Shopping Tips for CVS!

Learn How to Shop CVS, Tip One – The CVS Card
You need to get a CVS card to shop at CVS. You can get this card online (they will ship it to you) or in the store. The store will give you the card immediately so that is better if you are planning your first trip soon. Once you have your card then make sure it is scanned for every purchase. If you forget your card the cashier can look up your account using your phone number and you will still get credit.

Learn How to Shop CVS, Tip Two – The CVS weekly ad 

The weekly ad comes in the Sunday newspaper and is posted online.  It has the weekly deals, including ECB deals.

Learn How to Shop CVS, Tip Three – The CVS Monthly ECB Ad
This can be found at the front of the store. It is good for the month and will only include ECB deals.

Learn How to Shop CVS, Tip Four – CVS Coupons
CVS will issue coupons that are specific to your Extracare Card. You can get these coupons through your email (so be sure to give it to them), via snail mail, printed out after your receipt, and via the coupon printer that is in the store. If your store has a coupon printer then you can scan your card until it reads “no coupons available”. That usually means you can scan it 2-3 times. Sometimes these are for specific products and sometimes they are for a dollar amount off of a certain dollar amount ($3 off $15 for example). 

Learn How to Shop CVS, Tip Five  – CVS Green Bag Tag 
CVS recently issued a green bag tag.  You can attach this tag to your reusable bags and have it scanned at CVS when you use a reusable bag (up to once per day).  You will get a bonus $1 CVS ECB every four times you scan the card.  It does cost you $0.99 to get the tag.

Learn How to Shop CVS, Putting the Tips Together!
You can use one manufacturer coupon and one CVS coupon for each item. You can use one $/$$ coupon per transaction. You will receive the full value ECB even when you use coupons.  You can also “roll” your ECB’s.  This means you can use the ECB’s from a deal to get the same deal.  The ad will tell you how many of that specific deal you are limited to (and so will the bottom of your receipt).

It is best to figure out what you need to use and then give them the CRT’s first, ECB’s next, and Manufacturer coupons last – that will give you your lowest OOP.

Total Cost of Products – CRT coupons – ECB’s + Tax – Manu Coupons = OOP

You can get “bonus” ECB’s by using your green bag tag and with the CVS quarterly award.  Your green bag tag will give you an extra $1 every 4 scans (once per month if you only go once a week).  That may not sound like much, but it will add up.  The quarterly award is given once per quarter and it will be 2% of your total expenditures at CVS that quarter.  I hardly ever get this award since you need to spend at least $50 each quarter and I generally spend less than $1 per week.  But, if you do spend more then you will get that bonus as well.

Each week I post the best CVS deals so you can make your own list using that! Go to my most recent CVS deals post to see what you can get free this week!

CVS Vocab
ECB – “Extra Care Bucks”. These are coupons worth a $ amount good for anything in CVS. They print out after your receipt.
CRT – “Cash Register Tape”. This refers to the coupons that print out after your receipt.
OOP – “Out Of Pocket”. This refers to how much you spend in actual money. ECB’s that you use in the transaction will bring your OOP down, ECB’s that you get will bring your OOP down the next time you shop.