My attempt at CVSing

Inspired by Erika (and also by trying to save some money before the baby gets here), before I went out shopping today, I went online to cvs.com to take a look at their weekly flier for things that I was already planning to get at the grocery store or things that I could stock up on, like toiletries. I found a few things that were either on sale or allowed you to earn Extra Bucks (coupons for dollars off your next trip).

For my first attempt, I think I did OK.

I bought 4 12-packs of Coke products for $11 ($2.75 each, marginally cheaper than at Harris Teeter), 2 boxes of cereal @ 2/$5, 2 8-pks of Irish Spring for Jon @ $5.79 each, and 1 bottle each of Garnier shampoo and conditioner for me @ $2.99 each. Aside from the soaps, everything was on sale to begin with, and I lucked into a $1 off coupon on one of the Cokes. I also signed up for emails from CVS, and when I did that, they sent me a coupon for $4 off $20. So right off the bat, with everything on sale and the coupons I had, I saved $20.04 (about 40% savings). Then on top of that, I got coupons for next time totaling $9, from buying the soaps and the shampoos.

Is this good? I still spent about $30, so I'm not sure if I'm on track or not here.

I finished up the rest of my grocery shopping at the HT afterwards, where just by using my VIC card, I saved over $20. I didn't have any coupons for stuff there, though. The majority of stuff I bought there WAS on sale... I checked their flier online as well before I went.