Keeping the Castle - Housekeeping & Homemaking Tips

Saving Money at CVS

by Maricar on July 1st, 2008

I’ve been a CVS customer for a long time. I occasionally take advantage of their sales and receive “Extra Care Bucks” (ECB) in my receipts. However, I never realized that significant savings can be had at CVS, with some simple planning. I discovered whole blogs dedicated to saving money at CVS. One of these blogs, the Money Saving Mom, has written up a primer on CVS 101.

This week, I decided to see whether I can cut on my grocery budget with serious CVS savings.

Here’s my CVS transaction for today:

Vaseline lotion - 5.99 (+ 2 ECB)
Viva paper towels (8pk) - 6.99 (+ 2 ECB)
Coppertone sunscreen, Sport - 7.99
Coppertone sunscreen, Waterbabies - 11.49 (+ 10 ECB)

Coupons:
Coppertone manufacturer’s coupon -  1.00
CVS $3/$15 coupon - 1.00

Subtotal = 28.46
Tax = 1.77
Total out of pocket = 30.23

For this transaction, I received a total of 14 ECB, plus another 2.50 ECB for Spring spending. This means that for next week, I have 16.50 ECB to spend. This first week’s transaction should be the most I’ll spend at CVS from now on.

The whole idea behind CVS shopping is to roll over the ECB so I will spend as little out of pocket as possible. I will do this by using existing ECB to buy only items that generate additional ECB. Other tips for saving even more money at CVS are to:

* combine manufacturer’s coupons and extra CVS coupons with ECB

* buy only items that will be used eventually, like soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, etc.

Next week, I’ll check out the sales, and post my CVS transaction again. I want to track whether or not I’ll truly be able to save money using the CVS extra bucks program.

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POSTED IN: CVS Savings, Frugal Living