Guess how I spent Valentine’s night? At drugstores! My husband was working…

Big time profit a Rite-Aid this week!

Here’s the loot…

And here’s the breakdown…

Transaction #1

(1) Garnier Fructis hairspray $2.99
(1) Finesse conditioner $2.99
(1) Durex Play lubricant $6.00
(3) Bayer low dose 36 count $1.99 each
(1) Nivea a kiss of hydration lip balm $2.99
(2) Revlon Fablash Mascara BOGO $6.99
(10) Reese Whipps candy bars 2/$1.00 or $.50 each

Subtotal: $32.93

Used:
$5/$25 Rite Aid coupon
(1) $1.00 Garnier styling product MQ
(1) $.75 Finesse MQ
(2) $1.00 Revlon MQ’s
(1) $1.00 Nivea lip product MQ
(5) $1.00 off of 2 Reese Whipps MQ’s
$10.00 Gift of Savings Certificate

New total: $9.18 (+ tax) paid with a gift card

Will recieve:
$2.00 Revlon rebate
$2.00 Nivea rebate
$6.00 Durex rebate
$2.99 Garnier rebate
$2.00 Finesse rebate
$10.00 Rite Aid gift card for purchasing 3 Bayer products

Summary:
Total value of products: $32.93
Total OOP: $9.18 on a gift card
Total rebates/giftcards: $24.99

I just made money shopping at Rite-Aid! Sa-weet! Happy Valentine’s Day!

(lovely tulips courtesy of my husband)

Check out other drugstore deals at The Centsible Sawyer’s Drugstore Divas!

Sad. My husband had to work tonight so I spent Valentine’s picking up a few last minute deals at drugstores! How romantic!

But what is sweet, is that I spent almost nothing!

Here’s my CVS loot…

And here’s the breakdown. I went to two different stores and used my card and my husband’s card. That’s the only way you can get 6 cards…

Transaction #1

(3) American Greetings Cards $.99 each
(1) Boost Kid Essentials $13.99
(1) CVS hand sanitizer $1.19

Subtotal: $18.15

Used:

$2/$10 CVS coupon (from scanner)
Free boost kid essentials MQ
$1.00 off CVS brand hand sanitizer (peelie)
$4.00 ECB’s

New total: $1.15 (+tax) ??
ECB’s earned: $3.00

Somehow my OOP was $1.15 but that makes no sense. My reciept is really messed up. It shows I used $24.00 worth of coupons, but I only had $18.15 worth of items. It’s showing a $4.00 coupon that I did not use. I also know that I used $4.00 ECB’s but I shouldn’t have needed that many. That’s what you get for not paying attention at the register. Oh well. I didn’t do too badly.

Transaction #2 (at a second store)

(1) Colgate Total Advance 7.6 oz $3.67
(3) American Greetings cards $.99 each
(4) J&J First Aid kit $.99 each
(1) CVS cotton round 25 count $.99

Subtotal: $11.59

Used:

$2/$10 CVS coupon (from scanner)
$1.50 Colgate MQ
(3) $1.00 off J&J MQ’s (had another one somewhere…don’t you hate that!)
(1) $1.00 off skincare CVS coupon (Reinventing Beauty mag)
$4.00 ECB’s

New total: .09 (+tax)
ECB’s earned: $5.00

Transaction #3, 4, 5 (These transactions were identical)

(1) CVS cotton round 25 count $.99

Subtotal: $.99

Used:
(1) $1.00 CVS skincare CVS coupon (from Reinventing Beauty mag)

New total: $0.00 (no tax )
ECB’s earned: $4.00

Summary:
Total product value: $32.71
Total OOP: $1.24
ECB’s used: $8.00
ECB;s earned: $12.00
Total savings:$31.47

Oh, the tulips? They didn’t come from CVS. My hubby got me those for Valentine’s Day!

Check out other CVS deals from this week at The Centsible Sawyers CVS Superstars!

Ohhh, it has been awhile since I’ve posted! Goodness. I’m hoping to post more frequently soonl I’m also hoping to revamp my blog a bit so that all my frugal posts are all in one place and my others will be in another. That way, I can keep them separate. I did get a new camera (yay!yay!yay!) so I think I’ll be more motivated to blog about “other” things. I felt lost this past year with only a camera phone.

