Today I paid $0.00 out of pocket for $19.98 worth of items. I got those two items for my father and I will be shipping them to him along with some other items that he requested.
This is my last CVS transaction for the year of 2009 and I must say I am pleased with the experiment. I spent a total of $253 of my own money yet generated over $700 in ECBs to enable me to buy things at the store. Now that I am able to use some of my cash back rewards to purchase gift cards for CVS I plan on NOT spending any money out of pocket there again. I will simply use the gift cards and ECBs to gain even more items at discounted prices.
I am also going to reset my CVS tracking spreadsheet to reflect the ending balances of this year. So in 2010 I will be starting with $9 ECB and $11.39 gift card and $0 out of pocket.
Transaction 1
Item: Bayer diabetic monitor
Price: $14.99
CVS Extra Care Bucks earned: $5.00
Item: Efferdent denture tablets
Price: $4.99
CVS Extra Care Bucks earned: $3.00
Also earned one ECB for scanning my green tag reusable shopping bag!!!!!!!
Total coupons used: $9.00 ECB
Total out of pocket today: $11.66 paid with gift card
Total CVS Extra Care Bucks earned today: $9.00
Total out of pocket to date: $253.77
Gift Card balance : $11.39
Total CVS Extra Care Bucks earned to date: $732.27
CVS Extra Care Bucks Used to date: $723.27
CVS Extra Care Bucks Balance: $9.00
Abbreviations used
MFR = manufacturer coupon
ECB = extra care bucks
Join me next time as I look for more ways to save money as I visit CVS.
I would love some tips on how to start earning ECB’s with very little money out of pocket. I am single with no kids and a TINY income (I’m on unemployment). I used my CVS card on a few transactions, but it seems like the big ECB returns are on expensive items (like medical equipment or overpriced chocolate/candy…which I don’t need). I earned a couple of ECBS over the course of the year, but it seemed like I never had any excess money to keep building my supply of ECBs. HELP!
Becca…the first thing I would suggest you do is to gather up your ECBs and see what you have. Then every week take a look at what is on sale and what gives ECBs at CVS and combine those items with coupons to do your shopping.
The only way to spend very little is to only buy things when they are giving ECBs back and then use the ECBs from the last week to get them.
I really need to study these posts more closely to save money at CVS. I never seem to find anything that I need on sale though. But I know the deals are out there because you do so well.
Sometimes it is hard to find such great occasions but you show that those really exist and it is worth to look. I like that and surely will use as many as I will be able to find.
My wife and I shop at CVS all the time, and appaently, we;ve been missing out on a chance to save some money. Not to sound naive, but I had no idea that CVS even offered a point type card. That stinks as we shop there at least once a week for certain things. I’ll definitely be getting one of those ASAP. Thanks for the tip.