, $2 for the Colgate and $10 for the Sambucol)…PLUS there is a full rebate on the Sambucol so we are getting $12.99 ACTUAL DOLLARS back in the mail! If there’s anything I like better than getting ECBs, it’s getting CASH back for something I GOT ECBs on!!

Ok, I am exhausted from GETTING these deals and BLOGGING about them…for more great deals, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom! And if you haven’t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 class yet, do it! It is very affordable and will pay for itself in a heartbeat. You can check it out or purchase it here!

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