Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Make CVS work for you!


CVS at first glance is a complicated store with deals that are sometimes difficult to understand. Going there can be, to say the least, a little intimidated and sometimes overwhelming. We're hoping this guide gives you the courage to walk into CVS like you own the store, make the cashier have her jaw hit the counter and walk out with a cart full of items for next to nothing!


Your first CVS baby step-


  1. The first step to take before you can even begin shopping is to either go in the store or online here and fill out the Extra Care membership form. The benefit of going in the store is you will be able to get the card immediately rather then having to wait two weeks for it to come in the mail.

The Extra Care program Overview-

  • Extra Care Bucks or ECB's are CVS rewards that will give you money back to spend in the store however you want. Always remember to have the cashier scan your Extra Care card first so you never miss out on the Extra Care Bucks!

  • You will earn 2% cash back on every purchase in store and online. Every three months these Extra Bucks will print out at the end of your receipt.

  • You can also earn one Extra Care buck for every two prescriptions purchased in the store or online.

  • The other ways to Earn Extra Care Bucks is by looking at the weekly and monthly featured items. They often have promotions where a product is FREE after ECB's (Extra Care Bucks) meaning if you purchased something for $3.99 you would get $3.99 back in ECB's. These will always print out at the end of your receipt after your transaction is finished.

Don't do your first CVS Deal without these-

  • The first thing you need to do is go here and sign up for CVS email offers. Immediately they will send you a $4 off $20 in store or online coupon. If you have already signed up for email offers you can update your email address here and they will send you a new 4/20 coupon. These store coupons are key to getting amazing deals at CVS.

  • Always be on the look out for other CVS store product coupons. Some will print out at the end of your receipt after your Extra Care Bucks. You can also sometimes find printable coupons here. I have also found CVS coupons in various magazines. Remember just like Walgreen's CVS lets you use a store coupon and a manufacturers coupon on one product.

Once you are ready to checkout always put your coupons in this order-

  • First give them the 4/20 store coupon since your total could go lower then $20 after manufacturer and additional store coupons.

  • Next give all your CVS product coupons

  • Then give the manufacturers coupons

  • Last give your Extra care Bucks

We will start listing the CVS weekly deals this coming week. So stay tuned!

Confused? Questions are always welcome! :-)


For more CVS Deals and CVS Coupons visit the new Hip2Save.com




35 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm new to CVS. Today I did the suave deal $3 for $6. I was surprised that they did not take off the $2 care bucks off. It was on the recipt for the next purchase. When does the care bucks expire? Can you tell me what the
4/20 store coupon is? Should I be saving the extra care coupons untill the next purchase? I do my shopping every two weeks. Thanks for any help. You have a wonderful site!
gmwickmiller@gmail.com

Hip2Save said...

Hi,

Yes, you're right. The Extra Care Bucks are printed off after your purchase to use on your next transaction. If you look on the Extra Care Bucks that printed off for the Suave you should see the expiration date. I think they give you around 1 month to use them.

The $4 off $20 coupon is a $4 off any $20 CVS purchase coupon (you can use it when your total is at or above $20 before all manuf. coupons). These type of coupons will sometimes print off at the end of your receipt and you can use them next time you're at CVS. They use to have these emailed to you when you register your email address at CVS.com, but it looks like they may have stopped doing that.

Oh and yes save all your Extra Care Bucks, since you will able able to use them like cash on your next purchase!:)

Meghan said...

I am so sorry, I cannot find on the website where to sign up for the 4 off 20, can you help?

Hip2Save said...

I'm sorry... I don't think the coupons available anymore!:(

Shanna Barnhisel said...

I don't have CVS in my area but my sister in MT does. I have taught her how to do Wags but there are some great deals I know she would like to take advantage of at CVS so I am trying to understand how it works so I can help her with that. When you post the weekly deals and it gives a limit of 1, does that mean 1 for the month (like a Wags rebate item) or 1 per transaction (like a Wags RR deal)? And are ECB's coupons like RRs?