Well here’s my dealio at CVS this week. I went on Thursday, mostly for the Madascar 2 DVD deal for a Valentine’s day gift for my kiddos. I didn’t want to purchase a lot of candy as gifts and when I saw this deal come out, the week of the Procter and Gamble insert, I thought this would make a great gift. Here’s my loot…

And here’s how it went…

Transaction #1

1 Gillette Fusion Gamer razor $7.99
2 Pampers Easy-Ups Jumbo $9.99 each
1 Dawn dish washing soap $.99
3 Gillette shampoo $5.99 each
1 Madagascar 2 DVD $19.99

Subtotal: $66.92

Used:
$10/$50 CVS coupon (I get these almost weekly at the scanner machine at my store)
$15 off Madagascar 2 for purchasing $20 in P&G products
(2) $2.00 off Pampers MQ’s
(3) $2.00 off Gillette shampoo MQ’s
(1) $4.00 off Gillette Fusion razor
(1) .50 off Dawn MQ
26.99 in ECB’s

New total: $.43 (+tax)

ECB’s earned: $13.00

Transaction #2

(2) Glade Air Fresheners $.99 each
(1) Gillette shampoo $5.99
(1) CVS aspirin 10 ct vial $1.99

Subtotal: $9.96

Used:
$2/$10 CVS coupon (also got a few of these this week from the scanner machine)
(1) $1.00 off Glade Air Freshener CVS coupon (from scanner)
(1) $1.00 off two Glade Air Fresheners MQ
(1) $2.00 off Gillette shampoo MQ
(1) free 10 count vial of CVS brand aspirin CVS coupon (from scanner)

New total: $1.97 (+ tax)

Earned $3.00 ECB’s

Summary:
Total value of purchases: $76.88
Total OOP: $2.40 (on a gift card)
ECB’s spent: $26.99
ECB’s earned: $16.00

So, I kinda burned a few ECB’s but I don’t really mind, since that’s a great deal on diapers and I got the DVD for a gift. I spent less on all these items than I would if I’d bought just the shampoo at Wal-Mart! I still have quite a stash of ECB’s so I don’t mind burning them sometimes! And the purpose is to keep from having to pay much out of pocket money, and I didn’t spend ANY out of pocket money!

Check out other CVS deals this week at The Centsible Sawyer’s CVS Superstars!

And I was there soon after church yesterday afternoon. I really racked up on a lot of cleaning supplies, body wash, nail clippers, tweezers, ziploc bags, cookie mix, and frosting last go around so I was excited to hear doubles were back. My store is doubling coupons up to $2.00 (some are only doubling up to $1.00 and some are tripling but I’m not sure what amount triples). One difference from the last time I did this is that there is a limit of 25 coupons doubled, per person, per day. Which is good…keeps me from spending too much time in the store!

Here’s how I did yesterday:

(4) Gillette body wash @ 3.99
(4) Revlon nail clippers @ 1.79
(4) Luden’s cough drops @ 1.29
(4) KY Warming liquid @ 4.29
(2) Chloroseptic lozenges @ 3.99
(1) John Freida Dream Curls spray @ 4.89
(2) Cottenelle Flushable Wipes @ 2.99
(1) Glade Carpet Freshener @ 2.19
(1) Glade Plug-in @ 1.99
(3) Airwick flameless candles @ 4.99
(1) Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa @ 1.00

Subtotal: $83.55

Coupons used:
(4) 2.00 Gillette doubled
(4) 1.00 Revlon beauty tool doubled (adjusted to 1.79)
(4) 1.00 Ludens coughdrops doubled (adjusted to 1.29)
(4) 2.00 KY doubled
(2) 1.00 Chloroseptic doubled (I needed this…it was the only item where I spent more than 1.00 )
(1) 2.00 John Freida doubled
(2) 1.00 Cottenelle doubled
(1) 1.00 Glade Carpet doubled
(1) 1.00 Glade Plug-in doubled
(3) 5.00 Airwick (these weren’t doubled and didn’t count towards my 25 coupons allowed.)
(1) .50 Swiss Miss doubled

New total: $8.21 (+$3.90 tax)
Money saved: $75.34

I’m planning on going back to use up 2 more Luden’s coupons and I might check out their price on Pull-ups since my $2.00 coupon will double to $4.00. Other than that, I’m not sure how much more I’ll go back. Most of the coupons I had for free items I’ve used up now. We’ll see.

Anyone else out there planning a KMart run this week?

I was surfing around all my favorite frugal blogs today and stumbled across a new (to me) blogger, Saving Money With Dot. I was reading the list of available coupons in tomorrow’s newspapers and found this exciting post. She’s up to her eyeballs in coupons and giving coupons away…for free. No postage for the first twenty commenters and then after that you just have to mail her a self-addressed, stamped envelope!

This is a fantastic deal if you are in an area (like me) that doesn’t get a lot of the coupons. My area never gets Kelloggs, Dove, Cover Girl, or many of the beauty coupons. We also missed out this week on the fantastic Electrosol coupons!

Please sign up for Dot’s feed or register at Swagbucks through the button on her page…she’ll explain how to do both in her post. I signed up for her feed since I’ve already got a Swagbucks account. If you don’t have Swagbucks yet, this is a great way to take advantage of it!

