Sunday, July 4, 2010

CVS

Hit CVS first on account of I knew I was out way too early for the dollar paper sellers, and I was expecting to get some overage/profit with the $5/$25 and $4/$20 coupons that I could apply to the papers at CVS.
I didn't like having to pay $3.00 for a bundle, liked even less having to pay $2 each when the 2nd store didn't have bundles...I hadn't even wanted to pay $1.00 just for one P&G insert. Why did they start putting them in on Holiday weekends? Didn't they used to wait until the week after?
Oh well.

The first transaction I bought:
$4.99 Covergirl Prof Mascara
$4.99 Covergirl Prof Mascara
$5.49 Eye Enhancers Shadow (WRONG ONES)
$5.49 Eye Enhancer Shadow
$9.97 Gillette Fusion
$1.79 x 6 Sobe
$3.00 Bundle pack newspapers
= $22.95

-$5/$25 CVS
-5.49 Free Enhancer wyb Mascara 7/04 P&G
-5.49 Free Enhancer wyb Mascara 7/04 P&G
(1st coupon worked if you used it before the $1.00 off any Covergirl, but the second one beeped saying it would only allow $4.49 off. The cashier added $1.00 CVS coupon to make it $5.49, but at my next shop I checked the bar codes and the $3.49 shadows were actually the correct ones to buy.)
-1.00 any Covergirl 7/04 P&G
-1.00 any Covergirl 7/04 P&G
-4.00 Gillette Fusion 6/06 P&G
-1.79 x 3 Sobe BOGO IP Q

-8.00 ECBs
=$3.95 oop
Rec'd $5.00 Covergirl wyb $15, $5 Gillette Fusion

Final Cost $1.95

I didn't get any of the Biotrue eye stuff in the first transaction because with no coupon it didn't profit me anything, and I would've had to pay taxes on it.
But somewhere between store number one and store number two I managed to figure out that I could do better by breaking it into two transactions, and then the eye stuff would help me get up to the $25 threshold I needed to reach to be able to use the $5/$25 coupon.

Transaction #2:
$9.97 Gillette Fusion
$2.99 Biotrue eye stuff
$2.99 Biotrue eye stuff (Says Limit 1, but is really 2)
$1.59 x 6 Sobe drink
$4.00 (2) newpapers
= $24.72 (It was over $25 with tax)

-$5/$25
-4.00 Gillette Fusion 6/06 P&G
-1.59 x 3 Sobe BOGO IP

-1.00 ECB
-10.00 ECB

Total -.05 + .99 tax = $0.94 oop (The last two times I was going to have the ECB adjusted down a few cents, the register took it anyway. Not sure why, but ain't complaining!)
Rec'd $5.00 Gillette, $5.98 Biotrue eye stuff

Final Cost $0.96 oop

Transaction #3:
$4.99 Covergirl Prof Mascara
$4.99 Covergirl Prof Mascara
$3.49 Eye Enhancers Shadow
$3.49 Eye Enhancer Shadow
$1.59 x 6 Sobe
$21.73

-$4/$20 CVS q
-3.49 Free Enhancer wyb Mascara 7/04 P&G
-(4.99) Free Enhancer wyb Mascara 7/04 P&G (She read the coupon wrong and gave me $4.99 off for the mascara instead. When I pointed it out to her she just shrugged. If it was good with her, then it was good with me, too.)
-1.00 any Covergirl 7/04 P&G
-1.00 any Covergirl 7/04 P&G
-1.59 x 3 SOBE BOGO IP q

Total $2.48 + .93 tax = $3.41 oop
Rec'd $5.00 Covergirl

Final Total +$1.59

GRAND TOTAL $1.30 COST (Uhh, guess I can no longer whine about having to pay so much for my newspapers since they came out to an average of $.325 cents each if you don't count off anything for the drinks, razors, makeup, or eye stuff...none of which *I* will use myself, so I'm only counting it as the cost of the papers.)

2 comments:

reynersonfamily said...

how long have you been couponing to figure these transactions out? And how do you store your coupons?

Melissa said...

Hi, Reynersonfamily! I have been coupon shopping since January '09, so about a year and half now.

98% of the time I still have to get my transaction-ideas from other boards like Southern Savers or Hip2Save or Brandy (I Prefer Publix) tells me what to buy, lol.

But if I have to work on my own, first I look for items that's going to make me money, then free items, then items that cost a little but I can pay for either with one of the $/$$ store coupons, or with overage from one of the money-makers.

I store my coupons the lazy way. I leave the inserts intact, stick them in a manilla folder with the date of the insert and file them in a milk crate. Then I just cut out the coupons I need for the sale.

As far as other coupons like blinkies and peelies and such, I file in alphabetical order in regular white mailing envelopes.

The downside to my system is sometimes you might to go a store and they'll have something on clearance and you'll be oh dang, I have coupons for that at home!!

So some people get large zippered binders and baseball card sleeves and cut all their coupons out and file them in the sleeves and take their binder with them everywhere they go.