I am really not kidding. At the bottom of my last CVS receipt, it says:

Year To Date Savings - $1056.11
Spring 2007 Spending $14.46

Yes, I spent $14 out of my pocket, yet saved over $1000. That's not even including the stuff that I sent in for manufacturer rebates! So, pretty much, CVS is my second job. (and WAG is my third job, and secret shopping is my fourth job...on and on.)

Oh yeah, and I actually have 2 CVS cards. One is my husband's, and that one states $1110.53 yearly savings. I have mine as a little keychain on my ring of store cards, and his is the actual card, in my wallet. I only use his at one store and mine at another store. Is this naughty? I'm not sure, but technically it's one card per person, and I only use his card at the store next to our grocery store, so he is almost always with me when I use it. So technically it's his card. (And he does use the stuff I buy with it!)

How to do this....well, you've got to watch the sale papers. Get familiar with the store and the way Extrabucks work, and then visit slickdeals.net's forums, and search for CVS in titles only. You will find huge discussions on each week's sales paper, often weeks in advance of the actual sale. (For instance, it's May 31, yet the sale paper for 6/10-6/16 is up.)

There are also discussions about monthly deals, which are like some national secret. Some stores have displays with the sale items that say they're a monthly deal, but most don't put them out. They may or may not be mentioned in the sale paper. But the thing is, they might be mentioned in the first sale paper of the month, and never again. (Because if it's a limit one for the whole month thing, they don't want people pissed when they don't get their EB for it two weeks in a row, because they don't understand it doesn't refresh every week.)

Confused yet? Sorry about that, I can ramble when it comes to CVS. Well anyway...

Yes, CVS gives stuff away for free. For FREE! Items are often "free after Extrabucks." These may be monthly, weekly; limit one, limit five, or even unlimited (sweet sweet October, I miss that month....) What that means is that if you buy the item, you'll get a coupon at the end of your receipt that you can use like cash.

You can keep a chain of these going. You've only got to put up the money once, and if you keep buying stuff that is FAEB, and using your EB, if you plan it well, you'll pay less than a dollar of real money each visit for a bag of stuff.

See, if you use a manufacturer coupon on the item that was FAEB, you'll still get the full EB. So you might buy a $5 item, use a $1 coupon, but still get back $5. So you paid $4, but have $5 now. Then, buy another offer that's $7, use a coupon for $2 and your EB, pay nothing except the tax and then get $7 back.

Alos, other coupons print out with your EB. These are called CRT, which stands for cash register tape. They are things like "$4 off a purchase of $20 or more." "$2 off any Maybelline product." "FREE travel size Cristophe product up to $3.99." Combine these with your manu coupons and EB, and you can really hit some hot deals.

Sometimes things aren't FAEB, but you still earn EB. The deal might be "Buy $15 of Dove products and earn $5 EB." With the proper coupons, you can make this work out for you. for example, buy 10 $1.50 handwashes with 10 $1 off coupons, and you'll hit the $15 mark (it's the amount BEFORE coupons), but only pay $5 and get $5 back.

Sometimes the "non-free" stuff actually turns out better than free. I remember a few months ago, they had a promotion. "Buy any three Loreal products and earn $10 EB." Of course they have the $12 makeup pictured underneath that in the ad. But... the Loreal shampoos and conditioners also qualified. They were $3.99 each, and I had 3 $2 off coupons. Paid $6, and got $10! Look out for those kinds of deals.

You can still get the stuff you really need too, not just the FAEB stuff. Wait until it's on a decent sale (regular CVS prices are scary - $9.49 for an 8 pack of Bounty??) For example, the Bounty will be $4.99 pretty soon. I'll use a $1 off coupon, and buy some other stuff that'll earn EB to get my pre coupon total to over $20, use the $4/20 coupon, and other EB from previous purchases, and my out of pocket total might be a couple of dollars.

