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Monday, April 1, 2013

How to Shop at CVS

CVS is by far my favorite store to shop when buying personal care products. You can often pick up items for free or really really cheap! Toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, body wash, shampoo, pads, vitamins...there's so much you can get by paying very little.

Sign up for an Extracare card in store
  • You can link your phone number to your card if you don't want to carry it around with you.
  • Allows you to buy items at the sale price offered at the store
  • Register your card at cvs.com so that you can receive coupons by email
    • Often these coupons are for 20% off your purchase or $4 off $20, etc 
  • Card keeps track of purchases needed in order to receive ecbs
  • You'll receive 2% back on all of your purchases (which will print out as an ecb at the end of every quarter/3 months)
Extracare Bucks
  • Also called extrabucks rewards (abbreviated as ecb) are what make CVS so wonderful. 
  • Ecbs are store coupons that print out at the bottom of your receipt that you can use to purchase items in the store. 
  • Cannot be used to purchase prescriptions, alcohol, gift cards, lottery, money order, postage stamps, pre-paid cards, and tobacco products. Everything else is pretty much fair game!
  • How do you know if you'll receive an ecb by purchasing a product? Usually it will say so in the ad or you can see if it's tagged in your store.
  • Deals which offer ecbs have limits to allow others the opportunity to purchase the same products
  • Here's an example: If you purchase one Colgate toothpaste at $2.99, you will receive a $2.00 ecb. Notice the small print at the bottom. It limits you to doing this deal twice. If you were to buy a third toothpaste, you wouldn't receive a third $2.00 ecb.
  • There are some times when you have to spend a certain amount before you receive an ec. Example: In the picture below, you have to spend $10 BEFORE using any coupons to get the $5 ecb. Even if your total is $5 after using coupons, you will still get that $5 ecb as long as your total was $10 before the coupons. You don't have to make all of your purchases on one day, either, because your card will keep track of how much you've spent towards the deal.
  • Ecbs can roll! This means that you can use ecbs to buy other products that also produce ecbs. For example, you can use the $2.00 you earn from buying the Colgate toothpaste (above picture) to pay for the Crest toothpaste. 
  • Can't get change back from ecbs. If you use your $2.00 ecb to pay for an item that cost $0.99, your $2.00 ecb will be adjusted down to $0.99. You will lose $1.01. 
CVS Coupon Machine
  • Inside of each store is a coupon machine that prints out store coupons when you scan your card
  • After your first batch of coupons print out, scan your card again to get more coupons from the machine
Rainchecks 
  • If you go into the store and find that the $2.99 Colgate toothpaste has run out of stock, you can ask the store associate to write a raincheck for you. 
  • The associate would write the sale price of the item along with the amount of ecbs you would receive with it. When the product is back in stock, you can simply take your raincheck to the store and buy the product at the price listed on your raincheck. If your purchase qualifies for ecbs, the associate will force print the ecb at the register for you.
  • CVS rainchecks have no expiration date which means that you can use it whenever you're ready!
CVS Beauty Club
  • Head over here to sign up
  • For every $50.00 you spend (before coupons), you will earn a $5.00 ecb.
  • You'll receive a $3.00 ecb on your birthday.
  • Qualifying Beauty purchases include: Cosmetics, Ethnic Hair Care, Fragrances, Hair Accessories, Hair Appliances, Hair Care, Hair Color, Hosiery, Healthy Skin Care and Skin Care.
You can find the CVS coupon policy here. I recommend printing it out and taking it with you to the store whenever you shop.

1 comment:

  1. I shop at Walgreens all the time and I forget that there is a CVS right down the street from us too. I think I will have to start shopping at CVS now!!

    ReplyDelete
 

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