How it all started...

Two days before Thanksgiving, my mother in law and I were at a local CVS pharmacy in her hometown prepping for the arrival of family members that would be staying in her home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

As we stood behind the CVS counter waiting to check out, we realized that the lady in front of us kept passing the cashier , coupon after coupon, all out of a binder full of nicely cut CVS coupons. We were curious of what she was doing, so my mother in law asked her, and the lady explained to us how she rarely pays full price for anything anymore for day to day groceries, and gets in many occasions things for free. After hearing this, we wanted to know more....a lot more.

The lovely lady spoke about coupons, reward cards, and a lot of other great bargains of 2x1 deals that are all over the place, (which we are all very well familiar with) but with all the mass marketing thats being bombarded to us, left and right, it seems as though every store in the country has some kind of  "special sales" and "hot deals" going on, and most of the times,we seem to overlook it.

In conclusion, the lady spent 15.34 out of cash out of pocket, but ended up recieving  $68.76 back in CVS Extra Care Reward program for her next purchases. So she got her 15.34 back, plus an extra 53.42, now that is amazing!

So as you can see, this made me think of how much money i can be saving in a year, if i did exactly what  the CVS lady did.

I've set a goal for myself to see,how fast can I save 1,000 dollars within a one year time limit. Whatever it is,  let it be in cash, reward points that equal money or even free products or services, will be jotted down in the "Savings Meter". 


Now, I must clarify: THIS IS NOT A SHOPPING SPREE. Its just the  "regular" day to day purchases we do for ourselves,for our homes, even for special occasions.

As tempting as it is, I have excluded my Black Friday purchases from this challenge, since it would defeat the purpose of the regular "day to day" purchases/savings.  ( I probably saved about 1/4  or more, of the goal just on the past Black Friday weekend).


So join me in this journey with a mission, and see how much it takes to save $1,000.