$25 CVS Gift Card Challenge Sponsored By Simply CVS

I wanted to let you guys know about something pretty exciting that is about to happen on my blog.  I have been asked by Cheryl at Simply CVS to be the second participant in her $25 CVS Gift Card Challenge!  I will be sent a $25 CVS gift card by Cheryl, and the challenge is to see exactly how far I can make that $25 stretch by using coupons and rolling my ECBs.

Cheryl began this challenge after she put herself to the challenge with a $10 gift card!  I believe she wanted to show her readers that anyone can do it (not just her), and that is something I want to show to you all as well!

JrFrugalMom at Frugality is Free was her first participant, and she did an amazing job!  She made her $25 last for 15 weeks and was able to purchase over $426 worth of merchandise!  I watched her posts each week with awe. =)

CVS is probably one of my favorite stores to shop at, as well as the store that I save the most at, but quite honestly, I've gotten pretty slack on my CVS shopping recently. I think this is just what I need to get myself out of my rut and excited about it again.  I think it has been mostly because I've been busier, and already have a good amount of items on hand, but I have only been shopping at CVS about every 2-3 weeks, instead of every week.  That is certainly not maximizing my savings, and I've missed out on many, many great deals!

I know that enormous savings are possible by shopping at CVS, and I have been able to virtually eliminate our toiletry spending, as well as many over the counter medicines, and sometimes diapers!  I am very excited to see how far this $25 can go!

In my state, I am only taxed on the post-coupon amount, so I am often able to get my total OOP very low.  If your state has different rules, Cheryl has a post with great tips about how coupon order can affect your final OOP spending.  She also begins posting deals from Sunday's new CVS ad on the previous Monday, giving you plenty of time to begin planning your trip and gathering your coupons for the following week.

She already has next week's ad-scan posted (which is my favorite, because I'm a very visual person and need to actually see the ad to remember what is on sale...lists just don't do it for me).  She will also begin listing deals by category (Household, BOGO, ECB deals, etc) with coupon match-ups about mid week.

I think my favorite post that she has each week is the link-up where she allows bloggers to share their CVS shopping trips.  I frequently have my shopping done before she posts this each Monday (and I always link my trip up), but if I haven't gone yet, I will always swing by and check on what has been posted because I always find a deal that I missed!  Again, it just helps for me to see the images of other's shopping trips.

I am very thankful to Cheryl for allowing me to participate in this challenge.  If you want to make sure you keep up with my progress each week, make sure you Subscribe to Saving Myself Silly by Email,  and if you aren't already following Simply CVS, I highly recommend it. ;)