Guest post by Kimber
Do you ever see people’s CVS shopping trips and wonder how they do it? I used to! But thanks to MoneySavingMom.com, I’ve figured it out, so let’s walk through it together!
CVS has a program called Extra Care Bucks, or ECBs. These are coupons that print at the bottom of your receipt. They can be used on almost anything in the store, and they don’t expire for 4 weeks (and most stores will accept them after they’ve expired).
Check the weekly CVS ad to see which products will earn ECBs.
If your store is sold out, ask for a rain check! The cashier can easily modify prices and manually print your ECBs once the product is back in stock.
Enroll in the Beauty Club program
It’s easy – your store should have little red fliers by the register, and possibly in the cosmetics aisle. Just hand one to the cashier at to scan at checkout, and you’re enrolled — or sign up online.
You’ll get a coupon for 10% off any beauty purchase in the next few days, plus, CVS will send you 3 ECBs on your birthday. You’ll randomly get coupons e-mailed to you for being a Beauty Club Member, and my favorite part – every time you spend an accumulated $50 on beauty items, you will earn an extra 5 ECBs. That $50 is calculated before coupons!
I never spend $50 at once on make-up, but it is not unusual for me to get a make-up item for free (or almost free) every week or so. And almost monthly, I earn $5 from the beauty program. I love it!
Use the Pharmacy
Another way to earn Extra Bucks is to sign up for the Pharmacy and Health ExtraBucks Rewards program. Every time you (or any family member attached to your CVS card) fills a prescription, you earn a credit. Within a few days of earning 10 credits, you will earn $5 in Extra Bucks!
Don’t Forget the “Magic Coupon Machine”
There is still another easy way to save money at CVS – the large red price scanner (the “magic coupon machine”).
The first thing you should do when you walk into CVS is scan your card at this machine. Coupons will print. Keep scanning – usually a second, or even third, round of coupons will print – often high-value, and sometimes enough to make an item free.
If you don’t use your coupons immediately, save them until they expire. Sometimes coupons print for items that go on sale the next week!
Sign Up for CVS’s Emails
They differ for each person, but almost every week, I get a coupon e-mailed to me (usually a percent-off-your-next-purchase coupon or a $5-off-of-$30 coupon).
One word of caution, usually the “percent off” coupons only apply to non-sale items — so if my favorite mascara is on sale for $8.99, the 25% off coupon won’t apply. But if it’s normally $9.99 and I earn $8 ECBs for buying it, I can use the coupon – and I’ll end up “making money”, or getting back more than I spend! (Plus, the mascara would count towards my $50 Beauty Club limit!)
So how does this all work together?
Let me use a real example: last week’s shopping trip. This is how I walked out of CVS with more ECBs than I walked in with:
Last week, I received a random e-mail from CVS with $3 ECBs. To save ink, I clicked “send it to card”, meaning it was downloaded to my store card and it automatically came off at the register. And the week before, I had filled my 10th prescription, AND I had crossed the $50 threshold in my Beauty Club spending.
So I walked into CVS, scanned my card, and had $5 print off from the pharmacy, $5 print off from the Beauty Club, and $3 was waiting for me at the register. That’s $13 to spend, just for doing things I normally do! I kept scanning my card, and got a $4 off a $12 cosmetic purchase coupon.
I purchased:
- All laundry detergent ($3.99)
- my favorite eyeliner ($11.79)
- NYC products were buy one, get one half off, so I grabbed two bottles of their $.99 nail polish so I could use my $4 off of $12 cosmetics coupon.
When it was time to pay, my $3 ECB came off automatically. I used my $4 off $12 cosmetics coupon, a $1 off All coupon, my $5 from my prescriptions, and $4 from last week.
My remaining balance was 28 cents! And I still had my $5 Beauty Bucks leftover, PLUS $6 for buying Physician’s Formula eyeliner and $1 for buying All.
This kind of CVS trip doesn’t happen every time, and you shouldn’t expect it to. This was the perfect storm of coupons! But it’s an example, especially to beginners, that there are many great ways to utilize coupons at CVS.
It takes time to get the hang of it, but soon you’ll be shopping for free – and you’ll be sharing your great finds with the rest of us MoneySavingMom.com fans!
Kimber is a stay-at-home mom living in Texas. She loves playing with her two kids, going on dates with her husband, reading a good book, and shopping for her family (and for Operation Christmas Child)!
Lucy says
I had never shopped at CVS before, but our insurance recently changed and we had to switch from Osco to CVS. I need a lot of RX’s, so I thought this change would be a big mess. It was very easy, and the best part is that CVS pharmacy accepts competitor’s coupons. So I kept doing a search for coupons for free gift cards for new or transferred coupons. Because of this and the number of prescriptions I require, we received about $300 in gift cards! The gift card coupons are getting harder and harder to find now. But we feel we more than got our share.
For the rest of CVS coupons and ECB’s, I think it’s SO complicated that I don’t even try any more. Since we rarely go to CVS (only for prescriptions) their coupon system doesn’t seem worth it to me. They seem to have a “club” for everything! We still haven’t used up all of our gift cards, but our daughter is expecting and will be having her baby in January. I suppose they will go towards diapers!
Sheryl says
I have an infant in the house, and am shocked that I have been buying formula at CVS! It’s been cheaper than I can get anywhere, when combined with emailed coupons. I’ve been getting a lot of $5 of $15 printing at the register, combined with a 20% or 25% off coupon that I get most weeks, and $5 Enfamil checks, I keep walking out with a tub of Enfamil formula for $12 to $14. Never thought that’s where I would be buying formula, but it has been working well for me the last two months.
