Ok, I am not a coupon user normally but today I used coupons

[Gwendolyn's babies]

and got a high off of the fact that I got two things for free

So, now after someone posted moneysavingmom.com I am thinking of trying out the cvs deals.

Has anyone else done this? Is it worth it?

Does anyone get a high off of shopping and making the deal?
I know when I am down in the dumps taking $5 with me to the thrift store is an instant pick me up.

[tonyarn]

Good job!

I am a CVS'er. I went there yesterday, bought 9 Adidad deoderants, 9 Aquafresh toothpaste, 15 Colgate toothbrushes, 6 tins of mints, 6 artificial nail glues (they paid me $1.02 for each 2 I got, thus the strange purchase), 4 cans of Pringles, and ve chocolate bars all for less that $5.00 out of pocket.

My Hy-Vee (a local grocery store) made me super happy lastnight. My local store had a special flyer with a coupon for a free 12 pack of pop when you spend $25. The main Hy-Vee ad had a coupon that when you buy 2 packages of beef steak at $5.99 per lb. you get a free lb. of shrimp. Here's what I did:

beef steak $5.99
beef steak $6.28
shrimp $6.99
Pepsi 12 pack $3.00 + 60c deposit
Grillin' Beans $1.18 X3
total $26.40
minus Pepsi coupon $3.00
minus shrimp coupon $6.99
minus Grillin' beans manufacturer's coupon $1.00 X3
out of pocket $14.01

[my2girlz]

I love it when they pay you to take stuff off the shelves! This week Target will be paying me $1 to "buy" some catfood. It's addicting!

[blueridgewoman]

What? A high? Never-- what am I, some kind of freak?

*slowwwwly backs in front of the freezer full of 20 boxes of waffles she got for free yesterday*

[xmysticprincessx]

let me warn you, that if you start doing cvs deals, that you WILL be addicted. just enroll yourself in cvs-anonymous right now. if you get a pick-me-up on a $5 score at the thrift store, that will be NOTHING compared to the feeling of going to cvs. and hten when you get coupons like $5/$15 and combine those with last week's ECBs and manufacturer coupons, well, then you'll wonder how you ever survived without having 30 packages of toilet paper, 80 tubes of toothpaste, 50 toothbrushes, etc in your house at one time. check out the drugstore forums at slickdeals.net and hotcouponworld.com for all the deals and how to get them. (and check out the threads with pictures of people's stockpiles if you dont believe me about 80 tubes of toothpaste...)

[Gwendolyn's babies]

wow. I think I am going to like this. Maybe we should start a coupon forum?

[greenluv]

Oh, I had good deals on Sunday at Walgreen's!

Ok, let me see if I can keep this straight...

The P&G Brand Saver was in the sunday paper this last weekend. Walgreen's also had buy 9 participating products and get $20 in register rewards. Crest was on sale for 2 for $5 and I had coupons ( wlagreens coupon for $3 off of 2, I think, and some regular coupoons for .50 off each tube) so in the end, with the WG Coupon, the sale and regular coupons, I paid like $1 for each tube. In the end, I left the store with $68 worth of stuff for $18 and had $20 in register rewards for the next time. It was awesome!

[spiderdust]

Originally Posted by greenluv

The P&G Brand Saver was in the sunday paper this last weekend. Walgreen's also had buy 9 participating products and get $20 in register rewards. Crest was on sale for 2 for $5 and I had coupons ( wlagreens coupon for $3 off of 2, I think, and some regular coupoons for .50 off each tube) so in the end, with the WG Coupon, the sale and regular coupons, I paid like $1 for each tube. In the end, I left the store with $68 worth of stuff for $18 and had $20 in register rewards for the next time. It was awesome!

I have those coupons, I think! Now let me just find my Walgreens sales flyer...

[greenluv]

Yep, look in the Super Saver catalog at Wlagreen's for the coupon for Crest. My wg's took $3 off each set of 2 Crest tooth paste that I bought so it was an immediate savings of like $9.

[LianneM]

Is CVSing worth it? Uh, yeah. We started in Feb, and have bought about $670 worth of stuff for about $45 out of pocket.

[SeekingJoy]

But is it stuff you want/use? I really struggle with this each time I dutifully pull out the Sunday sales flyer and my coupon binder to start constructing CSV scenarios. What do you do with the stuff you won't use? If I could figure out the answer to this, I would jump right in.

