15 Days of Pinching Pennies at the Drug Stores (Day 3): What Is A CVS “ECB”

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So we got through the very beginning basics of How to Save at CVS last night (are you still with me?) so tonight it's time to start confusing you. 😉 Really though, once you figure out how to “roll” your ECBs at CVS you'll be well on your way to saving big, so let's get started!

What Is A CVS “ECB”?

1. What is an ECB?

At CVS, each week in their weekly ad you'll see items that are “Extra Care Buck” (ECB) deals.  As I mentioned last night, the very best savings at CVS come from their ECB deals. When you shop and purchase ECB deals you'll receive a printout at the bottom of your receipt for a certain number of ECBs towards your next purchase.

2. ECBs are like real cash at CVS.

Extra Care Bucks are just like real cash to be used on a following trip at CVS (in fact, I keep my ECBs in my wallet next to my cash so I don't forget them!) They typically expire in 30 days, so be sure to use them before their expiration date.

3.  You can “roll” your Extra Care Bucks.

To get the most bang for your CVS buck, you'll want to “roll” ECBs from your first trip at CVS towards your next trip, and then continue to use those to pay every time you go to the store. You can even “roll” those ECBs on the same day or in the same week to keep your initial out-of-pocket costs low!

 4.  You can separate ECB deals into separate transactions.

If there's an ECB offer that requires you to spend XX dollars to get XX ECBS, you can separate that amount over several transactions.

For example: If you need to spend $30 to earn $5 in Extra Care Bucks on Proctor & Gable products, you can spend $15 of that in one transaction and $15 in a separate transaction to earn the ECBs, as long as you purchase them within the given week that they are offered. 

 5. Use your highest value ECB first when checking out.

When checking out at CVS, you'll want to use your highest value ECB first towards your purchase, so that you can save smaller ECBs for smaller purchases.  Be sure to use ECBs that are less than the amount of your total purchase so that you don't lose any of the value of your ECBs. (Since you can't split up ECBs into more than one transaction, any amount that you have on your ECB over the amount of your purchase would be adjusted down, and you would lose that extra value.

6. Easily check out at CVS.

If you have your coupons ordered a certain way, you will save the most when shopping at CVS. Here's the order that I use when shopping CVS:

1. Give your cashier any CVS store coupons for money off your total purchase (for example an email coupon from CVS for $3 off your $10 purchase.)
2. Next, give your chasier any CVS store coupons for a specific item you're purchasing.
3. Then use any manufacturer coupons.
4. Finally, use ECBs that you've received from a previous shopping trip to lower your out-of-pocket expense even further.

Stop back tomorrow night when we'll go over some very specific transaction examples, and be sure to let me know what questions and suggestions you have as well! If you're new to CVS'ing, you'll want to also read through these posts to get started:

• 15 Days of Pinching Pennies at the Drug Stores (Day 1)
• 15 Days of Pinching Pennies at the Drug Stores (Day 2): How to Save at CVS
• Updated list of CVS savings currently available