Using CVS trips to help your own family

Personally, when I shop at CVS, I often have two intentions. I want to be able to buy things to give away to others who are less fortunate and also be able to buy things for my own family at lower costs. This weeks' deals provided a great opportunity to do both.

My first transaction was mostly items that I intend to donate.

I bought:

• L’Oreal Advanced RevitaLift anti-wrinkle serum @ $11.99
• Nivea for Men body wash @ $4.99
• Adidas any 2.8 oz. anti-perspirant @ $4.99
• Balloon for Daughter (Dad let go of the free one from Trader Joe's!) @ $3.50
  

Subtotal: $25.47

I paid with:

• Manufacturer coupons: (total = $5)
  
  • 1 $3/1 L'Oreal Advanced Revitalift anti-wrinkle serum
    
  • 1 $1/1 Nivea body wash
    
  • 1 $1/1 Adidas anti-perspirant
    

• CVS coupons: (total = $4)
  
  • 1 $4/$20 (email coupon)
    

• ECBs: (total = $13)
  

OOP: $3.47 + taxes

Got back: $20.98 ECBs

• L'Oreal Advanced Revitalift anti-wrinkle serum = 11.99 ECBs
• Nivea body wash = 4.99 ECBs
• Adidas anti-perspirant @ 4 ECBs

So, this worked perfectly for building into my second transaction (which was solely for my own family). Here's transaction #2:

I bought:

• 2 Cottonelle toilet paper 12-pack @ 6.49
• 1 Huggies mega-pack diapers @15
  

Subtotal: $27.98

I paid with:

• Coupons:
  
  • $1/2 Cottonelle (from the 9/21 RP)
  • $1.50/1 Huggies (from a home mailer)
• CVS Coupons:
  
  • $2/10 from here
• ECBs - $20.98 from transaction #1

OOP: $2.50 + taxes

Got back: $10 ECB from the Kimberly Clark deal.

So, for the day, I spent a total of $5.97 (+ taxes) OOP and ended up with $10 in ECBs ($3 less than I started with).

If you consider the loss in ECBs money spent, that means that I spent $8.97 for everything. I like to think that I spent $8.97 for the diapers (which would be an excellent deal) got everything else for free!