Once upon a time there was a frugal blogger who was starting to get quite depressed with the dwindling number of Extra Care Bucks she had in her wallet. In fact, it was SO bad that she was down to her last $1.00 ECB this week. (This is where you, the audience, should sigh, gasp, or show some other expression of sadness or shock.)
But thanks to her bloggy friend Kelly (who shared a great printable coupon!), she was able to spend that $1.00 ECB and $1.37 (plus tax) of her hard-earned money to build those ECBs back up to $5.98 for next week. This is the tale of how she did it.
Our heroine stopped at CVS on her way home from work and purchased these items.
Fortunately, our heroine wears contacts and likes chocolate. Otherwise this trip would only have been about the ECBs. Here’s the transaction:
What I Bought:
2 BioTrue Contact Solution (2 oz.) – $2.99
1 Milky Way Simply Caramel – $.89
Coupons Used:
-$.50 off Milky Way coupon from the in-store printing machine (which knew she needed chocolate that day)
–$2.00 off x 2 printable BioTrue coupon
-$1.00 ECBs
Out-of-Pocket Cost: $1.37 plus tax
ECBs Earned: $1.79
Our heroine was able to enjoy the chocolate on the drive home and stash the contact solution for later. And she lived happily the rest of week with the knowledge that she had grown her ECBs with very little out-of-pocket.
The end.
This tale is linked to:
:: Friday Finals hosted by Southern Savers
:: Super Savings Saturday hosted by Money Saving Mom
I usually get sad when my ECB’s start getting light but then I think of all the great deals I get and I get happy again.
I was in CVS today and I got the same coupon along with one for greeting cards. That chocolate was good. Can’t beat the price also.
The chocolate made it totally worth stopping…. for our heroine, not me, of course. 🙂
I got another one today. I think CVS actually WANTS me to eat more chocolate. Hmm…..
This is a really clever post! Kudos!
Thanks, Andrea. I was in a goofy mood, and it just struck me as story-worthy!
Definitely gasping here! LOL I hate to get low on my extra bucks–and sometimes it is all about the extra bucks, not need.
Thank you!! I need to get at least one good gasp from the audience… just for effect.
I just love that story; I’ll read it over and over again. 🙂 I think the best posts are ones like these that really show how coupons help us save. BTW, I got a couple of the Milky Way Simply Caramel bars for free last week, and they are Simply Delicious!!
Think it could become the ongoing saga of the ECB? Somehow an ECB doesn’t strike me as a good main character though. 🙂