Jennifer Robinson, TX
It’s like Christmas morning because of CVS. I’m one of the lucky ones that live in Texas where Eckerd has become CVS. To celebrate the grand opening of CVS stores, there were three great coupons in the Sunday sales flier: any CVS item free up to $3, any greeting card free up to $3, and $5 off any $10. I saw these coupons in the flier and thought they were pretty good and would think about it later. The next day I was reading Centsible Chat on the RC Web site and saw about all the great deals other RCers were putting together. Now I knew what a great deal it was. The next day was Tuesday and I stopped at the nearest CVS with my two children. I decided that I would focus on getting CVS-brand baby wipes since we use so many baby wipes for various jobs around the house—not just diaper duty. The checker indeed let me use all three coupons and the total only needed to be at least $10 before any coupons. Wow! On the way out I grabbed two more sales fliers and made sure there was enough left. I’m really glad I took two because the next day I stopped at a different CVS and all the sales fliers were gone. From that day on, all the CVS stores in my area did not have their sales fliers out for the taking—you had to ask a cashier for one. Of course, if you came in there with the CVS coupons they would not give you another flier. My next stop was the recycle bins. Each school in my area has a recycle bin and if it is full enough you can scrounge around the opening looking through the papers. Normally I’m looking for coupons, but this time I was looking for CVS sales fliers. The coupons I found were merely a bonus. Over the next two days I stopped at various recycle bins and was able to find three more sets of coupons. I was very excited to find them. And as an added bonus I found several coupon inserts and in one recycle bin I found a stack of bubble mailers that had only been used once and could be used again. Jackpot! Thursday and Friday mornings I stopped at three different CVS stores to use my coupons. Each time I shopped I got better and better at putting together a deal with baby wipes and a greeting card. It was wonderful. The last day of the coupon deal came, Saturday, and I was out the door by myself, since my husband could stay home with our children. I had one set of coupons, but I planned to search the recycle bins for more coupons. That day I found three more sets of coupons in the recycle bins. But things just got better! The first CVS store had every size of baby wipes on sale for $1.47—even the 240-count size. Wow! I took five packages of the 240-count size and headed for the register. What I found out was that they had put the sales signs out a day early. The $1.47 price actually started on Sunday, but since the signs were out they gave me the $1.47 price. I went to the next CVS and hoped they had done the same thing. And yes, they had! So I got several more 240-count size baby wipes. I continued this in two more CVS stores until I had used all my coupons. The picture shows what we ended up with. I got 22 packages of the 240-count size, 8 packages of the 160-count size, and 8 tubs of 80-count wipes for a grand total of 7,140 baby wipes. I don’t think we’ll be buying any baby wipes in 2005. Wow! Of course, let’s not forget about the 11 free greeting cards I got too. All this is around $225 worth, for which I paid about $20. I thought the story would end here, but it doesn’t! I opened up the Sunday paper the next day and the CVS flier had the same three coupons in, the only change was that the greeting card was free up to $2 instead of $3. I excitedly told my husband and he said, “Don’t you think we have enough baby wipes now?” I agreed and told him that there were so many other great deals to be had with these coupons. I used my first set of coupons that very Sunday. I found that I had to think harder this week because I didn’t have a singular focus on one thing to buy. I took inventory in our bathroom to see what we could use and thought about what the church pantry could use as well. I went through my coupons and looked at the sales to find some good deals. And it wasn’t until mid-week when I realized I should have been using the $2 off any digital print order coupon. I had months worth of digital pictures that I hadn’t printed because there hadn’t been a “good enough” deal. By Thursday I was ready to get some digital pictures printed. The second week I amassed the following: 7 bottles of V05 shampoo, 9 bottles of Pantene shampoo, 3 bottles of Garnier Fructis shampoo, 4 bottles of Suave shampoo, 2 bottles of CVS-brand shampoo, 4 bottles of St. Ives body wash, 3 Sure deodorants, 3 Dove deodorants, 4 12-can packs of Coke, 8 disposable CVS-brand cameras, 4 packages of 4-double roll count Cottonelle toilet paper, 2 boxes of Ziploc bags, 2 CVS-brand Q-tips, 4 CVS-brand zipper bags, 98 prints of digital pictures, and 11 greeting cards. All this is almost $200 worth, for which I paid about $25. I’m tired now from getting all these great deals, but I’m not complaining. My favorite store these days is CVS! Jennifer Robinson, TX