CVS 11/15 - $158 retail for only $24 out of pocket!

This was an excellent week for me at CVS despite a couple of glitches. I forgot to take a picture of the items I bought on Sunday, but they involved these deals:

- buy $20 Gold Bond, get $10 ECB
- buy 3 Colgate toothpastes, get $5 ECB
- buy $12 CVS lotions, get $4 ECB

Total retail with tax was just over $49 and I paid $6.56 while also earning $19 in ECBs!! I also earned another $3 in Beauty Bucks and CVS texted me a $3 ECB "just because" yesterday! The glitch was that the $10 & $4 ECB didn't print off even though the manager said my items qualified, so he had to "force" print them for me the next day as the computer system went down (probably why they didn't print).

The items pictured here retail for almost $109 including tax. I made two purchases earning $15 in ECBs to apply towards the 2nd purchase. I paid just over $17 for ALL OF IT after applying coupons and ECBs!!

So putting BOTH days together, I bought $158 in items for just $24 out of pocket! I could have saved more but I forgot my 30% off coupon in my purse 🤦. I will probably earn $9 Beauty Bucks from today's purchase.

CVS - 10/21/2020 Deal (multiple items in one purchase)

To learn how to get started saving money while shopping at CVS, please check out these posts first: First Steps and Second Steps.

This deal is different from the other two purchases that I have detailed here (10/25/2020 and 11/1/2020). I decided to buy ALL of my items at one time using coupons and ECBs to help lower the price to a reasonable amount that I was willing to pay. The TOTAL retail value of all these items was over $58. I spent $14 OOP and earned a $15 ECB, so this was a small moneymaker. However, because I am a Beauty Club member, I earned a $6 ECB for my purchases making my total "earnings" $21 in ECBs to use the following week.

I'll break down this purchase below the picture. I started the purchase with $10 in ECBs plus my monthly $10 Carepass ECB (total $20) in my hand.

CVS sent me an email coupon for the Pantene condition making it $2.97. I also had a CVS coupon taking an additional 25% off. So, note that I can use MULTIPLE coupons for one item!

There was a great deal on certain skin care items - Spend $35, get a $15 ECB - and I had LOTS of coupons to make this deal even better! I bought $42 worth of soap to donate to my local youth shelter. I used a $6 off $30 CVS coupon and several other CVS coupons to help pay for the soap and Beauty 360 body wash. My CVS Carepass membership took an additional 20% off of these CVS brand items.

My total due was $13.09 but I rounded up to $14 for the Feed American campaign. My husband was with me when I did this deal and amazed at what I actually paid for all of these items! The thing to take away from this deal is just how many coupons that you can use in ONE purchase to help lower the amount you pay OOP.

CVS - 10/25/2020 purchase details

Here is the breakdown of a multi-purchase shopping trip that I recently made. You can see another example of how I "rolled my ECBs" in this post. Total RETAIL price with tax and without sale prices for all of the items below was $112. After sale prices, the total price would be $89. I spent $18.07 including taxes ... can you believe it?

First purchase: This deal was for a Gold Bond Spend $20, get $10 ECB. I had two coupons worth $4.50 total plus I used the $15 ECB that I had earned the previous week to pay the rest. 

BOTTOM LINE: I spent $1.84 out-of-pocket (OOP) and earned $10 ECB. This is called a "moneymaker" deal because I earned an ECB that was worth a lot more than I spent OOP.

Second purchase: This purchase included a Covergirl Buy 2/$14, get $7 ECB for which I had two $3 coupons plus I purchased a set of razors because I had coupons and an ECB which was going to cover the rest of the cost. In this case of the razors, I had a manufacturer coupon AND a CVS coupon - you can use multiple coupons for one item at CVS. You'll see this again in the fourth purchase. Also note that the previous $10 ECB I earned was lowered to $9.99 because that was the amount left to pay after all coupons were applied.

BOTTOM LINE: Again, this purchase was a "moneymaker" because I paid only taxes and earned a $7 ECB.

Third purchase: This purchase was Covergirl Buy 2 items, earn a $7 ECB. I had two Covergirl coupons. Then the $7 ECB from the previous purchase was applied. At this point, the cashier asked me if I wanted to use my 40% off one item CVS coupon. I had never used one before and had forgotten I had it saved to my card. 

