Economic Endeavors

I previously posted that the CVS Brand cleansing towelettes were printing out $2.99 ECBs, rather than the $1 ECB that is advertised in the July ECB book.

It seems this deal is no longer generating $2.99 ECBs. As of this morning, CVS seems to have fixed the system and it's now only generating $1. Still free after the $2 off CVS brand Skin Care coupon, but no longer money-maker!

Oh well, it was good while it lasted. Glad I made that unplanned trip last night and picked up 6 packs (3 on each card)!

I found this at SlickDeals:

The July ECB deal for CVS Cleansing Towelettes earns $1 ECB.
The price for the "Cleansing and Make-Up Remover" in the blue package is $2.99, and it is being reported that these are free after ECBs, earning $2.99 ECBs back.
The "Exfoliating" ones are priced at $3.29 and are also reportedly earning $2.99 back.

Use the $2 off CVS Brand skin care printable with either of these and both are Money Makers!

Click here to see an ad scan with an image of both products.

**If you're new to the CVS game this post won't make much sense to you. Go here first to read my Beginner's Guide to CVS and learn everything you need to know. Then read the rest of this post for tips on how to make the game work for you, too!



Here's a new feature I'm planning to implement every Monday in the future: alerting you 2 weeks in advance of deals that are upcoming at CVS. This will allow you to better plan your purchases now, and start getting your coupons together for the deals that are coming up!

Here's what I see for the week of 6/22:

Money-Makers!

SoyJoy bars:
$4 for 4 Soy Joy bars (earns $4 ECBs, limit 5)
-$1/4 Soy Joy printable (must register)

Toothbrushes:
$2.99 Oral-B Stages toothbrush (earns $2 ECBs, limit 3)
$2.99 Oral-B Stages toothbrush (earns $2)
-$2.99, B1G1 Oral-B Stages Manual Toothbrush (from 6/1 P&G)
$1.01 profit after coupon and ECBs!


Free!

Toothpaste:
$2.99 Colgate Total (earns $2 ECBs)
-$1 Colgate Total printable

Flavored Water:
Sobe Life Water is B1G1 again, use B1G1 printable to get both free! (if your store allows this.)


Nearly free!

Vitamins:
All Natures Bounty vitamins and supplements are B1G1, prices start at $4.99. Buy 2 at $4.99, use 2 $2 off printables, and get both bottles for $0.99!


Diapers!

$13.99 Pampers Mega Pack diapers (earns $3 ECBs)
-$2 coupons found in Pampers packs
-$2/2 from 6/1 P&G

Other Deals:

Glade air freshner spray (9oz) is on sale for $0.99. Use B1G1 coupon from 5/11 SS to get both for less than $1!

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Here's what I see for the week of 6/29:

Money Maker!

Make-up:
$7.99 Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Mascara (earns $7.99 ECBs, limit 1)
-$1 Any Physicians Formula cosmetic product (from 6/1 SS)


Free!

Suncare:
Buy 2 Coppertone products, get $10 ECBs (limit 1)
The ad doesn't list any restrictions, so the Water Babies SPF 30 0.6oz Stick should work.
Buy 2 of these at $4.99 each and get back $10 ECBs!

Monitor:
$9.99 Accu Chek Compact Plus Diabetes Monitoring Kit (earns $9.99 ECBs, limit 1)


Nearly Free!

Deodorant:
$6.99 Right Guard Professional Strength Anti-Perspirant Deodorant (earns $5 ECBs, limit 1)
-$1 Right Guard from 5/18 SS
$.99 after coupon and ECBs!

Toothpaste:
$1.99 Crest Baking Soda and peroxide, cavity or tartar (earns $1 ECB, limit 1)
$0.99 after ECBs!

Make-up:
$4.99 Maybelline The Colossal Volume Express Mascara (earns $2 ECBs, limit 5)
-$2 Maybelline Face Product from 4/27 RP
$0.99 after coupon and ECBs!

Hair Color:
$5.99 Clairol Natural Instincts (earns $1 ECB, limit 1)
-$4 Clairol Natural Instincts from 6/1 P&G
$0.99 after coupon and ECB!


