I have saved a ton of money at CVS, I have also screwed up and spent way more money than I meant to. When I go to CVS, I strictly stick to my list to maximize my savings. If I start to stray from my list, that's when I spend to much money.
Most of CVS' really good deals revolve around Extra Care Bucks (ECB). You have to have an Extra Care Card, so if you don't have one sign up here or at your local CVS, which is easier and you get your card right away. CVS stipulates only one card per household and I also recommend only having one card.* Extra Care Bucks can be used like cash on a future purchase. I have always seen limits on the amount of products you can purchase and get an ECB. For example, if Scope has an ECB deal attached to it and the limit is 2 and you purchase 3, you will only get 2 ECBs printed.
When you sit down with your CVS paper, look for the ECB offers. This means that when you purchase this particular item, you will pay the sale price (minus any coupons you have) and an ECB will print out at the register for use on another purchase. I have had up to $25.00 in ECB at one time and got my next purchase almost completely free. I have also been able to use my ECB to purchase milk, eggs, OJ etc. for our fridge. The first time you shop CVS, you won't have any ECB so your out of pocket price (OOPP) may seem a little high. This is why I have a very comprehensive shopping list. If I see that my OOPP is too much for my budget, I can go and delete things from my list that I migh not "NEED" at the moment.
I know some blogs will walk you through step by step how to do multiple transactions at CVS. Basically, you bring in $5.00-$6.00 and walk out with $25.00-$30.00 worth of products. This does not work for me. I have made my list with my different transactions, got to CVS and all of my list items were out of stock. Then, none of my transactions worked. I check out with one transaction, use my ECB from last week and roll over this week's ECBs to next week. If there aren't any good sales next week, sometimes I will use my ECBs for milk or eggs.
When you see a blog post from me, I will have what you pay out of pocket (OOP). This is the sale price minus any coupons you have. Then I will have a final price, the sale price minus coupons minus ECB received for that offer.
Sometimes CVS will have really good straight up sale prices on items. This week Filippo Berrio Extra Virgin Olive Oil is on sale for $3.99 a bottle (and there is $1.00 off coupon). Walmart has these priced at $5.50 a bottle. That is $1.51 savings without the coupon. Alas, all is not well in coupon world. I have gone to CVS very early on Sunday morning, the first day of the sale and 90% of the items on my list are gone. I have learned to shop CVS for only the ECB deals. If it is a straight up advertised sale with no ECB, I price match at Walmart. I have never run into a problem where Walmart was out of stock.
How do I shop CVS? On Sunday when I get my sale papers, I sit down and list out everything I would like to purchase at CVS that I consider is a good stock up price. Then throughout the week, I check the coupon blogs everyday for deals I might not have seen or may not have been advertised. I copy and paste a good deal from a blog to a Word document and keep a running list on my computer. This is just me. I am able to email my list to my iPhone or iPad and these things are with me all time if I want to pop into CVS on my way back from school. You may just want to keep a running list on a notebook or something similar.
I might stop at CVS throughout the week, if I have time, but I don't plan my trip until Saturday afternoon or evening. Why? Because CVS won't give me a rain check on an out of stock item until this time. I don't think this is a corporate policy and I get the feeling that if I pushed, I could get the rain check anytime during the sale, but I haven't felt the need to do that yet. Yes, CVS will give you a rain check for a deal involving an ECB. Also, because CVS trucks arrive on Friday and they tend to be better stocked on Saturday. This is just my experience and the CVS around the corner from you may be different.
ECBs print out at the bottom of your receipt. Make sure you tear or cut them off and keep them in one place so you can find them next week. I have a 4in. zippered coupon binder from Case It that I love! I have it separated into two sections. The front is my clipped coupons and the back is a place to keep store coupons from the different stores that I shop at. "The Magic Coupon Machine" is a tall red and yellow machine, usually located at the front of the store. If you swipe your Extra Care Card, it will magically, or maybe it will just print, store coupons. I keep these coupons and my ECB in coupon pages under my CVS tab so that I always have them with me. Tip for using coupon machine coupons: It never fails, CVS is ALWAYS out of the item the coupon has printed for. ALWAYS!!! At least for me anyways. I can go at 8:00 on Sunday morning or at 8:00 on Saturday evening, the item is gone. Especially for get one FREE coupons. Ask your cashier, most of the time the coupon will scan for another equal item from the same company. I know my the cashier's at the Raceland and Houma CVS have always been great with this.
CVS has another incentive program. The green leaf for recycling. If you use your own shopping bags, you can purchase (for $.99) the green leaf at the register. Keep it with your Extra Care Card and everytime you use your shopping bag, you can scan the green leaf. After four shopping trips or four scans of your green leaf card and ECB for $1.00 will print out at the bottom of you receipt.
After reading through this, I hope it wasn't too confusing or too long. The best thing to do with CVS or with any coupon strategy, is to jump in and just do it. You will make mistakes and you will learn from them, making us all better couponers in the long run.
*NOTE: There are some couponers I know that have two or three cards, but I can
hardly keep up with the one. Every purchase you make at CVS is tracked
with that card. So the more you spend the more savings you will receive
(every now and then the "Magic Coupon Machine" will spit out a $4 or $5
off your purchase coupon). If you are uberorganized, you may want your
husband or significant other to get a card too. If an ECB deal has a
limit it is limited to that card. So if you have two cards you can
double the deal. Of course, both of you would have to shop. I don't
think CVS would let you check out two transactions with two cards when
the policy is one card per household. Then the ECB you use on future
purchases is linked with the card you use. So you would have to make
sure everything is kept separate. You see how this could start to get
very confusing!!!
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