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Effective coupon shopping at Drug Stores (like CVS and Walgreens) takes a much different strategy than shopping at the Grocery Stores.
Each drug store has a different couponing method. Here are the basics on how to “Survive CVS.”
1) Head to a CVS and register for an Extra Care Card (you have to have this card to get the deals at CVS)
2) Look at the ad each week (or just come to Surviving The Stores for the ad preview) to see which items give back Extra Care Bucks when you buy them. Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) are coupons that print out on your receipt when you buy certain items and you can use them just like cash at any CVS (except on tobacco, alcohol and prescriptions).
3) Each week there will generally be a couple of items that are advertised as “Free after ECBs.” What this means is that you will get back the same amount of ECBs that you paid for the item. So if an items costs $4.99 and they give you back $4.99 in ECBs, then they advertise that item as “Free.”
4) Be prepared to spend a little bit of money the first time you go to CVS. For example, if you bought the item above, you would have to pay $4.99 out of pocket, but you would get $4.99 in ECBs back. Then the next week you would see what items are “free after ECBs” and you would buy them with your $4.99 ECBs. So if there was another item the next week that cost $4.99 and gave back $4.99 ECBs, you would buy that item and use your $4.99 in ECBs that you received the previous week to pay for it. You would end up paying $0 out of pocket, and you would get $4.99 back AGAIN to use the next week. This concept is called “rolling your ECBs.”
5) Now, what if an item was $4.99, you got $4.99 in ECBs back AND you had a $1.00 off of one ($1/1) coupon for that item? Well, you would only pay $3.99, but you would still get back $4.99! (Are you seeing the potential here??)
6) How can this get even sweeter? There is a price scanning machine at just about every CVS. You can scan your CVS Extra Care card in this machine and it will print out CVS coupons for you. You can use these coupons WITH manufacturer coupons to get an even better deal. For example, let’s say that Excedrin is priced at $2.99 one week and you get back $2.00 in ECBs for buying it. And let’s also say that you have a $1/1 (one dollar off one) Excedrin coupon that you cut out from a recent newspaper insert. AND you also received a $1.99/1 Excedrin CVS coupon when you scanned your CVS card. It would look like this… $2.99 minus one dollar coupon minus $1.99 CVS coupon = $0 out of pocket. PLUS you would still get back the $2.00 in ECBs.
7) If you want to get really fancy and you have some ECBs to use that you have saved up from previous weeks, you can also use a $5 off of a $25 purchase coupon that CVS also will give out (in the price scanner machine or on your receipt). Let’s use this scenario:
Product XYZ is on sale for $5.00 and is giving out $3 in ECBs when you buy it. It has a limit of 5 (you can only get the ECBs on five items). You also have 5 $1/1 (one dollar off one) coupons for this product. Your transaction with a $5/$25 coupon would look like this…Buy 5 items @ $5.00 each = $25.00
Use the $5/$25 CVS coupon (brings it down to $20)
Use the 5 manufacturer coupons (brings it down to $15)
Pay with your $15 in ECBs that you had going into the transaction that you received from previous weeks
Get $15 in ECBs back (5 items times $3 in ECBs for each item!)
For some examples of how this works out practically, you can see my CVS shopping trips HERE.
This is just an overview of how it works… for more technical information on the rules and the ins and outs of CVSing, make sure to read CVS 101 written by my friend Stephanie over at Couponing 101!
Please let me know if you have any questions!
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for all of the tips on how to shop at CVS. Today I went and got my free roll of papertowels and 3 12 packs of diet pepsi. I had a buy 2 get one 1 coupon for the pop and I had $9.98 in ECB(thanks to you). My total was .97 and I put that on my $25 gift card I got earlier this month for a new prescription. Needless to say my husband and I were both thrilled!
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I have a question you may be able to answer…. example If cover girl is on b1g1 sale right now and I have a coupon for buy one cover girl foundation, get one cover girl face product free, can I combine this coupon with their sale to pretty much get the item free? also, if i have a buy 2 get X amount off, and a buy 1 for X amount off, can I purchase 2 items and use both coupons?
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November 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
@Amber, Great question! For your first question, the answer is yes. You can typically use a B1G1 Free coupon along with a B1G1 Free sale to get both items for free!
For your second question, the answer is no. You can’t use a $/2 coupon and a $/1 coupon for the same items. Since the $/2 coupon applies to both items, you can’t use another coupon too.
BUT, if you had a B1G1 free coupon and a $/1 coupon, then you could use the $/1 coupon on the item that you weren’t getting for free.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you need any more clarification.
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Do you have to wait til next week to use you ECB?
For example: this week do the herbal essence hair deal..get 1 ecb, then do a second transaction..do the degree deo..buy 6 use 3 $3/2, use $1 ECB from 1 transaction spend $5 oop, get $5 ECB. Would this work?
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March 16th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Yep! Isn’t that great? If there’s a REALLY good week, you could do 10 transactions back to back just rolling your ECBs from one to the other.
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I haven’t worked up the courage yet to make a CVS trip but my question is this – do you have to use the ECBs on the same item that you originally purchased or can you use them to buy anything? I know on some things I buy at the grocery stores I get those coupons on the back of my register receipt that are just that – coupons – that are for a particular item – for example if I buy an item like chips or crackers there might be a coupon for $1.oo off my next purchase of that same item – ships or crackers. That’s what I’m worried about, that I’ll go to CVS and buy a bunch of stuff and then just get the ECBs for the same items. I’ve been reading your stuff for several weeks now and I know you’re an expert so I trust everything you say. If you could please let me know I think I may make my first trip next week. Thank alot Rachel. I really appreciate all your hard work getting all these deals together and sharing with everyone, it’s got to be really hard work, but I’ve really enjoyed just the little bit I”ve started doing and I love reading your stuff.
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June 5th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hey Joy!
Yep, you can use those ECBs that you get on anything in the store. What most CVS shoppers do is hold on to their ECBs until the next week and then they use their ECBs to get the deals that give out more ECBs the next week. That way they “roll” their ECBs each week and don’t pay much of anything out of pocket.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. It can be a little confusing at first, but once you get it, it gets really addicting!
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June 7th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
@Surviving The Stores, Thank you so much! I think I can go to CVS with a little more confidence now! I have my ad, my Q’s, gotta sign up for the card when I get there and I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all your hard work.
joy
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