January 2009

I recently discovered the way to free items or at least nearly free from this store. I am sure many of you recall the advertisement on television a while back, where the woman is sitting on the park bench and opens her prescription, to find a $1.00 bill folded inside of the lid. Well, if not, you now are up to date.

Anyhow, CVS offers both monthly and weekly Extra Cash Bucks, or as they are many times referred to as ECBs. You can learn more about the Exta Care Card and Bucks by clicking on the logo above. This will navigate you away from this site, so bookmark this location before you go and read, so you can easily get back here to read more!

You can not being to earn ECBs until you have a CVS card. So sign up for one as soon as possible. It could take a couple of weeks to receive your card, but that will give you time to study up so you are ready to hit the ground running when you get it.

So now you have your card and are asking, “How do I earn these ECBs?” Excellent question. My answer to you is simple — You will purchase items that include this offer. When you scan the ads, look for the items that say the sale price, less your ECB to show your net cost. These are the ones to watch. As time goes on, you will learn what is a good deal, what is great and what is HOLY COW!!!!!! I will also try to post the amazing deals on this blog to help you.

In addition to purchasing specific items within the store, your total spending is tracked, per quarter. At the end of that period you are given 2% back on what you purchased in the form of ECB. The total you spend includes your prescriptions and everything, so it can add up quite nicely!!

ECB are printed at the BOTTOM of your receipt. They are like cash, so if you lose them, you can not get them back. I recommend that when you make your purchase to put your receipt in your bag, go home, tear the ECB and/or coupons (which also print on your receipt) and file them into an envelope or something labeled CVS. Don’t toss these items as you never know just WHAT you may need later on.

So, now you are ready to go into the store. Let’s start at the very beginning, when you have no ECB. For our scenario, we are going to assume that Colgate Toothpaste is on sale 2/$5.00. This sale price includes $2.00 in ECB earned and limits the purchases to 2 per household. So, let’s run some scenarios for you. Ready? Here we go……………..

PURCHASE WITH NO ECB TO USE

(2) Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Subtotal $5.00
In this scenario, you paid $5.00, but earned back $2.00. Therefore, you really got your toothpaste for $3.00, or $1.50 per tube. Not bad, huh? Wait, it can get better.

ECB Earned $2.00 and Out of Pocket (oop) $5.00

Now, let’s start to work on making this worth your while. Instead of purchasing only two (2) tubes of toothpaste, toss four (4) of them into your cart. We are going to do what is called “multiple transactions.” Here’s how that works.

Transaction #1
2 Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Subtotal $5.00

You just earned $2.00 ECB and spent $5.00, making the toothpaste cost $2.50 each. Now, take the $2.00 ECB from the bottom of your receipt and put it on the counter with the other two tubes of toothpaste. This is your 2nd transaction:

Transaction #2
2 Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Less ECB – 2.00
Subtotal $3.00

You earned another $2.00 ECB and spent $3.00, making the the 4 tubes of toothpaste cost a total of each ($5.00 for Trans #1 +$3.00 for Trans #2 = $8.00/ 4 = $2.00). We can only get these ECB twice as there is a limit of 2 sets of ECB per household. However, when the limit is more, keep repeating the transaction in this same way until you have maxed your purchases. As you buy more, the cost per tube would continue to decrease.

OK, I can see you smiling!! It will get even BETTER……keep on reading!!!

Now, let’s say that you are ready to get this toothpaste and still have no ECB, however, you DO have two coupons for $1.00 off of the toothpaste. Here is how that will look:

NO ECB YET – BUT DO HAVE COUPONS

2 Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Less 2 coupons -2.00
Subtotal 3.00

You will have ECB earned $2.00 and oop will be $3.00. This means you will have paid just $1.00 for both tubes of toothpaste, or $0.50 each ($3.00 oop – $2.00 ECB = $1.00) !! So, let’s say you have 4 coupons, you could even pick up 4 tubes like this:

Transaction #1
2 Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Less 2 coupons -2.00
Subtotal 3.00

ECB earned $2.00 and your oop is $3.00.

Transaction #2
2 Colgate Toothpaste $5.00
Less 2 coupons -2.00
Less ECB from Trans #1 -2.00
Subtotal $1.00

ECB earned of $2.00 and your oop is $1.00

So now, you have spent $4.00 out of pocket for 4 tubes of toothpaste, making them $1.00 each. BUT, if you net out the ECB you earned, you actually paid $2.00 for 4 tubes of toothpaste making them cost you just $0.25 each!!!! Again, showing you the more you can do a transaction, the less you will pay for your products.

Now that you understand that, let’s step it up a notch, k? Here is what we’ve got to work with,

Colgate Toothpaste 2/$5.00 (earn $2.00 in ECB)
ECB of $4.00 from a prior purchase
2 Colgate Coupons of $1.00 each

Here is what your transaction would look like:

2 tubes of toothpaste $5.00
2 coupons -2.00
Less ECB -4.00
Subtotal -1.00

Well, you can’t get money back, so what you need to do is find a “filler”. Good things to get are small snacks or other small items with smaller ECB values. So, let’s say we found some Gold Emblem crackers for $1.97 with $1.00 in ECB. Here’s what it will look like now:

2 tubes of toothpaste $5.00
1 box crackers 1.97
2 Colgate Coupons -2.00
Less ECB -4.00
Subtotal .97

Earned $3.00 in ECB…..so this transaction is actually a Money Maker, or MM ($0.97 oop less $3.00 in ECB = -$2.03). You could have even found something that was exactly $1.00 and you would have paid absolutely nothing in this transaction.

Are you catching on? It can be fun to try to figure out the best way to take advantage of the sales and ECB to make your dollar stretch as far as possible. I will try to always post the monthly ECB fliers in addition to the weekly ads for everyone. I will also do a recap so you can easily look over the list to see the sale items, the items with ECB and the free items (which are actually items you earn the exact same amount in ECB as the product costs).

So, look over the weekly ad, find your coupons start saving!! Please share your savings stories in the comments — I love to see how much money everyone can keep in their pockets!!