My Shopping Addiction

Today the highlight of my day has been an outing to CVS. Sad, but true. So instead of another post about the family, or cute pictures of the kids...Today my post is about me and my CVS addiction. Those who know me well, know I love a deal, and that I love using coupons. For example today at CVS this is what I purchased:
1 Maybelline Superstay Lip Color $8.99
2 Johnson Buddy Bars $0.98 ea
2 Russell Stover Private Reserve Bags of Chocolate $3.29 ea
3 Speed Stick 24/7 Deodorants $1.99 ea
For what would of all totaled to $23.50 in stuff...But that's not what I paid!!! Any guesses??? I paid a grand total of $0.26 for all this great stuff!!! I get teased by some because my house has become a convenient store of sorts, you need lotion, toothpaste, pads, you name I'm probably stockpiled on it. But honestly how can I not get the stuff when it is so cheap, free, or sometimes I even make money from it. This is my downfall I guess. So, if you are need, you know where to come...HA HA! The funny thing is I get a thrill out of this style of shopping. I love to do it, I love to tell anyone who will listen about it. I think I have a disease! Now for anyone who is wondering how I scored the above deal...here it goes, take notes!!!
CVS is awesome, and has a program called extra care bucks, ECB's for short. Each week they run items that if purchased will render ECB's. ECB's are just like cash, and don't expire for a month from the day you receive them. So technically you put the money out 1 time, then you continually get it back in ECB's and use the ECB's to buy more stuff. So starting at the top the lip color was a "free" item this week, so it rendered $8.99 in ECB's. The 2 Johnson's buddy bars were $0.98 and I had 2 $1 off Johnson's coupons, so those were a money maker of $.04. The Russell Stover chocolate was buy 2 get $3 in ECBs, and I had a Russell Stover buy one get one free coupon. The Speed Sticks were $1.99 get $1 ECB back, plus I added 3 Speed Stick $1 off coupons, making them better than free I made a penny on each one. So my total after coupons came to $16 something. I applied an ECB from last week of $14.95, and my total dropped to .$30. I paid this in loose change, and received $14.99 back in ECB's to use next time. So total money lost by me in this transaction was $0.26. Which is well worth it, I think!!!