I have to say that I absolutely love CVS.  Why?  3 words… Extra Care Bucks.

If you don’t know what Extra Care Bucks are,  you’re missing out.  It’s CVS’ rewards program and it’s absolutely wonderful.  You purchase items from CVS that are advertised that you receive ECB’s for.  You purchase the item.  You earn ECB’s.  At first, you’re going to have to start out with some Out of Pocket Expense, but I am living proof that you’ll more than make up for it if you play the game correctly.

The key to using CVS to your advantage is to use ECB’s that you earn and couple them with coupons and/or manufacturer rebates. 

For example. 

Last week they ran a promotion – Buy $25 in Baby Care items (and they were specified which were eligible) and receive $10 in ECB.  Sweet deal!  So, I purchased the following:

  • 2 packages of Huggies Gentle Care Diapers (size 1 for diaper cakes) – $10/each
  • 1 Johnson’s Baby Shampoo – $3
  • 1 CVS Soft Wipes – $2

This totaled up to $25 even.  I spent -.25 on the transaction and had to buy a piece of candy to equal it out!  So I spent .02 on the ENTIRE transaction!?

How? 

Coupons and ECB’s! 

Coupons I used:

  • 2 $5 off Huggies (printable from a few weeks ago)
  • $2 off Johnson’s product – Printable Coupon
  • ECB’s $13,49 total ($10 from Covergirl Promo, $3.49 from Toothpaste Promo)

My most recent conquer was today.  2 Healthy Dentist Mouthwashes. 

Buy 1 and get $4 ECB.  Retail is $6.99 on each.  I bought 2 and I had 2 $2/1 coupons which brought each item down to $4.99. I had $10 in ECB’s ($6 from this week’s Always Pads and $4 from another transaction this week) so I paid a total of .34 for the 2 bottles of Mouthwash.  Here’s where it gets better… There is a link to get $10 back on 2 Healthy Dentist Mouth Rinse Products, so this is a money maker – big time.  I’ll make $9.66 on the deal when I receive my $10 check from Healthy Dentist.

This is how you have to learn how to work the system.  Buy items for free, or next to free by using coupons and receive the ECB’s associated.  Use those ECB’s on other transactions to buy items that earn more ECB’s.  Once you get the hang of it, it’s really pretty cool.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE to walk out of a store, knowing they “paid” me to take something out of there! And it’s PERFECTLY LEGAL! 

My tip?  Use CVS to the best of your ability.  You’ll have to put a couple of dollars out of pocket to start your stash, but when you do, it will come back to you.  I initially invested about $26 and that was for $74.96 worth of stuff (I did separate transactions so that I could use my ECB’s from a previous transaction to get stuff for super cheap). Once I did that, I had a small start and just kept building my ECB’s with minimal out of pocket (OOP) Expense.  Most of the time I spend about $4 – $5 OOP and get ECB’s to cover what I have spent.  Right now I have about $20 in ECB’s sitting around waiting to be used and I can be picky on what I buy now. 

Don’t get too carried away, or you’ll have enough toothpaste to brush the teeth of everyone in the tri-state area.  Trust me, I know this from personal experience. 

Best of all?  IT’S FUN TO GET STUFF FREE!

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