CVS Planning and Shopping on a Slow Week

We have been talking about saving money a lot on this blog lately, and I think that is for two reasons, first off, Crystal over at Money Saving Mom is talking about it exclusively and after taking her Supermarket Savings class I am determined to do a better job, so I am working on it a lot and I blog about what is going on, hence saving money. The second reason is that I have had emails back and forth with a few readers about getting started in saving money, a couple in particular about CVS. And when I was starting examples helped SO much.

So here is what I did this week. Keeping in mind I only went because we needed Little Noses Saline Drops for Miss Pear so that she can actually breathe!

I start my CVS planning by calculating how many ECB's I have to spend ($26.58) which ones need to be spent this week so they do not expire ($0), and if I have a gift card balance ($25). The gift card is from Miss Pear's prescription being filled on Monday as their current promotion is a $25 gift card with every new prescription, if you have the coupon.

Next I write down the items I will be picking up noting the cost, the coupons, and any ECB's they will generate.

Here is how this week's list looked:
5 x Gatorade and Propel (2 x $0.50 coupons) = $4 ($2 ECB)
1 x Tylenol Rapid Release Cold and Sinus $4.99 - $5 coupon = free
1 x Caress Body Wash $3.49 - $1 coupon = $2.49 ($2 ECB)
1 x Gillette Fusion Razor $9.99 - $2 coupon manufacturers coupon - $2 CVS Coupon = $5.99 ($5 ECB)
2 x Secret Deoderant $2.99each -2 x $0.50 coupons =$4.98
1 x Little Noses Saline Drops = $4.19

The nose drops were not on my list or part of my original calculations. Rather than recaluclate and try to make my ECB's work, I just decided to pay the overage with my gift cards as I had to run out the door to run my errands and be back for supper.

Total after sales and before coupons was: $33.64
(Savings from sales was $11.75)
Taxes were $0.67 for a total of: $34.31
Minus $4 of $20: $30.31
Minus Coupons ($12): 18.31
Minus 2 x $2 off $10: $14.31
Minus $10 ECB = $4.31

Which I paid with my gift card. If I had shopped from my list I would have owed less than $0.20, but like I said, we were out of saline drops, and I would have gone just for that! :-)

ECB's earned:$9
ECB's remaining from previous stash: $16.58
Gift Card total remaining: $20.96
Total savings this trip, not including $4.31 paid with gift card: $41.75
Plus another $4 off $20 printed

Not bad for what everyone is calling a very slow week for deals!

Two things to remember about CVS:
1. You can stack their coupons with manufacturer's coupons like I did on the razor, you get these store coupons on the bottom of your receipts with your ECB's.
2. You can stack $4 off 20 and $2 of $10 as long as you are indeed over those amounts and the codes on them are different. However if your order is $21 you cannot use 2 x $4 off 20 because after the first one your order was not over $20. The amount is after sales and before manufacturer's coupons. These are available on their web site occasionally, but usually you get them on the bottom of your receipt, in the mail, or on your email.

Hopefully this helps others with their planning, and I think they calculate their taxes on the taxable total after CVS coupons but before manufacturer's coupons.

Updated to add: The prescription coupon was in the fliers a while ago, plus our store was doing a promotion and handing them out this past week. Oh, and I also had them print out at the bottom of my receipt. You get a maximum of 4 cards.