The goal of this CVS challenge is to come up with up to 3 scenarios where the total spent out of pocket is $5, while still growing your ECB’s. I’m going to assume that you start out with zero ECB’s to start with, or it makes it too difficult for others to follow. For more information on the abbreviations used in this post, please see my Coupons 101 article. For more CVS scenarios, see Keeping the Kingdom First, Deal Seeking Mom, Money Saving Mom, and The “Cent”sible Sawyer.
I couldn’t resist breaking the rules again on the challenge this week. I have 4 transactions to get $27.94 worth of items (at the sale prices) for only $3.22 OOP. Don’t worry, they’re pretty easy transactions (1 or 2 items per transaction).
Transaction #1
Buy Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste 4 oz $2.99
Use $0.75 Colgate QP from 2/1 S
Total after Coupons: $2.24
ECB’s Earned: $2.99
Transaction #2
Buy Gillette Shampoo or Conditioner $4.99 – Monthly deal, so if you’ve bought 5 already this month, you won’t receive ECB’s
Use $2.00 Gillette QP from 1/18 PG
Use $2.99 ECB’s from previous transaction
Total after Coupons: $0.00
ECB’s Earned: $3.00
Transaction #3
Buy Gillette Fusion Gamer razor $7.99
Use $4.00 Gillette QP from 2/8 PG
Use $3.00 ECB’s from previous transaction
Total after Coupons: $0.99
ECB’s Earned: $4.00
Transaction #4
Buy (2) Herbal Essences Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styler $2.99 each ($5.98)
Buy Lysol Neutra Air Freshmatic Automatic Spray $5.99
Use $3.00/2 Herbal Essences QP from 2/8 PG
Use $5.00 Lysol QP for starter kit from 1/11 S
Use $4.00 ECB’s from previous transaction
Total after coupons: $0.00
ECB’s Earned: $2.00
Total OOP: $3.22
ECB’s Left Over: $2.00
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Corrie is a "cents"able wife and stay-at-home mom of 2 boys.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! Thanks for sharing. I posted a link to your blog on my page.
thank you so much for taking the ‘duh how the heck do you do this’ guess work out of this. Your a saint for sharing!
Faith
awww man! I went to sign up to your Mr. Linky but it’s gone…oh well I am a little late anyways huh?
This week was my first ‘real’ week playing.
Starting ECB’s:25.00
Starting gift cards (2):26.46
The total before savings:61.07
I paid: 0.00
ECB’s left: 13.98
Gift card amount left:13.08
Rebates: 10.00
Thank you so much for sharing all that you do. I put your CVS 101 post on my blog:
http://theorganicfrugalfreak.blogspot.com/2009/02/total-should-have-been-305-ish-but-i.html