seedlady's wagon train (a guide for newbies.)

[seedlady]

what you need is a local competitor, and the coupon they put out. obviously my local store will not take a coupon from 3 states over. they are trying to snag business from the locals. you do have to follow whatever rules the publishing store puts on the coupon, but within those guidelines, cvs will accept it as if they had offered it.


so, you want to become familiar with who puts them out, and when. target puts one out about once a month, on a foldout page in their regular ad on sunday. it is mostly for 10 dollars. but 10 is better than 0. ( and target is mostly for new OR transfered, which is valuable.) i save one copy of each on the fridge, and i get a pretty steady 25 to 30 dollars a month from tearing it out. one woman at church came over to tell me she had gotten 200 dollars just from doing this. i don't know how many months that took, but it's free money she didn't have before.

[angelbunny17]

Ok, my question is with the transferred prescriptions. I have a script at CVS. Lets call it script A. Walgreens will give me 25 for a transferred script. So if i get it at walgreens, and then next month get another coupon, am I able to transfer script A back to CVS and get the gift card from them? Or will they not let me do that since it was originally at CVS? If I can do this, I will be really excited, since I have 2 scripts to fill each month, and we have coupons every once in a while from Frys, Safeway and Walgreens, so it would probably be 25 a month if I am able to keep transferring from one to the other.

[cheapkittymom]

As long as the competitor's coupon is for a NEW or transferred Rx, yes, they will accept it for a new Rx. If your coupon is for TRANSFERRED ONLY, then no, they will not accept it for a NEW Rx.

Thanks for answering. I went to two stores last night. The first told me exactly what you did. They were also out of the thing i was looking for, so I decided to take my rX to another store and see what they said. The second store did honor the transfer coupon for my new rX, so this may be a YMMV situation.

[seedlady]

cvs essentially is a math game.

add up the coupons you have for the things you are buying, and the extra care bucks you are spending, and choose merchandise that costs just more than that. if you only have a larger ecb, the extra amount can be spent like free money on the things you need.



note: understand that the "free " money is not free- it is part of the ecb- but you can USE it to manipulate and get things you NEED.


i bring scratch paper and a pen, and sit in the pharmacy area, and add and add- if i buy this and this- it will be this much but WAIT- if i.......


and it's in the " but wait" moments that the massive savings occur.

[seedlady]

each month, cvs puts out a monthly deals booklet. it should be at the front, near the weekly ads. pick one up.


the deals in it are good all month. don't grab them all the first day, since during the month, you can use them to "even up" your orders.

don't be frightened by the limit of 40 ecbs deals per transaction. there is NO way you will hit that.


make a note, either in your notebook, or right in the booklet, of where coupons are that match the deals. it is in the coupons that the moneymaking occurs.





i run a paper in the store with 3 columns -


the amount OFF ( all coupons and ecbs and discounts)


the cost of the items i put in the cart ( my ON column)


and what i will get back- i just put a star, and list 4.99, 2.00 so i can pull to the side after i check out, and make sure they all printed.


when the on and the off are close to equal, i head to the register.

[seedlady]

Seedlady, back to the rx gift cards. I have a q from walgreens that says: $25 gift card with any transferred prescription purchase. So I take this coupon, and a prescription that I have previously had filled elsewhere, to my local cvs. I present the wags q and the prescription, ask to get it filled, and ask if they will honor the walgreens coupon? Then what happens? Do they give me something right then and there, or does it take time to process it?

they fill the prescription, and when you pay, they then accept the coupon, and scan a gift card and hand it over. ( even though they give me the receipt, i often buy a little something or other on the way out to make sure the card is loaded. it would be much easier to fix while i was still holding the pills.)


mistrustful? :shrug7: who? me?

[disabledvetswife]

Hi wagon trainees ;-)

I thought I would pop in just to say - make sure you listen to seedlady!!

Not too long ago, I received her guidance. I started with an envelope with $10 in it, 1 set of coupons and no ecbs.

I now have $175+ of ecbs, usually pay around .33oop per transaction, have enough stuff for my ENTIRE family (in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins), neighbors, friends, food banks, rape crisis centers, shelters and yard sales.

After making all my donations for last year, I had 1 2-day yard sale. I made about $200, which helped us take my dd to Disney World for the first time (she was 10 months, she's 11 months today).

I am not one of the people who has 14 cards. I only have one card and I do not EVER wipe out the shelves (unless the deal is for 2 and they only have 2). I am in CVS land however, and have around 6 or so within 2 miles of me. I only go once per week.

GOOD LUCK!!

[seedlady]

Can someone help me please? I got the 5/25 in my inbox and i dont know how to spend it. i would like to get more eb's with it while getting regular stuff i would buy anyway.

i have 2 ten dollar eb's and 9.98.
tia

if you add 2 of the 10 dollar ecbs to the 5 off 25, that will exactly pay for 25 dollars worth of product.

so, you can buy anything you want that adds up to 25 dollars, and every time you add in a coupon, you can buy THAT much more stuff. ( if you bought 2 speedsticks, and had two 75 cent coupons, you could add in $1.50 more product. )


just choose some things that give back bucks, and tuck them into the 25 dollars.


keep track of the cost of the items- you might even just start a math column with 25.00, and subtract the cost of each item as you put it in the cart. ( that would show how much more you need to spend.)



25.00- 4.98= i still need to choose 20.02 more product, minus.......

[seedlady]

Since this will be my first time trying it, would it be wise to see if they will honor the wags q before getting the prescription filled? Thanks and reps to you for all your help.

you can sure ask before you fill it. they usually just start answering me that, yes, they will take it, but i have to pay first, before i can get the whole sentence out.

[thineownself]

Seedlady, you are the best! It's like sitting with you over coffee, learning and learning! thank you!

Seriously agree with you! After all my reading I just found this thread and its exactly what I've been looking for! I kept thinking, wow I wish there was someone here where I live who will take me by the hand and show me the way of the 'force'...lo and behold! The next best thing, and even more newbies doing the same thing and learning at the same time as me! Its like magic!

Yea Seedlady!

Soooo happy, will go do my homework right now!