Hot Deals in the City

One of the toughest things to adjust to after the big move to NYC was/is the higher cost of living. Virginia wasn’t exactly a cheap place to live but Manhattan prices are abominable! Our rent for out studio apartment here is almost double what a 3 bedroom house in most of Virginia would cost! These costs can’t be helped though, so I do what I can to cut costs elsewhere. Grocery stores here are far more expensive than your usual grocery store, so I find myself doing a fair amount of my shopping in pharmacies. Pharmacies in most places are costlier than grocery stores, but not here! Especially if you watch sales ads and use coupons. Here are a few of the better deals I snagged today:

At CVS I picked up:






a 12 oz. Dove shampoo for $4.49 and got back $4.49 in ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs).









I also picked up a 16 oz. Dial Nutriskin Body Wash for $5.49 and got $4.50 ECBs back. I also used a $1.00 off coupon on the Softsoap.

I used a $9 ECB from purchases I made last week to buy this week’s shampoo and body wash and since I receieved $9 ECBs back, it was like I got both items for free!


At Walgreens I bought





a 8.4 oz Schick hydro shave gel for $2.99 and got back $3 register rewards (RRs), which are the same concept as ECBs.




I also bought a 18 ct. pack of tampons from U by Kotex for $3.49, used a $1.00 coupon and received $2.50 RRs. Again, I used other RRs to make the purchase so I only had to pay tax!




At Rite Aid I picked up

a 12 oz box of Complete Multi-purpose Contact Solution for $7.99. Rite Aid works differently than CVS and Walgreens and they issue “single check rebates” (SCRs) for their sales. The rebates are super easy to do though, you enter them online and once a month they send you a check for your purchases. For the contact solution I’ll be getting a $7.99 SCR, so overall I again only paid tax.


A lot of times you can even make money by using coupons! For example, a few weeks ago there was a $1.50 Dove shampoo coupon in the Sunday paper. If I hadn’t already used this coupon I could have used it today at CVS and my total would have only been $7.50 but I still would have received $9.00 ECBs!

It all seems like a lot of work, but once you get into the swing of things, it's pretty simple! Especially here in NYC where all three stores are only a few blocks away from one another!