Other Deals:

Pepsi 12 pk, 4/$12 (earns $3 ECBs)

Pepsi 2-liter, 5/$5


2 day Sale (Sunday and Monday only):

Gold Emblem Purified drinking water 24 pk for $2.99 ($3.99 after Monday)

Gold Emblem Purified nuts For $2.99 ($3.99 after Monday)

Cottonelle Bathroom tissue double or giant roll 12 pack for $4.99 ($5.99 after Monday)

(If you have them, you can use the $2/$10 or $3/$10 CVS Brand coupons on the above Gold Emblem items to bring the price down even lower!)

**If you're new to the CVS game this post won't make much sense to you. Go here first to read my Beginner's Guide to CVS and learn everything you need to know. Then read the rest of this post to see how I'm getting $80 worth of stuff for free at CVS this week, and you can too!


Well, all of our precious (said in a very Gollum-like voice) $3/$15 and $5/$15 coupons have expired. Lucky for me, one of my closest CVS stores takes expired CVS coupons. But what about the rest of you who aren't so fortunate??
Simple! Update your email address on your CVS online account, and voila! You'll receive you're very own $4/$20 CVS coupon, via email, to print and use to your heart's content. Now, this only works if you haven't updated your email in a while, otherwise people would be updating every week to get a new coupon. So I suggest only doing it in dire times, like these, when there are no other $/$$ coupons available.

Ok, now on to the scenarios! I made these scenarios around the $4/$20 update coupon, though I'll be using my expired $5/$15 for them.

Transaction 1:

$6.99 Almay One Coat Mascara (earns $5, limit 2)
$6.99 Alavert 12-15ct
$6.99 Alavert 12-15ct (earns $5, limit 1)

Total before coupons: $20.97

-$4/$20 update coupon
-$1 Almay (from 3/9 SS or 5/18 SS)
-$4 Alavert printable*
-$4 Alavert printable*

$7.97 after coupons, earns $10 ECBs

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Transaction 2:

$7.99 Sally Hansen Nail Color Pen (earns $5, limit 5)
$5.99 Oral-B Cross Action Power Toothbrush (earns $3, limit 5)
$5.99 Oral-B Cross Action Power Toothbrush (earns $3)

Total before coupons: $19.97

-$4/$20 Update coupon
-$2 Sally Hansen* (from 3/30 SS)
-$5.99 B1G1 Oral-B Cross Action Power Toothbrush (from 6/15 SS)

$7.97 after coupons, earns $11

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You can do above transaction twice if you have enough coupons!
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Transaction 3:

$6.99 Almay One Coat Mascara (earns $5)
$7.99 Sally Hansen Nail Color Pen (earns $5)
$4.49 Tylenol 20-24ct (earns $2, limit 1)
$2.19 CVS Sunblock lotion SPF 30 2 oz

Total before coupons: $21.66

-$4/$20 Update coupon
-$1 Almay (from 3/9 SS or 5/18 SS)
-$2 Sally Hansen* (from 3/30 SS)
-$1 Tylenol printable (or from 4/6 SS or 5/4 RP)
-$2 off CVS Skincare printable

$11.66 after coupons, earns $12

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This week's totals:

ECBs spent: $35.87
ECBs earned: $44.00
Spent OOP: $0, earn $8 ECBs!

A few pointers about this week's coupons:

:: You can print the Alavert coupon more than once if you fill in the form with different info in order to get a different barcode. I would keep your name the same but change everything else. It won't beep if you try to use coupons with the same barcode but the store won't get reimbursed for it. If that happens enough, stores choose not to accept internet printables anymore!

:: If you don't have enough (or any!) $2 off coupons for the Sally Hansen nail color, there is a $3/2 printable available here. You'll have to rework your deals a little bit, but you should still be able to get these free or more than free!

:: The Beauty Handbook printable coupons (Sally Hansen and the CVS Skincare) print HUGE at the default (100%) size, and will cut off part of the coupon. Reduce the print size to 50% before printing to correct this problem.


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As has been posted on many other blogs, Walgreens has released a $5/$20 coupon that is good today only. I wasn't very excited about it because I'm not really a Walgreens shopper. I just started last month, went a couple times to buy the free-after-rebate (FAR) items and submitted them for the rebate on a Walgreens gift card, and was going to use the gift card to buy this month's FAR items.

