CVS Tips

Cvs is one of my favorite stores to shop at, they have great deals and I hardly ever pay for anything :)

The first thing you will want to do is register for an extracare card, this is totally free and not only gets you access to the sales prices, but also gives you 2% cash back on your purchases quarterly and if you scan the little red card you get at the Red machine at front of store you will get great store coupons.

Alright now that you are set up, Lets shop!

The reason I am able to get so much for free is that I almost never buy anything unless it is FREE or very close to it. Now the way the store keeps you coming back is by offering you what is called Extra Care Bucks also known as ECB. What these are is basically money printed on a reciept. Here is an example:

Say cvs is running a deal for Advil, it is on sale for $3 and if you purchase you will get $3 ECB back, making this basically free.

If there happens to be a manufacture coupon for this same product, say save $1 off children's advil, you use that coupon and pay $2 get $3 back, we call this a MM or Money Maker!

Ok, now that you have mastered that lets ad another coupon to the deal.

Remember I said Red machine would print you coupons?  Well a lot of times they match up with Deals you are already going to do.

Example: Red machine prints store coupon for $1 off children's advil.... Now you have a $1 manufacture coupon, A $1 store coupon(both can be used) you pay $1 and get $3 back.

Sometimes the Red machine will spit out a $4 off $20 purchase or even $10 off $50. Combine this with coupons and its like hitting the jackpot. Hint*** you can find $4 off $20 on ebay for almost nothing. And the coupons are emailed to you so you just print and use.

CVS also will give you a rain check if you go in to get a deal and they are out of the product. you just ask the cashier. Sometimes this works out to your advantage because they do not expire and you never know when a manufacture coupon will come out in the paper that will make the deal a MM.

Ok, so you have all this information and you want to get started, great! Here is a scenario to get you the most bang for your buck.

Here is an awesome CVS money maker deal on Nivea
Buy (2) of the Nivea Cream Tin (1 oz) or the Nivea Soft (0.84 oz) $.99 = $1.98
Pay: $1.98
Get back $6 EB for buying (2)
Final Price: $4 MONEY MAKER!
The limit from the ad is (1), but I was able to get a limit of (6) = 12 tins
$4 Money maker times 6 Transactions = $24 Money Maker, you have spent $12 and received $36 to spend on future trips.

If you do 6 individual transactions you will get six $6 Ecb papers. If you do all together you will get one paper for $36, you don't get change back when using the Ecb so you may want to break them down just to get smaller amounts.

If you try to stick with only buying items that are close to free after the ECB and coupons then you will be able to just use your ECb to pay for your trip and get the same amount back meaning you will not have to pay for more than tax for your shopping trips!