What a crap-tastic title huh?

The husband and I will be flying to LA tomorrow.  His 92 year-old grandfather passed away yesterday evening.  We’re going out to put the “fun” backing into funeral.

Ok.. maybe not.  But we are going to help his parents out with anything and everything they might need.   Hubs’ trip will be longer than mine:  J-Art is getting married next weekend (insert “Squeeee” here), so my trip to LA will be abbreviated so that I can be back in TN in time to drive the 4 hours across the state to the wedding site.   Whewwww…. it’s a good thing I’m not working or I have no idea how this schedule would work (I have a feeling it would require taking vacation….).   Maybe it’s a sign….there’s a reason I’m unemployed right now.

So.. posting for the next week may be scarce (like that’s unusual), but then again, if I find myself with some down time,  I’ll try to fire off a post or two.  Just know that I truly have not fallen off the face of the earth …again.

Ok.. that’s about it for the Jet Setting.  On to the Savings part of the program.

I promise I’m not going to keep doing this…since this isn’t a shopping/savings blog, but I want to share my latest 2 CVS haul because I’m SUPER EXCITED about them.

The first trip was on 4/19

Total Spent: $9.91

Sorry for the crappy photo.

So the take home was as follows:

• Tresemme:  3/$10 – Had 3 $1 coupons — Total:  3/$7
• Edge Shave Gel:  $2.89
• Oral B Floss:  $2.88 x 2 — Total:  2/$5.78
• Loreal Hip Eye Shadow Duos:  Buy One/Get One Free (BOGO) $7.99 — Had two $1 Loreal Paris coupons — Total:  2/$5.99

So, my total, before coupons was:  $26.64.  I had another $5 off $25 coupon, which brought the total to $21.64.  Then $5 in coupons (see above) made the total $16.64.  I used $7.99 in CVS ExtraBucks (ECB) that I had from a previous purchase, so after tax ($1.26) my total ended up being $9.91.   I was pretty happy when I also earned $11.89 ($5 for the Tresemme, $2.89 for the Edge, $2 x 2 for the Floss) in ECB for future purchases!

On the first trip, I spent less than $10 and earned more than $11 in ECB.  Not too shabby.  However, it was nothing like today!

The second trip: 4/22

Total Spent: $0.66

Yeah.. you read that right.  I spent 66 CENTS on all of that!  Here’s the break down.

• Tresemme (second verse..same as the first):  3/$10 – Had 3 $1 coupons — Total:  3/$7
• Bayer:  $2
• Dove SkinVitalizer:  On sale at CVS for $4.00 (normally $12.99).  Had two $3.50 coupons.  Total:  2/$1.00 (I’m giving one of them to my mom, since I don’t need two)

So, my total, without coupons was:  $20.01.   I had a $4 off $20 purchase, which brought my total to $16.01.  Taking off $10 in coupons (see above), reduced my total to $6.01.  Tax ($0.65) made my total $6.66 (UGH!).  I paid with $6.00 in ECBs, leaving my total out of pocket cost to be $0.66!!!!  Oh.. but I’m not done yet (I should totally be selling Sham-Wows or something)! (wow.. there are alot of exclamation points in this post).   I got another $5 in ECBs for the Tresemme purchase and $2 for the Bayer purchase.  That’s right:  I spent $6 in ECBs and got back $7.  Using that fuzzy math.. I actually made $0.34 profit!

Like… SHUT UP!   I’m addicted!   I actually had to drive to 3 different CVS stores to make the last trip work out so perfectly (the first two stores were out of the Dove SkinVitalizer) and it took a little bit of pre-planning to get the dollar amount (ECB spent vs. received), but I did it!  I actually made a profit on my 3rd trip out!

Alright.. enough celebrating my new shopping skills.  I gotta go convince Priceline to give me a rental car for super cheap and pack.  Any thoughts and prayers you can send toward the hubby’s family are always appreciated!