Mommy's Money Cents: How To Maximize Your Savings At CVS Pharmacy

What you need to know to maximize your savings at CVS

This is a guest post written by MidgetMomma from Luxury Living Frugal Style.

CVS is one of my favorite stores, most of my savings comes from there on our bath and body products, soda(hubbys addiction lol), diapers, you name it, watch for sales and just about anything can be free there if you have the right coupons. Once you get the hang of CVS it will be one of your favorite stores to shop at.

There are a few things you need to know to maximize your savings at CVS:

CVS Lingo:
Extra Care Card-

CVS's store card that is needed to score the deals. It is FREE to sign up for.

ECB

-Extra care bucks- "money" that you earn from buying certain products that you can use to buy other things at CVS

Money Maker

- When you get back more ECBs then you spent

B1G1 or BOGO

Coupon Policy:

Important things to know about CVS's coupon policy. You can e-mail CVS for their coupon policy, but they do not have it avaliable online.

Buy 1 get 1 free sales:
With a buy 1 get 1 free sale you can use 1 coupon per item

Examples:

Shampoo is on sale B1G1, you have 2 $1 off 1 coupons for the same brand you can use both coupons combined with the sale.

Pads are on sale B1G1 and you have a B1G1 coupon, you can use your B1G1 coupon with the sale to get both items free(just pay sales tax)

There is no limit with how many ECB's you can use, your dollar amount total just needs to be less then the ECB and coupon value amount or they will be adjusted down to the amount you have.

1 CVS coupon and 1 manufacturers coupon per item (ECBS are NOT counted as coupons, they are used the same way as if you were using a CVS gift card)

Use of $x off $x coupons:

When you get a coupon for $4 off $20 CVS coupon, the $20 total is counted BEFORE the use of manufactures and CVS coupons. Only one of this type of coupon can be used in a transaction

Internet Printable coupons:

CVS accepts IP coupons that are printed from authorized websites, copies of coupons will not be accepted

Competetor's coupons:

CVS does not accept competators coupons except for in the pharmacy. If you have a Rite Aid coupon for a free gift card with a new or transfered perscription CVS will honor those.

Overage:

CVS does not allow for overage, if product X is .50 and you have a .55 off 1 coupon the coupon will be adjusted down to .50

Extra Care Card Rules:

Cvs limits the amount of cards to one per person, however they do allow each person in a household to have their own Extra Care Card.

Some examples of my CVS Shopping trips in the past few months. I am sharing my favorite ones with you:)

5 Wisk @ 5.00(spend $25 get $10 ecb deal)
5 L’Oreal Eye Shadow @ 2.19
1 L’Oreal eye liner @ 3.37
1 L’Oreal powder @ 3.75
1 L’Oreal Lip gloss @ 3.49
Coupons Used: 5 $2/1 Wisk, 4 $5/2 L’Oreal cosmetics, 10% CVS cosmetic coupon(from signing up for the beauty club)
ECB used:$9.00
Total-5.73 (CVS gift Card)
Total Saved: 133.67

Transaction 1

14 Mentos @ b1g1 @ 1.79 (used 14 1/1q)
1 Schick Hydro Razor @ 8.99 (used 4/1q)(get 5.99 ECB)
1 Oral B toothbrush @ 23.00(had a raincheck get 13ecb back)(10/1q)
3 reese’s @ .50
1 butterfinget @.89
used 18.98 ECB
total-..39on cvs gift card
total saved-71.47