Update On $25 CVS Gift Card Challenge--Another Reason I Love CVS

I wanted to give a quick update on my progress in the $25 CVS Gift Card Challenge from Simply CVS.  You may have noticed that I haven't posted a shopping trip in a while.  Well, that is because I took a couple weeks off from shopping at CVS.

There are several reasons for this--poor sale items, busy schedules (my husband has been working soooo much, and we've have Kindergarten starting and family visiting), and disorganized coupons to name a few. But you know what, with CVS, that's ok!  One of the main things that I love about CVS is the LONG expiration dates on the ECBs.  They give you 3 week or more in which to use them, so you never have feel pressure to return week after week!

I've tried to keep up with Walgreens RR program in the past, but those are only valid for 10 days, and I was never able to keep up with "rolling" them the way I am at CVS, because there just were not items I wished to buy there each week.  I had gotten to where I would immediately spend them on something I needed.  In fact, I hardly ever shop there at all anymore.

I have been scouring the CVS ads each week trying to find great deals on items we've needed and coupons to spend very little OOP, but I just have not seen anything worth it these past two weeks, and with only $7 in ECBs, my OOP would have been high.

I was tempted to just go in and grab the St. Joseph's aspirin freebie with week, but that seemed like too much effort for something we don't even use.  I have been learning more and more lately that it is ok to let a deal go by.

I do plan on shopping early this coming week however, because I've scanned next week's sale ad over at Simply CVS and see quite a few things that I'd like to get. I was also sent a survey in my email from the CVS Advisor Panel (I've talked about this in the past, and you really should sign up!)  For taking a 10 minute survey, I was award $5 ECBs, so I now have a total of $12 in ECBs to spend at CVS, to go along with the $16 remaining on my giftcard (so that's like having $28 to spend).  I also was emailed a $4/$20 purchase coupon this week which will expire on Wednesday.  That is $16 towards my $20 purchase right there, without even using coupons!

I'm pretty excited to jump back in and see what I can do this week!  In fact, Cheryl at Simply CVS is about to jump back in as well!  She has taken an entire month off of CVS shopping, and has decided to give herself a challenge!  She has saved up her swagbucks to get herself a $50 CVS Gift Card.  She has just received it and is ready to begin her shopping anew!  However, she wanted to start *completely* fresh.  She has spent up all of her ECBs, so she will be beginning with $0 to spend.  She has also taken it a step further and gotten herself a brand new CVS card.  This way, none of her previous shopping information is stored, so it won't even know what coupons to print for her at the scanner until she shops for a few weeks!

If you have never shopped at CVS before, and you are wanting to get started, I highly recommend you follow her as she wants this challenge to be geared toward new CVS shoppers.  I honestly cannot wait to see how she does!  You can hop over to her site using the button below, and follow her from there.