Hip2Save said...

Shanna,
Yes, Ecb's are similar to RR's. When I say limit one it means that ONLY one purchase of the item will produce an Ecb, so if you are purchasing more then one you will still only get one Ecb. Hope that makes sense.

However, if the limit is 3, then you'll be able to purchase 3 at the same time and get an Ecb back for each one.

Shanna Barnhisel said...

Thanks for always answering questions. On the limit on ECB items, does that mean one per transaction, one per day, one per month?

Hip2Save said...

Shanna,
The Ecb limits I list in my monthly deals are for the whole month long and in the weekly deals the Ecbs and limits change on a weekly basis.

Brit said...

can you only get 1 ECB deal per transacation or can multiple ECB's print out?

Hip2Save said...

Brit,
No, it's not like Walgreens. You can do as many Extra Care Buck deals as you want in one transaction. Just remember what the limit is for each Ecb deal.

Angela said...

ok, been working on this for a couple of months, but i have been doing cvs and wgs similar in that if i can buy more than one item that produces an ecb, i only do one in each transaction because this is the way wgs does the rr, but sounds like you are saying if the limit is 2 or 3 to get your ecb's then you can purchase all in the same transaction and still get all the ecbs?
thanks! you're great!

Angela said...

to clarify the above question, i am asking about the same product, not just other ecb deals.
thanks!

Hip2Save said...

Yes, Angela you are correct. You will be able to purchase the limit of all the same ECB deals in one transaction and it will generate the correct amount of Ecb's.

Example:
If your purchase shampoo that would generate a $3Ecb and the limit was 3, then you could purchase 3 in the same transaction and you would get a $9Ecb back.

Hope that makes sense!:)

Anonymous said...

If my total is 3.95 can I use $4 ecb?

Anonymous said...

What does it mean "up to $2.00" can I use it for 1.99?

Anonymous said...

Does CVS double coupons? I was going through the deals you have listed and the cost you have listed shows the final cost after the coupon is doubled. If so how much do they double up to? Thanks

Hip2Save said...

No, if your total is $4, then you will not be able to use the $4Ecb. Your total before tax has to be at or over $4.

Hip2Save said...

Sorry for the confusion. CVS does NOT double coupons. The Final cost I provide is after you get the Extra Care Bucks, so that's probably why it looks like the coupons are being doubled.

Anonymous said...

so it looks like the first few times i shop, i will be building up ECBs and will have to wait until I can use coupons and ECBs to make my total plummet, right?

Hip2Save said...

Yes, that's correct. Once you build up enough Ecbs you'll be able to roll them every week and spend very little out of pocket!

mia said...
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mia said...
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Anonymous said...

i just came across this FREE iPhone app that you may want to post on your site!
It's called CardStar (i've never used it and don't have an iPhone, but i would use this if i had one!).
It's an iPhone/iPod Touch application that is normally .99 cents but is currently FREE to download (for a limited time), and it basically enables you to input all of your club/reward card numbers that you have, and it will automatically generate a barcode that matches the one on the card, and the merchant just scans the barcode on your iphone. No more carrying a ton of store cards! :)
You can find it in iTunes and search for "CardStar" and it's the first application listed.

Anonymous said...

I'm new to CVS. I just received 4/20 in my email and have $9 (5&4) ECB's. I'm looking for tips to maximize savings. Do I try to use all 3 in a transaction?

Hip2Save said...

Anon,
Check out the weekly deals post and then figure out the best way to get your total up to $20. Use the $4/$20 coupon first, any manufacturer coupons and the the previous Ecb's you earned. Soon you'll be able to roll ecbs back and forth with spending very little out of pocket!:)

Anonymous said...

Im new to using CVS card andmy balance is 10.68 and it says this in my account info on ECB
2% of your Spring 2009 Spend will be issued on July 1st. Rewards are redeemable in-store and online. and then it says end date 6/16/09 so does that mean I have to use the 10.68 by the 16th or that I can use it starting the 1st? Im sorda confused

Sarah said...

