What an undertaking!

   My journey started a few months ago to be the next "coupon queen". There is no doubt in my mind that I am struggling with this new undertaking. I have read and read and researched and researched some more, hours upon hours in front of a computer screen and being buried under a mess of coupons and ads and I still feel hopeless. Although, i must say, the inevitability of failure has spurned me on in this coupon quest. I will not fail! Just like learning anything new it takes a lot of practice before succeeding. And mark my words...."there will be success!" Not only have I created a couponing disaster out of myself it just wasn't enough, I had to create my first blog ever! So bear with me anyone who may ever stumble across this and wonder why there is no creative genius behind this...sorry to disappoint...there isn't one. So those that decide to stick with me will be able to learn as I do the mastery of couponing and who knows perhaps even blogging :). In the posts to come I hope to enlighten readers of deals they can cash in on themselves and in turn if you have anything you would like to share please feel free.

   So like I said I started this bargain craze a few months ago. Since then I have only received what I would call "basic deals." And let me tell you, they were not as easy to find as I hoped. The store nearest and dearest to my heart is precious CVS. Nothing will pull me out of bed faster on a sunday morning knowing that my new CVS deals are sitting on my driveway. There are so many great deals to be had and even made at CVS. Yes you can make your own deals! It just takes time, and if you can work through any frustration it will pay off...at least this is what I keep telling myself. If you do not already have a CVS extra care card shame on you! Now if you don't know what the heck that card is for than you are just like I was a few months ago. I had no idea there was a system behind that little mysterious red card. Well if this is news to you listen up! Every week there are new deals at CVS to be had. A lot of these deals pay you for buying their product. How could it get any better? They pay you to buy the things you need already! If you don't get a paper delivered to you look up the ad in your area at www.CVS.com. For instance this week at CVS there are opportunities to make money. If you need Charmin toilet paper, bounty paper towels, duracell batteries, or puffs tissues go to CVS. This week if you use your CVS extra care card to buy any of those products mentioned above when you spend $25 they give you $10 back. This means that after you sign up for a CVS extra care card and you spend $25 of the qualifying merchandise (which is usually labelled well in the store) a $10 coupon will print out at the end of your receipt (called and extra care buck) to use on your next purchase! These extra care bucks (ECBs) work just like cash (few restrictions apply and are listed on the ECB.) Now the trick is after that first ECB you make to never buy another item that doesn't give you another ECB at checkout. So that you rarely after that first purchase are spending money out of your own pocket. And fortunately that is very easy to do at CVS. Especially when you throw coupons in the mix. Also you can get coupons from the newspaper or print from online. sites such as: cellfire, smartsource, redplum...the list goes on and on. Now lets go back to the deals at CVS this week...say you took advantage of the deal spend $25 get $10 in ECBs, so now you have $10 to spend on your next visit. Another sale going on this week is spend $15 on any maybeline product get $5 in ECBs. So you ask how can I cash in on that deal with out spending any money because I only have the $10 ECB. This is where coupons come into play. Say you buy 2 maybeline mascaras for $7.50 a piece, that's $15. But then you have 2 coupons for $1 off each tube, that brings your total down to $13 and use your $10 EBC and you not only just got 2 wands of mascara for $3 but they gave you $5 in ECBs! So technically even though you spent $3 out of pocket you actually made $2 from buying at CVS. Now there are definitely better deals out there but that is just an example of what deals are available this week to get you started. A lot of times CVS will have items that work out to be free like a few months ago I paid $9.99 for contact solution and a $9.99 ECB was printed out at the end of the transaction, now thats what I call a deal! 
   
   Well this is a lot of information to put out there for my first posting, how about a little homework? Start clipping, printing, any method you prefer to get your hands on coupons. Also if you don't have one already sign up for your CVS extra care card then go out and buy 1 item you need where you get an ECB in return. There is much more information I have to share with you so stay tuned...