How to Get a Great Deal at CVS

This week, I shopped at CVS for items such a sunscreen, shampoo and toothpaste and walked away with a great deal: I bought over $90 worth of products and spent only $17! PLUS, I received $17 back in Extracare Bucks!  Here is what I bought:

How did I save so much? All with coupons and a few sale prices. Here are my steps on how you can get these great deals, too:

1) Make sure you have a CVS Extracare Card (sign up for an Extracare card here, if you don’t already have one!).

2) Scan your Extracare card at the CVS Coupon Center/Scanner. Make sure you scan your card every time you go to CVS- even if you are only running in for milk. These coupons are usually valid for a while. (Tip: Scan your card twice. Most of the time, it will give you two different sets of coupons!)

3) Match up CVS coupons from the machine with manufacturer coupons you already have or can print. Here is a simple scenario I did today:

2 CVS coupons printed at the machine: one for $2 off any shampoo and one for $1 off Garnier Fructis shampoo! I paired them up with a manufacturer coupon to get the shampoo for free.*

*Garnier Fructis was on sale for $3.50. My coupons totaled $4, which means CVS owed me .50 cents! They won’t give you change back on deals like this but you can throw in a pack or gum or something else inexpensive and have the .50 cents applied towards that item!

4) Sign up for CVS emails. Sign up here and almost every week you will get a coupon emailed to you. This week, CVS emailed a coupon for 30% off everything not on sale! I waited until I had this coupon before using all my other coupons on my big purchase above.

5) Use lots of coupons! This week, I actually went to CVS about 3 times. Not my usual but each day you scan your card at their coupon machine, you get more coupons and they were really good this week! I was lucky enough to get the following coupons this week and I used them ALL on my purchase:

     $15 off any Physician’s Formula make-up (these were on sale buy one, get one 50% off…this meant 2 free items!)

     $3 off a $10 Cosmetics purchase (This is pretty much double-dipping with the above coupon but CVS allows it)

     $4 off a $10 Facial Skin Care purchase (used this on the Neutrogena products…plus Neutrogena coupons)

     $2 off any Shampoo or Conditioner (Used 2 of these and a $3 off 2 Pantene coupon…2 free shampoos)

     $3 off Suncare (used these on the Neutrogena sunscreen plus a Neutrogena coupon)

     30% off non-sale items (emailed to me from CVS)

6) Earn Extracare Bucks. Extracare bucks are coupons you can use for money off anything next time you shop at CVS. You can even break up your purchases so you earn Extracare Bucks on one order and use them on the second (I did not do this since I could only use my 30% off coupon once.) I earned the following Extracare bucks from my purchase above:

    $10 when I bought $25 in Neutrgoena products (That’s $25 before coupons)

    $2 when I bought Crest Clinical Toothpaste (one sale for $3.39 plus I had a $1 coupon)

    $5 when I bought $10 in Oral B products (I bought 3 items, had $3 in coupons PLUS the items were not on sale so 30% came off of them!)

7) Sign up for the CVS Beauty Club here. Earn $5 in Extracare Bucks for every $50 you buy in beauty products. Even though I spent way less than $50 on my purchase above, the beauty items totaled $50 before coupons so I still earned $5 on this purchase! (These print out the next time you scan your card at the machine.) Beauty Club members also receive extra CVS coupons through email and occasional freebies.

That’s it! It’s really not as hard as it may look. Once you are signed up for all of the above, coupons will be easy to come by and so will the deals! For extra inspiration and the scoop on CVS deals every week, check out the website I Heart CVS.

Did you get a good deal at CVS? Please share here or on Facebook!