BOTTOM LINE: I spent $6.10 OOP and earned $7 ECB so this was a small moneymaker.

Fourth purchase: Purchases here included two Beauty 360 (CVS brand) items and one Oral B 2-pack toothbrush (two coupons totaling $4, one manufacturer and one from CVS). I had two CVS coupons for the Beauty 360 items. I also had received by text a CVS coupon for a FREE pack of batteries, but the cashier forgot to apply it. So, he refunded me the money afterwards. 

BOTTOM LINE: After the refund, I spent $6.63 OOP and earned a $3 ECB to use next week.

This was a good day for deals at CVS!

CVS - 11/1/2020 purchase details

I thought I would take you step-by-step through the purchases I made Sunday, 11/1/2020 and I will detail how & why I did what I did. I made four separate purchases so that I could "roll my ECBs" ... what this means is that I used the ECBs from the first purchase to help pay for the second, then used the ECBs from the second purchase to help pay for the third and so on.

First purchase: 

There was a Spend $30, get $10 ECB offer. This week, I worked on replacing some old makeup and also buying some fresh skin care items. So, I bought two L'oreal moisturizers, retails $20.99 each. I usually try to spend the least amount I can, so just the $30, but I had a specific product I was wanting.

The CVS app gave me two $5 off L'oreal moisturizer coupons plus $5 off $30 facial care. Then I used my $3 and $6 ECB. Finally, because this was my FIRST purchase, any % off coupons available to me pop up in the computer for me to use. CVS applies ALL coupons and ECBs first and then applies the % off coupons to the amount leftover. 

Now, I'm pretty sure that I do NOT have to choose to use them on the first purchase because the week before, I used it on my 3rd purchase. However, yesterday's cashier told me I had to use both of them even when I told him I wanted to save the 25% off for the next purchase. I am going to check on this when I go back next week. I have learned that, sometimes, you have to find out the schedule of your favorite cashiers and make your purchases when they are working to make sure you get the best deals you can. It actually worked out to use the 25% off on this purchase as it was my biggest one of the four.

BOTTOM LINE: I spent $14.59 and earned a $10 ECB, so $4.59 out-of-pocket (OOP)

Second purchase: I now have a $10 ECB. Almay was Spend $12, earn $6 and Covergirl was Spend $15, earn $6. I splurged a little and bought a nice Covergirl eyeshadow kit so my retail was $21.48. Almay's retail was $12.98 so much closer to the minimum I had to spend.

Then I had TWO $2 Covergirl coupons, a CVS app $5 off Almay cosmetics, CVS app $4 off $12 cosmetics and my $10 ECB. 

BOTTOM LINE: Spend $13.26 and earned TWO $6 ECBs, so OOP was $1.26

The $4 off nail, cosmetics, etc. coupon was sent to my email/text and I clicked on the link to add it to my card for use this week. The screenshot below confirms that it is now on my card for use. Coupons like this only become available to you if you sign up for ALL forms of communication - email, text and mail. 

Third purchase: Revlon had a Spend $12, earn $4 ECB. 

BOTTOM LINE; You can see that the blush I bought was $12.49 and I used the two $6 ECBs leaving my OOP $1.71

Fourth Purchase: Wet 'n Wild had a Spend $10, get $5 ECB. I had a 40% off Wet 'n Wild coupon. Again, CVS deducts the ECB first and then applies the % off. So, retail was $10.47 - $4 leaves $6.47. Then 40% off $6.47 leaves $3.88+tax left to pay. 

BOTTOM LINE: I paid $4.65 OOP and earned a $5 ECB to spend next time.

After I got home from making my purchases, I had received an email sharing more offers for the week. Some of these offers were NOT in the weekly circular so it's like getting a secret notice of some special offers! One thing I have learned is that the more you shop at CVS, the more CVS coupons will add to your app for your use. It pays to shop their fairly regularly!

I hope this has helped you understand how to make the most of the money you have to spend. The retail for all of these items was $109 and I spent just over $34 on EVERYTHING. I couldn't spend this little even if I went to Wal-Mart and paid their retail prices. I'll share a few more posts like this so you can get a bit more experience in "rolling" your ECBs.

