Living Blossoms

A few of you have expressed interest in "CVSing" - or how I get so many things for free. I typed this up as an email to in-person friends who were curious, and thought I may as well share it here too. A friend in CT does this at several other stores (sadly, we have none of them in FL!) and she drastically cut their grocery budget. That is the same story of the women who run the blogs I link to below. It takes a little bit of time and effort (some weeks more than others), but IMO it is incredibly worth it.

A friend told me about http://www.moneysavingmom.com/. Usually her deals aren't up as quickly as most, but she does have the best explanation of how CVSing works that I've ever read.

My favorite site is http://www.thethriftymama.com/. She not only lists the best deals, she also puts up sample scenarios. Just recently she did a "CVSing from the ground up" to show newbies a real world example of how to do it. While those deals are no longer valid, you should be able to get a good feel for things. I did the transactions with her even though I'd already been CVSing for a month or so, and I still learned and increased my Extra Care Bucks (a.k.a. ECB - CVS's money-back program) a lot.

The Thrifty Mama also usually links to other sites that list every ECB deal and every coupon that matches up with it. For example, this week she linked to a thread on SlickDeals.net (another favorite site of mine). Be sure to watch for the links in her CVS posts. Money Saving Mom always ends her weekly CVS deal posts with links to other bloggers who CVS so you can get ideas from them too.

A big helpful site is http://couponmom.com/. She lists all the grocery deals and everything, but since I just do CVS I don't mess with those much. I do use her coupon database all the time though, to find out which newspaper insert a coupon is if for some reason it's not listed on another site.

Sunday newspapers are the most important thing in doing this. Manufacturer coupons are what make getting such great deals and freebies possible. Try to get at least 2 sets of coupon inserts each week - more if possible. That allows you to really stock up on good stuff that you can either use or donate. For example, two weeks ago I got 4 packs of nice disposable razors for free that we will not use, but that a homeless shelter or other such shelter would love to have. A lot of the stuff I get from CVSing I don't use. Some I can sell on Ebay - others get donated or given to friends. It's pretty cool.

Most people suggest using a scenario, but I find that it's easiest for me just to copy and paste all the best deals that The Thrifty Mama lists into a Word document (and check if the people at SlickDeals have any others I'm interested in) and print it out. I then cut out my coupons, getting as many as I have for each item I want to buy, in case they're out of  one thing and I decide I want more of something else to make up for it. Then I take my list, my coupons, and all my current ECBs to CVS. I have 3 CVS stores within a 5-mile radius, so if one doesn't have something, usually one or both of the others will.

Here's an illustration of what you can do with CVSing. I had a good day there today. CVS emailed me a $5 off a $30 purchase coupon right as I was getting all my coupons together, so that was an unexpected blessing. $/$$ coupons are like free money.

I got:
2 St. Ives body wash - 7.98 (for 2), get 6 ECB back (3 for each)
1 Listerine Agent Cool Blue - $3.99, get 3 ECB back (I will donate this or give it to someone with kids.)
2 Palmolive Dish Detergent - $2.98, get 2 ECB back (1 for each)
1 Garnier leave-in conditioner (shampoo and all other garnier hair stuff would work too) - $2.99, get 2 ECB back
1 Crest Pro-Health Whitening toothpaste - $3.49, get $3.49 ECB back (another donation, as we don't use this kind of toothpaste.)
1 Neutrogena lip gloss - $5.99, get $3 ECB back (not a great deal since there are no coupons out, but I've been wanting to try this specific kind. With the $5/$30 coupon, it still ended up free.  =o)  )
1 half-gallon of milk - $2.69 (I needed it to put me up to $30 to use the $5/$30 coupon - plus we needed it.)
Subtotal: $30.11
-$11.50 in coupons, from CVS and from newspapers
New Subtotal: $18.61
-18.69 in ECBs I had (most from The Thrifty Mama's "from the ground up" deals)
Total: $0! And I earned 19.49 ECB to use in the future to make those transactions free too!

My initial buy-in to get ECBs was $4.79. (I got some medicine we don't need and gave it to a friend who did.) I then used the 5.79 ECB I earned there to get a bunch of other things that were really cheap with coupons, and earned 5.99 more ECB. The goal is to keep "rolling" them and getting free stuff.

If you're confused after my many words (this is why Isaac explains games to people while I keep silent. LOL.), just read Money Saving Mom's CVS 101 that I linked to above, or just ask. Have fun!

BED!!!