My Frugal Shopping (& Blunders)

So...here's my "shopping report" for the week:

First Stop, Monday - CVS

I'm always a little disappointed when I go to CVS and nearly all the coupons I brought with me the shelves are empty! : ( So, I ended up getting things I didn't have coupons for to get the ECB's I wanted. I was working off the buy $30 of participating products and get $15 ECBs.

Kotex Light - 2/$5
Kotex UltraThin - 2/$5
Kleenex - 2/$5
Ziploc Sandwich bags - 2/$4
Glade Infusion Air Freshener - 2/$3
Glade Scented Candles - 2/$3
Glade Carpet/Room Odor Eliminator - 2/$5
Gillette Shaving Cream - $1.99/B1G1

Total: $31.99
Total after ECBs: $18.32
ECBs Received: $15

(I used our last giftcard from our prescriptions for our Ethiopia trip and to my surprise we had $50 left on the card!)

After this I still wanted to use my Colgate coupons. So, I stopped by the other CVS on my way home from Henry's. I had coupons three $1 coupons and the promotion was buy 1 at $2.99, get $2 ECBs. Except for I messed up a bit and got 2 that were originally $3.49 and 2 were $2.99. So, my total after coupons came to $7.30 (including tax) and then I got my $8 ECBs.

Total: $7.30
ECBs Received: $8

Monday's Total Savings: $53.82
Monday's Total Spent (on giftcards): $25.62
Monday's ECBs Received: $23

Second Stop, Wednesday - Henry's Farmers Market

I love Henry's. It's the best place for produce around and I love that spring is coming--berries are here! This weeks total $22.20, just a few dollars over what I like to shoot for. My own little saying is if I spend more than $20 at Henry's then I've spent too much.

Third Stop, Friday - CVS

After reading Money Saving Mom's post on the SunSilk promotion I had to make another trip to CVS. I have a ton of SunSilk coupons from requesting samples and here. This is where I blundered (or my first blunder). I didn't know you could use a coupon on the free item. If I had done that and only got a shampoo and a styling product it would have been free. But I thought you had to buy 2 to use the $1.50/2, not including the styling product that'd be free.

Anyways...you live and you learn. The end result? $5.06 (including tax), which comes to $1.27 per product which isn't bad...just not free. ; )


Total Savings: $12.48
Total Spent (on giftcards): $5.06

Fourth Stop, Friday - Vons

Vons/Safeway promotion this week is the Savings Rally. Buy 25 participating products get $20 Catalina, buy 15 - 24 participating products get $10 Catalina, buy 10 - 14 participating products get $5 Catalina. I was going for the 25 products/$20 Catalina. I'll go ahead and tell you up front my blunder...I was counting the price of my items when I should have been counting the number of items! Of course, I didn't realize this until I got to my car.

Anyways...I'm thinking I'll try it again. There's 2,000 participating products, but only 25 shown in the advertisement. The benefit in my blunder was seeing different participating items and their price, so now I can get more specific coupons.

Here's what I got:

Cheerios - 2/$5
Yogurt Cheerios - $2.50
Brownie Mix - 2 @ $2.19
Water (2.5 ) - $2.25
Honey Bunches of Oats (the chocolate kind!) - 2/$5
Propel Water - $1
Minute Maid OJ -$3
Irish Spring Body Wash - $3.50
Softsoap Body Wash - 2/$7
Suave 2-in-1 - 2/$4
Pork Stew - $4.17 (this had a 50% off coupon!)

Club Card Savings: $20.71
Coupons: $19.36
Total Savings: $40.07
Total: $24.10 (used a $50 Safeway giftcard, so free for me!)
Catalina Received: $5 (& a General Mills cereal coupon)

Weeks Total Savings:

Total Spent: $76.98
Cash $22.20
Giftcards $54.78

Total Savings: $106.37

ECB/Catalinas Received: $28

All of this and I only spent $22.20 of our money!

The Joy of CVS

This is what I got on my trip to CVS this morning. All of this came to a total of $36.50. After the sale promotions and coupons I paid the remaining balance with 2 CVS gift cards (from when we got our Ethiopia prescriptions there, which equated to about $150 to gift cards). The balance came up to $1.81. Instead of whipping out the last gift card, I paid it from the change in my wallet.

So, $1.81. I saved$34.69. And got $15 in extra bucks, plus a coupon for $5 off $25. I'm excited. CVS is so much fun!

For more of the fun, check out Money Saving Mom---she gives you the break down on how to do it all!