Saving $$ with CVS - Second Steps

If you haven't read the previous post on getting started saving money with CVS, then please read it first. In that post, I forgot to mention that you need to join the Beauty Club. This is a very important part because you will earn so many more Extracare Bucks (ECB) by doing this. You will earn $3 for every $30 spent - BEFORE COUPONS!! - on hair care, skin care, makeup, and fragrances. Trust me, this adds up VERY fast and they award you the ECBs immediately the week after you've earned them. Last week I earned $6 which I used in my purchases yesterday. I think that I will earn $9 ECB this week from yesterday's purchases, so that is $15 MORE in ECBs in just two weeks just for joining the Beauty Club!

The next step is to check out this website each week for a preview of next week's ads. The Couponing Couple uploads shots of the ad circular so that you get a "heads up" on what will go on sale so you can start working on the deals you want to shop. Here is how I write up my weekly list ahead of time: 

Bacially, I sit down early in the week and go through the preview and write down the potential items that I am interested in purchasing. Afterwards, I go through the CVS app and look through the coupons available, both CVS and manufacturer, and I save them to my CVS card to use in my deals. I also check Coupons.com and print out any that I can use.

I have my own notations when making my list. The top line is the ECBs that I have available to me to shop with. I do expect to have $9 more from my Beauty Club dollars, but I'm not sure yet, so haven't noted it. Once I see what that ECB is, I will add it to the top line. 

Let's go through the Maybelline line and I'll explain what I do. Maybelline 12,5 with a © means I have to spend $12 to earn a $5 ECB and I have coupons to use. If I know the value of the coupon, then I note it like I did on the next line, 5C means I have a $5 coupon. You'll see above the Olay note, that I have multiple coupons to choose from for that deal. CVS loads new coupons onto their app each Sunday, so I always wait until Sunday to sit down with the newspaper circular, Sunday coupons and my phone to work on my shopping list.

I like to head to CVS on Sunday afternoons, if possible. This way, I have the most time to shop and grab the deals I want. If I get to the store and the items I want aren't on the shelves, I just ask the cashier when they will be getting more stock and go back the day after that. 

In the next post, I'll go through my purchases from this week and explain how I did it.

Saving $$ at CVS - First steps

** I am not an affiliate with CVS, nor am I earning anything for providing this info. **

Since I love saving money while purchasing items our family needs, I have been a CVS shopper for years. I often buy items to donate to a local youth shelter when I can get them for next to nothing. Several people have commented on my Instagram/Facebook posts about my ability to save money so I thought I'd spend some time explaining what I do. There are super couponers that save even more money than I do (you may have seen the pictures of their garages & basements full to the brim with their purchases) , but I don't buy items that I can't use just because they are free.

The first step is to sign up for an ExtraCare Rewards card & purchase a Carepass. You can do both of these things at your nearest CVS store or online. You HAVE to have the ExtraCare card to be able to purchase items at the weekly sale price. You will also earn 2% of your purchases back each quarter. Be sure and sign up for the emails & texts so that you can receive special offers each week. I also receive a mailing with coupons several times monthly. You will WANT to receive all of these because these offers will help you save so much more money!

If you purchase the yearly Carepass, it is $60 ($5/month) and you are given a $10 ExtraCare Buck (ECB) each month to spend however you wish. What a bargain ... pay $60 to earn $120 - you are doubling your investment!! This pass also gives you 20% off CVS Health brands every day as well as a few other perks. 

The second step is to install the CVS app onto your phone. You will use this to search for current CVS-only coupons & manufacturer coupons that you want to use each week. You will also be able to look through your current Rewards status or even look through the current weekly ad.

The third step is to subscribe to a Sunday paper. You will then get the weekly sales ad and be able to cut coupons from your favorite Sunday paper. Larger city papers usually have more coupon inserts so it may be worth it to subscribe to one of those papers. You can determine if this is the case (more coupons) by scanning the Sunday issues at your local grocery store. I PROMISE you that you will save WAY more than the annual subscription fee for the paper! You can also search and print coupons from Coupons.com. Obviously, you can make a trip to your CVS store to pick up the weekly sale circular; it just depends on how close you live to a CVS and how often you drive by one. I prefer to get the Sunday paper for local news.

In my next post, I'll start the process of explaining how I determine what to buy. I am still learning more about the program each time I go to the store, so remember this is a process and you'll figure out what works best for YOU over time!