Bargain Shopping

Ok, I hit CVS and Kroger on the way home last night. Wal-Mart will be this evening ...

At CVS they were having buy one get one free on All Laundry Detergent. I also had a $1 coupon AND $4.50 in ECB's (Extra Care Bucks) which is sort of like having a gift card or credit with the store. I'm not yet into the CVS game, but I know the gist of it is you're supposed to buy items that have ECB's on them .. such as buy a bag of Cheetos for $2 and get $1 in ECB's (which print at the register) effectively lowering the ACTUAL cost to $1. You just have to spend it on your NEXT transaction ... Out of pocket is $2 but the next time you go to CVS, you will reduce your out of pocket. For some reason this is a HARD game for me to play but never the less, I had $4.50 in ECB's left over from something. I had to use it by 8/15.

I went in and purchased the All Detergent for $6.49 (got one free) plus I used my $1 coupon and my ECB's- so I walked out of CVS with two detergents = 64 loads - and paid $1.06
SCORE!

Next stop, Kroger.
I escaped out of there for $23.47 and dinners for about the next five days. One of things that was NOT on the Mega deal was chicken breasts w/legs attached. You get four of them, seasoned for $3.03 - DEAL DEAL DEAL. For Conrad and I, that is two dinners- that we can either bake or grill. Nice! I also got some frozen pizza for my lazy nights, etc ... it was a good haul. I even got Conrad's favorite deoderant for $1 which it's usually closer to $3. I got BBQ sauce, hot sauce, deoderant, chicken, pizza, bleach, sour cream, two boxes of Tyson chicken (from the freezer), etc etc ... the list goes on. I can't remember everything I got. I am REALLY digging this coupon shopping.

Beginning in August (I need a fresh month) I am going to start a spreadsheet and track it to see what I really can get for what. Should be a neat game...

Again, the links are on the left side- Money Saving Mom is my fav, but Becentsable, Coupon Cravings, etc ... are all very very good ... they list out grocery deals by store and sometimes even have the links to the coupons. I really really encourage you all to try this. I print out my list before I go, attach my coupons and shop accordingly. The thing to remember is you may end up STOCKPILING but that's ok. You'll always need soap, deoderant, Tylenol, toilet paper, paper towels. Heck we have four bottles of shampoo- all name brand usually over $3 each- but I got them all free or less than $.50 - I'd rather it sit there for awhile than pay $3.50 for one bottle later.

I am my grandparents granddaughter FOR SURE. Conrad is really getting into it too. He's pretty impressed.

Kah