A new way to save

So if you know me at all, you know that I absolutely love saving money. Coupons are a huge part of my life-- I come home at night and clip coupons to help me relax. I know, I know, I'm weird. But one day I'll be a millionaire because of all the money I've saved. Or at least that's the plan, anyway. :)

Anyway, I absolutely love triple coupons, but the grocery stores aren't doing them often enough anymore, and I've been going through major withdrawal. So after months of reading about all these supposedly 'free' deals at CVS, I decided to take the plunge and join the CVS Extra Care program. It was free to join, of course, and right off the bat they gave me a $4 off $20 purchase coupon. So, after visiting some online forums and reading some informational Web sites that explain the process, I made my first trip to CVS last week.

So far I think I'm going to like it. I enjoy the strategizing and planning involved before I ever step into the store. It did require an initial investment, but it looks I should only be paying tax from now on. On my first trip, I bought four bags of Nestle Easter candy, a Gillete Fusion Phenom razor, and a Nestle CrunchCrisp candy bar. Total came to $20.29, but with the $4 coupon, a Gillete coupon for $4 and a free coupon for the candy bar, I only ended up paying a little over $10. But, the beauty of the CVS program is the whole Extra Care bucks thing. The razor and candy both qualified for ECBs ($5 and $6 respectively), which printed on my receipt and can basically be used like cash on a future purchase. So I ended up getting $11 in ECBs for future purchases. Am I making any sense?

Anyway, tonight I went back to spend some of the ECBs I earned last week. The secret is to use the ECBs to buy things that will generate more ECBs. My plan was to buy a Venus Embrace razor, a Gillette Mach 3 razor, a toothbrush, and possibly toothpaste -- all of which would generate varying amounts of ECBs. I should have been forewarned, based on all the forum comments, that CVS is notorious for not having all of their sale items in stock. I was able to get the two razors and that was it, but I was really excited because the Venus razor came with a bonus gift set (zippered bag and shaving gel). The subtotal was $17.98-- razors are way expensive! Fortunately, I had a $5 off coupon (thanks to a forum I frequent), and I had manufacturer's coupons on both razors. My total came to about $6, and I used $6 in ECBs, so the total came to 47 cents (just tax!). In the end the razors generated $11 in ECBs. So I paid 47 cents for two premium razors and got $11 credit for future purchases. Not bad!

I'm still hoping I can get the toothpaste and the toothbrushes soon. And I'm excited about the possibility of buying something other than razors (although those are the things that seem to generate the most ECBs). So to date I've spent about $11 for three razors, four bags of Nestle easter candy, and a candy bar-- and I have $16 in ECBs to use in the future. Yay!