Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Back to Shopping-CVS secrets

So after the adventure of having my teeth removed, I returned to shopping on Sunday. Matt was nice enough to drive me around on Sunday due to my medicated state.  We hit CVS, Food Lion and Walmart. I was really pleased with Food Lion, where we re-stocked on breakfast foods.  I noticed as we left CVS that I need to purchase one more bag of skittles to earn $1 ECB.  So I mentioned that I would able to run by one morning this week to pick those up. Today, I picked up 4 bags of candy and a small bag of Skittles. I used 4 $1 off coupons for the candy, as well as 5 ECBs from the beauty club. I paid $1.87 on my gift card and earned an additional 4 ECBs. In reality I was paid to take candy today. I am going to try and list all the secrets of CVS below.Remember to get the most bang for your buck, combine as many of these as you can in each trip.

 Currently, in addition to earning ECB if you spend $30 (before coupons) on certain items you earn a $10 gift card. This week the items included paper towels and toilet paper. I am using my gift card now to shop completely free! 

Another secret to CVS is the diaper deal, basically after you purchase 5 bags of diapers of either Huggies or Pampers they give you a sixth bag. This also can be combined with any ECB, coupons and sales on diapers.Currently this total is at the bottom of your receipt as well. The part I don't like is that pull ups and easy ups do not count in this total. 

Green Bag tags are another way to earn money. These tags are placed on your bags, each 4th scan of this tag generates 1 ECB.  There is only one rule that applies to this tag  you can only scan the tag one time per day regardless of the number of transactions and/or stores you visit. I use the same tag on both Amanda's and my CVS card so the tags are not card specific. In the past year, I have been able to get at least 5 of these tags for free. They usually cost $1 but each of the ones I have purchased generated 1ECB. But in reality, even if purchasing a green bag tag, it will pay for itself on your 4th trip. Some cashiers will ring the tags without a bag others will not. But I keep one in my coupon binder and have been known to use my purse if they refused to scan the tag without a bag. You can easily keep up with the number of times you have used your tag at the bottom of the receipt.

The final offer that I am aware of at CVS is called the "Beauty club". The way this one works is for every $50 you spend before coupons on beauty products including body wash and all hair items you earn 5 ECBs. This total is also at the bottom of your receipt. It runs usually one transaction day behind, For example, I spent over my next 50 mark on Sunday but the ECBs didn't print until today.

By combining all the things above I was paid to shop today and boy is my family enjoying it!


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