Location: Originally from the Home of the only 6 times Super Bowl Champs!
Posts: 12,099
CVS, Walgreens...etc Anyone really good at saving money there?
I want to learn how to save money and get things for free at these types of places like some women out there do.
Is there anyone here that's a pro at doing this? I know that they use Register Rewards, coupons and more tricks to double and triple discounts on items.
I saw on TV the other day that at CVS, you can get something BOGO and use 2 coupons on the items since they usually ring their items up at 1/2 price each - not one at full price and one free. I didn't know before. Do you do this?
I hate the feeling that I am paying full price when others are getting things for free because of some tactics that I don't understand. lol!
If someone can explain some of these things to me, I would greatly appreciate it!
Tami, I do pretty well at Walgreen's. I go through the ads and match up sale items with manufacturer's coupons. I have also done well with Register Rewards - once I even got a $10.00 one! You also need to go through their Easy Savers Catalog for even more coupons and all of their rebate items for that month. I don't do quite as well on these items because it doesn't seem like it's stuff I need most of the time.
There are a few blogs that really explain the whole CVS thing. Personally I don't have the TIME to do that. It involves multiple trips to the store, etc. and there are some stores that aren't too "coupon friendly." I don't want to have to fight with store clerks to save a dollar.
I don't like the fact that you have to tell the cashier at Walgreens that an item you bought has a register reward in order to receive it. I think it should be automatic. The Sunday paper has stopped carrying their ads about a month ago so I haven't been in for awhile since there isn't a store in my town.
I do well at CVS when they have things that I want with sale, coupon and cash back bonuses. My store wont let you use two coupons when the item is on sale b1g1f. I tend to go hot & cold with shopping there though.
Tami, I don't have a Walgreens within a 45 minute drive of my house, so I skip them. It is my understanding that they have discontinued their Register Rewards and Easy Saver books as of the end of April. No one knows yet what "Program" will decide to put in place. People are hoping for a "card" like CVS has.
CVS is the easiest to do IMHO. You can go in, swipe your card at a kiosk (there are none in the 2 stores closest to me), and it can put certain discounts right on the card at that point. I match the ads with the Extra Care Bucks, and my coupons. I have recently received 15 2 liter bottles of soda and 3 bags of Lays Chips for less than $13.00. I had to go get the soda first as it was on sale and earned ECB to be used on the chips. Then I had to go home and fill out the form for Pepsi to send some of my money back in the form of a rebate.
I am able to score big when a new cosmetic product or shampoo/conditioner come onto the market. CVS will go to a really low price that can be matched with coupons (think Sunsilk when it first came out and when Herbal Essences shampoo went to different kinds (voluminizing, moisturizing, etc), and if they are not totally free, they are less that $.50 for a full size product. Also, they are teriffic about what goes into their clearance bins (think make-up). No problems using coupons (think Revlon $2.00) on full size products that are less than $2.00 in the clearance bins.
CVS has a policy that you can use the number of coupons for the number of items you are buying. That includes your ECBs. If an item is less than the coupon value, you get the overage to use toward the price of another item. You need to give the cashier the ECBs first to make sure the register takes the full value off or it won't let use them. Then hand the cashier your coupons. If you have 2 or 3 receipts with the ECBS you need to have that many "extra" items in your cart. Say you have 10 coupons for 10 items plus 3 receipts with ECBs on them = 13. You have the buy 13 items. You can add milk, cereal, (newspapers with coupons in them on Sundays), a 20 oz. soda, a pencil, etc. to make the right number of items. And you need to get just a penny over the total amount of the ECBs + the coupon values to come out ahead.
This may sound complicated, but it is not.
I don't like to walk away with any ECBs that have to be used by a certain date, so I plan on at least 2 trips into the store. You know, go in, get as many ECB's as you can with the first order, then come back and use them up.
RiteAid is usually the most straightforward. Establish an account online. You purchase the items in the ads that are free-after-rebate, go online, register the receipt, and ask for your rebate at the end of the month. They hope you forget to ask, but you can only ask for the rebate once-a-month, so if you forget, even though you registered the
receipts, you won't get the money.
RiteAid will use this information to attempt to sell you other related items too. I purchased a lot of cold and flu items (with coupons) in February when they had a big rebate week on these products. I also got a glucose monitor for free with a coupon matched to a sale. In March, I got a package from RiteAid which was separate from my $56 rebate. It contained many samples of products related to cold and flu season, coupons for more, and even a coupon for another free glucose meter. There was also a tote bag included.
I hope this helps. CVS is farther away than RiteAid for me, but I like them best. I have done all 3, with no problems, but I pick and choose what I am getting there. If I can get it free, or make a profit, I am there. Even if I can't use it, there is the church store and/or pantry or someone somewhere that can use it.
