Are You CVSing Yet?

Most of our hygiene items come from CVS these days along with toilet paper, milk, candles, make-up, over the counter meds, and Glade spray/candles. CVS has a program where you earn Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) when you purchase certain items with your Extra Care card. The ECBs print at the end of your receipt and you can use them like money at CVS. The "trick" to this is to buy another item with the ECB that is going to give you ECBs back. Here is an example of what you can do for the month of June.

1. Buy an Oral B CrossAction Manual Toothbrush 2 pack for $6.99
You will get an ECB for $6.99 back.

2. Go back to CVS and buy another Oral B Cross Action Manual Toothbrush 2 pack and use the ECB for $6.99. You will get back an ECB for $6.99. You can not get another twin pack since the limit on these are 2.

3. You can then go back to CVS and buy 2 of the Listerine Smart Rinse with the $6.99 ECB and they will give you an ECB for $6.98. (The deal is buy Listerine Smart Rinse ($3.49) and get and ECB for $3.49 and the limit is 2. You will have an ECB for $6.99, so you can get the 2 Smart Rinse at the same time and the limit will have been reached.

4. The next time you go to CVS you can get 2 boxes of CVS band aids (40 pack) for $3.98 total. The band aids are $1.99 each and they generate an ECB of $1.99 limit 2. Keep in mind that the ECB you give them is for $6.99 and the band aids are only $3.98, so you can spend up to $6.99 so that you will get your money's worth.


There is a weekly special for Bounty,Charmin, and Duracell batteries. Buy $20.00 worth and get back $10.00 ECBs. Well, if you already have $10.00 in ECBs use that and add $10.00, you will get back a $10.00 ECB. Another special is buy $20.00 worth of Pampers diapers or wipes and get back $5.00 in ECBs. One more special that I see right off is to buy Dawn dish washing liquid. They are 2 for $2.00 and get back $1.00 ECB. I will give them a $1.00 ECB and get 2 bottles of Dawn for $1.00. There are also coupons for Dawn, so I will only pay .25 cents for each bottle using the coupons.

There are several other things this month on special along with the weekly special that you can get that generates ECBs. Just pick up the ads in the store. The montly sales are in a different book. Don't forget that if you can find coupons and add this along with sales and ECBs you get a really GREAT deal. That's how I got several bottles of Ragu and peanut butter for around $4.00 total last week.



I don't consider myself a pro at this. There are many people out there that can do deals alot better, but I do know that I am saving money on what I buy. I have built up a good supply of deoderant, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrushes, make-up, lip balm, and razors. I have not paid much at all for these items because I use ECBs and coupons. Sometimes I even make money doing this because I have a coupon. For example, I will buy the Listerine Smart Rinse this week for $2.49 because I have a coupon, but I will get back an ECB for $3.49.

I am totally for building a stock pile of items if you can afford it. I am to the point now where if I get toothpaste or soap I am giving it away because I have enough.

Keep in mind that you need to make sure you buy the product that CVS is advertising. It's easy to buy the wrong thing and you will not get ECBs for it. If you have time, check out http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ and check out the boards for CVS or http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ This will give you alot of information on how to shop CVS.

Good luck and if you try a deal at CVS I would love to hear how it went!

Starting Over

When I began this blog a few months back, I was just goofing off. Since then, I have found a lot of websites that have really helped me save money and I thought maybe others would benefit from them. I do know that there are a lot of other blogs out there that typically have the same things on them, but maybe someone that homeschools and needs to save money too can use the information that I have on this blog.

I know being new to homeschooling can be a huge endeavor and maybe now I can help someone else. Our family could never homeschool if it wasn't for putting our trust in the Lord. For years I knew I wanted to homeschool and we began when our first son was in kindergarden. I still had to work up until the spring of 2006. The Lord allowed me to be home with the kids full-time after that. Since then, I have cleaned a couple of homes, kept a couple of kids, and also worked a few hours doing phone work. I don't really HAVE to do any of this, but the extra money does give us a little extra for the little things here and there. WE are very careful with the money the Lord has provided and believe that he wants us to be good stewards of everything that he has given us. I ask myself, "do we really need this?" For example, I used to not think anything by going to the drive-thru and ordering several drinks when all of us were thirsty. By thinking ahead, we usually bring water bottles with us or if we really want a soda we get a 12 pack of can drinks or a 2 liter. Small things like this adds up and that's how I can stay at home with the children and teach them. It's just a matter of sacraficing little things here and there. Over the years our thinking has really changed. We no longer want or feel we need a new vehicle to drive, go out to eat several times a week, or even have access to every channel that's available to us (we do not have cable or anything). We have 1 cell phone that we share, which is good for us for now.

I hope I can keep up with this blog thing and if not, oh well. We are a busy family and do many things!