Just in time for the coupon, my gift card came in the mail yesterday, loaded with $16.40 from my rebates from last month! So I thought this would be a great day to shop for this month's FAR items, use the coupon, and earn even more back.

I did one better by looking online for scenarios. Here's what I found at SlickDeals. I didn't come up with these scenarios, but this is what I'll be buying this evening:

Scenario one:

Buy Two Dr. Scholl's Insoles 2/$20, Get $10 RR
Buy two Nivea For Men Skin care items 2/$10, Get $5 RR

-$4 (2) Dr. Scholl's® Massaging Gel Insoles printables
-$4 (2) $2 off Nivea Body printables

Total before $5/$20 - $22

-$5/$20

Total after all coupons: $17 (pay with gift card + $0.60 oop)
earns $15 RR
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Scenario 2:

Multi betic vitamins 9.99 (free after rebate)
Walgreens calcium creamies 6.99 (free after rebate)
Theragran 4.99 (free after rebate)

-$2 Multi betic printable from the Diabetic Products site (must complete brief diabetes-related survey)

Total before $5/$20: $19.97

-$5/$20

Total after all coupons: $14.97 (pay with $15 RR from above transaction)
Get back $21.97 from the rebates (plus 10% for loading rebates onto a Walgreens card!)

Many bus agencies and transit operators are offering free bus rides on June 19, "Dump the Pump" day, in hopes to encourage more people to take the bus to work in wake of escalating gas prices.

Check with your local transit system in advance to see if they are participating. This information should be available on their website, and should easily be found through a quick google search!

Onestopshop.com has this super-cute suede purse on clearance right now for $5.99. Use code WW18187 for free shipping!

Another great gift idea!

Click here to sign up for Del Taco's fan club, and they'll email you a coupon for a free taco!

We don't have Del Taco in my neck of the woods. Too bad, cause I love crunchy tacos. This has me wanting to go to Taco Bell to get a Taco and a free Frutista Freeze!

This caught my eye because we were looking for a patio set recently and couldn't find even a used one for much less than the price Lowe's is offering for this set.

When you go to the Lowe's site, the price shows up at $299 until you put in your zip code, and then it adjusts to $149.50. You get free parcel shipping on orders $49+, or you can choose to pick it up at your local store. Use your Visa and this coupon to take an additional $10 off.

Also, I have read reports of people finding this at their local Lowe's stores for as low as $60 and $70, so it wouldn't hurt to call your store first to do a price check, you may be able to get them for a steal at one of those prices!

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This is a deal that was actually good today and tomorrow, but I didn't hear about it until late in the day today, so this is the first chance I have to blog about it.

For Memorial Day, CVS is having a two day sale in which 2-liters of Pepsi products are B1G1 free. This includes Sierra Mist. The limit is 4 bottles total per customer per transaction.
Pick up 4 bottles and use two B1G1 free printable coupons here and here (if your store allows this) and get all four bottles free. A perk to this is that 4 bottles at $1.79 each before sale and coupons make a $7.19 filler to get you up to $15 so you can use the $3/$15 coupon!

Tonight, my 2 1/2 month old has a little cold and her nose is stuffy, and I can't find our aspirator anywhere (I suspect my 2 year old got ahold of it), so I needed to run to CVS to get another one. This was the perfect chance to try out this Sierra Mist deal.


Here was my transaction:
4 bottles of Sierra Mist ($7.19, free after sale and coupons)
1 Adidas deodorant ($4.99, earns $4.99 ECBs)
1 nasal aspirator ($3.99)

Used 2 B1G1 Sierra Mist printables
Used $5/$15 CVS coupon*

Spent $4 ECBs and $.18 oop, got back $4.99 ECBs.

This is what I love most about CVSing. All the extra free stuff is great, but the real blessing is getting the things that you actually need, and paying next to nothing for them.

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* this $5/$15 coupon was in the NY Newsday last week, and was available in their e-edition only if you were a current subscriber, or if you paid $19 to sign up. I have a friend who subscribes, and who allowed me to print the coupon from his account. I did not blog about it because it was not a coupon that was available for free to everyone.

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Arby's is one of the few fast food restaurants that our whole family enjoys. They're something different than the same old burgers and fries, and I think the kids meal seems like a healthier choice (turkey and cheese on whole grain bread, and a fruit cup), and the kids love them.