Location: Originally from the Home of the only 6 times Super Bowl Champs!
Posts: 12,099
Quote:
Originally Posted by kathymac
Tami, I do pretty well at Walgreen's. I go through the ads and match up sale items with manufacturer's coupons. I have also done well with Register Rewards - once I even got a $10.00 one! You also need to go through their Easy Savers Catalog for even more coupons and all of their rebate items for that month. I don't do quite as well on these items because it doesn't seem like it's stuff I need most of the time.
Location: Originally from the Home of the only 6 times Super Bowl Champs!
Posts: 12,099
Quote:
Originally Posted by barbszy
There are a few blogs that really explain the whole CVS thing. Personally I don't have the TIME to do that. It involves multiple trips to the store, etc. and there are some stores that aren't too "coupon friendly." I don't want to have to fight with store clerks to save a dollar.
Thanks, Barb! I'm like you, I don't want to make several trips to a CVS because we don't have one really close to us but since my dh's job now requires us to get our meds through CVS, I figured that maybe I could pair one of those trips up with some other savings.
We do have a Walgreens nearby so I'll look more closely at their stuff.
Location: Originally from the Home of the only 6 times Super Bowl Champs!
Posts: 12,099
Quote:
Originally Posted by crochet2
Tami, I don't have a Walgreens within a 45 minute drive of my house, so I skip them. It is my understanding that they have discontinued their Register Rewards and Easy Saver books as of the end of April. No one knows yet what "Program" will decide to put in place. People are hoping for a "card" like CVS has.
CVS is the easiest to do IMHO. You can go in, swipe your card at a kiosk (there are none in the 2 stores closest to me), and it can put certain discounts right on the card at that point. I match the ads with the Extra Care Bucks, and my coupons. I have recently received 15 2 liter bottles of soda and 3 bags of Lays Chips for less than $13.00. I had to go get the soda first as it was on sale and earned ECB to be used on the chips. Then I had to go home and fill out the form for Pepsi to send some of my money back in the form of a rebate.
I am able to score big when a new cosmetic product or shampoo/conditioner come onto the market. CVS will go to a really low price that can be matched with coupons (think Sunsilk when it first came out and when Herbal Essences shampoo went to different kinds (voluminizing, moisturizing, etc), and if they are not totally free, they are less that $.50 for a full size product. Also, they are teriffic about what goes into their clearance bins (think make-up). No problems using coupons (think Revlon $2.00) on full size products that are less than $2.00 in the clearance bins.
CVS has a policy that you can use the number of coupons for the number of items you are buying. That includes your ECBs. If an item is less than the coupon value, you get the overage to use toward the price of another item. You need to give the cashier the ECBs first to make sure the register takes the full value off or it won't let use them. Then hand the cashier your coupons. If you have 2 or 3 receipts with the ECBS you need to have that many "extra" items in your cart. Say you have 10 coupons for 10 items plus 3 receipts with ECBs on them = 13. You have the buy 13 items. You can add milk, cereal, (newspapers with coupons in them on Sundays), a 20 oz. soda, a pencil, etc. to make the right number of items. And you need to get just a penny over the total amount of the ECBs + the coupon values to come out ahead.
This may sound complicated, but it is not.
I don't like to walk away with any ECBs that have to be used by a certain date, so I plan on at least 2 trips into the store. You know, go in, get as many ECB's as you can with the first order, then come back and use them up.
RiteAid is usually the most straightforward. Establish an account online. You purchase the items in the ads that are free-after-rebate, go online, register the receipt, and ask for your rebate at the end of the month. They hope you forget to ask, but you can only ask for the rebate once-a-month, so if you forget, even though you registered the
receipts, you won't get the money.
RiteAid will use this information to attempt to sell you other related items too. I purchased a lot of cold and flu items (with coupons) in February when they had a big rebate week on these products. I also got a glucose monitor for free with a coupon matched to a sale. In March, I got a package from RiteAid which was separate from my $56 rebate. It contained many samples of products related to cold and flu season, coupons for more, and even a coupon for another free glucose meter. There was also a tote bag included.
I hope this helps. CVS is farther away than RiteAid for me, but I like them best. I have done all 3, with no problems, but I pick and choose what I am getting there. If I can get it free, or make a profit, I am there. Even if I can't use it, there is the church store and/or pantry or someone somewhere that can use it.
Take care all!! Norma
Wow! Thank you so much, Norma! I'm going to print this out and study it --sounds funny, I know, but if I have to do things in a certain order or explain something to a cashier, I want to make sure that I know what I'm talking about so they can't talk over my head...KWIM?
