May 2-8 CVS and Walgreens shopping trips

I took advantage of some of the good deals at CVS and Walgreens last week and thought I would share it. Sorry I didn't get it posted sooner, so y'all could get the deals too. I have a couple of friends who are learning to coupon, so I thought I would go step by step on how I did my transactions to get the most value for my money and Extra Care Bucks (ECBs).
Instead of getting everything at once, I make multiple transactions to "roll" my ECBs so that I have as little out of pocket expenditure as possible. To learn more about how to shop for deals at CVS, go HERE and HERE. A tip from me is to get a Green Bag Tag, every 4 times it's scanned, you will get an ECB for $1.
When I make my list each week and calculate my expense, I take the sale price, add tax, then subtract the manufacturer coupon or CVS coupon to get the price of the item. Then I add the price of all of the items in the transaction for a total, then subtract the amount of ECBs to get the total out of pocket expense. I'm sure there are other ways to do it, but this works for me.

1st Transaction:
Venus Spa Breeze razor - On sale for $9.99 + .70 tax = $10.69 - $ 2 man. coupon = $8.69 - $6 ECB from last week = $2.69 got back $6 ECBs.

2nd Transaction:
Olay Total Effects body wash $7.00 + .49 tax = $7.49 - $ 2 man. coupon = $5.49
Carefree liners $3.99 + .28 tax = $4.27 - $4 off CVS coupon (that printed when I scanned my card at the kiosk) = .27
Colgate Total toothpaste $2.99 + .21 tax = $3.20 - .75 = $2.45
Crest 3D White toothpaste $3.99 + .28 tax = $4.27 - .75 = $3.52
Total = $11.73 - $6 ECB from 1st transaction = $5.73 got back $9 ECBs


3rd and 4th Transactions:
3rd:
2 Sensodyne Pro-namel toothpastes $4.49 each + .63 tax = $9.61 - $2 in man. coupons = $7.61
Sensodyne Pro-namel isoactive foaming gel toothpaste $4.99 + .35 tax = $5.34 - .75 man. coupon = $4.59
Total = $12.20 - $7 ECBS = $5.20 got back $6 ECBs
(I actually gave him all $9 worth of ECBs, but one $2 one didn't get scanned and it was a big hassle. They ended up printing me out a new $2 one to replace the one he didn't scan.)

4th:
Dr. School's insoles $9.99 + .70 tax = $10.69 - $2 man. coupon = $8.69 - $6 ECBs = $2.69 got back $3 ECBs

5th Transaction:
2 Folgers decaf. coffees 2/$7.00 + .49 tax = 7.49 - two .75 man. coupons = $5.99
Bounty 6 big roll $6.49 +tax = .45 tax = $6.94 - .25 man. coupon = $6.69
Charmin 20 roll (The 16 roll were on sale, but they ran out and this rang up as the same price, yay 4 free rolls!) $9.99 + .70 tax = $10. 69 - .25 man. coupon = $10.44
Tide $5.97 + .42 tax = $6.39 - $1 man. coupon = $5.39
Dawn Hand Renewal .97 + .07 tax = $1.04 - .50 man. coupon = .54
24 pack of Gold Emblem water was free with the purchase of the Procter and Gamble products.
Total = 29.05 - $5 ECBs = $24.05
(Actually I wrote down $23.91 in my checkbook register, so I'm not sure why there is a 14 cent difference, and I can't look at the receipt because I just sealed it up in an envelope with the form for the P&G coupon booklet!).
I never spend that much, bet we were getting low on tp and paper towels, so it was worth it.
So now I have $0 ECBs. I did that on purpose, so I can try to figure out the best deal scenarios for next week for someone just starting out.
Total spent at CVS this week = $40.22

Walgreens Transaction
Walgreens' has this policy that you have to have at least as many items as you have coupons. I had a Walgreens coupon from the weekly ad for the Russell Stover, and I also had manufacturer coupons for them, as well as 2 Register Rewards coupons from last week. So altogether, I had 5 coupons, so I knew I needed to have at least 5 items, even though I really only wanted the chocolates. Since M&Ms and Mars candy was on sale for 49 cents each (without a coupon) I knew those would make good "filler" items. (When I need "fillers" I try to get things that I will use, I can use the M&Ms in cookies). Adding the M&Ms gave me 5 items, so now I had the same number of items as I had coupons.
2 boxes Russel Stover chocolates $4.49 each with Walgreens coupon + .63 tax = $9.61 - $2 in man. coupons = 7.61
3 bags M&Ms .49 each + .10 tax = $1.57
Total = $9.18 - $8 in Register Rewards (from last week) = $1.18

I don't know if any of this has helped anyone, (there are so many others out there who are better at this than I am) but I hope it may help somebody understand a little better about how it works. I'm going to try to post next week's (5/9 - 5/15) deal scenarios a little earlier.