What do I pay my out of pocket total with? Well, CVS is constantly having promotions where you get a free $25 CVS gift card for transferring your Rx there. So I bounce my Rx's between CVS, Walgreens, Eckerds, and Winn Dixie, depending on who's having an offer that month. You have to move your Rx from a non CVS pharmacy to get the GC, so never fill an Rx at a CVS two months in a row! Move it somewhere else the next month, to prepare yourself for the next CVS GC promotion. (Hopefully you can move it to a place that also is offering a gift card, but even if not, you need to move it.) I know it's bad pharmacy karma (and I used to be a CPhT so I should know better than to be this evil, because transfers can be a pain in the ass!), but you can make it easy on them. The best thing to do is photocopy your Rx card (if you have one) and write all your info on the paper. Bring that and your bottle from another pharmacy in, and drop it off, telling them you want to transfer it. Do your shopping and wait for it, or come back another day to give the RPh time to be free to call the other pharmacy. It may take a while, so the best thing to do is come back another day. DON'T ever call a pharmacy you've never been to before and say "I want to transfer my Rx from blah blah blah", because they do not have you in their system, and it will be a headache for them AND you when you come back and it's not ready. Also, NEVER give your other store bottle to the clerk and then stand there like a dumbass, like it's going to happen instantly. They will not like you if you do that. They will probably drop your pills on the ground on purpose, and put them back in the bottle (not that I EVER did that in my days of retail... heh heh. No.)

I've gotten a few hundred dollars in store gift cards over the past year shuttling them around town. We're getting a Target in July, and they have transfer promotions, so YAY!

So, to sum up...

1. Read the sale papers and pick out the deals yourself OR go to Slickdeals forums and have the experts do it for you.

2. Figure out what you want, and match up your coupons. (You are clipping coupons, RIGHT? If not, go to thecouponclippers.com and buy the coupons you need.)

3. Make sure you're getting some items that you'll earn EB on, so you'll have some "money" to spend next time.

4. Buy your crap. Be nice, patient, and friendly to the cashiers, even the bitchy ones, because you are going to get addicted to this, and you'll want them to like you. Otherwise they will overscrutize every coupon you try to use, and call the manager at every opportunity so that you feel like a criminal.

5. Rinse and repeat until your guest room is filled with toilet paper and shampoo.

Rebates. The very word strikes fear in the uninitiated.

"Oh my god, that's that crap where you have to fill out forms and send them in, and then pray they ever even come in and you get your $1 check."

No, no, no, my friends. Rebates can be a very profitable venture!

There are different kinds of rebates. Store specific rebates, such as at Walgreens and Eckerds, is where you buy things that are listed in their monthly catalog, and you send in all the receipts at once, for a full or partial rebate that can be paid in a check or store credit(where you typically get a 10% bonus on your total.)

There are item promotion rebates. These are when the manufacturer wants to draw attention to their product, so they offer a rebate. Sometimes it is for the full amount of the product, but sometimes it is just for a lower, set amount. You might have to buy several of items within their brand to qualify. You might find these offers on or in the package, or it might be a printable form on the company's website, or a form in the Sunday coupon inserts. You send in the form with your receipts, and possibly the bar code from the package.

"Satisifaction or Your Money Back!" Usually with these, you have to buy the item and then send in an explanation of why their product was yucky. I don't feel as comfortable sending these in on a product that I like, since it just doesn't feel like good karma. I prefer the "Try Me Free" type rebates. (but I have been known to do these too.)

The beauty of rebates is that they will often refund the price you paid on the receipt. So, if you used a coupon later down on the receipt, 99% of the time they will not notice/care, and will refund the full amount. This works best if you're buying multiple items, so that it's not super obvious that the coupon was for the rebate item. Although, my very first rebate at Walgreens, it was very obvious that I used coupons (3 items free after rebate, 2 coupons, nothing else on receipt) yet they refunded the full amount!

Also, when a manufacturer has a new item out, they often "overkill" the promotions. They will have coupons in the Sunday paper for the item, rebates at Walgreens/Eckerds, AND rebates directly to the company. Now, with WAG or Eckerds, you have to send the original receipt in, so you can't "double dip" and get the manufacturer rebate unless the manufacturer will accept a copy (Rare.)

