Entering the World of ECB's

After seeing the evidence that shopping at CVS can seriously save some money (Thank you Katie!) I decided to attempt my own shopping venture. I spent all last week researching, reading and trolling the internet for coupons pertaining to not only my grocery list, but specific items with ECB's (Extra Care Bucks) at CVS. I found several pertinent to our shopping needs and spared no time printing them off immediately! What did people do before the internet, seriously!? :)

So.

About 30 minutes ago I excitedly entered the automatic doors of CVS, armed with my steno notepad and thoroughly organized and paper clipped coupons. I dropped the shampoo into my basket, went down the candy aisle - SERIOUSLY thought about buying candy for the ECB'S but decided the Golbov waistlines would NOT be in support of $10 worth of candy - plucked some band-aids from the shelves and finally ventured into the baby aisle.

Now, I'm only 4+ months pregnant so baby aisles are still a little foreign to me anyway, but this was intense. Not ALL of the Johnson & Johnson baby products were included in the ECB rewards - which deeply saddened me. But what disheartened me most of all were my four trips from the register back to the baby aisle to replace an item I thought was included but WAS NOT. I felt like an idiot. HOWEVER I DID manage to save some money and complete my fist CVS visit sans tears. :) YAY! Here's how the trip went:

this week's trip
total before coupons: $35 and change
total after coupons: $21 and change
CVS bucks earned: $12
total after CVS bucks: $9

I understand that my savings could have been perhaps MUCH more, HOWEVER this was my FIRST VISIT!!! I think I did pretty well all things considered! :)