[LianneM]

I'd say 90% of it I would have had to buy anyway. I am not one to go buy everything just b/c it's cheap. If they are going to pay me to take it, ok, I will find a place to donate it if I can't use it (like a glucose monitor) but like I don't do the OTC meds and things b/c we just don't use them. Most of the stuff I have gotten is toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant (, toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, and chocolate

I had the same question before I started - do I have to buy a ton of crap I don't need and won't use? I can tell you the answer is no

I usually do $20 transactions, maybe slightly more, and I usually go once a week, except at the beginning of the month if I want to be sure to get the monthly deals.

This month alone there is FREE (after ECBs) toothpaste, toothbrushes, men's deo, etc. that we knew we wanted to get before the stores were out of them so we went a few times, but now it'll be once a week.

Once you build up ECBs, you can use them to buy the other things you need that are just on sale or even not - this week I bought the toilet paper on sale, cheerios and grape juice - all things on my regular grocery list, only I was able to use the FREE money I earned at CVS

[threekstrio]

Will someone teach me how this works or give me very explicite directions on how to do it? Even a link with tutorial would be greatly helpful! : ) They are building a brand new CVS near me (our first one) and I"d love to be prepared to go in there and get my deals

If you don't need everything. You can donate it to a shelter : )

[LianneM]

It takes time/practice to get it down, but it's worth the time IMO. There is a ton of info on hotcouponworld.com - a whole CVS forum with subforums there are FAQs there that explain everything. I'm glad to help but since it's already typed out there, you might as well read it feel free to ask if you have questions though!

[Treasuremapper]

I got on a CVS obsession a few years ago. I was getting so much free stuff from there that the manager started getting suspicious of me, which was ridiculous since I was just using my extra care bucks and the ads in their own circular in a smart way. I went right up to the register and PAID for everything with coupons their own register spit out. But just fyi -- you can save your self a lot of trouble with this one simple rule -- one coupon for each item. If you have lots of extra care bucks this can sometimes get complicated, so, if in doubt, buy a small cheap item that you need anyway just to make sure you have enough items.

[greenluv]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

But is it stuff you want/use? I really struggle with this each time I dutifully pull out the Sunday sales flyer and my coupon binder to start constructing CSV scenarios. What do you do with the stuff you won't use? If I could figure out the answer to this, I would jump right in.

This is a major point as far as I'm concerned. I only buy things that I WILL use, but I don't get hung up on brand. To me, a Venus razor is the same as a Soleil or whatever other brand is on sale. What matters is how cheap I can get'em or maybe even FREE if I save my coupons and use them wisely.

One thing I've noticed with Walgreen's is that the coupons inserts generally match up pretty well with what is on sale that week or month. When it comes to personal care items, they generally store fine for ages and you don't need to worry too much about them expiring before you can use them.

For me, couponing is about saving money and stocking up when the opportunity presents itself. Keep in mind, you don't have to use every coupon that comes your way. After a couple of weeks, you can see which coupons are the good ones. I've only been interested in this for a couple of months but it's not too hard to do if you can be flexible.

[spiderdust]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

But is it stuff you want/use? I really struggle with this each time I dutifully pull out the Sunday sales flyer and my coupon binder to start constructing CSV scenarios. What do you do with the stuff you won't use? If I could figure out the answer to this, I would jump right in.

Some people have yard sales of the extra stuff. If you got it for free, it's pretty much free money.

[tonyarn]

Yep, I yard sale my extras...although I do donate some of it too. I am having a yard sale starting tomorrow, and fully expect to make $300-$500 these next 4 days off of stuff I got for free or was paid to take.

[DiannaK]

Originally Posted by threekstrio

Will someone teach me how this works or give me very explicite directions on how to do it? Even a link with tutorial would be greatly helpful! : ) They are building a brand new CVS near me (our first one) and I"d love to be prepared to go in there and get my deals

If you don't need everything. You can donate it to a shelter : )

check out hotcouponworld.com as well as afullcup.com . They have tutorials about how to get started. First things first, sign up at CVS.com to get your card.

[ollineeba]

Another CVSer here. It can be quite addicting, I agree. It's fun to get all that stuff for free, or very close to it!
I share some of my deals with MIL and my mom (think pain reliever and Softsoap Spa bodywash- you other CVSers know what I'm talking about ) because my pantry is really getting full. I also like to donate to the local shelter when I drop off clothes and other stuff.