CVS Savings 4-05-09

It was a stellar week for me at CVS!!! I mentioned in a previous post that I received $10.50 this past week in ECB's for my Winter Spending at CVS (based on 2% of any purchases and $1.00 for every two prescriptions - we had lots.) I have figured out that these quarterly earnings awards are the biggest way to "grow your bucks." I began today's shopping with $34.00 in ECB's and ended with $34.06 in ECB's to use in the future. I purchased 2 Easter baskets, 2 bags of Easter grass, a jumbo pack of Pull-Ups, Johnson & Johnson bodywash, Skintimate shaving cream, 2 Dawn dish detergents, 2 sticks of Nivea lip treatment, Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste, 4 cans of Pringles, a Diaper Genie refill, 2 bottles of Similac Ready Feed formula, Johnson & Johnson babywash, Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo, 6 bottles of Revlon nail polish, CoverGirl face powder, 2 CoverGirl eyeshadows, and CoverGirl Lash Blast Luxe mascara.

Cost of Items (at Wal-Mart): $107.59

Spent Out Of Pocket (OOP): $10.22

Weekly Savings: $97.37 --- Woo-Hoo!!!

6-Week Totals:

All of THIS FOR $71.81---Total Savings: $323.84

Notes:

*This Sunday's newspaper has LOTS of coupons: 2 different Smart Source sets, Red Plum, Proctor & Gamble, and a Unilever insert. I don't normally get extras, but I did this week.

*I also noticed a new Reinventing Beauty magazine out today at CVS, but I looked at it and only found 3 coupons, none that I would probably use. I opted to keep my $.99 this round.

*Johnson & Johnson has a row of printable coupons for baby products down the right hand side of this page on their website.

It "Pays" To Shop At Home: I've read about mean checkers on I Heart CVS, but have never had a bad experience myself....until today!On our way home from church, we stopped at a CVS in another suburb to get a double copy of the paper (our paper wasn't delivered today for some reason; we suspect it was on our neighbor's drive, but hated to take it just in case we were wrong). Jim told me to go ahead and do some of my shopping while we were there since the boys were both napping in the car. I got my first transaction ready (including 2 nail polish from Revlon's Buy One, Get One Free sale), and went to check out. First of all, the lady wouldn't accept my $2.00 coupons for the nail polish, though it said Any Revlon Color Cosmetic. I thought that maybe she didn't think polish counted as a cosmetic, so I showed her a $1.00 coupon that I had that said the exact same thing and had a picture of that exact nail polish on it (to show her that Revlon considered it a cosmetic). Apparently, that wasn't what was bothering her...she was solely going on the photo, no matter what the coupon said. Since the $2.00 coupon had a picture of foundation on it, she still refused to let me use it, saying that she had to go by the picture on the coupon. I knew the manager would probably tell her that it was fine, but there were people behind me waiting to check out and I hated to be "that person." I just took back my $2.00 coupons and handed her the $1.00 ones with the picture of the nail polish, but she was so rude and loud to me about it. If I wasn't so certain that I was right, it would have been embarrasing. ;) Anyway, then I handed her a $5.00 check type coupon for the Similac that I had received in the mail. She didn't know how to use the partial payment option to push it through, so she got mad at me about that, too. She had to call the manager to show her how to do that, who was very nice. The whole thing was so aggravating, though. I just left and told Jim that I would wait and go to our store to finish my shopping. When I got there, before I shopped, I asked the girl checking if I could apply that coupon to the nail polish, and she said, "Of course, it says, "any"...That is how I ended up with 6 bottles of nail polish. -- I'm sure going to have some pretty toenails! ;)

I have to say that I really do like both the young, Sunday evening, female checker and the older male manager at our CVS. The girl plays the CVS "game," as well, and always appreciates and complements on a profitable transaction. The manager checked me out today, and was very friendly and cooperative. He pushed those Revlon coupons right through, no questions asked. I will be sticking to home turf from now on, I believe.