Saving is contagious

Okay, so many of my friends know that if something can be acquired for little or no money, I'm the one that knows how to do it. Often times I pass this info along to them.... Sometimes they use it, othertimes they don't.

Yesterday, while on the phone w/ my friend Mish, she mentioned something about going to CVS because she had a coupon from them that was soon to expire... Hearing the letters "C-V-S" my ears perked up, so I asked what coupon she had, she explained, then threw in, "Oh yeah, and I have a $5 off $25, but I can't imagine $25 worth of stuff I would need" Now for any of you CVS'ers out there... you can probably relate when I say, I was almost speechless... a $5/$25 and and you can't figure out how to use it?!?! I mean, there are people who would hunt you down for those!!!

After a couple of texts back and forth, I convice my dear friend to not go to CVS until that evening, assuring her I can help her get waaaaaaay more than she would have thought about getting.... So after work, I head over... now mind you, this girl is very new to the idea of coupons, so my "Couponizer" was probably a bit scary to look at... I had to help her set up her printer, because she had kept it in the box for months!!! So, I started looking at what coupons she had from CVS, what the sales were, and what coupons I could quickly gather online, etc... In about 30 minutes, we had our coupons, our list and were ready to go to CVS.

Now, weird as it was, I did no shopping of my own... I didn't want to get caught up in my own deals, and end up with Mish walking out with nothing but pennies in her pocket. So we quickly went through the store... It was interesting explaining to her why she getting some of the items, if you're new to CVS, "Fillers" isn't a term you're too familiar with.

So right before we get ready to check out, I quickly verify her coupons, put them in the right order, and explain the way she'll want to hand them to the cashier... We head up to check out, and the process was pretty painless. Now mind you, she didn't have many coupons herself, and no ECB's to speak of, so while this transaction may not seem outstanding to many, for her, this was quite possibly the best shopping trip ever (Her words not mine!)

We bought:

3 12-Packs of Coke (sale $10 for 3)

2 Boxes of Cheerios (sale $5 for 2)

1 Box Carefree Pantiliners (sale $2.79)

1 CVS Chapstick (.99)

2 Tubes Colgate Total (sale BOGO)

2 Johnson Buddies Soaps (.98 each)

1 Allavert (sale 5.99)

We used these coupons:

2 Colgate IP's for $1.50 each from Colgate's website

2 Cheerios IP's for $1 each from Cheerio Challenge

3 Coke IP's redeemed from Coke Rewards for $1 each

1 CVS Carefree Coupon for $2 from previous shopping trip

1 CVS Free Chapstick coupon from August promotions

1 Johnson Buddies IP for $2 off 2 from Johnson's link

1 Allavert IP for $4 off from IHEARTCVS website link

1 $5 off $25 CVS Coupon

Grand total: $8.47 - Total savings of $39.41 and she got $3 in ECB's for next time.

I didn't snap a pic of her purchases, but this pic is from as we left the store...

This was before she proceeded, while standing in the parking lot, to call everyone she could think of and tell them what a great deal she got... I think she'll be more responsive to my savings suggestions in the future!