Welcome to How I Save Money. I have been hearing about the Grocery Game and other variations of shopping CVS so I decided to give it a try to see what that was all about.
When you shop at CVS and sign up for their Extra Bucks plan you get points of varying amounts that you can use as cash in the store. One thing many of the other people neglected to say is that the points expire in one month so you really need to track what you get and when it goes bad.
There are items throughout the store that have extra bucks on them and you get these on your receipt after you pay. The extra bucks come out in the form of a coupon that you can scan on your next transaction.
Each set of CVS bucks prints as its own coupon so if you buy three different items that all have extra bucks then you would get three separate coupons printed.
For my first trip to CVS I decided to go easy since I noticed that the prices of things were much higher than at Walmart, which is where I normally do my shopping. My purchases were as follows:
Item: toothbrush
Price: $3.99
CVS Bucks earned: $3.99
Item: travel pik
Price: $2.79
CVS Bucks earned: $2.79
Item: Purex (buy one get one free)
Price: $5.99
CVS Bucks earned: $0.00
Item: neutrogena conditioner
Price: $6.99 (less $0.50 manufacturer coupon) less $1.00 CVS buck from Baz = $5.49
CVS Bucks earned: $1.00
Total spent with tax less coupons $19.77
Total CVS bucks earned $7.78
Now I realize that I could have done things differently and saved a little money by using the CVS extra bucks to pay for the purchases I had made. If I bought each of the items separately and used the coupons from the toothpaste to pay for the conditioner then I would have saved on the tax paid and on the total price.
I am new to the CVS model so I just wanted to get a few items and some extra bucks at the same time.
Since the CVS extra bucks for the toothbrush and the travel pik were the same as the price it is (almost) like getting it for free. The store says it is like you get the item for free…but you do need to remember that you pay tax on the total amount. And it is only free IF you end up using the extra bucks to pay for something else later on.
If I decided to stop today and never buy anything else at CVS then the extra bucks are useless to me and I did not get the items for ‘free’.
I am going to roll over these extra bucks so please do come back and see if I can save money at CVS!
Do you shop at CVS?
Do you use a shopping rewards program?
LuLuGal – I was actually planning on writing a post on my blog about CVS and how great I think it is. While I understand that the items are not “free”, it can be very close if you go there frequently. We buy all of our pop (soda to some) there. Every couple of weeks they offer extra bucks on Coke or Pepsi products which is when we go and stock up. It is actually fun to me to try and throw in the use of coupons with the extra bucks to save even more money. I have even used $4.00 off coupons when you spend $20 to get prices knocked down even more and sometimes throw in a manufacturer’s coupon as well.
I try to go at least once or twice a month as i live 30 mile to the closest CVS. I always go before my ECB’s expire and each month they have new deals as well as each week. If you combine coupons with ECB’s you can actually get your oop down to little or nothing. When you go into the store look for one of the price scanners and scan your card, it will also print out a coupon. Mine have been $5 off a $15 purchase. Check out Money Saving Mom for idea’s on getting the most for your buck. She does a great job on doing all the work for you. I am saving all my extra items purchased that i won’t use for the women’s shelter. I also give items to my BF and to my DH grammie as she gives me all of her coupons.
Good Luck, I enjoy reading your blog!!
Angie
@ Passive:
Go ahead and post those tips for people like me who are new to CVS. We all need all the help we can get when it comes to saving money.
@ Angie:
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to keep coming back and commenting. I love hearing from my readers and if you have any CVS super tips be sure to share them here as well.
I posted on this too! It takes a lot of work to keep up with it and it’s sometimes hard to find things you actually need, but when you do… it’s great!
Thanks for the link Blood!
Come see us at http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/cvs/ to save even more money! We have the ads posted in advance, a weekly newsletter dedicated to CVS and the best members on the net.
I have actually joined HCW and check it all the time for my previews. š
I have been a member of the site for a few weeks now…but thanks for the heads up anyway.