So, I had $6 Extra Care Bucks expiring. Okay, truth time, they expired. They expired last week. But, one of my readers emailed me that CVS accepts expired ECBs so I brought my $6 in, asked my favorite cashier and she readily said she would take the $6ECBs. Awesome. Next task for me was to spend those ECBs wisely. I did a great job UNTIL I went to check out. I had planned on buying two Thermacare Heatwraps, but my CVS was out. So, when I was checking out, I had to spend $2.90ish more in order for my ECBs to be accepted. UGH. I’ve been pretty sick and on over the counter meds so the combo makes my mind fuzzy. I looked at US magazine, saw it was $3.99 and somehow in my mind thought that $3.99 = $2.90ish. Again, let me reinforce, I’m sick and my mind is fuzzy. Anyways, what would have been an awesome CVS run turned out to be only subpar. Especially since I don’t need, have time to read or really want to read US. So, when all was said and done, I spent $2.19 on everything in the picture above. I saved $27.84. I also received a total of $2.99 ECBs to use next time. ***I know you are thinking, “Liza, be grateful you only spent $2.19”.. But, you have to understand, I use shopping at CVS as a challenge to spend AS LITTLE out of pocket as possible. I am grateful for everything I got. I am also so thankful. I just wish I hadn’t bought the trash magazine and had instead bought a bottle or two of water. Oh well 🙂 P.S. If you get All You Magazine – You can do the EXACT same things as me below. All of the coupons I used were from All You.
To see this week’s CVS ad & coupon matchups, go HERE!
If you are new to saving money at CVS, read my Intro to CVS post!
Here’s the rundown and how to do what I did for today’s CVS stop:
1 Colgate Total Advantage on sale for $2.99 each Minus one $1.00/1 Colgate Total coupon from All You Magazine April ’10 Total: $1.99 AND received $2.00 ECBs! 1 Green Bag Tag, priced at $0.99 Total: $0.99 AND received $0.99 ECBs 2 Rimmel Blush on sale B1G1 $4.99 for two Minus one FREE Rimmel product from All You Magazine April ’10 Total: FREE 2 NYC Nail Polish on sale B1G1 $1.99 for two 6 NYC Nail Polish on sale B1G1 $0.99 for two Minus one $5.00 off when you spend $10.00 on NYC products All You Magazine April ’10 Total: FREE 1 US Magazine priced at $3.99 Total: $3.99 Minus $6.00 ECBSTotal Spent: $2.19 (including tax), Total Saved $27.84, Percentage Saved 92.8%, ECBs Earned: $2.99
carmen says
great job!! I had my $3 walgreens photo coupon expiring, so I printed out pictures from our trip (while we were still on our trip in TN) at a local walgreens, and got to use my coupon. 🙂 I HATE finding an expired coupon later. it makes me sick. ha ha.
Liza says
I hate it when I find expireds too! At least now I know that CVS is a bit “lenient” 😉
mary says
I was in my walgreens here in TN. The Great cosmetics lady informed me that pretty much all walgreens took expired register rewards. She says that people complained about expiring too fast, so to keep us happy, they take no matter what!!
claire says
I found $4 expired ecb today, made me sick. I’m going by tomorrow – hope they’ll take it!
Kelly says
Not to be picky..But your post says Publix or did you get this st CVS. I am not trying to be a know it all, but if a newbie comes on and sees this .Try s to do the deal..They are going to be pretty confused.
Liza says
Thanks Kelly. It was an obvious typo on my part. I’m hoping since my post mentioned CVS at least 6 – 8 times in the intro paragraph, as well as ECBs, as well as Intro to CVS that a newbie wouldn’t get confused. But you are right the fact that I typed Publix once in my post might confuse a newbie. I updated my post.
Kelly says
BTW I love the site. You get some great deals!
Debbie Lynne says
I grabbed Milk Duds when I should have got a bottle of juice. been there – done that!
cassie says
great deals! you just reminded me i need to pick up some pretty new nail polist for the warmer weather 🙂
Lauren says
Ugh, I hate that I was so busy last week that I took the week off from shopping. I have six copies of the April All You just lying in my coupon basket collecting dust. I hope the Rimmell stuff goes back on sale soon. I must say that I am kind of glad you bought the US magazine. I was starting to think that every transaction you do were always perfect. That is really hard for me to live up to. 🙂
Liza says
Lauren – don’t worry, my transactions are far from perfect 🙂 And, the US magazine actually was great reading – it took only 15 minutes to read the whole magazine – but it was great nonetheless. 🙂 I bet the Rimmell will go on sale again soon. If it doesn’t, Walmart and Target usually have cheap Rimmell mascara you could put the coupons on. Oh – and it’s ok to take a week off from shopping. The deals will come around again soon. =)