With the new June deals starting (see below for the full scoop!) and the free Chex Mix and diaper deal this week, it’s a pretty good week at CVS. Nothing out of this world, but still pretty decent. Also, remember that this is the last week to use the $3/$15 Washington Post coupon before it expires.

Here are the best deals I see so far (let me know if you see any mistakes):

*****WEEKLY ECB DEALS*****

Buy 2 Dawn Dish Soaps (11 oz.) at $1 each, Get $1 ECB (Limit 4)
Use 2 $0.25/1 coupons from 06/01 P&G insert
$0.25 each after coupons and ECB

 Buy $20 worth of Pampers Jumbo Pack Diapers (on sale for $7.99) or Wipes (70-77 ct. on sale for $2.99), Get $5 ECBs
Use $2/2 coupon from 06/01 P&G insert

Buy 1 Gillette Phenom Fusion Razor at $9.99, Get $4 ECBs (Limit 1)
Use $4/1 coupon from 06/01 P&G insert
$1.99 after coupon and ECB

*****WEEKLY NON-ECB DEALS*****

Chex Mix is on sale for $1
Use $1/1 coupon here (you can print two per computer)
Free after coupon!

Also, if your store accepts expired coupons, you could pair the B1G1 CoverGirl coupon (from the May P&G insert) with the B1G1 sale for free make-up! You could also use the $1/1 Oral-B coupon (also from the May P&G insert) and get the $1.77 toothbrushes for $0.77 after coupon if you needed a filler.
B1G1 Cover Girl-if your store takes expired coupons

See all weekly deals and coupon match-ups for here.

*****JUNE ECB DEALS*****

Buy 1 Listerine Smart Rinse (250 ml) at $3.49, Get $3.49 ECBs (Limit 2)
Use $1/1 coupon here
Free plus overage after coupon and ECBs
(There are reports of some stores having tear pads with a full rebate on this product so look for those!)

Buy 1 Brut Deodorant (2.5 oz) at $2.69, Get $3 ECBs (Limit 5)
Use $1/1 coupon from 04/06 insert
Free plus overage after ECBs

Buy 1 Oral B CrossAction Manual Toothbrush (2 pk) at $6.99, Get $6.99 ECBs (Limit 2)
Free after ECBs

Buy 1 CVS Pharmacy Sheer or Plastic Bandages (40 ct) at $1.99, Get $1.99 ECBs (Limit 2)
Free after ECBs

Buy 1 Huggies Lotion or Wash (15 oz) at $3.49, Get $2 ECBs (Limit 5)
Use $1/1 coupons from 05/18 insert
$0.49 each after coupons

Buy 1 CVS Cotton Swabs (500 Count) at $3.19, Get $2 ECBs back (Limit 5)

See all monthly deals with coupon match-ups here.

*****MONEY-MAKING DEAL SCENARIOS FOR THIS WEEK*****

Money-Making Deal Idea #1
Buy 2 Oral B CrossAction Toothbrushes
Buy 2 Dawn dish soaps
Use $3/$15 CVS coupon
Use 2 $0.25/1 Dawn coupons
Spend $12.48 plus tax out of pocket
Get $14.48 ECBs back!

Money-Making Deal Idea #2
Buy 1 Listerine Smart Rinse
Buy 1 Gillette Fusion
Buy 2 Dawn dish soaps
Use $3/$15
Use $1/1 Listerine
Use $4/1 Gillette
Use 2 $0.25/1 Dawn
Spend $6.98 out of pocket
Get $8.49 back!

Money-Making Deal Idea #3
Buy 2 CVS Bandages
Buy 2 CVS cotton swabs
Buy 1 Brut deodorant
Buy 2 Chex Mix
Use $3/$15
Use $3/$10 CVS products coupon (these usually print at the bottom of your receipt or from the price/coupon scanner at your store)
Use 2 $1/1 Chex Mix
Use $1/1 Brut
Spend $6.05 out of pocket
Get $10.98 back!

