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

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by jennifermevans Seedlady - I have a quick question for you. You had posted about transferring scripts before. Well, I just transfered back to CVS from Rite Aid and the pharmacist asked me if it was just because of the coupons. I just blurted out "yep". He didn't seem irritated but it was kind of weird. Do you get that? It kind of made me sweat a little. Thanks!

i figure if they have the nerve to ask, i have the nerve to answer. if the truth is yep, i say yep. after all, they might be checking whether doing the gift cards causes people to get prescriptions filled there. thus, yep is a fine answer.

well, really, i'd say yup. but there ya go- regional difference again!

[seedlady]

when i envisioned this, it was as a tutorial, but in reality it has opened into a q & a . anyone can read it any time, and jump right in with a question.

i want it to remain the basic principles of shopping at cvs, so we will not be doing scenario type things.

since i keep it current, i go through every saturday and edit out anything that pertains to the week just past. this takes me more than an hour, just editing, so i appreciate that you not clutter it up with weekly shopping questions. there are other spots on the board for those.


this could be called "cvs handholding 101".



and you are doing FINE! keep at it !

[seedlady]

for today's hint, you will need to do a little work. over on the left hand side of the screen is the user control panel. you can use it to set various things to read the way you want them to. i no longer remember exactly how to set it, but trust me on this- if i could figure it out, anybody can.


i have mine set to show the last 10 days worth of posts, because i figure that will cover pretty much anything i care about. i set mine to put the most recent post on top, because that makes the most sense to me.

you can choose your time zone, and edit it to change for daylight savings time.


you can put a tag line into your posts.

i'm sure there are other nifty tricks, and if you find one, let us know.

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by daisycrazy Hello, I've been cvsing for awhile now and wondered what your opinion was. Say I'm buying slimshots for $4.99, I can use various ecbs (that expire within 2 weeks) to get me close to the cost, or use the $4.99 ecb (that expires in a month) that I have. Is it better to use the ecbs that expire first? Or is it better to match up the ecb amount exactly to the product you're buying? The reason I'm asking is I keep my ecbs in a holder in order of when then expire and try to use the closest dates first. But I'm thinking I may be spending more oop that way. What do you think?

i have let some expire, so i switched to the date order thing- you can rifle through yours and decide on a case by case basis. i can usually find some that add up to about what i need, so i just buy an extra something or other to cover the carebuck value if it's too high. one thing i choose is the little gauze pads that are 79 or 99 cents each. they are cvs brand, so they count if i'm heading to 10 dollars to use an offer at the register coupon, and when you need one, you need one, and it's not like you can say- "son- stop bleeding- mama has to run to the store for a gauze pad."



all right, let me admit something here. as i wander up and down cvs aisles, i keep one eye open for things that would be handy to have, but i'd never pay real MONEY to get them. but , somehow, used to even up bucks, i can get nice little stacks of them. i hang out in the first aid aisle for a while, then the next month i pick off things from the medicine aisle, and so forth.


i stood in the pet food aisle yesterday- i needed to spend 1.05, if i recall correctly. i was thinking back to reading that someone buys cans of cat food. seemed like a fine idea- then i remembered- i don't HAVE a cat. :shrug7:


so i chose 2 mounds bars and a pack of ricola cough drops.

[seedlady]

cvs does have a real problem with stock. ask for rain checks - even if you never use them, at least you HAVE them, so you can do the deal later if you want to.

and, the first rain check you get- be sure to flip it over and read it. there is info on the back, which may come in handy the first time someone says, " oh, we can't take that raincheck here. you need to go back to the store where you got it."


also, pick up an extra ad, and cut out the picture and ad, and staple it to the raincheck. some cvs employees are happiest when looking at the picture. ( and now the event number is in the ad.)

for myself, i would probably not have bought the diapers and paid with real money. but, as long as you do the math, and you are not paying more than you would pay at another store, it's fine. their regular prices are just kinda high.

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by Thankful Mom Quick question - The Reinventing Beauty Coupons that are CVS coupons (starting with a 4) say that they are not to be combined with other CVS coupons. I am assuming that you cannot use one of these and a CRT for the same product. Is this correct? Thanks for all your help - I've been reading and profiting lots here!

yes, it would be one or the other.

[seedlady]

when you look at a coupon, you can tell if it is a store coupon or a manufacturer coupon by looking at the first number.


no, really.


you can even tell if it will double, should your store do double coupons.


manu coupons start with a 5 or a 9. i remember the doubling part by this: 9 (nein) is german for no, so a 9 won't double. a 5 will double, if the store is set up to double.


store coupons start with the number 4.


so, it is for (4) the store.


5, 9 (nein), 4 (for). simple, huh?


this is a mnemonic device, which i could never remember how to pronounce till my daughter said, "mom, it's not an oldmonic, it's a newmonic."

so now you have your word for the day. mnemonic. i double dare you to work it into conversation tomorrow.

[seedlady]

Originally Posted by Weinergirl Seedlady, when you edit our posts, is there a way for us to see what you changed? I would like to get better at posting so you don't need to edit me. Thanks!

sure- on the main board, i'm going in and adding the word "cvs" to the front of each title, and spelling out all the words in the title. for some reason, for the rss feed, it needs to be that way.

i asked everyone to start doing it themselves, but i spend an hour or so each day editing the ones who forget.:shrug7:

i'm not changing content.


on the wagon train, i go in on saturdays and take out anything that pertains to the week just past, so those who join in august won't be reading about toothpaste deals from june.

[seedlady]

good morning, wagon train peeps!

it looks like everyone knows everything, since no one is asking questions, so i've been slacking.


whenever you buy something, and the ecb doesn't print, and they have to force the buck, it will be for a whole number dollar amount. ( rather than , for example, $2.49 , it would print up a $3.00 one).

AND the card number will look different- for some reason it drops the last number on the forced ( and telephone number) ones.


if your card is number 12345678, usually you see 5678. on a forced buck, you will see 4567, which looks WAY different, but is really just one number shifted over. it will work fine with your card. have no fear.

[JPhan]

I have a ?, for the price scanner (the one that spits out CVS CRT's/ECBS), are you able to scan it more than once? Once per day? Once per week?
I was at one near my house and asked the cashier what the rules were but he didn't know and I wasn't going to wait around for the manager to come down to answer my ?.