BUT! CVS is glorious here. They do not have a rebating program. Instead, they have Extrabucks. EB are little coupons that print out on the end of your receipt. They are good for future purchases. CVS constantly runs "Free After Extrabucks" promotions. You buy the item, pay, and bam, a coupon for the cost of the item prints out. If you used a coupon, it doesn't care. You still get the full amount.

So, what this means is that you get to keep your receipt, and you can send it in for a second rebate. I have personally done this more than once.

My best example ever was when Mylanta Ultimate was new. It was FAEB at CVS, I had a $1 coupon for it, and there was a peelie on the bottle for a manufacturer rebate. It was on sale for $5, so I paid $4, got back a $5 coupon, and still had my receipt to send for a rebate. What made it super sweet was that if CVS doesn't scan your CVS card before ringing up any items, then all the items will show up on your receipt non-sale price. (The amount of the sales is subtracted before the subtotal as a lump sum "Extracare Savings.") This happened on that visit, so that my receipt actually said $7.99 for the Mylanta! I wasn't sure what would happen, but sure enough, 4 weeks later I got a check for $7! (that was the max amount they'd rebate.)

So I paid $4 and got $12 back. (Actually I didn't even pay the $4, as I used Extrabucks from a previous purchase to pay. You can keep that chain rolling and pay very little out of pocket ever. But that's a whole other subject.)

So, what about the gripe that "rebates never come?" Well, I have a solution for that. I have a three ring binder and a printer with a copy function. I photo copy all of my materials before sending them. I hole punch the copy and put it in my binder, with a post-it flag with the name of the offer and the date sent. I start calling and emailing after the max time (usually 8 weeks) is up, if I haven't gotten the rebate. But I very rarely have to call!

I also have a little rule about not sending in rebates for less than $3. That's just the magic number for me of what it's worth for the stamp and my time.

So, almost everyday, I get some check or another in the mail. $3 here, $10 there. I save them up and deposit once a month in the bank. (I am not driving up there every time I get a little check.)

In the past year, I have gotten over $400 in rebates. That's not even counting WAG since I get it loaded to my rechargeable gift card each month (my total is at $490 since last May.)

If you're someone who is afraid of rebates, you might want to reconsider. Just keep your eye out for a "Try Me Free" on a product you'd actually buy anyway, and then send it in. You might just get hooked!

The secret to getting a lot of hot deals is that you've got to have good credit. How did I get good credit? Well for one thing, I never had bad credit! Ha ha, that seems like a no brainer. But, really.

I got my first credit card when I was 19. It was a store card for Maurices. It only had a $200 limit, but it was a start. I'd buy clothes every now and then, and then (and here is the crucial part) PAY THE BALANCE OFF IN FULL EVERY MONTH. I got other, real credit cards with higher limits throughout the years. But that is always the number one rule. I repeat, ALWAYS PAY THE BALANCE OFF IN FULL EVERY MONTH.

I buy everything with my credit card. My main card is currently a Choice Privileges Visa, which I earn 2 points on every dollar towards hotel rewards. When I signed up for it a year ago, I got 24000 bonus points. You can get hotel stays for varying number of points, with 6000 being the cheapest. So for every $3000 you spend, you have a potential hotel stay. I spend $800-$1000 a month on my credit card. So that's potentially 4 free stays a year. I stayed at the Cloister at Sea Island for New Year's Eve for 20000 of my points (rooms START at $500 a night, and you have a personal freaking butler!) Pretty posh. I want to do it this year if possible, so that's why I stockpile points on this card.

Over the years, I have had an Amazon Visa, Disney Visa, several cards within the Thank You network, etc. I have earned $25 in free Amazon credit, $25 in Disney credit, a $100 gift card to Target, a $100 gift card to Staples, and of course the above mentioned hotel bonus. This is just for SIGNING up for the card. You can (and I did) earn even more bonuses by using the card. But of course, you can only spend so much a month, so I recommend picking the one with the best benefits to you and using that as your only card.