Money-Making Deal Idea #4
Buy 3 Brut deodorants
Buy 2 Huggies lotion or wash
Use $3/$15
Use 3 $1/1 Brut coupons
Use 2 $1/1 Huggies coupons
Spend $7.05 out of pocket
Get $13 ECBs back!

******ESPECIALLY FOR BEGINNERS*****

New to CVS-ing? Don’t try to make heads or tails of this post because it probably won’t make a lot of sense to you. Instead, go here where I explain the CVS program in full detail. Want to join in the fun and incredible savings? Then go here where I share more about how to make it work for you. After that, go here where my friend FishMama maps out a simple plan for beginning CVS-ers to maximize on the ECB deals this month.

———————–

Share Your Scenarios!

Have
your shopping trip planned or did you come up with a great deal
scenario/idea? Just post about it on your blog and leave your link
below. Please include full details on coupons you are using, etc. so
that those who are just beginning to get the hang of CVS can especially
benefit from seeing things broken down for them like this. If you don’t
have a blog, feel free to share your scenarios in the comment section.

Note: So as not to confuse the newbies, please only post deal scenarios/deals which are applicable at CVS this week. Thanks so much!

After some pretty sweet deals at Walgreens the past month, this week the deals are just about non-existent. Or at least I sure didn’t see much to jump up and down about.

Here’s the ad, courtesy of Hot Coupon World. Let us know if you find anything worth mentioning.

And the monthly free after rebate deals aren’t too exciting either. Bethany posted the scoop:

Multi-Betic Multi-Vitamins 60 pack, up to $9.99; use $2 coupon from the Diabetic Products site (must complete brief diabetes-related survey) for some profit.

Walgreens Gluco-Shot, 2 oz, up to $1.99.

Walgreens Calcium Creamies, 75 pack, up to $5.99.

Walgreens Water Filtration Replacement Cartridge, up to $6.99

Theragran, 130 pack, up to $4.99.

Ecotrin Low-Strength Tablets, 45 pack, up to $2; use $1 coupon from 5/11 newspaper insert.

The winners of the 36-hour giveaway sponsored by Education.com are:

::Tina (mrsshideler@)

::April (bay_p2005@)

I just contacted you personally with more details.

And since giveaways seem like a hit around here, I’m planning to make this a regular feature around here so stay tuned for future chances to win great stuff! (By the way, if you are a company who would be interested sponsoring a giveaway, please email me.)

It’s Frugal Friday over on my other blog and I’m talking about ways we save money by keeping it simple. Here’s a snippet:

Here are just a few ways we keep things simple at our home and save time, energy, and money:

::We drink primarily water. Aside from my daily pot of tea and our occasional splurge on soda, coffee, or juice, we keep it simple by drinking water. Hey, it might be boring, but it’s good for you!

::We stick to simple meals. Our meals are usually two to four simple items (and most recipes have six ingredients or less) and most of our dinners can be made in 30 minutes or 

crockpot and bread machine, and am constantly on the lookout for new ways to streamline and be more efficient in the kitchen.

::We try to only have what we need and use.

A few examples:

   

Clothes/Accessories – We each only have around 6-8 outfits and 2-3 pair of shoes per season. I only have two pair of earrings and wear pretty much the same make up and hair style for every occasion.

Go here to read the full post and tell us about some things you do to save money by keeping it simple.

I’d love to have you leave a link to your frugal tip, too!

Our first CVS trip of this week (on Memorial Day) was a near-disaster and since I like to keep things positive here, I’ll spare you the details of the difficult cashier. Needless to say, we have moved on to greener CVS pastures and will not be returning to that store.

(For all you newbies, let me reassure you that this has only happened to us twice in our history of hundreds of CVS transactions, so please know that it is a rare thing. And both times it has been the case of a cashier/manager completely misunderstanding the ECB program.)

