Shopping at CVS

Let me just start by saying I LOVE CVS!!!! Its my new favorite store to shop at (well, I have been shopping there since last April and I still love it!) I honestly never shopped in CVS before then and I always just assumed it would be overpriced like most drugstores, but boy was I wrong! I get everything from prescriptions to household products to personal care to food there! I usually walk out with several bags of stuff and spend VERY little!

One of my favorite things about CVS is they accept competitor coupons in the pharmacy! So watch all sales ads for pharmacy coupons. Target and Kmart regularly have coupons for the pharmacy and CVS will accept them! For example, my family is all sick right now and yesterday I had to get 2 prescriptions for my boys. My copay is $10/each. I had 2 Target coupons for a $10 gift card with any new prescription. SO, I paid $20 for 2 prescriptions and I got $20 back in CVS gift cards!!!!! I LOVE THIS!!!!!

Like many stores, CVS has a card that you need to have before shopping there. Its called an Extra Care Card and looks like this:

This card not only allows you to get the sale price of the items, but does SO much more!

CVS has a system called Extra Care Bucks. Each week there will be items on sale that earn these ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) Often times, it makes the product FREE...for example, you might have toothpaste on sale for $2.50 and you earn $2.50 back in ECBs, making it free. ECBs print at the bottom of your receipt after purchase and you can use them in the store on your next purchase just like cash! (they must be used in whole though, say you have a $5 ECB, you can't just use $3 of it, the entire thing must be used at one time)

In addition to weekly sales, they also have monthly sales and these items earn ECBs for the entire month. You can find a booklet at the front of your store that has all that months deals in it.

You also earn 2% back of all your purchases! Once a quarter you'll get an ECB printed out with your quarterly earnings. Yesterday I had a nice surprise of a $13.50 ECB!!!! (yes, I shop in this store alot!)

In addition to ECBs, your card will also allow you to get different coupons everytime you shop that will be printed on the bottom of your receipt just like the ECBs.

AND my favorite thing is in the front of the store, you will find a little red machine (many people refer to this thing as their boyfriend because you will come to love it alot!) and it looks like a price scanner, but if you go in and scan your card, it will spit out coupons for you!!!! I get some great coupons out of this little red machine! (check to see if your local store has one, my store just got one a month or so ago and I get so excited to go in and scan my card now!)

Some other tips for shopping CVS:

*they do allow one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon per item.

*on items that are BOGO, you can use a BOGO manufacturer coupon, making both items free.

*my store starts switching their sales over on Saturday (sales should start on Sunday) and if you shop on Saturday, you not only get to take advantage of this weeks sales, but next weeks sales too! (however, shopping that late in the week could result in things being out of stock)

*on most items (unless otherwise stated) CVS will issue a raincheck if they are out of stock. I have done this a couple of times and never had problems getting or using the raincheck.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you, but I have been so excited about sharing CVS deals with you and I am so glad to finally be able to do so! Let me know if you have any further questions!

Click HERE for more info.

Watch for my CVS list coming soon...hopefully today!