CVS Shopping for the Week of 9.05.10 – Saved $254, Spent $11.50, Made $64

I decided to publish my weekly CVS shopping trip early in the week so you could take advantage of some of this week’s deals and coupons!

So, as usual here is a list of what we purchased – all shown in the picture above:

26 Bottles of Sobe Lifewater

2 Bottles of Excedrin Migraine

1 Accu-Check Aviva Diabetes Monitoring Kit

1 Bottle of CVS Ibuprofen

2 Phillips In-Ear Headphones

4 Sticks of Old Spice High Endurance Deodorant

4 Packs of Trident Layers Gum

4 Tubes of Nivea Lip Care lip gloss

3 Cans of Sweet Peas

1 Can of Green Beans

1 Pack of Stride Shift Gum

2 Boxes of Ritz crackers

1 Bottles of Neutrogena T-Gel Shampoo

1 Bottles of Neutrogena T-Gel Conditioner

4 Tubes of Crest Pro Health Clinical Toothpaste

1 Venus Embrace Razor

5 Cans of Bumblebee Solid White Tuna

2 6-Packs of Scott Mega Paper Towels

3 Boxes of Frosted Flakes

2 Bottles of CVS Pain Relief (Naproxen)

[ad#Google Adsense 468x60 Banner]

Every item on this list was either on sale, or we had a coupon for it (and in many cases, both)! Actually, we try very hard to only purchase items that are on sale AND for which we have coupons!

That is why using the Coupon Database is so important (see below for more details).

Here are the totals of how much we paid, saved, coupons used and tax paid :

Total Value – $265.32

Savings from weekly deals – $45.60

Manufacturer & CVS coupons – $68.85

Flexible Spending Account – $68.45

Extra Care Bucks Spent – $70.92

Total Savings – $253.82 (96%)

Subtotal – $6.59

Tax – $4.91

Total Paid – $11.50

Another shopping trip where sales tax was a large part of my purchase!

At first I was upset that we spent so much (even a $6.59 subtotal is a lot to me now), but when I looked at all the items stacked up, I realized that we got quite a deal! We were able to purchase $265.32 worth of items and only paid $11.50.

Highlights:

Sobe Lifewater – They are currently B1G1 free. But that’s not all…Sobe also has an online game setup where you can win a bunch of prizes – the minimum is a B1G1 free coupon. Combine this printable coupon with the CVS deal, and you get 2 free Sobe’s!

See below for an explanation of the CVS B1G1 free policy.

You can print out 2 B1G1 free coupons from the website each day. – Just search our Coupon Database to get the link to the game.

Accu-Check Aviva Diabetes Monitoring Kit – This item is on sale for $15 with $5 ECBs back. It also includes a mail-in-rebate for $10 – making it free!

Anybody with diabetes or knows someone with it should definitely take advantage of this offer. This product was covered by our flexible spending account, and so we paid nothing out of pocket!

Trident Layers Gum – They are on sale for $.99 with $.99 in ECBs – making them free! I searched the Coupon Database and found a printable $1/2 coupon. That means that we were able to get 2 free packs for each account! - Search our Coupon Database to get these coupons.

Old Spice High Endurance Deodorant – They are on sale this week for 2/$4 with one ECB – making them 2/$3. Anyone who buys this deodorant (my personal favorite) knows that this is a great deal.

However, searching the Coupon Database revealed a $1/2 coupon!!! – I don’t believe this was a printable coupon, but the Coupon Database will still tell you what date the coupon appeared in the newspaper.

A couple of our other highlights (Crest Toothpaste, Phillips Headphones, and the Venus Razor) involved rain checks from previous weeks and so that won’t help you with your shopping this week.

We also earned $75.97 in ECBs, meaning that CVS paid us $64.47 to do our weekly shopping!!!

[ad#Google Adsense - Large Rectangle]

How to Find These Deals:

If you want to learn exactly how to spot these deals and use the Coupon Database effectively, be sure to look at the examples I give here: http://knsfinancial.com/cvs-paid-us-to-shop/

Oh, and as you can see I used my ECBs more efficiently – read about the Extra Care Buck/Tax lesson that I  learned for more detail.

B1G1 Free at CVS:

Normally you would pay cash for an item and then get the other one free; however, when you have a B1G1 free coupon as well you are paying for the item with the B1G1 free manufacturer’s coupon and then you get the 2nd one free as normal.

Remember, CVS will be reimbursed for the face value of the coupon (plus a processing fee) by the manufacturer, so in their eyes they are not giving you both items for free!

If you have these Sobe coupons, you don’t have to pay anything but sales tax – don’t let the cashier tell you otherwise (some will tell you that you have to get 3 and pay for at least one of them).

Have you made any great savings recently? Be sure to share them below.

Do you have any questions on how to get paid to shop? Any tips?