CVSing

So friends and family have been asking me about "CVSing."  This is how I refer to it when I am talking to my husband. Hopefully you have a CVS drugstore near you because if you do- you can get a lot for a little. I've been waiting for some good weekly deals to come up, but there hasn't been anything outstanding lately.  This week is okay though- so it is a good week if you are learning.  It can be a bit intimidating at first, but you get used to it.  I'm still no pro.  If you want a pro, check out "dealseekingmom"  She shows CVS scenarios every weekend on her blog. 

CVSing 101 - CVS has Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) that print on the bottom of your receipt after buying certain featured products for that week/month.  So I usually do 2 or 3 transactions when I check out so that I can rip off the ECBs from my first receipt and use it on my second transaction and then rip off the ECBs from the bottom of my 2nd receipt to use on my 3rd transaction.  Make sense?

So in the weekly add it will often advertise a product for let's say 3$ and then you receive $3 ECB that prints on your receipt.  So a very small step would be to buy that product in your first transaction and then use the ECB that print out to buy something in a second transaction. (It will be like getting the $3 product for free)  Now to take it a step farther- use coupons!  I keep any and all coupons (especially RedPlum and Proctor & Gamble inserts that come in Sunday's paper)  So if you have a $1 off coupon for that $3 product- now you are only paying $2 out of pocket for it, then getting $3 ECB for it.  So that's my little intro- hope it helps those of you who want to get started.

So here are a few of the good ECB deals this week at CVS:

• Buy $25 worth of huggies products and get $5 ECBs  (get 2 $2/2 coupons using coupons.com link on my left side bar) and don't forget about the caregiver's marketplace
  
• Buy $20 worth of Energizer batteries, get $10 ECBs. Use $1 off coupon here
  
• Buy Powerade for $1.59, get $1.59 ECBs
  
• Buy Schick Quatro or Intuition razor for women for $8.99, get $4 ECBs
  
• Buy $20 Hersheys candy, get $10 ECBs. Use this $1 off coupon for Hershey's Bliss
  
• Buy Colgate Total at $1.99 and pay $.49 after this coupon

Now here is what you can do this week if your getting started and you can use diapers and batteries! I had ECBs already from previous transactions, so this deal was even sweeter for me (you'll get there!)

1st transaction- buy 1 powerade (I like this stuff) for $1.59 and get $1.59 ECBs

2nd transaction- buy $20 worth of Energizer batteries (4 packs of 6-8 batteries, depending on the size- we use them so I like to stock up when opportunities arise!). These are all on sale for $5.99.  When I went each pack had an instant $1 peelie coupon on them so that brought the total down from about $24 to about $20. You can also print off at least 2 $1 off Energizer coupons here.  Use $1.59 ECBs and pay roughly $18.41, get $10 ECBs

3rd transaction- buy $25 worth of Huggies products. 2 jumbo packs for $10 each, 2 boxes of wipes for 2.50 each, for me.  That brought the total to the needed $25.  Now I used 4 coupons (1 for each product) So I used $3 worth of diaper coupons and $1 worth of wipes coupons and got all for around $21.  Used the $10 ECBs from 2nd transaction and payed $11 out of pocket and earned $5 ECBs for my next trip (basically a $5 gift card in my wallet now!)

So total spent on 1 bottle of powerade, 4 packs of batteries (like 30 batteries!), 2 packs of diapers and 2 boxes of wipes all for $31 out of pocket.  Minus the $5 ECBs for next time I need something from the drugstore and it is like paying $26 for all that stuff.  Diapers and wipes alone would have cost that much!  Believe me- this isn't even that great of a week for CVS- the deals are sometimes much better- like I NEVER pay for toothpaste, deodorant, or bodywash- seriously-free.  I'll let you know when some more CVS deals come out!

Hopefully I have written this in a way that you can understand- Comment with questions if you have any.  Save your coupons- often you can get stuff for free or better than free when they are featured at CVS!