CVS - how it's works for me

A little over a year ago, I had never stepped foot in a CVS drugstore. After I started reading blogs, I realized what I had been missing! CVS has a program using ECB ( Extra Care Bucks). The store runs weekly and months ads and certain items give you ECB's when you purchase them. The best times to score ECB deals are at the beginning of the month. For example, paper towels might be on sale for 4.99 and you will receive back 4.99 in ECB's. So, you've gotten them for free! ECB's print out on the bottom of your receipt. You just tear them off and use them like cash on your next purchase! The way to get cheap or even free product is by combining the store sales, previously acquired ECB's, and coupons. I did a couple of transactions today. Here's what I did:

Transaction 1: 2 Prilosec 42 ct. on sale for 24.77 will give back 5.00 in ECB ( for each one
purchased limit 2 per house)
used a 7.00 coupon and a 3.00 coupon ( from last Sunday's paper)
spent 39.54 out of pocket
got back 10.00 in ECB

Ok, I know that I started out by spending almost 40.00, but most people start by buying the free after ECB items. I'm always on the lookout for products that we have to have anyway. Jeremy takes Prilosec daily and luckily it is covered on my flex spending account that comes with my health insurance. So, I wasn't out any cash. I simply scanned my flex Visa card!

Transaction 2: Charmin 16 roll on sale for 9.99 (gives back 2 ECB)
2 Dawn dishwashing liquids 2/2.00 (gives back 1 ECB)

used .25 coupon for Charmin
used .25 coupon for Dawn

my total was 11.49 after coupons
I paid with 10.00 in ECB.

Total spent out of pocket 1.61 ( you still have to pay some tax)
ECB's earned this transaction 3.00

So, I actually made 1.39 on this transaction.

Transaction 3: Hefty 45 count garbage bags on sale for 6.99
used 1.00 off coupon
total was 5.99 plus tax
I paid with 3.00 in ECB, leaving 3.23 to pay out of pocket


Total spent out of pocket: 4.84
I could have stopped after transaction 2 and waited to use my ECB's on a product that would yielded more ECB's, but we really needed the garbage bags. ECB's are good for a month. I usually use all of my ECB's on one trip, rather than "rolling" them. However, more money can be saved by "rolling" them. For example, I could have taken my 3.00 ECB and saved them to spend on a item costing 4.99 and giving back 4.99 in ECB's. In that instance, only 1.99 would have been spent out of pocket.

I hope this doesn't sound confusing. It's really simple to do once you get the hang of it. My shopping trip today took about 10 minutes to plan out and maybe 10 minutes total in the store (and Hannah was with me which means I probably could have been out in 5 minutes if I had been alone:)

If I didn't want to worry about pairing up ECB's, sales, and coupons, I could have visited moneysavingmom.com, the centsible sawyer, or lifeasmom because they do this weekly and post it on their site.