How I Made $80.42 Shopping

The first thing I need to do is apologize to anyone who checked in yesterday to find out how I made a profit shopping at CVS on Sunday. I had another flood in my apartment and spent most of the day dealing with that. The good news is that both the total of what I purchased and the total of how much I saved are greater than I originally reported. Keep reading…

On Sunday, August 2, I bought the following items at CVS:

1” binders – 2 @ $2.49/ea

Book covers – 2 @ .99/ea (regular $1.99/ea)

Tears eye drops – 1 @ $7.99 (regular $9.99)

EAS meal replacement bars – 2 @ $1.99/ea

Wrigley’s spearmint gum – 1 @ $1.19

Slimfast Multipack Bars – 4 boxes @ 1.67/ea (regular $6.69/ea)

Slimfast Multipack Bars – 1 box @ $1.25 (regular $4.99)

Suave body wash – 2 bottles @ $1.99/ea (regular $2.79/ea)

Softsoap body wash – 1 bottle @ $4.99

Clean n Clear astringent – 1 bottle @ .52 (regular $5.99)

Clean n Clear face wash – 1 tube @ .99

CVS Mouthwash – 1 bottle @ $2.59

I bought everything as two separate transactions because I had a coupon for $4 off a $20 total purchase and a coupon for $3 off a $15 total purchase. By splitting my purchases I was able to use both coupons.

The first transaction subtotal was $20.12 before taxes. I used the $4 off $20 coupon which brought my subtotal to $16.12. I had a coupon for a free EAS bar and a second coupon for up to $3.98 off any EAS product. I had expected to only get both EAS bars for free, but the cashier gave me full credit for the “up to $3.98” coupon which, when combined with the free bar coupon, decreased my subtotal to $10.15. I also used a $3.00 coupon for The Tears eye drops. That brought the subtotal to down to $7.15 – that is 65% less than the original subtotal, or 71% off the regular retail prices!

But then it got even better…

The Tears came with $7.99 (the full purchase price) back in Extra Bucks. I purchased the binders with rain checks issued 2 weeks ago. The special was for $3 per binder with $3 Extra Bucks back on each. The binders that were substituted for the special only cost $2.49 each, but the cashier issued $3 each in Extra. The book covers are a special this week for .99 each with .99 each in Extra Bucks which makes them the same as free. After calculating my savings with the added Extra Bucks, I made a profit of $8.82.

The subtotal for the second transaction was $21 which qualified for the $3 off $15 coupon, and immediately reduced the subtotal to $18. I had a coupon for free CVS mouthwash ($2.59) that had been issued with the Extra Bucks on the first transaction. New subtotal - $15.41. Even though the Slimfast bars were clearance priced I was able to use the five $1 off coupons I had which lowered the subtotal to $10.41. I wrapped up my coupon discounts with two - .50¢ coupons for Suave body wash and a $1.00 coupon for the Clean n Clear. The final subtotal was $8.41. The only item that I got Extra Bucks for on this transaction was the Softsoap, but I received $4 worth. My net cost, before taxes, for this transaction was $4.41 for nearly $52 worth of merchandise – that is about a 92% savings!

After subtracting the net cost of the second transaction from the net profit of the first transaction, I made an overall net profit of $4.41 before taxes on purchases that would have cost most people $76.01.

If reading about how the coupons savings worked has you confused, don’t give up. It sounds more complicated than it really is. The three most important things to remember are: 1) match your coupons to the store sales to maximize your savings, 2) use the Extra Bucks before they expire!, and 3) do it again next week.

With a little practice, you too can get paid to shop.