Peggy Ann says
I also love CVS. I used to play the drug store game with both CVS and Rite Aid. Rite Aid changed some of their policies and, for me, it just wasn’t worth it so now I am loyal to CVS.
The cashiers at my local store know me and are always helpful and encouraging when I get something for practically nothing. I don’t always shop weekly but at least every other week. I just got my birthday bonus and look forward to using it. And while everyone’s experience is different, mine has always been positive at CVS. Thank you all for sharing and to Crystal for giving us this platform to voice our opinions. I truly appreciate all of the hard work you do for your website.
Sarah E says
I LOVE CVS! It’s by far my favorite drug store b/c they seem to flood loyal customers with coupons! I usually get a $4 of $20 purchase coupon almost weekly for signing up for their emails. I’m so thankful we have one close by. 🙂
Kim M says
I wish I could take advantage of the pharmacy ECB- but my insurance requires that we have any maintenance medications filled through our mail-order pharmacy after the first 2 retail fills, otherwise we pay full price for the meds :-/ otherwise, I’d do it in a heartbeat!
I’ve fallen behind on the CVS deals inthe past few months, but really need to get back into it! This post is just what I needed today. Thank you
Kimber says
I’m really glad it encouraged you, from one CVS-er to another! :o)
Nancy says
You can register your card online to receive double rewards from now until December.
Krafty Momma says
I love CVS! I work hard at it, but I get all of our personal care items for basically free.
However, since we really don’t use many personal care items, getting cheap diapers is the only thing that makes my time and energy worthwhile in our family.
Kimber says
I just finished the diaper phase, but I agree – that’s what saved me the most! I also love getting a few extra personal care products to donate to our local women’s shelter, homeless shelter, or to CPS for children who are removed from their homes. And free makeup items are a great little gift for friends. 🙂
Jessica says
A few years ago, I did a lot of CVS and Walgreens shopping. This was when they regularly had free after ECB body wash, hair care, dental care, hygiene, beauty, healthcare and food items. Then, slowly, the deals dried up. It’s no longer worth it for me. I never get those emailed % off store coupons- my email coupons are always “online only”. I never get random ECBs. I used to get links to surveys to do that would award ECBs, but haven’t had one of those in a year or two. This year, we didn’t get the birthday ECBs either. My prescriptions are less expensive elsewhere and my current pharmacy awards $2 per prescription in its rewards program. As for Walgreens, they randomly deleted my 10,000 balance points that I got from last year’s black Friday shopping. I went to redeem them in January and they were suddenly gone from my account. Their only explanation was that somebody hacked into the system and stole my points.
I don’t use cosmetics, so the beauty program doesn’t work for me either.
Luba says
It’s like that for me as well. I used to go there several times a week, but now I will go only if there is a great deal on milk or something like that. My ECBs expire before the next deal good enough for me to spend my time and money on comes around, and I have saved much sanity over limiting the number of stores I shop at in one week. 🙂
Erin says
I’m with you, Jessica! I did a happy dance today after spending my last $4 ECBs today on diapers (that we may or may not actually need, depending upon when my daughter is going to get on the bandwagon with potty training!). This was the last of the ECBs that I have been rolling for approximately four years! What a relief! I really have trouble spending money there because minus ECBs, the prices are so high, and I learned the system when there were frequent, regular moneymaking deals, so almost nothing is a good deal to me now. I don’t use makeup, I don’t need any more HBA items, and CVS food products tend to be expired or limited to varieties we don’t like. I’ll probably head back for Black Friday if there are any great deals on things we truly use, but I can get better deals at Target after giftcard (which is store cash that never expires!) and Kroger on manager’s special. Just last week, I ended up getting a big box of training pants that was a better deal than my usual $3.50-or-less-per-jumbo-pack price point. CVS was super coupon friendly, but a LOT of work. As couponing declines and customers seek simplicity, the great deals will come back. Maybe I’ll be refreshed and ready to pick up CVSing again.
Jessica says
Sounds just like my overall experience. I recall when I first learned the drugstore game thanks to MSM. I’d take my daughter with me (she was a baby/toddler then and she’s a big 1st grader now). She would love to pose next to all my freebies when I’d take a photo and upload it to my blog. Back then I could easily get $100 worth of stuff for a buck or two out of pocket and keep on rolling those ECBs. Really, I remember having over $100 in ECBs at a time. And I didn’t get multiple newspapers or anything. I fondly recall moneymakers on huge boxes of popsicles, big packs of SoyJoys, free this and free that. “moneymakers” on fancy lotions and razors, free body wash and deodorant for me and DH, free batteries and more. I don’t know why those deals went away, but they did.
Now I have 3 kids, and with the rare deal that is actually something I’d use for my household, it’s not worth the bother. I also spent the last of my ECBs last fall, on diapers for the baby I was pregnant with (she’s almost 9 months old now). I also have had fairly good luck with Kroger manager’s specials, Meijer clearance and mPerks, and Target- even though I don’t have a smart phone. I only shop at 1 or 2 stores a week for the sake of simplicity.
Victoria says
You can also pick up discounted gift cards to CVS off various gift card websites. They work in pharmacy or store and are usually 10% off. Doesn’t sound like much but it adds up over time if you have a few prescriptions.