CVS was a bit better than Walgreen's this week. Here's how I made out: (all in one transaction)Total without coupons: $28.05
(2) $2.99 - Herbal Essence Shampoo
- (2) $1/1 from 5/16 RP
$2.99 - Lady Speedstick Stainguard
- $0.75 printable
$6.99 - Blade 5 Razor
(2) $3.99 - Colgate Pro Clinical Toothpaste
- (2) $1/1 printable OR 5/16 SS
(2) $0.49 M&M's (filler)
$0.99 - CVS Qtips
- $1/1 printed from the coupon machine in CVS
Used $15.99 in ECB's from last week.
Total after tax, coupons and used ECB's:
$4.48
Received:
$4 ECB's from Colgate
$4 ECB's from Herbal Essences
$6.99 ECB's from Blade 5
$2 ECB's from Speed Stick
So I increased my ECB's this week which is awesome (had $15.99, now have $16.99)
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2 comments:
Hi! I found you through TotallyTarget.com. I was just wondering how you were able to get your ECBs or the RRs from Walgreens up to that much without having to pay a lot out of pocket. I never can walk away from the register with more than around $4 in either ECBs or RRs unless I want to spend more out of pocket. (Does that make sense?) And this is after I've spent a good amount of time figuring out how many transactions I need to do and what to roll to get out of there as cheap as possible, etc.
Melissa -
We (Shanna and I - the blondes) are new to this whole blogging thing and can't figure out how to easily reply to your comment so I will just post another comment and also send this same comment to your blog since your name is linked. Here's a quick explanation as to how I'm up that high in RR's and ECB's:
At CVS I usually buy EVERYTHING that is free after ECB's. If you follow this rule you will usually only spend a chunk out of pocket the very first time you start at CVS since you will have no ECB's to begin with. Also, I only pay with ECB's when I'm buying things that will give me more ECB's. This is called "rolling" your ECB's in the coupon world (same for Walgreen's), and pretty much guarantees that you will always have a stockpile of ECB's. At CVS, since you have a shopper's card, there are limits on how many of each ECB item you can get, and I try to maximize this each week. On this specific trip, I made $15.99 in ECB's last week, so was able to use them all on this transaction, but left with $16,99 in ECB's, so nothing really changed. I think this is the key to CVS (rolling ECB's). Let me know if this makes sense or not. Also, I LOVE using www.southernsavers.com to determine my list each week. She has a feature where you can choose which items you want to buy, and then you can create a printable shopping list containing all the items, along with coupons that you will need for your trip. It really helps with organization and she does several other stores besides CVS (Walgreen's included).
Walgreen's is similar in that I like to roll RR's, but the nice difference is that there is no shopper's card which means they can't track how much you buy of each item. However, you can only do one of each item that gives RR's per transaction. So if I wanted to buy 2 razors and 2 toothpastes (assuming both are giving RR's) I'd have to do 2 transactions, with 1 razor and 1 toothpaste each. If I tried to do it all at once I would only receive 1 RR for the razor and 1 RR for the toothpaste. Another important thing at Walgreen's: After I do that first transaction with the razor and toothpaste, I could not use the razor RR to pay for another razor and still get a new RR. Same with the toothpaste - I can't use the first toothpaste RR to pay for the second one and expect another RR. Basically that is Walgreen's only way of controlling things. But, I could buy 1 toothpaste, and then use that RR to pay for the razor, and get another RR for the razor. That is a great example of rolling RR's. At Walgreen's, if I'm in love with the deal, I may go back and do it several times (usually I buy 4 Sunday papers a week). Sometimes though, if you go to cosmetics, or if you just get a really nice cashier, they may be fine with you doing several transactions so you don't have to come back during the week.
So I just realized this comment is getting super long so I better stop for now. Forgive me if I've told you things you already know. Feel free to contact us if you have more questions, and thanks for commenting!
frugalblondes(at)gmail(dot)com
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