CVS is an excellent place to bargain shop. This may seem paradoxical since drugstores are perceived as one of the more expensive places to shop. However with a sound strategy you can save big.
There is one problem with shopping at CVS though. The weekly ad offers super deals with extra buck reward dollars. This, basically, is when they give you a coupon for $x off of your next purchase for buying a specific product. The rewards can range from $1 to $10 on the purchase of a single product or multiples of the same product, to some combination of several products. If you meet the requirement a coupon will print at the bottom of your receipt.
To encourage people to shop at CVS they generally offer 1 super deal a week. Usually you get ebs equal to the purchase price making the product effectively free. On other items you can use coupons to slash the sale price and with the resulting ebs the price is close to, and sometimes is, free.
Of course this is an marketing scheme to get people in the door. The company does not really want to give stuff away for free they want you spending money. So to combat this they have limited quantities and tend not to restock the shelves until the following Sunday.
So to get the best deal you can you need to shop early in the sale period, which runs Sunday to Saturday. Sunday is preferable. This week I went to CVS on Tuesday and the shelves were cleaned out. They were giving away eye drops, or rather had given away eye drops since they were all gone. They also were selling these Glade smelly things for five bucks each. A coupon just out of the last weeks paper turned that into $2.00. And if you bought two you got $3 ebs. So they were effectively $0.50 each. But they were gone.
I actually went to two stores, which I don’t like to do. I also knew looking at the ad Sunday that I should go right away but I didn’t. So I did not get particularly good deals this week.
The deal I had planned to get went like this and is much better than the deal I actually got. The above two products you get to $17.99 then add a crest floss on sale for $3.29. This gets you to 21.48. You use a $4 off 20 CVS Coupon, two $3.00 Glade coupons, a $1.00 internet eye drop coupon. That gets you $11 off plus my $4 ebs from last week. So for about $7.50 plus tax you get five things and 7.99 eb (eye drops), 3 eb (Glade), and 2.50 eb (floss). This gives $13.49 in ebs and five products for about $9 with tax.
So the lesson here is: Get your lazy ass out of bed and shop early on Sunday to get the super deals. You’ll keep more money in your pocket if you do.
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Making Life a Little Less Expensive Every Week
Making Life a Little Less Expensive Every Week
Here in Orange County California we benefit from fierce competition in the grocery industry. Not only do they compete with each other (Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater Brothers, and Vons) they compete with various small market chains (Henry's, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, and a host of independent markets. In addition both Target and Walmart carry a limited, but well priced, selection of grocery staples. With so many choices it is easy to simply pick a store and hope you don't burn through your budget halfway through shopping. But, with a little effort and a little more driving, you can dramatically trim your grocery expenses. You can put the savings towards the ridiculous cost of housing.
Here in Orange County California we benefit from fierce competition in the grocery industry. Not only do they compete with each other (Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater Brothers, and Vons) they compete with various small market chains (Henry's, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, and a host of independent markets. In addition both Target and Walmart carry a limited, but well priced, selection of grocery staples. With so many choices it is easy to simply pick a store and hope you don't burn through your budget halfway through shopping. But, with a little effort and a little more driving, you can dramatically trim your grocery expenses. You can put the savings towards the ridiculous cost of housing.
Coupons
Making a Coupon Stockpile
The quickest source of coupons is the sunday paper. Each week there are anywhere from one to three coupon circulars (P&G Brandsaver, Red Plum, and Smart Source). The Sunday paper(Register or Times) costs $1.50.But they both also issue a weekend edition of their paper, which is remarkably similar, for 75 cents. I buy one of each (Register and Times) for a total cost of $1.50. This give two sets of coupons, which some weeks works out fantastically and some weeks not so good. But each paper has a diferent selection of ads (these vary from paper to paper and even from week to week).
Be sure to physically check the paper for coupon circulars since store-bought papers do not always get the same coupons as a home-delivered paper. The delivered paper may have three circulars this week but the one in the store could have one, two, three, or even zero coupons. So just be sure to check before you buy.
Alternately you can order subscriptions online. Though the Times wants $2.50 a week to deliver the Sunday paper. But a quick google search will often turn up deals or promo codes for a dollar a week. Recently in LA the Times was offering a year of Sundays for 19 cents a week.
The quickest source of coupons is the sunday paper. Each week there are anywhere from one to three coupon circulars (P&G Brandsaver, Red Plum, and Smart Source). The Sunday paper(Register or Times) costs $1.50.But they both also issue a weekend edition of their paper, which is remarkably similar, for 75 cents. I buy one of each (Register and Times) for a total cost of $1.50. This give two sets of coupons, which some weeks works out fantastically and some weeks not so good. But each paper has a diferent selection of ads (these vary from paper to paper and even from week to week).
Be sure to physically check the paper for coupon circulars since store-bought papers do not always get the same coupons as a home-delivered paper. The delivered paper may have three circulars this week but the one in the store could have one, two, three, or even zero coupons. So just be sure to check before you buy.
Alternately you can order subscriptions online. Though the Times wants $2.50 a week to deliver the Sunday paper. But a quick google search will often turn up deals or promo codes for a dollar a week. Recently in LA the Times was offering a year of Sundays for 19 cents a week.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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