Mommin' It Up!

February 2, 2008February 2, 2008

Is it WRONG to buy Candy for the Cashier?? :)

This week I had what might be my best CVS run to date! It was oh-so-fun and I left giggling like a little girl. I got all this:

For 88 cents out-of-pocket and I didn’t use ANY ECBs!! NONE! And I got back FIFTEEN ECBs!! Not pictured are the two king-sized Twix bars I had to buy so that my total would not be negative. When my total after coupons came up negative, I asked the cashier, who is one of my favorites, a nice high-school kid, “Do I need to throw in a couple of candy bars or something?” He was like, “Yeah that will work.” Well, thanks to CVS, we have enough chocolate in our house to sink a ship, so I really didin’t want to bring home more candy. So I said, “Well, what’s your favorite candy bar?” He got a big smile on his face and said that he liked Twix, so I tossed a couple of King sized Twix bars on the counter and they pulled my total up to 88 cents! The cashier was thrilled and giddily showed his shift supervisor, who didn’t seem to see anything wrong with it. So, everybody was happy! And hopefully this will make sure he is always happy to see me and my coupons!

(I would like to note: I always plan my trips – the main reason my total came up negative was that the Johnson’s baby bonus packs rang up half off!! Normally $5.99, they rang up at $2.99 and STILL gave me 2 ECBs! Wow! So, I had expected my total to be around $60 before coupons, and to be about $3-$5 after coupons).

Anyways, here’s how I worked this transaction. The total before coupons came to $55 and change. I used:
$10/$50 CVS coupon I got in my email
$10/$50 cash register tape coupon (CRT) that printed on my receipt previously
$5/$30 CVS coupon
two $5 off Zantac coupons
two 50 cents off Hellman’s coupons
four 40 cent off Skippy coupons
four $2 off Advil PM coupons
one $2 off Advil coupon
$1 off Advil CRT that printed on my receipt previously
two $1 off Johnson’s baby care coupons
three $3 off Infusium shampoo/conditioner coupons (the Infusium was on clearance for $1.87, the coupons were adjusted down to $1.87! FREE INFUSIUM!!)

Then, since my total was a couple bucks negative, I threw in the Twix and 88 cents and walked out with 15 ECBs! Woohoo!! I was so excited I could hardly stand it!

Another good deal I scored at CVS this week was toilet paper. They had 20-count packages of Cottonelle, previously $9.99 (giving back 2 ECBs) marked down to $4.99 and still giving back the 2 ECBs! I had $1 off coupons for these so I got 4 packages. That’s right – we now have 80 rolls of toilet paper! So we will be good for awhile there!

This week I also got to show another mom friend the beauty of CVS…always a lot of fun for me, even when I don’t buy anything! So welcome to the CVS club Amelia!

My final good score of the week was at Kohl’s. Emily and I had a little dinner-and-shopping date Wednesday night and I was thrilled to find three nice pairs of corduroy adjustable-waist pants for Joshua for $3.60 each! He has always been tall and then had a growth spurt this fall so he needed new pants, but he is such a skinny boy, he can only wear adjustable-waist in the sizes that are long enough for him. So I was really happy with that find. If only they had had some jeans!

Well that’s it for me this week. I also picked up some free-after-rebate items at Walgreen’s and Rite-Aid, but nothing too exciting (well for anyone other than me that is)! Check out all the other great savings at Super Savings Saturday over at Money Saving Mom! To get on the road to saving TONS of money on your grocery and household items, check out her Supermarket Savings 101 course here! You’ll be so glad you did!

January 26, 2008January 26, 2008

Free Milk, Freebates of Course FREE-VS!

I had a great week at Kroger, Rite-Aid and CVS this week! I have taken to calling CVS “FREE-VS”. It’s so great getting everything we need for next-to-nothing! I started out my week there. I went in to get diapers for a baby gift, and to see if my store would let me stack a $10 off $50 cash register tape (CRT) coupon that had printed at the bottom of my receipt last week with the $$ off CVS coupons. Well, they did, and this is what I ended up with:

3 Pampers Swaddlers size 1 (for a gift) $8.99 each
1 Cottonelle wipes tub $5.98
2 Glade Scented oil candles $6.99 each (Come on, now! I NEEDED another one to send the rebate in for my Grandma!)
2 mennen deodorants (FREE after ECBs!) $3.99 each
My total was $58 something.
I used $10/$50 coupon
$10/$50 coupon that printed on my receipt last time I was there
$5/$30
$4/$20
B1G1 Free mennen deodorant coupon (thanks Karen!)
B1G1 Free Glade candle coupon
$4 off Glade candle coupon
50 cents of cottonelle
3 $2 off Pampers coupons
Used $5 ECBs and paid $1.51 cash and I got $15.98 ECBs back!!

Unfortunately, this must’ve been the straw that broke the camel’s back, because the next time I went into this store, they would no longer let me stack $$ off CVS coupons! 🙁 So, I won’t be going there anymore unless I have a small transaction. It’s too bad because it is the one closest to my house. Oh well…there are still a couple of others that DO let me stack.

Next I was off to Rite-Aid for Freebies and Freebates! This week Rite-Aid had Lansinoh wipes for $3.99 but they had a $3.99 off coupon in their ad, making them FREE! They also had these DiaperMate diaper disposal bags free after rebate, and I love these things! Finally, this Citre Shine hair stuff was $3.99 and also free after rebate, and I had $1 off coupon, so they paid me to take this out the door!

I love Rite-Aid’s Single Check Rebate program because you can enter your receipts online – you don’t have to mail anything in or fill out any forms!

Next I hit up Kroger’s for our grocery shopping. On my first trip, I took advantage of two specials Kroger was running. One was a promotion to buy 9 items of Kraft/Pepsi products, and get $6 off your total order. So I bought 9 Kraft items that I had coupons for (total was $9.96 for these items) and that we will use, and got $6 off the rest of my order! I also got FREE MILK because Kroger’s other promotion was if you buy 3 General Mills Cereals (on sale for $2.49) you got a free gallon of milk. I bought 3 boxes, all of which I had $1 off coupons for, and got the free milk. Then after I paid for my order , I got a coupon on my receipt for $1.50 off 4 General Mills cereals. So I thought, “Hmm, I think I need to do this FREE MILK things again!” I came back to Kroger the next evening and got 4 of the sale General Mills cereals, used 4 coupons that were either $1 off or doubled to $1 off, got the FREE MILK and got an additoinal $1.50 off with that register receipt coupon! I also got 8 jars of Ragu pasta sauce on this order (on sale for $1 each, I had 4 $1 off 2 coupons) and paid a total of $8.85 for all of this!

I can’t wait for this week’s deals! To see what great deals other bloggers scored, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom! And if you haven’t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 course, DO IT!! You will be so happy you did! You can check it out or purchase it here!

January 24, 2008

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!