Can you use your ECB's the next day after you get them like RR at Walgreens? Or do you have to wait a while to be able to use them?

Hip2Save said...

Sarah,
Yes, you can use your Ecb's the day after you get them. You can also use them the day of, just in another transaction!

Anonymous said...

My tip is always scan your card the minute you walk in the store at the littel machines they have all over the store that you can use to scan your procuct to get the price. Coupons prints out of there everytime you do it. Lots of 5/25 and 4/20 and one day I got a 7/49 Whoo hoo

Anonymous said...

I understand that when there are "free" items (like buy x at 2.99 and get 2.99 back in extra bucks) that you can only get the deal once per card. So, 1. can you purchase it and get the extra bucks back without swiping your card? and 2. Do people then get more than one card under different names? Like does every family member get a card with a different number? Or is that unethical/not right? Just trying to understand the system. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

While I have heard “Extra Care Bucks can be used just like cash” there is a difference. I recently was at CVS and bought one item that cost 4.98. I had 2 extra care bucks - one for 1.98 and one for 3.00. I was told that since I only had one item, I could only use 1 extra care buck. I had used multiple ECBs previously without any issues, but I had also purchased multiple items (probably had more items than ECBs). Just an FYI to others to keep in mind the “ECBs to items ratio”. Next time if I want to get a single item and have 2 ECBs, I will also purchase a small priced item so I have 2 purchases for the 2 ECBs.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure whoever told you that was incorrect.

Unknown said...

I just wanted to give a great big "KUDOS" to my local CVS - 190 Keith St, Cleveland, TN 37320 Phone: 423-476-4539. My mother and I stopped in today to buy the Transformers 2 movie at $6.99 after coupons.

Due to financial problems, my husband and I couldn't afford to pay for the movie, so my mother offered to buy it for us as a gift. My mother is new to CVSing with ECBs and has never scanned her ExtraCare card for coupons. She automatically received $3 off a photobook! Right up her alley - she was excited.

She paid $10.57 for the movie, candy for my daughter and a 12-count pack of TP. We used the $5 off $25 coupon and 2 separate coupons for the movie. The store manager rang us out and was encouraging and congratulatory on our savings. As he was handing us our receipt, he said we had "lucked" into another deal. If we let him call CVS customer service from my cell phone, he would give us a FREE $5 CVS gift card. I said "heck yes" and handed him my phone. 2 minutes later we were on our way out the door with gift card in hand.

ALSO, being new to ECBing, my mother had not taken advantage of the Glade candle deal for $6.99 and get back $6.99 in ECBs. I just happened to have a $3 off Glade coupon with me and told her she would make $3 by using it. They were out of stock of all Glade products but offered to write a raincheck. I said that's ok, cause she wouldnt receive the ECBs. SHOWS HOW LITTLE I KNOW! :) The manager said he had a code to write on it to print those as well!

So at the end of the day, mom bought me all that stuff for $10.57, and walked out with $15 in CVS money! I think she's planning on making 2 photobooks and only having to pay $1 + tax OOP!

The manager (I forgot to get his name) was wonderful and said to SPREAD THE NEWS! CVS LOVES COUPONERS!!!!

Amy said...

Does 1 CVS instore coupon take off for all of the items your are purchasing in that transaction? For example, if you use the Kleenex CVS coupon in the FLU book and you buy 3 boxes of tissue, would that coupon take off $3 for $1 off each box or would it just take it off for one? I hope that makes sense, I am jut wondering if they work like Walgreens instore coupons...

Anonymous said...

I live in the land of local grocers and very few national chains however I will be visiting my in-laws in Chicago for a few days in December where CVS is right down the street. I constantly see deals on this site for CVS and crave so badly to be able to do them. Is there any merit to signing up for the ECB program to be able to do deals when I visit 4 or 5 times a year? I've also noticed any time we've ran in there previous we were charged an exorbant price because we didn't have a members card, is that a separate card I'd have to apply for and do you think I could do that living in a state that doesn't have a CVS.