A few readers have asked me how to ”work the deals at CVS” to maximize your savings, start a little stockpile, and pay as little as possible OOP (out of pocket in frugal-blog speak).
Here are your money saving and time saving tips for CVS Discount Shopping from coupons to prescriptions to OTC medications:
1. Get a CVS EXTRA CARE REWARD CARD and register it online.
With the CVS Extra Care Card you will receive the sale prices, ExtraBucks® rewards on selected items, and quarterly ExtraBucks® rewards on all of your CVS purchases and prescriptions, and CVS coupons for a variety of products in the store.
Get your card at CVS and you can begin to use it right away.
Register Your Card Online at CVS.com by clicking on the ”Extra Care” icon. Elect to get all CVS home and email mailings. If you want to get a separate free email address from
Google or
Yahoo for all your online coupons and sign-ups, you should. To maximize your CVS savings, you need to get their emails and in home coupons.
To thank you for registering your card you should receive an email from CVS with a $4 coupon good on a $20 purchase if you gave an email address.
What you get back each quarter: CVS Extra Care customers receive 2% back quarterly for their out of pocket purchases as an ECB (ExtraCare Buck) which will be printed on the bottom of your first receipt of the new quarter, the next time you shop at CVS and scan your card.
Extra Care customers also receive $1 for every two prescriptions filled at CVS. These also print out quarterly and are included in the same ECB as the quarterly out of pocket spending mentioned above.
2. Always scan your CVS card upon entering the store in the kiosk used for price checking at the front of the store. You will get coupons that print out that you can use now or hang onto them and match them up with a sale.
3. Sign up for the ExtraCare® Beauty Club – you can join online at
CVS.com or just have the cashier sign you up in store. It is worth it! You get a
10% off beauty shopping pass after enrollment, $5 ExtraBucks® rewards for every $50 spent on qualifying beauty purchases (CVS automatically keeps track) and $3 in ExtraBucks® rewards on your birthday.
4. Working the deals - read the Sunday CVS circular or check in at
More With Less Today where I will list the EBC deals and the best sales. The CVS circular will list the items that will give you ECB’s and you can check the weekly circular online at
CVS.com. Those ECB’s will print on your receipt with your purchase. Some items will be “free after extra bucks.” These are ideal for donating if your family will not use them.
Ask for a raincheck if the store is out of stock. The rainchecks never expire. Find a way to save your ECB’s and have them handy. The ExtraBucks® rewards have an expiration date. I put them in an envelope in my purse and write the expiration date on the front of the envelope. If there is an item I need from CVS, I also write that on the front of the envelope.
If you have more money in ExtraBucks® rewards than you are spending, you will not get cash back for the difference so grab some inexpensive filler items before you check out. Check the bottom of your CVS receipt as soon as you check out to be sure your ExtraBucks® rewards printed. If it did not, notify the cashier and they can manually print it for you.
When you get rolling with this, you will learn to roll over your ECB’s. To “roll” an extra buck means to spend it at CVS on an item that will give you ExtraBucks® rewards back. You “roll” it into another ExtraBucks® reward with a later expiration date while “purchasing” a free, or nearly free, product with your current ExtraBucks® reward you earned from an earlier transaction at CVS. See? The wheels are turning! You can do this! They will be calling you to star in a reality show too.
5. Use Manufacturer’s Coupons too - you can use ONE manufacturers coupon and ONE CVS coupon per item. If you have a Crest coupon put out by the manufacturer and a Crest CVS coupon, you can use both of these for the toothpaste. If there is an ExtraBucks® reward on the product, you get that too.
A manufacturers coupon will have a UPC beginning with a 9 or a 5, and a CVS coupon UPC code will begin with a 4.
6. Ring up separate transactions – some CVS coupons say “one per customer” and this means ”one per transaction.” If there are people behind you in line, maybe do two transactions. Any more than that and I get out of line and go to the back of the line. As George Costanza says” we are living in a society,” so be considerate.
If you get ECB’s on an item you know you can use after you have checked out, often it is easy to take an extra minute and go get the item right then and use the ECB you just got and check out again, rather than make another unnecessary trip. If you have your kids or husband with you, disregard this scenario.
7. Join Upromise and link your CVS card to your Upromise account. If you are already a member of Upromise, go to their website and make sure your CVS card is linked. Scan your UPromise keytag when you check out. You can have a few bucks put into a college savings account for free, each time to shop at CVS. Even if you just earn enough money for textbooks, when the time comes, you be be delighted to have this account.
Upromise – Start Your Kid’s College Savings Today – Join Now
8. CVS Pharmacy will accept the “transfer your prescription” coupons from competitors. If you see Rite Aid or Target coupons to transfer a prescription. I spoke with my CVS manager and was told that CVS will accept these. If you see several of these coupons, use them one transaction at a time if you want to transfer more than 1 prescription.
9. I found two sites that offer coupons for prescription drugs, Internet Drug Coupons and Drugzoo. CVS will accept these Internet coupons, so check these sites first to get available coupons for your prescriptions.
10. Save your CVS receipts and submit them for rebates to The Caregivers Marketplace. You can read all about their free program here. They offer rebates for OTC medications and products and also offer diaper rebates. This is a great way to stretch your dollars and get cash back on your CVS purchases for medication and OTC products!
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