You can keep the other cards open. It's a myth that having lots of credit cards hurts your credit. It only does if you have balances sitting on these cards. Actually, the more cards in good standing that you have, the greater your total credit limit (mine is over $100000) which is a positive factor when you're applying for a loan, or other credit cards.

I space my credit card applications at least a couple of months apart. I also apply for cards in my husband's name (no, he doesn't mind!), since we have joint accounts. We both have very good credit scores because of using credit frequently, yet always paying on time and in full. Always!

Slickdeals.net is a great place to hear about these bonus offers, but you'll also see them in your junk mail or in the Sunday coupons. As long as there is no annual fee, then it doesn't matter what the interest rate is, since you're not going to carry a balance. You just apply for it, make one purchase, pay that off when the bill comes, and cash in your rewards. Clean and simple.

Too many people use credit cards as some kind of gift card, or loan. It's not. It's just another account. You shouldn't spend money you don't have.

If you don't have the willpower or self control to use credit wisely, then you probably shouldn't do the bonus offer thing, but it can be extremely rewarding if you do!

First, you have to assess yourself. What kind of person are you?

If coupon clipping, sorting and going through the sale papers is torture to you, then it's probably not going to work out. Maybe secret shopping would be more your thing, or paid surveys. You have to figure out which things will work for you. Because if you hate doing it, you won't keep doing it, and you'll stop saving money.

Of course, the BEST thing to do is all of it! Rebates, coupons, secret shopping, surveys, and more.

First, you NEED to go to Slickdeals.net. There, you can find all sorts of threads about freebies, hot deals, etc. It's great to sign up for free samples of toothpaste to come in the mail, but the real value comes in the threads about specific stores.

Make a list of the ones you have in your area (grocery and drug.) Search in thread titles for those stores. All of the information is a little overwhelming at first, but is very helpful in pinpointing what the best sales are. The CVS topics are typically the hottest ones.

Also, you can visit the stores' websites and bookmark them, or sign up for their weekly newsletter, so that you can see the deals for the week (if you don't get the sales papers in the newspaper.)

The people on Slickdeals match up the best sales with coupons. The coupons that match the sales aren't necessarily in the same Sunday paper. You might have to go back a few weeks.

Personally, I save my coupon inserts in a filing cabinet, so that I can go back when I need to and clip coupons that I normally would not have clipped, but there is just a hot deal for them.

This might not be feasible for you, so that's where the thecouponclippers.com comes in. You can buy the specific coupons that you need. They're not expensive, typically about 10 cents each. Sometimes you have to buy 10 of each one, or more desired ones may cost more. You can also check ebay if Coupon Clippers is out of the one that you want.

At Slickdeals, they often have info about a store's sales a couple of weeks in advance, which gives you time to get you coupons ready (and to buy the hot ones before most people realize that they will even be hot!)

Even if you can't get an advance preview, you can still place a coupon order the first day the sale paper comes out, and you'll most likely receive them before the sale is over.

Don't be afraid to buy brands you don't normally buy! Or to stockpile things! There is no shame in having 20 tubes of toothpaste. As long as you have the storage space, it's a great thing. I recommend clearing out a closet in your house specifically for your stockpile. It will be worth it, trust me.

My personal stockpile is filled with shampoo, conditioner, soap, bodywash, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, floss, face wash, makeup, haircolor and more that I paid nothing or next to nothing for. This is the little stuff that was killing my budget a year ago. I'd run out of bodywash, and have to run up to Walmart and buy more. It'd be their "everyday low price" but it's still not free. Even if you are not a high maintenance person, a couple can spend $90 a month on toiletries, if you count up all the things I listed above. (Razors are a real killer.)

I also have medicines like Tylenol, Maalox, Alavert, and Excedrin stockpiled. These are easy to get free, and you eliminate those 11pm runs to the convenience store where you pay $8 for some stomach medicine.

You can stockpile laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and dishwashing soap. These things, especially paper goods, will kill your budget if you don't pay attention to them. If you buy toilet paper at a normal grocery store, you can pay as much as $1 a roll. Yikes! I typically pay about a quarter a roll, and that's at CVS where I'm usually paying with Extrabucks, so it's like it's free.

