Week 1- Shopping Trip 1

I started the week off right with a pretty good trip to CVS. They had an offer that if you spent $20 on certain baby products, you got $5 extra care bucks (ECBs) back. One of those items was diapers, at a decent price, no less! I need diapers even if they aren't on sale anywhere. So when they are on sale AND give ECBs back, I get downright giddy.
And CVS is awesome about giving out coupons at the end of your receipts. Some stores even have coupon printers in the store! You swipe your card, and it spits out coupons for you. The best ones are the ones that give you x dollars of a purchase of xx. For example, I've been getting a lot of $5 off $25 purchase recently. If I have 25 worth of merchandise, I automatically save 5. Awesome.
Now, the CVS extra care bucks program is a God-send to those of you who are trying to watch your spending. I'll do a post in the next couple of weeks to explain it to you.
So, CVS this week....
2 packs of Playskool diapers 11 x 2 = 22. (this earned me 5 ECBs)
Carnation instant breakfast 4.99 (this items gave back 4.99 ECBs!)
Vitamin D capsules 2.99 (this item also gives back 2.99 ECBs! I probably won't use these myself, but if I can get something for free, I can always donate it to someplace. You should spread the good deal wealth as much as you can.)
= 29.98
- 5/25 coupon from a receipt last week
- 15.98 ECBs that I have been saving (I'll explain this in that other CVS post)
= 9.16 out of pocket costs. That's less than 1 pack of our regular diapers would cost us at WalMart.
AND- I got 12.98 back in ECBs to use on a future purchase.

This wasn't a very good CVS trip for me, actually. I've had trips to CVS where I've spent less than a dollar out of pocket for about $40 worth of merchandise, and gotten 20 or so ECBs back. I hope they have some good sales in the next few weeks, so I can show you how awesome working the system can be!

I am going to put the 4 below pieces of information on each of my shopping trip posts, to keep track of my spending and savings. Now, some stores print right on the receipt how much you saved off of full retail price. CVS, County Market and Meijer do that. Some stores only print the amount you saved in coupons. Shop n Save and Schnuck's do it that way. I just use whatever is on the receipt as my savings. I figure that it's close enough, and any savings is good!
Weekly spending total: 9.16
Weekly savings total: 29.66
YTD spending total: 9.16
YTD savings total: 29.66