Coupons On Caffeine: How to Make CVS work for you

I know most people don't shop at drug stores. They are well known to be WAY more expensive than say a target. BUT I LOVE this store. I love it because of all there is to offer!

So first thing you are going to need is a wonderful CVS card. Get these at the check out.
Then you should go HERE and register your card. They will send you an email for 4.00 off any 20.00 purchase!
And you will get many more emailed coupons as time goes on.
The best part of these coupons, it's spend 20.00 BEFORE any other coupons OR extra care bucks (more on extra care bucks later) you may have.
You will also want to register your card with UPromise.

The next thing you are going to want to do is scan that card every time you walk in the store
When I say I got a coupon from the "magic coupon machine" or the "kiosk"
I mean this thing

Scan your card and out pop coupons based on your purchase history. If you buy a lot of diapers you will get coupons off diapers, buy razors you will get coupons on razors. You get the thought process here. NOW every week you get new coupons. SO the first time you go in the store for the week scan it twice. The first set of coupons are generated for JUST YOU. The second time you scan it will be generic coupons. These are coupons that will print for anyone and every time you scan your card later in the week. These are linked to your card. They can only be redemed with that CVS card.

NOW to learn about Extra Care Bucks (ECB) think of these as store credit. They are linked to your card. You can only use your ECB with your card. You will notice 4 digits on the ECB. These should the the last few numbers on your card. ECB do NOT cover tax. They will pay for your whole purchase but you will end up having to pay tax on all items pre coupon total.

So how to use the ECB.

Lets say there is a deal for buy 10.00 worth of products and you will get 3.00 ECB back. That 10.00 is BEFORE coupons. So lets say you grab your $10.00 in participating items. Then you have a $2.00 manufacture coupon. You "purchased" 10.00 worth but you paid $8.00. You still get that 3.00 ECB back! You must note that every ECB deal has a limit. So the ECB will only print for that card that number of times. Make sure you pay attention to this and not over buy and wonder why you did not get your ECB.

So lets put it all together in an "imaginary" situation.

You scan your card and you get a 1.00 off 1 name brand razor

You have a coupon from the Sunday paper (manufacture coupon) for 4.00 off that Razor

There is an ECB deal when you buy one of these razors for 9.99 you will get back 5.00 in ECB

You have 5.00 In ECB from last week when you did a deal.

Give the checker your razor and have them scan your card.

Then hand over BOTH the CVS coupon and the coupon from the Sunday paper

(CVS lets you use one cvs coupon WITH a manufacture coupon)

then hand over your 5.00 ECB from last week

You are going to pay TAX on that razor! that's it!

THEN on your receipt you will find a 5.00 ECB and a note that says "thank you for purchasing this razor here are your 5.00 ECB)

Now you can do several things with these ECB. If you choose to you can save it for next week and use it to buy things that will generate more ECB. This is called Rolling your ECB. OR you can buy things that you need around the house with that 5.00 ECB. Some states let you buy milk with ECB, some don't. You may never buy tobacco or liquor or gift cards. You may buy Postage stamps or just about anything else CVS sells.

One last thing about CVS. They have what is called a GREEN BAG TAG. These are 1.00 each.

And they look like this. You can find them at the register. Here is the deal with this. You scan this after you scan your card and ONE item that you are going to purchase. You bring in your own bag. ( I just have a really big purse) For every 4 times you scan it (you earn credit one time per day) you will get $1.00 ECB. After 4 visits you have paid for the green bag tag and now you get a nice little bonus ECB.