CVS trip 5/23. Only paid 1 cent!!!

CVS

I stopped by CVS this afternoon with my list and coupons in hand. I came out with a great deal! I got everything pictured below for only 1 cent! I actually got it for free but the cashier told me he had to collect 1 penny in order to give it to me. I don't understand that policy but oh well! They are having an awesome makeup sale for 75% off the original price. Pair that with a coupon and it makes for FREE makeup. The Loreal Lash Out, Lip gloss, under eye concealer and eye shadow were all free or next to free (under .25 cents each)!!!

Some tips for shopping at CVS.

• CVS's sales run Sunday through Saturday. The deals are located in the ad in the sunday newspaper. I use the blog http://www.hip2save.com/ , http://www.mylitter.com/ and http://www.couponing101.com/ to match up coupons with their sales. Basically these ladies do all the work for me. I just make my list and gather the coupons.
• Always scan your store card at the "thing" - not sure what it is called :) but it is the red machine located in the front section of the store. Once you scan your card... it spits out coupons. Today I received a 2$ off Hershey's drops or Reeses' minis and a 5$ ECB for spending 30$ on beauty products (before coupons) during this quarter.
• ECB- These are Earned Cash Back for purchasing specific items each week. This week the stride gum was on sale for $.99 cents and you got back $.99 cents ECB on the bottom of your receipt. (ECB are pictured below). This makes the gum free. ECB print out at the bottom of your receipt. Just tear them off and use on your next transaction.
• There are limits on the amount of items you can get with ECB. For example: the nail polish has a limit of 6 this week. I bought 2 today and received 4$ ECB for each of them. I can go back this week and get 4 more that will issue ECB... the 5th one would not issue any ECB.
• I save ECB from the previous week in order to use it towards the first purchase on the next week. Today I started with 10$ ECB from last week.
• Multiple transactions: Today i only did one transaction because I had $15 ECB to spend. I got exacly 15$ worth of items and I was done for the week. I got back $8.99 that I am saving for next week's deals. However, I could have spent them on more items in a second transaction. If your second transaction gave you ECB then you could use them towards a third transaction and so on and so on.... Although, I typically never do more than 3 or 4 in one trip.

This is a pic of my ECB this week.

I typically recommend starting to coupon at CVS rather than Walgreens at first. Walgreens has some confusing coupon policies that I will talk about in a future post. Let me know how you do!