I want to give a special welcome to those visiting from the CVS/Walgreens group at CafeMom!
Last week was one of our best weeks ever! Thank you to all the participants.
Don’t forget you can now grab a clickable CVS $5 Challenge Button for your post or blog.
If you are a first time visitor, here’s the lowdown:
Join me on Sundays as I host The $5.00 CVS Challenge!
Seasoned CVSers: share your best scenario(s) for the upcoming week at CVS.
Your budget: $5.00 out-of-pocket cash.
Your mission: to grow that $5.00 into even more ECBs to use in upcoming weeks.
Simply post your scenarios on your blog, then drop by Keeping the Kingdom First and add your permalink to the Mr. Linky box below.
Please link directly to your post, not your homepage. It would be lovely if you would also link back to The CVS $5 Challenge in your post.
If you have any questions about linking, please feel free to email me!
*RULES* Bloggers: Please make sure at least one scenario is $5 OOP or less
1. Come up with your best scenario/scenarios for the upcoming week at CVS using the current weekly ad, monthly deals, and coupons available. Your budget for Out of Pocket (OOP) expenses on the first transaction is only $5.00 (either cash OOP or ECBs on hand).
2. Using up to (3) scenarios (we don’t want to overwhelm the newbies with too many transactions), offer up your best scenarios to “grow” that $5.00 into more ECBs to use in following weeks.
3. If you want to divide your $5.00 allowance over the three scenarios to make them work, that’s fine!
Here is MY $5 Scenario for the week of March 15th:
*coupons in red
Transaction #1
Buy 1 Dry Idea Deodorant, 2.5 oz @ $2.99 (limit 1)
Buy 2 Wheat Thins crackers, 4 oz @ $1.00 each
$2.00/1 Dry Idea printable here
$2.00/2 Wheat Thins (SS 1/25/09)
Total After Coupons= $0.99
ECBs earned= $2.00
Transaction #2
Buy 1 Colgate Max White toothpaste @ $2.99
$0.75/1 adult or children’s Colgate (SS 2/22/09)
Pay with $2.00 ECBs from above
Total After Coupons and ECBs= $0.24
ECBs earned= $2.99
Transaction #3
Buy 1 Irish Spring body wash @ $4.99 (Sun-Tues only)
$0.50/1 Irish Spring (SS 3/15/09)
Pay with $2.99 ECBs from above
Total After Coupons & ECBs= $1.50
ECBs earned= $4.99
Grand Total OOP= only $2.73!
Total Value= $12.97 with $4.99 ECBs remaining!
Keep rolling those ECBs for even more savings!
There you have it! A way to play the CVS ECB game by helping newbies learn the ropes. And who knows – you just might be inspired yourself by some of the deals you find, too!
Don’t have a blog? You can leave a comment with your scenario, too. I invite everyone to participate in The $5.00 CVS Challenge – no deal is too small, believe me!
By the way, we bloggers LOVE to get comments, so please do take a moment to spread a little comment love. Thanks!
LOL – looks like several people thought of the same (or very similar) beginner scenario! Must mean it’s an easy week for beginners to start.
OK – I haven’t tried this yet, but I am ready to give it a shot. I have just one question. You say separate transaction. Do you go to the clerk with all your stuff and then just tell her you are doing separate transactions? I know silly question, but I am curious about $5 Challenge etiquette.
OK – I haven’t tried this yet, but I am ready to give it a shot. I have just one question. You say separate transaction. Do you go to the clerk with all your stuff and then just tell her you are doing separate transactions? I know silly question, but I am curious about $5 Challenge etiquette.
OK – I haven’t tried this yet, but I am ready to give it a shot. I have just one question. You say separate transaction. Do you go to the clerk with all your stuff and then just tell her you are doing separate transactions? I know silly question, but I am curious about $5 Challenge etiquette.
OK – I haven’t tried this yet, but I am ready to give it a shot. I have just one question. You say separate transaction. Do you go to the clerk with all your stuff and then just tell her you are doing separate transactions? I know silly question, but I am curious about $5 Challenge etiquette.
I had my first experience with ECBs this past week, though I didn’t exactly follow the $5 challenge 🙂 I discovered that if you have to purchase a dollar value to get the ECBs, coupons don’t count against that. i.e. Last week was buy $10 of General Mills and get $5 ECBs. They were also on sale, 3/$10, and I had a coupon for $0.75 off 3. Since I was only spending $9.25 on GM, I wasn’t sure if I would get the ECBs, but they did print out!
@Googegs – I did take all my purchases up front and ask them to ring my stuff up in 2 separate transactions, and the cashier was really nice about it. That being said, the ECBs are valid for a month, so if you know you’ll be back in the next week or two, it may not matter to you whether you use them now or later… just don’t lose them!
Ok, I’m new to this CVS game… but it does seem like fun! When you roll your ECBs, do you just split your order, leave the store and go back another day, walk the first order to your car and head right back in?
Just wondered how you all did it…
Thanks!
I loved this week at CVS! Thank you so much for posting this challenge so faithfully to help us all save more money for our families. You are a blessing!
When I do separate transactions, I just do one right after another (unless there are people in line behind me then I usually let them go first – unless it’s another couponer!). 🙂
The cashiers are used to people coming in and doing three or four (or more) transactions in a row.