BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living CVS shopping thread

I love CVS so much I want to marry it. Do you guys ever use CVS to their full potential? Every week they give away products for free, and give you back money for almost everything you do in the store.

I figure we can update each other and report our money-saving successes here.

I shop at CVS - I've never seen any freebies and their coupon offers drive me crazy - they are good for a few days and I don't manage to get there to buy something on time. The coupon offers at the bottom of the receipt are generally for items I don't want. So what kind of freebies do you find there?

Angie, i have so much to instruct you in the ways of freebie at CVS!

Your mission is to get a CVS circular. Once you get one, i will talk thru it. You could get $20 in free money this week, potentially, plus sample a free sleep remedy.

The circulars are in each store by the counter. New ones come out on sundays. Let me know when you have one. This is a good week for them if you can get in before saturday.

Well, Jilly, I happen to have one in the house for an off the wall reason, and on the front is does sayu get a free $10 cash card when you spend $30 on certain specially marked items. I'll have to go thru the circular - I do not buy items I do not use to get free money.

Fill me in on the rest of the story. I'm going to be in and out today. I'll check in here later.

Hi Jilly,
I used to LOVE CVS until, for some reason the pricing changed here in VA (in my area anyway). Their "sale" price was always the regular price I could pick it up from somewhere else and ther "regular" price was $2 more than even Target or Walmart.

I have not given up on them completely yet because, you're right, they sometimes have some REALLY good deals.

Dianne, that's where I am - things are often cheaper in the supermarket.

Hi Angie. I went to the beach yesterday, so I could not check back in.

So, it's friday, which gives you two more days with this week's CVS circular.

The first thing I would do is find the page with the add for the free Rapid Sleep PM offer. Actually, you have to have $2 to get it, but then you get $2 in extra bucks. You do have to start with some cash, but the secret is to roll them right into extra bucks, and then use those.

So now you have $2 to spend on almost anything else at CVS. You could roll the extra bucks by finding something else on the circular that you either need, or that also gives you extra bucks.

For example, there is a special this week where you pick up two CVS-brand beauty items and get the third one free. If you use your $2 in extra bucks on, say, two cheap packages of cottonballs, then you get the third one free, PLUS you can use your extra bucks to make them cost almost nothing. And then, suddenly, you have three packages of cottonballs and you are done buying cottonballs for the year. :-) And you've gotten them for a song, plus one free.

Another example is that you could use your $2 in extra bucks for something that gives you extra bucks back, like the candy deal. You can pick up two bags of Valentines Kisses for $6, and use the $2 extra bucks. You pay out $4 in cash BUT get two more extra bucks back, for your next purchase.

Or get the Crest Toothpaste special, picking up two of the kinds that are included in the deal, using your $2 in extra buck and getting another $2 back. If you use Crest, you are now set for some time.

If you look at the whole circular, there is probably something you use that gives you extra bucks. I see a ton of ideas in this one, besides the ones i mentioned:

Toothwhitestrips
baby stuff
saline for lenses
razors
shaving gel
hair items of several kinds
vitamins
antismoking gum
OTC cold medications
adult underwear
those gel things you put in shoes to walk on
probiotics
crackers, chips, V-8 juice, bagel bites, microwave popcorn and other snacks
toilet paper
paper towels
tissue
dishsoap
downy
cascade

And this isn't even looking at all the pages. You could stock up on toilet paper, paper towels and kleenex, and get a $10 gift card back. If you buy toilet paper anyway (and most people do), then you are set for awhile and got $10 to use free.

You could also wait and use the extra bucks on the next week's circular. You can use the extra bucks until they expire - usually you get a few weeks leeway for use.

The key is only getting things from CVS when they are on sale, and getting the correct amounts to get money back. Don't get non-ale items, since you can do that cheaper at walmart. Yo just go happily from circular to circular, buying from the deals, from things you would buy anyway.

It's a ton of fun, and you get better at this the more you do it.

This is just one of the things I do to get food and sundries free at CVS. I'll stop there for now and talk about more later. I don't want to overwhelm you.

Right now I have about $40 in extra bucks in my wallet, and spent only about $5 in cash to get it, and only picked up things I actually use.

One of my extra bucks expires today. So that is a good reason to go down and get something for free.

I did use my expiring extra buck, and i even used it to get some more extra bucks!

I have a lot of extra bucks to actually use up by the end of the month. I will probably pick up cat food, since I can't get cat food with food stamps.

A new CVS circular came out today but i haven't had time to look at it yet. Any good deals this week?

I accidentally let an extra buck expire, and I was happily able to use it yesterday anyway. If the cashier manually applies the EB number (extra buck number), they can force it to go through.

Not every cashier will do this, but it is always worth trying. If one cashier does not accept, I will try another day with a different cashier. Don't throw your money away if you can help it.

Think of these things as dollar bills. :-)