A quick glance at the weekly CVS sale looked like it might be a bad sale week. But, no, the folks at hip2save worked out some scenarios. Thanks hip2save!

I never bothered with coupons before I understood it's not just the coupon, but how you combine it with sales that counts. This is called strategic shopping.

Spend $15 on select products and get $5 in Extra Care Bucks (ECB are like cash to spend at CVS, printed out on your cash register receipt.) Baked Lays,True North Nuts, Tropicana OJ, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Quaker Granola Bars, Stacy’s Pita Chips, Aquafina 12 pk

Deal scenario:
Purchase 3 packages of Baked Lays $9
Purchase 2 packages of True North nuts $6
Total $15
Use 3 $1 Lays coupons from the 3/8SS
Plus use 2 $1 True North coupons from the 2/8SS
Pay $10
Get back a $5ECB
Final cost $1 each!

So, this is why we want to get more than one Sunday newspaper, or at least the coupon inserts each week, because you need to use multiple coupons to get the good deals. And also why you save the coupon inserts intact, with the date noted on the cover, so you can easily locate the coupons.

Also, anytime you can get your total up to $25, you can use a $5 off $25 CVS coupon that prints on the bottom of your CVS register receipts. If you are a regular CVS sale shopper, you will have one of these in your wallet. Make sure you give the clerk the $5 off coupon first, while the total is still $25, before they start ringing the manufacturers coupons. CVS has good milk prices, that's a good 'filler' item to get your total to $25.