CVS Rocks

Ok so I love to save a buck. Who doesn't? But I occasionally go on line in seach of ways to be more frugal. I read a blog the other day of a women who spends 20 a week on groceries for her and her husband. I thought wow that is amazing because my kids don't eat a ton more so I started looking to see how she did it. In one week she went to 5 different stores to buy her groceries. She will be greatly disappointed at how much her budget changes when kids come along....I dread the trip to one grocery store much less loading and unloading for 5 a week. I admire her for doing it with no children (although I might have been caught doing that when we had no kids???)
I really want to be a good steward of my money and do the best I can to save money on our grocery budget but I also feel like I have to be a good steward of my time. Well about a week ago I learned about CVS and it is great. I will use what I have done to tell you how it works:
If you get a CVS card there are certain items that you get Exra Care Bucks back for purchasing that product. So this week the nivea men's line was on sale and John likes that face wash. The deal with it was that for every $15 you spent on nivea products you get $5 bucks. The bucks are essentially like a gift card for the store. They print out on your reciept and you give them the reciept to redeem the bucks at the next purchase. So I bought the face wash and a few other things and ended up with 15 bucks. Well every week they usually have 1 or 2 items that you get the whole amount back in bucks so it is essentially free. There are 2 places you can find the deals - 1. the weekly sales flyer 2. a monthly flyer they put in the store. The deals are different in each of them. One is good for the week and the other you can get for the whole month. The April free product is CVS brand Tylenol. You pay 3.99 and get 3.99 back. So I went in and bought the limit (5) and it cost me 19.95. I applied my 15 previous bucks and only paid $5 for 5 bottles of Tylenol BUT I got 19.95 bucks back. I did 2 seperate check-outs so I could use those bucks for my next stuff. The item in the weekly ad that was "free" was the Softsoap body wash. They cost 4.99 and you get 4.99 in bucks back. There was a limit of 5 per househould/card. So that was 24.95. I used my 19.95 previous bucks and only paid $5 for 5 bottles of bodywash. BUT I got 24.95 bucks back to use on my next visit. So I got all of this for $10:

The key to getting the best deal is using your bucks to buy things that will replinish the bucks you use. You can also use coupons and then you end up making more money. I also read that after you use your card for like 4 weeks in a row CVS coupons start printing off with your reciept and you can use store coupons plus manufacture coupons to get an even better deal. The first week or so you will have to spend money - and CVS does cost more than Wal-mart but once you start "working the system" you don't have to really spend much more money. I spent 10 on my trip today but I have 25 bucks to use on my next visit. Isn't that amazing!!!!! THIS IS A GOOD THING!