Get thee to Dot’s blog now! Hurry!

Well it’s the New Year and I’ve been shopping for two days now! It’s looking like a great year!

Yesterday my entire side of the family (minus my brother, his wife and daughter) went to Bass Pro Shop in Spanish Fort. We had a blast…and gift cards!! This store is so much fun, even if you aren’t the hunter/fishing type. Which, none of us are. (Well, my oldest daughter, believe it or not, has done a fair bit of fishing.)

My kiddos racked up on the goodies and my husband and I saved ours for another day. (Did you know it’s hard to shop when there are six kids running around? Even if there are five adults watching them…) We’re contemplating using our gift cards to get some camping goodies.

Anyway, the kiddos got a stuffed snake and an animal caller (Shiloh), a BB gun (Landon), and a pink pistol and a bluebird that sings (Rebekah). They are thrilled with their booty. And my son is quite beside himself waiting for Dad to get home and help him with his gun today. He’s made a homemade target to tape to a tree or post in the backyard.

When we arrived home yesterday, my sister and mother asked if I wanted to run to CVS with them. Since I always want to go to CVS I went, even though I’d already been twice this week.

January 1 Transaction:

1 Listerine Agent Blue Mouthwash $3.99
2 Children’s Throat Cooler $4.99 each
2 Dawn dishwashing liquid $1.99 (BOGO)

Subtotal: $15.96

Used:
$3/$15
(1) $1.00 Listerine Agent Blue MQ ( These are no longer available!)
BOGO Children’s Throat Cooler MQ
(2) $.25 Dawn coupons (from an insert) (needed a $2.00 filler)
4.00 ECB
2.00 ECB

New total: $.47
ECB’s earned: 12.98

Then I was in the neighborhood today and thought I’d stop by at a different store. Here’s the deals:

January 2 Transaction #1:

1 Glucoma shakes $10.49
1 Nutra-trim gum $3.99
2 Nature Bounty Vitamin D $4.99 (BOGO)
2 Children’s Throat Coolers $4.99 each
1 Nasogel gel spray $7.99
6 bags of Gold Emblem gummy bears $.99 each (BOGO50%)

Subtotal: $41.91

I used:
$3/$15
$10.00 off any Glucoma (check out how to get this coupon here.)
(2) $1.00 Nature Bounty MQ(didn’t have any more of the $2.00 printables with me!)
BOGO Children’s Throat Coolers MQ
$2.00 Nasogel MQ
$1.00 off any 2 Gold Emblem candy CVS
20.00 ECB (adjusted)

New total: $.14 on a GC
ECB’s earned: 24.96

January 2 Transaction #2:

1 Glucoma shakes $10.49
1 Nutra-trim gum $3.99
2 Nature Bounty Vitamin D $4.99 (BOGO)
2 Children’s Throat Coolers $4.99 each
1 Nasogel gel spray $7.99
4 bags of Gold Emblem gummy bears $.99 each (BOGO50%) (I needed these for my classroom)
2 bags of Gold Emblem choc. covered peanuts $.99 each (BOGO50%)

Subtotal: $41.91

I used:
$3/$15
$10.00 off any Glucoma (check out how to get this coupon here.)
(2) $1.00 Nature Bounty MQ(didn’t have any more of the $2.00 printables with me!)
BOGO Children’s Throat Coolers MQ
$2.00 Nasogel MQ
$1.00 off any 2 Gold Emblem nuts CVS
9.99 ECB
9.99 ECB

New total:$0 (payed $.16 in tax)
ECB’s earned: 29.96

And I stopped by the other CVS on the way home to see if they had any more Throat Coolers but they were out.(It looks like the limit on this is at least five…I’ve done four and my receipt says I can do one more. And the Nutratrim is at least a limit of three.)

January 2 Transaction #3

2 Nasogel $7.99 each

Subtotal: $15.98

Used:
(2) $2.00 Nasogel MQ’s
9.98 ECB
2.00 ECB

New total: $0 ( I payed $.24 in tax)
ECB earned: 15.98

Summary:
Product value: $130.76
Total OOP: $1.01
Total ECB spent: $57.96
Total ECB earned: $83.88

So…have you done any shopping?

I have a friend I’ll be helping with CVSing this week. I thought I’d post some newbie deals…starting with no ECB’s and just coupons from the internet or yesterdays Sunday paper. Then I figure I’ll show what I’ll be getting so you can see how you will be able to work deals as you get better CVS coupons, a larger stash of MQ’s, and grow those ECB’s!

