Yesterday I wrote about how you can save money by properly preparing yourself before you go shopping, and how to combine coupons with sales to maximize savings. I wanted to provide an example of how to do this by using my most recent receipt from CVS.
Keep in mind, I love CVS. You can save so much money there if you shop right.
Colgate – Had 2 coupons. 1 for .75 and 1 for 1.00. Since I bought 2 tubes and 1 was free, I ended up getting 2 tubes for 1.14, or .57 each.
Almay – Had 2 coupons, each for a dollar. Bought 2 products for 8.99 total. Less the coupons, paid 6.99 for 2 Almay products, or 3.50 each.
Tide – Had 1 coupon for 1.00. Paid 4.97 after discounts.
At this point, my overall spending for this trip was 12.87. BUT, I also had 6.00 in CVS Extracare bucks from a previous shopping trip. So after all discounts (27.87 in total savings) and including tax, my overall spending for that trip was a flat 8 dollars even. That is a heck of a lot of items for only 8 dollars. In addition, I also got a dollar in Extracare bucks for the Tide I purchased, which I can use on my next shopping trip.
As a word of caution, always check the restrictions and fine print when shopping. For instance, there was a limit on 1 bottle of tide for this offer. So always make sure you don’t end up buying more than the discount is allowed for.
Do you find that coupon shopping is better than shopping at Sam’s or Costco?
Regarding coupon shopping vs Sams or Costco, I find that for many things, I can get it much cheaper by combining sales and coupons. I do not even have a Costco membership anymore. Part of the reason I dropped Costco is I found I was buying things I did not need, not to mention it can be quite an endeavor to go shopping there. Some of the things I used to buy at Costco was bulk paper products, bulk toothpaste, crackers and cereal. I found that if I bought those same things at Meijer when they were on sale and had the coupons, and bought enough until the next sale came along, it was much cheaper at Meijer. I will probably write a larger post about this in the future. Some things I miss from Costco: The giant bags of chocolate chips, the giant bottle of pure vanilla, and the frozen corn. I just love their frozen corn. Thanks for commenting!
Next post: Recipe: Chicken and Rice Bake – Easy and Delicious!