CVS For Rookies 101

[cuzisaidso]

Originally Posted by newgrannie I read the faq on this but still want to be sure before I head out. If I have 13 items, and my ecbs and cvs and manu coupons equal 22, will I be ok? Is it 13 items x 2 and that is the number of ecb and coupons that will work without problem. Last week I was thinking it was the same number of items as coupons and I added fillers but now I am thinking I was wrong. Please help!

From my personal experience if you're buying 13 items you can use 13 CVS coupons and 13 man. coupons.

[cuzisaidso]

Originally Posted by Kerry1971 Am I understanding it right that you can use more than one extra bucks coupon on a purchase? It says on the bottom of mine "Limit one per customer". So I'm confused...

Yes, you can use more than one ECB per purchase. They are to be considered as cash although the register counts it as a CVS coupon and you can only use 1 CVS coupon for every item you purchase. If you purchase 5 items you can use a total of 5 CVS coupons(ECB's, CRT's, etc.).

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by RohlfCoupons I now understand what the different colors mean on the add, but where do I find the coupons?

most of them come in the sunday paper- ask friends for theirs, also. write the date in sharpie on the front cover- the numbers on the side are too small to see. we call smartsource "s" and we call valassis "v". ( it is not a hard code to crack!). so if i tell you to look in 3/18v for the whatever, you go to your march pile and dig it out to cut.

we trade coupons, so you can make a list of some you want, and if you don't have any to trade, a lot of people will trade for stamps. just ask- don't get discouraged because you don't HAVE the old papers. you will get a pile soon enough.

then next year you can send some to another newbie.

[cuzisaidso]

Originally Posted by eltrut :Wave: Hi, Does anyone know if I can use a manufacturer coupon catalina from a supermarket at CVS? Thanks!

You can ask them if they'll take it. Each store (and even each employee) may give different answers.

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by dreis1 OK, 1st Thanks for all of the info! Now dumb question, you can use your accumulated ECB to buy whatever like say a camera, BBQ grill, etc ? if you want to. TIA- Amy

well, yes. they are supposed to be able to add a 27, a 33 and so forth, and take it all off as one big coupon. how evah, we have found that the register is happiest when it can bracket (item....coupon) together, and they are equal. so it will make your life a LOT easier if you keep the count even- for instance, if you have one camera, and 12 small extra care bucks- add in 11 small items- candy bars, pencils, blow pops, clearance stuff-anything...just to keep that register happy. it will save you time and arguments . and even if you are right, and they should be able to do it, sometimes paying for a pile of pencils (with ecbs, of course) is faster and mentally healthier. tho sometimes arguing to the death is more fun, i usually have somewhere else to go. i own a lot of pencils !

[cuzisaidso]

Originally Posted by mjoyce If CVS runs a buy $20 of P&G get 10 ECB: can you purchase things from 2 stores to get to the $20 total?

Yes

[DorothyB]

Originally Posted by goldnuggt I'm still a little confused about the "rolling part of the ECB". Why do you save $10 ECB for rolling? How do you save the $10 without the ECB expiring? Thanks in advance!

With your first purchase, you don't really have a choice - the ECB prints out at the end of your receipt.

After that you can take one of two approaches:

1) The diehard, awesome, experienced CVS shopper then plans every trip to use up as many as possible of the ECBs while shelling out as little cash as possible and the ECBs keep increasing in amount.

2) Some of us (like me) have the goal of using our ECBs productively, but not really having the goal of increasing them via spending cash because there may be weeks that we don't need anything and they might expire. However, sometimes they just increae - for instance, I have $9.97 of ECBs on one card and $11.98 on the other card. Best deal for me this week is to spend $20.86 on Excedrin type products and use $8 of coupons. Net $12.86. With my $11.98 ECB, that is less than $1 cash out, but I will get back $15 of ECBs so my ECBs went up $2.02 although I only spend less than $1. My other card (unless I decide not to do it which is possible) would cost me $2.89 and ECBs would go up over $5. Actually I will do both because I can spend over $15 the following week on deoderant and Scott tissue. It's hard to turn down free money.

In some weeks, you can "roll" them the same week. For example if you wanted and needed the item on this week's back page, you could do the Excedrin thing, get $15 ECB. Then go back to the store and buy $30 of diapers, Viva, etc and pay for $15 of it with your ECB from the first trip.

Some CVS stores (so I read) take expired ECBs. Also, I try (but won't work this week) to plan my purchases so that I have more, smaller ECBs to make spending them easier.

[DorothyB]

Originally Posted by robin29860 1. I got a 10/50 at cvs.com and ship free. can i use that at the store? No, although there may be some CVS stores that will take it 2. I got a 10.00 off any diet aid nutrition purchase of $40. Can I use a 3off each thing of boost + this cvs coupon and still get the ecb's? If I understand the question correctly, you have purchases with shelf cost adding up to $40, you want to know if you will still get the ECB if you use coupons against those items. Yes, you will. So, if you buy 4 of XX at $10, and have a $3 coupon for each, you will still get credit for a $40 purchase, but the coupons get deducted when determining how much you will pay.

Responses in blue above

[DorothyB]

Originally Posted by kskallen I've looked everywhere here and I'm either missing the answer or can't find the answer to this question: Can I use ECB's to pay for my purchase that EARNS ECB's (i.e. the swiffer, pringles, and planters for this week) or can the ECB's only be spent on NON ECB earned items (such as the Pamper's). So if I buy the Swiffer, pringles, planters, AND the Pampers, can I use my $15 ECB to keep my OOP low?? Thanks so much! :)

Yes, you can use ECBs to pay for things that earn ECBs! The only thing that "might" cause a problem is if you have too many ECB slips compared to the quantity of items purchase.

[cuzisaidso]

Originally Posted by kskallen I've looked everywhere here and I'm either missing the answer or can't find the answer to this question: Can I use ECB's to pay for my purchase that EARNS ECB's (i.e. the swiffer, pringles, and planters for this week) or can the ECB's only be spent on NON ECB earned items (such as the Pamper's). So if I buy the Swiffer, pringles, planters, AND the Pampers, can I use my $15 ECB to keep my OOP low?? Thanks so much! :)

Yes, please see this post.