Not Made Of Money

I mentioned last week that I finally got around to getting a CVS card. I am very new to this process of saving money through the deals found at CVS and have been trying to read up on how exactly to maximize my savings. Fellow blogger Frugal RI Mom has provided the following guest post to get all of us started on the CVS road to savings.

I am a SAHM of two girls ages 4 and 1 and married to a GREAT guy who works all day to support our family. After our second daughter was born and all the home and car repairs starting hitting us, I began my journey to become frugal to help contribute to our household. I began with CVS and could not believe how much money I could save and how much stuff I could get for FREE. It was like a natural high and it was helping our family. About 6 months ago I began my frugal blog www.frugalrimama.blogspot.com to help friends and family learn how I get so much stuff for free. I have a lot of readers and to thank them I often host giveaways and most of the time it’s for $10 CVS Gift Cards. I have a giveaway currently running and you can enter here.

A Beginners Guide to Shopping and Saving at CVS, but most importantly getting things for FREE.

Where do I begin?
To begin you have to sign up for an Extra Care Card and you can do that at any CVS Store or online at www.cvs.com. Once you have your Extra Care Card you can begin earning Extra Care Bucks (ECB) and you will always get the sale prices. It works like clipless coupons. If you don’t present your Extra Care Card you won’t get the deals.

What are Extra Care Bucks (ECB)?
ECB’s print at the bottom of your receipt and are good for your next purchase. You will receive ECB’s for purchasing certain items or for spending a certain dollar amount. These deals will be listed in the weekly or monthly flyers. The monthly flyers are put out at the beginning of each month at the stores and you can usually find them right next to the flyers. The deals found in that booklet are good all month long.
An example – Tums 8ct, On Sale $2.99, Get $2.99 when you purchase 1 – If you purchase the tums, you will spend $2.99 but then you’ll get an ECB worth $2.99 to use on your next purchase. There will be a limit anywhere from 1 – 5 items you can purchase to receive the ECB’s. If the limit is more than 1 you can now buy another pack and pay using your $2.99 ECB’s without taking any money out of your wallet. You can do this as many times as the limit and this is called Rolling your ECB’s.

Can I use Manufacturers coupons too?
Yes you can! And sometimes when you use coupons you will get overage and make money on an item. Using the same example above lets say you have $1.00 coupon on any Tums.
Here is how it would work:
Tums, 8ct, On Sale $2.99, Get $2.99 ECB’s when you purchase 1
Buy (1) Tums, $2.99
Use (1) $1.00 coupon
Total You Pay: $1.99
Get Back $2.99 ECB’s
You make $1.00 in overage. Always nice when that happens.

What about CVS Coupons, how do I get them?
CVS coupons will print at the bottom of your Cash Register Tape (CRT) and most stores now have a red scan box where you can either check the price of an item or scan your ECB Card and receive coupons. These coupons CAN BE used along with Manufacturers coupons. That means you can use 2 coupons on one item (1 Store Coupon and 1 Manufacturers Coupon). Using the Tums example again, you have $1.00 Manufacturer’s coupon for $1.00 off any Tums and aCVS Store Coupon (CRT) for $1.50 off any Tums. Plus you get $2.99 ECB’s when you purchase 1.

Here is how it would work:
Tums, 8ct, On Sale $2.99, Get $2.99 ECB’s when you purchase 1
Buy (1) Tums, $2.99
Use (1) $1.00 manufacturers coupon
Use (1) $1.50 CVS Store coupon (CRT)
Total You Pay: $ .49
Get Back $2.99 ECB’s You make $2.50 in overage!!!

Another type of CRT you may receive is $/$ coupons ($5 off $15 purchase). You can use these together with manufacturer’s coupons and CVS Store coupons (CRT) to save even more. This is called stacking. You can only use 1 $/$ coupon per transaction.

The idea with shopping at CVS is to roll your ECB’s from week to week spending as little money as possible and using the overage to get the items that aren’t on sale for FREE or close to FREE. Each week I post some of the good deals that CVS has and I also share my scenario to help show how rolling ECB’s works. I also post my weekly finds with pictures and a breakdown of the transaction. You can always find the current weeks deals HERE.

You will also receive quarterly ECB’s which is 2% of your total spending during the previous quarter. These will print out at the register the first time you make a purchase in the new quarter. You also get $1.00 ECB for every 2 prescription you fill. These will be included in your quarterly ECB’s. To earn quarterly ECB’s you must present your Extra Care Card each time you shop. Even if you are not buying any sale items or any items that will give ECB’s.

There are some weeks where I will pay more out of pocket than I want to. This usually happens when I truly need something and I can’t avoid paying more. That’s OK if you do that. It will happen.

If you follow these simple steps I can promise you that you will save and begin getting all the great CVS deals that you’ve heard of.

My note: So there you have it in the words of an “expert”. I’ll be making my own CVS list this weekend and blogging in the future about the deals I’ve found. I’d love to hear from you on any deals you find as well!

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