Newbie Transaction #1

2 Nature Bounty Vitamin D 4.49 (BOGO) (earns 3 ECBs)
2 Colgate Total 5.98 (earns 4 ECB’s)
2 Pantene shampoo, conditioner, or styler 7.00 (earns 2 ECBs)

Subtotal: $17.47

Use:
$3/$15 CVS coupon
2 $2.00 Nature Bounty coupons(must register)
2 $1.50 Colgate coupons
2 $3.00 off two Pantene products (P&G 12/28/08)

New Subtotal: $4.47 + tax
ECB’s earned: 9.00

Newbie Transaction #2 (this only works if you have a nice friend, like me, who will give you coupons from her stash! Or if you can find a December All You magazine still lurking about at Walmart)

1 Schick Quattro razor 8.99 (earns 5 ECBs)
2 Pantene shampoo or conditioner 7.00 (earns 2 ECBs)

Subtotal: $15.99

Use:
$3/$15 CVS coupon (ymmv, some managers will only let you use one of these a day. You could do this transaction at another time this week if that’s the case. My managers will let me use these two or three times in a row.)
$4.00 Schick Quattro from December All You Magazine
$3.00 Pantene (P&G 12/28/08)
4.00 ECBs from Transaction #1
2.00 ECBs from Transaction #1 (adjusted down to 1.99)

New subtotal: $0 (you will have to pay tax)
ECB’s earned: 7.00

Summary of two transactions:
Total OOP: $4.47
ECB’s to roll:10.00

Now, here’s a dealio where you can see how things may change after collecting those coupons for awhile, taking advantage of the coupons printed on CRT’s and from the scanner machine at CVS and a fairly decent supply of ECB’s already. I’m starting with $24.55 in ECB’s (I blew quite a few buying last minute gifts at CVS. Next year, I hope to be better prepared and not have to do that. I had $80.00 in ECBs! Yikes!)

I plan on doing one transaction because I have a $10/$50 coupon and think this is a pretty good time to use it, since there are several moneymaker deals this week.

Transaction #1

2 Colgate Total 5.98 (4 ECBs earned)
1 Schick Quattro 8.99 (5 ECBs earned)
2 Blade energy drinks
2 Nature’s Bounty Vitamin D 4.49 (BOGO) (3 ECBs earned)
2 Pantene shampoo/conditioner 7.00 (2 ECBs earned)
2 Thermacare patches 13.98 (4 ECBs earned)
2 Oil of Olay face wipes 11.24 (BOGO50%)

Subtotal: $53.68

Coupons to use:
$10/50 CVS coupon (CRT)
2 $1.50 Colgate MQ
1 $4.00 Schick Quattro MQ (December All You Magazine)
1 $2.00 any Blade (CVS coupon)
2 $2.00 Nature’s Bounty MQ
1 $3.00/2 Pantene MQ (P&G 12/28/08)
1 $1.00 /1 Pantene MQ (P&G 11/30/08)(ymmv-my CVS allows this)
2 $1.50 Thermacare MQ (P&G 11/30/08)
1 $2.50/$10 Pain Relief CVS coupon (will work with Thermacare)
1 $5.00 Oil of Olay MQ (P&G 12/14/08)
6.00 ECB (from last week)
4.00 ECB (from last week)
5.98 ECB (from last week)

New Total:$.20 (I’ll be using a gift card for this.)
ECB’s earned: $18.00
Rebate: $15 Oil of Olay

Total value of products: $61.92
Total OOP: $.20 + tax
Total ECB’s earned: $18.00
Total rebates: $15.00

Click below to see others spend only $5.00 at CVS this week!

I love me some Bath and Body Works. As a teenager, my friends and I would spend most of the money we earned in this store and I obviously haven’t gotten much better…except now I know how to get more for the tons of money I seem to be willing to dole out!

Anyway, here’s what I got: (I did two transactions, but I’m putting it all together here.)

(Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I’m so ready to get a good camera. Maybe in February…that’s the current plan.)

2 black Little Lambies (coupon here) $8.00 each
1 boxed set of six lotions $20.00
4 pair of lounge socks $3.75 each (on sale 50% off)
2 cosmetic bags $10.00 each
1 Lambie gift set with mask, pillow mist, and aromatherapy roll on $10.00 (on sale 50% off)
1 Lambie sleep mask $5.00 (on sale 50% off)
8 various sample lotions and scrubs 4/$10

Subtotal: $106
Used 2 Free lambie with any purchase (they only had two left in the store and they were black…I really wanted a white and gray one as well…sigh)

Got free lotion sampler for spending $40
Got a free cosmetic case for buying the 4/$10 samples (did this twice)

Total spent: $50 + tax

And took care of lots of Christmas! And got some socks I’ve been dying for! WooHoo!

I also scored some coupons for my next visit! $10 off $30! Which means, I’ll be back!