CVS trip

I did pretty well last night and today at CVS working the deals, despite some glitches. For anyone not familiar with CVSing go to Money Saving Mom and read up. Last night I braved the snow to go out and grocery shop. We were hitting critical points with toilet paper and dishwasher soap so I decided I should stick to my Monday night run. I haven't been buying as much at Costco as I normally do because I'm trying to make the grocery stores closer to my house work better. I still have to go to Costco for a couple of things but I'm not spending as much. So, back to last night. First, I went to CVS. I bought a night creme and some face wipes and some eggs. Total before coupons: 23.50. I used a $15 ECB, a $5 off coupon and a $3 manufacturer. Total out of pocket: 0.33 Then I headed over to Kroger for their sales. Here's the rundown:

3 boxes lean pockets
2 calzones
2 peter pan peanut butter (these are a food storage item)
3 lb pears
3 lb broccoli
1 Naked smoothie (I'm feeling quite sick)
1 box gogurt
Total before coupons: $35
Total after: $20.20
Plus I have a $2 off coupon for my next purchase there.
This run was for lunches and snacks.

Next I headed to Albertsons. This shopping trip was a little disappointing. I paid almost $10 for a gallon of milk (this was the correct price because it was organic)! I didn't realize it until later and I'm really bummed. Take that out of the equation under stupid tax and I did ok. My total before coupons was about $65 and I paid $38.85 out of pocket. If you subtract the stupid tax I did ok. This is my household budget for the week. The total is only about $60. This is an improvement over my previous weeks. However, I did not buy formula, diapers or wipes. This really bumps up our bill. I have been able to work in diapers to my CVS deals for the most part but formula is a killer.

Ok, now to explain the picture above. I went to CVS this morning to pick up the razor that's on sale and some easter candy. The razor was $10 and I had a $4 coupon, then you get 6 ECBs. This was really cool. So I got the men's razor (still have to go back another time for the women's), and the candy and my total that time was $.051. Then I went to another CVS for the toothpaste and got some more candy. My total that time was $0. I was frustrated because the candy was marked $2.99 and I needed $10 worth of candy to print a $5 ECB, when I went to pay I realized the candy was only $1.50 so I didn't have enough candy to get my ECB. I'm only $2 from getting that $5 and I have more Hershey's coupons so I should be able to swing that for free. Hopefully, I can work in a few more free or almost free deals for stocking up. One of the reasons I feel like this is worth my time is because from a storage perspective I am picking up items that we use regularly (or in the case of Easter, expensively) for very little money. One of the basic principles of food storage is to buy things you don't need so you have them when you do need them. Because these items are consumable they get used up and need to be picked up regularly. Making CVSing a habit has become a way to increase my storage capability without dramatically increasing our budget. I'm going to shave my legs, why not do that for free!