The good news: I went today and found everything I had on my list from yesterday. I also came out ahead by $20 ECBs.

The bad news: The manager decided I was doing too well on my deals and would not allow me to use my $10 off $50 CVS coupon or my $2 off $10 CVS coupon. She claimed that corporate changed the registers so that "people can't keep using ECBs to get ECBs".

I plan on calling CVS customer care on Monday and asking for a $10 credit if this woman denied my coupons for no reason as I suspect. I followed all the rules and I should be able to use the coupons they give me. Otherwise why would they give them to me?!

Update 11/29/08: I spoke to corporate and found out that this manager was LYING to me as I suspected. The corporate CSR was very nice but told me I would have to go back and return everything and re-do the transaction to be able to use my coupons. I did not feel like all that trouble. They did say that if it happens again to have the manager call them directly and they can tell her to put it through. I think it is a shame that their own store managers do not know the rules and do not even care to learn. Very sad and frustrating.

CVS is having a TON of free after ECB items for their Black Friday sale. However, they are starting their Black Friday sale on Thursday and running the specials for 3 days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday). With coupons, these items end up making you money - for example, I buy an item that costs $5 and at the end of my receipt I get $5 back, but I had a coupon for $1 off so I only paid $4 and still got $5 back. Do this with a bunch of these "free after ECB" items and you've just made quite a little bit of money! Yippee!

Here is my plan:
Starting with $50.98 in ECB's:

Transaction #1
$ 7.99 Schick razor Get $ 6
$ 2.99 Aussie Get $ 2.99
$11.98 Soleil razor x2 Get $11.98
$ 5.98 Colgate x2 Get $ 5.98
$ 5.99 Garnier Get $ 5.99
$ 5.69 J&J lotion Get $ 5.69
$13.98 L'oreal gloss x2 Get $13.98
Total:$54.60
$10/50 CVS coupon
$4 schick
$1 aussie
$6 soleil x2
$3 colgate x2
$1 garnier
$1 J&J
$2 L'oreal x2
$2/10 cosmetics (or L'oreal skincare) CVS coupon
Total: $24.60
Pay with $23.99 ECB's + $0.74 cash, Earn $52.61 ECBs

Transaction #2 (Friday/Saturday)
$ 2.99 Aussie Get $ 2.99
$ 7.99 CG Smoothers Liquid Get $ 7.99
$ 5.99 CG Smoothers pressed powder Get $ 5.99
$ 4.47 Gatorade G2, 20oz x3 Get $ 4.47
$12.99 Sambucol Get $10.00
$ 6.49 Coricidin Get $ 2.00
$ 9.18 Revlon nail polish x2
Total: $50.10
$10/50 CVS coupon
$1 aussie
$2 Covergirl x2
$2 coricidin
$4 Revlon x2
POSSIBLY $2/10 cosmetics CVS coupon (if not used in Trans#1)
Total: $31.10
Pay with $29.98 ECB's + $0.85 cash, Earn $33.44 ECBs
(I will have approx $82 ECB when both transactions are complete).

I am starting with a nice stash of ECB's that I have been building for the past few weeks, but anyone can do well with this sale by buying one item, then turning around and using that item's ECB to pay for the next item.

I am extremely excited to shop tonight/tomorrow. I only hope they have everything I need to make my deals work. *grin*

It was a very good CVS day today. I had an awesome, friendly cashier, Felicia, who was very happy that I got such good deals and did not hate me for using a billion coupons! *LOL*

I started with $18 ECBs and ended up spending $7.92 oop total for all that you see above!!!
I got:
(4) Coke 12-packs
(2) Coke 2 liters
(3) Buddy bars
(4) Glade glass scents
(8) Glade jar candles
(1) Clear Care twin pack
(1) Crest Pro Health
(1) L'oreal Pro Calcium
(1) Zantac-3
(6) packs of batteries totalling: (20)AA, (8)AAA, and (8)AA Rechargables

It makes me very happy to get so much for so little. I also came out with $43.50 in ECBs to spend on the awesome Black Friday deals that CVS plans on having this year. Looks like lots of free stuff in my future! Hooray!

I took a long break from this fabulous blog not even on purpose; time just got away from me.

I am still CVSing but trying to moderate myself so coupons don't take over my life, as they have been in the last month or so.

I am planning my daughter's birthday party. She'll be 10 in a couple weeks and I have no idea where all the years went! *sniff*

I haven't even started thinking about holiday shopping and usually I am almost done by this point. I hate crowds and really shopping in general so I usually buy everything online or by catalog. This may not be possible this year if I don't really get on the ball.

Our beloved Phillies won the World Series!!! Yay Phils!

I am still trying to build the EF back up to at least $5,000 but with the holidays and birthdays coming up it will be really hard to put alot into it until after the new year. But, we'll see.

I have totally lost track of putting the ones place and change from my paychecks toward the current goal (right now the EF), so have not been doing that for the last few months. I'd like to start doing that again since it was an easy and painless way to help fund the goal. I'll re-start with my next paycheck.

That is about all for now. It's good to be back. *smile*