All these things add up. It takes a while to build a proper stockpile (took me 6 months) but once you have it, it's easy to keep going and you always have supplies on hand. That's an easy savings of $100-$200 a month when you have necessities already in your house (plus the gas to run out all the time to get things you're completely out of!)

A stockpile doesn't have to be junky or scary. I know you might be picturing the crazy cat lady down the street who saves old newspapers and tin cans. This is nothing like that. You can keep them organized and neat, and hey, it's useful stuff, not trash. It is worth it!

Wow! My first blog entry! I've posted many a time on forums, but this is my first blog. I found this site and it's the first time I was really inspired to write about anything.

You see, my passion is savings. Coupons, rebates, freebies, etc. And I have a knack for it. I've always been frugal (never been in credit card debt, for example) but it wasn't until last year that I really kicked it into overdrive.

I've flirted with coupons on and off for years. But, I'd always have a bad coupon experience (really rude cashier or whatever) and then just let all my coupons expire in their little Ziploc bag.

Well, I've been working at a hospital for the last two years. I work every single weekend (as well as Mon, Tue, Wed to make a full week.) During the weekdays, I use my hour lunchbreak to work out in their Cardiac Rehab area.

But on the weekends, I didn't have anything to do! (It doesn't take that long to eat.) One Sunday, on a whim I bought a Sunday paper out front. It just happened to be really good coupons that week, because I got stoked about coupons again.

I also looked through the drug store sale papers (CVS, Walgreens, and Eckerd.) I noticed that WAG and Eckerd both have rebates. That month, they both had stuff that was free after rebate (FAR from here on.) Some of the items that were free also had coupons in the paper! I wasn't sure if they took the coupon amount out of your rebate, but I figured it was still free.

I still remember my first purchase at Walgreens. Color Breaks (hair color), Softsoap bodywash and a Reach toothbrush. all of the items were FAR, and I had coupons for two of the items. I paid $11 out of my pocket, and in about 5 weeks, I got a gift card for $15!

I was hooked.

Eckerd was also a goldmine for me, because for some reason they were clearancing out a ton of beauty products. They had Crew hair products on this shelf that said 90% off. These bottles also had orange price stickers that stated prices that had to be a half off price. But the cashiers took 90% off of that price!! I wiped out everything they had, as well as a ton of Almay eye products (with $1 coupons to boot.) I made a killing on ebay with these things. It stoked up my Paypal account enough to have spending money for my deals.

Before long, I was getting hot deals all over town. And it totally changed my life!

A year ago, my husband and I struggled to get by. We're not extravagant people. We rarely (about once a month) go out to eat (and yes that is counting "fast food".) We have not been on a real vacation since our honeymoon (2002.) We don't often buy clothes except for the occasional $14.99 item at TJ Maxx. We both work full time. Yet it was hard some months to get by.

(Mind you - I never slipped on paying my credit card. We used the card to buy almost everything, but paid it off in full each month. It gives you a little extra time to pay for your stuff. I've never paid late fees or finance charges, because that's just wasted money.)

A year later, we are living great. We bought a new, wonderful mattress and get better sleep than we have had in years (we were sleeping on a 30+ year old ex-Holiday Inn bed.) My husband finally got the widescreen TV he's always wanted. I have new clothes. We eat out more often. We have better food in the fridge. (Organic is affordable when you use coupons and shop around!) We have $1000+ in our savings account that was down to $54 last year. We're actually planning a trip to Disney World in October!

The secret? Here are the things I do:
Drugstore deals
(CVS Extrabucks and WAG + Eckerd rebates)
Secret shopping
Paid surveys
Credit card offers for free gift cards
Coupons
Sell things that I get for free/cheap on Ebay

Through all of this, I have saved/earned hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Throughout my blog, I want to share with you the deals that I get, in the hopes that you can get them too.

(BOY, this sounds like some kind of scam thingie where they are trying to get you to buy a program! But this is for free folks. No money back guarantees though!)