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!