If you follow my microblogs or flickr, you know I’m addicted to coupons and deals. I love to post my deals on flickr! It’s so much fun to set up all my snags and post the cost.

My big shopping trip this weekend I didn’t post. It took hours. I ended up with $400 in groceries, but I used loads of coupons. Triple coupon days at the Bloom meant I spent under $200. My pantry is no longer bare like when I moved in here six weeks ago!

My big love is shopping at CVS. Why? Because there’s just so many good deals there! Once I get my personal supply up, I’ll start preparing for gift baskets. Holidays are so expensive and I am thinking that in these hard economic times people might want some pampering. Maybe I can get together some items for some serious “Calgon take me away” gift baskets. I don’t know if it will work out as it’s rather late to the game, but you never know. If not, I’m definitely using this idea for next year!

So what do I do? I have people pinging my phone with comments to my various microblogs. I thought, well today was awesome. I think I’ll post it! So here goes!

I knew going into this I was going to have a higher than normal out of pocket cost. That’s fine, the deals were too good to pass up!

First you need to know some basics about CVS. There’s this magic CVS red machine that I love. It spits out all manner of neat coupons. I scan that card every day I go in. Then there’s the ECB’s. These are store credit vouchers that print off with certain purchases.

Today I used three different transactions. Want to see what I did?

Transaction 1:
1 box of Corn Pops $2
3 Listerine Blue Agent Mouthwash $11.97 (3.99 each)
1 Smart Water (1 Litre size) 1.59
1 Loriel Anti Wrinkle thingie 11.99

I then used these coupons:
-CVS Magic Machine $2 off a purchase of $10 in oral care
-Three $1 off LIsterine coupons printed from the internet
-1 $1 off coupon for Listerine from this Diabetes book found back at the pharmacy
-1 $1 off the Loriel
-1 $1 off the cereal internet printed coupon

I used the following ECB store credits:
5.00
13.96

My total was .59 plus .19 in tax. That’s right, I spent .78 and I saved 40.15!

I earned the following ECB vouchers:
1.59 for the water
11.99 for the wrinkle stuff (that’s right, I “made money” on that one. No idea what to do with it, but they paid me to walk out of the store with it. I’ll likely give it away!)
$9 for the mouthwash (yes I also made money on that one because of my coupons)

Transaction 2:

1 Corn Pops $2
2 Palmolive Dish soaps: 2.98
1 Garnier Fructise Shampoo 2.99
2 Listerine Agent Mouthwash’s 7.98

I used these coupons:
1 $1 internet printed Kellog’s coupon
1 clipped from a Sunday paper insert coupon for $1 off the shampoo
2 $1 off the listerine printed coupons
1 $1 off the listerine from another diabetes book

I used the $9 ECB

Total spent of my own money was 1.95 plus .25 in taxes for 2.20. Actually this would have been less but my kids stuck the extra palmolive up. Oh well. I saved 20.99.

I earned:
$2 for Palmolive
$2 for shampoo
$6 for the mouthwash.

My final transaction was the one where I really spent money, but the deals were just so good I couldn’t pass them up!

4 Palmolive: 5.96
1 Hair Dye: 4.99
4 St Ive’s Body Soaps: 15.96

I only had a coupon for the dye. $2 off!

I used these ECB credits:
$1.59
$2
$11.99

I spent 7.84 plus .49 in tax for a whopping 8.33 total. Like i said, I couldn’t pass that up! It was a savings of 20.88!

The kicker? I ended up with loads of ECB’s. My total ECB coupons for this week was:
$2 – Palmolive
$3 – Palmolive
$6 – Listerine
$12- St Ives
Total Value: $23 I started off with $18.96.

In the end I spent out of my budget: 11.31
I saved: 82.02
Total Value: 93.33

That’s pretty spiffy, right? I thought so!

I will be back. I’ve a few more coupons for cereal. My boys eat a mountain of cereal, so I plan to stock up while it’s only a buck. I will use every last coupon I have! I wish I had more. That stuff is too expensive.

There’s a chocolate deal going on this week that I”m also hoping to take advantage of. I’m working on amassing the coupons toward it. It’ll make for great stocking stuffers, plus some of the coupons are for Special Dark and I have several family members that love them. Getting them on a deal would be fantastic!

There you have it. A look into my wheeling and dealing at CVS! This week was awesome. Thanks to CVS, I’ve not spent a whole lot but I’m well on my way to having our family supply of soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and etc.

So what do you guys think?

–Lady O