Drugstore Shopping 101: CVS

I have been getting questions about how exactly to shop at CVS and save money, I have written out exactly how to Shop at CVS and what you need to know. Drugstore Shopping 101:

The first thing that you need to have when CVS shopping is their Extra Care Card. You can sign up online or in the store. This is a rewards card, it gives you the sale prices and also gives you rewards such as Extra Care Bucks-which are basically like cash you can use on  your next purchase. Having the Extra Care Card will also get you on CVS email list- they occasionally send coupons for $4 off a $20 purchase or more. These CVS coupons can be used along with Manufacturer coupons to maximize savings.

Now a little bit more about Extra Care Bucks-ECBs for short. CVS has many sales each week that give you ECB when you buy certain products. These ECBs act like cash back because they can be used on a future purchase. They are printed at the bottom of your receipt, so always check! There are usually limits to exactly how many ECBs you can get back per item you buy. For example if there was Floss on sale for $2 and you would get $2ECB back, there might be a limit of 2, meaning if you buy 3 packs of Floss you will only get $4ECBs back not $6. Also every 3 months you will get 2% of your total purchase cost back in the form of ECBs!

 

Part of Playing the "Drugstore game" at CVS is knowing how to take your ECBs and use them for your next trip to lower your total out of pocket expense. This is called "Rolling your ECB". For example, if you got your $4ECBs for buying 2 packs of Floss last week, you could use that $4ECB like cash this week, meaning you will not have to pay $4 out of pocket. Plus if you use that $4 to buy an item that is part of the weekly ECB deal, then you will be getting the item possibly for free and making more ECB. This is how I keep my out of pocket costs so low.

You can also "Stack Coupons" this means you can use on CVS store coupon and one Manufacturers coupon on the same product. This helps maximize savings as well. Always be sure to scan your Extra Care Card at the Coupon Machine in the front of your store-never know what you might get!

You can also buy a "Green Bag Tag" which is a 99cent tag that is sold at the register. This tag can be scanned and for every 4 scans you will get $1ECB ( you need to bring your own bag for this)

CVS is a great store for stocking up on Healthy and Beauty products very inexpensively. You can check out my CVS shopping Trips and coupon match ups here!