Here's my first CVS blog! Here's a link on how to get tons of free and cheap stuff from CVS. The main idea is to use your CVS card, coupons from the newspaper and the internet, and the Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) that CVS gives with certain items. These print at the end of your receipt and are like cash for your next purchase. Because they are on the next purchase, there is a small amount of starting up that is required, but once you have a good amount of newspaper coupons and some ECBs from the week before, you can usually buy a basket of stuff and pay less than a dollar out of pocket. The BeCentsAble link on the right has a ton of links to blogs where people do the work for you and tell you which deals are good and the coupons that match them. I usually try to match coupons with the sales myself and then check to see what I missed online.

This week was a little slow; the only good deal that I had coupons for was vitamins. We bought two bottles, each originally 7.99, buy-one-get-one free, with two $2 coupons, and $2 ECBs, for a net price of $1 each (87.5% off). We also bought a gallon of milk and a newspaper (I usually get two a week for the coupons; we have a subscription for the Sunday paper already for the first one). With the ECBs that I had from previous weeks, we only paid $2.40 out of pocket and received $2 in ECBs. Not bad! Some of my best purchases have been French's mustard for $0.16, a Schick Quattro razor and 4 blades for $1 each, tons of free toothpaste, feminine products, toothbrushes, mascara, foundation, blush, lip gloss.... the list goes on and on! I really recommend doing this if you are tired of paying high prices for toiletries. CVS also has good sales on 12-packs of sodas if you drink them. We usually pay around 2.25 per 12-pack. This year so far I have saved $686.63 according to my receipt, and I started in May. I love watching that number go up and up!

Along with couponing, another one of my hobbies is entering sweepstakes. I spend between 30 and 45 minutes a day entering daily sweepstakes in the hopes that one day I will hit the jackpot and win a first prize of a car, cash, or vacation. I know, it's kind of nerdy, but I figure that you can't win if you don't play, and statistically, eventually, I have to win! Today turned out to be a lucky day; I won a $10 iTunes Giftcard in an instant sweepstake! Now I just need to win an iPod.....