Coupons are Totally Worth It ...

Especially if you have Walgreens and/or CVS nearby.  Today, I went to CVS and Walgreens.  I've been at home with a sick little boy these last few days, so I needed to get out of the house.  Otherwise, I usually do these drug store trips during the week, but today I got to go all by myself while all the guys were napping. It's always fun to get a few moments away alone, but especially fun saving money while I'm at it. I know I'm  little weird.

• 2 boxes Kelloggs Shredded Wheat Cereal


• 5 Betty Crocker brownie mixes


• 3 bags of jelly beans (these are hopefully going to encourage Caleb to potty train)


• 4 candy bars (these are hopefully going to encourage mommy to potty train Caleb  ;0) )


• 2 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste


• 3 Nivea body washes


• 2 Nivea lip balms


• 1 Venus Embrace Razor


• 4 Reach toothbrushes


• 1 Revlon eyeshadow


• 1 Revlon nail clipper


• 1 Arizona Iced Tea


• 1 package of sandwich bags


• 3 bottles of children's Pepto Bismol


• 2 boxes of Kotex U tampons


• 4 bottles of Coffeemate Creamer


• 1 Softsoap body wash

I paid less than $15 out-of-pocket for all of this.  See Walgreens has these things called Register Rewards (RR) and CVS has Extra Care Bucks (ECB) where you basically earn "money" to spend next time you shop.  If you use this in combination with coupons clipped from the Sunday paper, you can save lots.  I spent $15 but I also now have $15 in Walgreens RR and $19 in CVS ECB that I will use next week when the new sales ad comes out.  We don't necessarily NEED all this stuff, but I get much of it for free or very cheap and figure I can give away what we won't use.

I've been using coupons for years, but am pretty new to saving money at these drug stores.  If you want to learn more, check out A Full Cup and Coupon Mom.