We went over to a friend’s house for lunch on Tuesday, so we did CVS trip #2 on our way home. It was a much better trip and it helped re-energize me regarding the wonderful CVS deals. (I was almost considering quitting there for all of two seconds after the trying ordeal we went through on Monday so a great CVS run was exactly the antidote needed!)

Here’s what we got:

(Just overlook the fact that one of the waters is almost empty; I was thirsty after all that shopping! And the waters are surprisingly good!)

1 package of Playskool diapers – 10.99
1 3-pack of rolaids -$2.19
4 Sobe Life Waters  -$1 each
2 double-packs of Excedrin – $1.99 each

Used $3/15
1 $2/1 Playskool coupon
2 B1G1 Sobe coupons
2 $2/1 Excedrin coupons
Paid with the remainder in ECBs
Spent $0.95 out of pocket
Got $2 and $2 ECBs back

You can find more info on these deals and coupons here.

I’m making at least one more trip this week to finish out the May ECB deals and the Playskool deal and then it’s on to June!

CVS just released some more coupons so go check your inboxes!

Heidi got two coupons, one for $4/1 Viactiv Flavor Glides and one for $5/2 Ellin Lavar hair care products. Here are the deals she came up with for those who also got these coupons:

Buy 1 Viactiv Flavor Guide at $8.99
Use $4/1 off Viactiv Flavor Glides Calcium CVS coupon (expires 6/1/08)
Stack with $2/1 coupon from 5/11 Redplum insert.
Get $3 ECBs (May monthly deal)
Free after coupons and ECBs!

Buy 2 Ellin Lavar hair care products on sale 2/$10
Use $5/2 Ellin Lavar coupon (expires 6/1/08)
Get $4 ECBs (May monthly deal)
$0.50 each after coupons and ECBs!

See all CVS deals for this week here.   

Many people are also reporting lots of markdowns at their store on Essence of Beauty items, hair care products, and make up. Be sure to check for clearance tags!

The transfer from Blogger to Typepad is almost complete. Most links in posts should now be fixed and almost all of the features from the old blog have been added back in.

I decided to only transfer over the "meatier" posts and those deal posts which were still relevant. I have around 30-40 more posts yet to transfer over so if some of the categories seem rather lean right now, they’ll be beefed up in the next few weeks.

It’s been a rather tedious process and taken all of my spare time over the last week; I am ever so ready to be done so I can get back to normal blogging and real-life! But it’s been a great learning experience, too, and I’ve enjoyed the new challenges it has presented.

I have figured most everything out in the transfer process but transferring my feed. I had over 3000 subscribers to my last feed and I’m really not anxious to lose them all. However, everything I’ve read and tried regarding the transfer of feeds doesn’t appear to be working. In fact, I’m not even sure that the new Typepad feed is working correctly.

If you are subscribed to this blog via a feed reader and you do get this post in your reader, could you take a moment to comment and let me know what feed reader you are using and what feed you are subscribed to? (The old feed or the new feed?)

Also, if anyone has any great pointers on transferring/re-directing feed, I’m all ears. I tried transferring it through Blogger, through Feed Burner, and through Typepad. None of these seemed to do the trick, but I may have just overlooked something somewhere in my technical novicity (hmm, did I just make up a new word?).

And would you believe it? Just yesterday afternoon, when I had finished the final touches of straightening things out here on this new blog and was starting to feel more at-ease with Typepad, lo and behold, Blogger unlocked my old blog! There’s no turning back now, though, and I’m really happy I made the change; Typepad is fast becoming my favorite blogging platform.

And so ends my bizarre blogging saga; thanks for sticking it out with me over the ups and downs of the last two weeks. You all deserve some sort of award for "Most Patient Blog Readers of the Century." Since I can’t personally deliver it to each one of you, I’ll just have to make sure and serve up a whole lotta great deals over the next fifty years to make up for it.