How I stretch our budget by playing the CVS shopping game - Part 1

Since the fall, I have been making an effort to shop at CVS almost weekly - buying sale items with coupon match ups that also offer Extra Care Bucks with purchase. ECBs print at the bottom of the register receipt and can be spent on the next shopping trip on most anything. 

If ECBs get spent on another item that offers ECBs as well, then very little, if any, cash is spent on the next purchase. That is called "rolling". It is legal and can really be a savings. 

When shopping at CVS, you must get a Extra Care card. The cashier will be happy to give it to you. 

You also need to register your card online and give them your email. CVS will then email you about sales and more coupons like $5 off your next $20 purchase or $5 off any Revlon.  The coupons CVS sends you might be based on your previous purchases.  I often buy diapers and get CVS coupons like $5 off $30 baby purchase. 

Whenever you visit CVS, scan your Extra Care card at the red kiosk scanner.  These scanners have been near the front of every CVS I've visited. It will print off store coupons for you. Scan your card multiple times until the screen says you've printed them all.

Each week, there is usually one coupon for a weekly deal to get one item at a very good price. Last week, the Colgate was free with the scanner coupon and a newspaper coupon. 

The coupons from CVS are called " store coupons" and can be combined with newspaper and Internet coupons that are called "manufacturer coupons"  That makes for double savings.  

Big Savings happen when store coupons are matched with sale items that offer ECBs and you also use a manufacturer coupon on the purchases. 

CVS also rewards shoppers with a quarterly  bonus of 1% of the purchase price in a ECB. 

Their Beauty Club offers $5 ECB for every $50 spent on beauty items -this includes hair care, fragrance and cosmetics and maybe some other things I am not aware of. Register for the Beauty Club when you register your CVS card online. 

CVS also gives ECBs for prescriptions and refills- I think it $5 for every 10 but I am not sure. 

If you have a smart device, you might also want to get the CVS app. 

I know it sounds complicated but once you learn the lingo, what is allowed and what is not, it is actually easy. 

There is so much information online to show how to match everything up. 

I have joined a couple of Facebook groups where shoppers share their deals and tips. 

IHeartCvs.com publishes the current and future CVS ads and that helps me with planning ahead. 

I also watch a YouTube channel who posts her weekly CVS shopping trip every Sunday morning. She is amazing! She seems to buy about $200 every week and pays for it all with coupons and ECBs she earned the previous week.  www.youtube.com/user/LASavings8

  Besides weekly sales, I read about some clearance sales

I also got 2 gallons of our favorite Borden milk this trip but I put one in the fridge and one in the freezer after pouring one cup into a creamer to allow for expansion when frozen before I had time to take a photo. 

The above photos are everything else I bought 

4 12 packs of soda

Oodles of candy for Valentines and Easter

1 bag potato chips 

Laundry detergent and fabric softener

2 mascara and 2 eye liners

3 body washes

1 razor and 1 shave cream

6 boxes tissue

4 hair colors

1 deodorant

1 toothpaste

My out of pocket (OOP) cash for the 3 purchases was $33.42 and I have $11 ECBs for my next shopping at CVS.  

Everything I bought was on sale or clearance. I used manufacturer and store coupons, ECBs, an email coupon, some coupons CVS mailed me  and $4.22 left on a gift card earned from MyPoints.com

Also, I don't pay sales tax because our state gives tax exemption to disabled veterans and their spouses.  

I don't live in a big town and don't have dozens of stores to chose from so I concentrate my couponing to CVS.  

I've glanced at other deals on line and have seen amazing shopping hauls at Target, Rite Aid, Publix, Walgreens and others.  If you want to find out more, do a search on Facebook or YouTube for the store you are interested in.  

Some couponers don't seem to follow the rules and I avoid their advice. 

I don't shop just to be shopping but I try to get good deals on things my family uses and needs. 

It's fun to get good deals. The cashiers at my CVS are all very coupon friendly and I feel like I am really making our income stretch farther.  

Part 2 coming soon!

Valentine's decorations

After Christmas, I left this small artificial tree up and decorated it with winter theme things. 

Now that it's February, I switched it out to hearts for Valentines Day. 

Linking up with A Tray of Bliss - Five Star Frugal Link up

Nothing is new. I made the felt and sequin hearts years ago and my mom crocheted the hearts several years ago. 

The postcards belonged to my grandparents in law.m

Braeden likes the decorations, he called the little cherubs "babies"

He liked stacking the foam and plastic hearts in the candy dish. 

He will really be excited when he figures out that real candy comes with the actual holiday. 

Gavin is 6! We celebrated like sharks

Our oldest grandson just had a birthday and is 6 years old! He is such a sweetheart and I am very proud of him and also sad that he is just growing up so fast.

We like to celebrate around here so we had a family party for him this weekend. He likes sharks and we saw shark hat instructions in a free issue of Ranger Rick Jr that was sent to our house.

I got the foam sheets at Hobby Lobby and I made 12 shark hats for the birthday boy and guests. 

The food was simple. I made buns with dough made in my bread machine, My husband smoked and sliced a pork loin. We also had hard cooked eggs, fresh fruit and veggies and chips. 

My daughter made the cupcakes and my son got the decorations and balloons. 

The party was very little work but it was fun and I think the birthday boy was very happy.

It was cold rainy evening and my husband had a great idea to move our vehicles out of the garage so the children could ride bikes and toys there. 

1. Make a Shark Hat - National Wildlife Federation

   www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick-Jr/Shark-Hat-Craft.aspx
   

   Make a shark hat craft from the September 2014 issue of Ranger Rick jr magazine

   
   

   I have to give a thumbs up on Ranger Rick Jr as a great magazine for young children.  All the grands have enjoyed looking at the amazing animal photos. My husband has enjoyed looking at with the grands. He told me we should get a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr, so I did. 

Monday's list for this week

It's a pretty long list but I got quite a bit of it done yesterday and a few more things done this morning. 

Today's thrifty shopping

Linking up with Mimi's Five star frugal link up


I stopped at CVS this morning. I used ECBs from my last purchase, an email coupon from CVS and manufacturer coupons on everything,

I got 3 mascaras and 3 dental floss and spent $4.34 cash and got back $13 in ECBs for my next purchase.

I also stopped at my favorite thrift store.  I spent $5 for this mini doughnut pan and a handful of teaspoons. 

The doughnut pan is small. I will try baking some mini ones but if it is too much trouble, then I am sure the grands would be very happy to use it to make play dough doughnuts. 

I don't mind if the spoons don't match, I have a big assortment of silverware. When all our family is here, we might have 15 or so people here for meals.  We usually use disposable plates but everyone prefers real silverware.

I got these old magazines from the thrift store free pile.

The Burda sewing magazine has a big section of uncut patterns in the center, I am wondering what they are.  The date is 1989 so they may be very out of style, who knows.  

Have you found any good deals?