GroshLink

I recently became acquainted with the world of CVS Extra Care Bucks (ECB) shopping.  Don't confuse acquainted with obsessed.  I'm only dabbling.  The gist of it is, if you have a CVS Extra Care card (a free card like most grocery stores have) they track your buying habits and periodically send you coupons that most often print on the bottom of your receipts, though sometimes come via email.  Each week CVS offers items for sale and if you buy them you earn ECB.  Sometimes the bucks require a purchase (such as save $4 when you spend $20) and sometimes they are just free bucks (such as $2 off any purchase).  Some clever people have figured out how to leverage these ECB deals and rarely spend more than $2 a week to purchase  scads of items at CVS.  The whole thing has proven too complicated for my mind, but like I said, I've dabbled.  Read on if you want minute details about my bargains. 

Here's what I did recently:

Last week I had $8 in ECB to spend at CVS ($5 they sent me for my birthday and $3 they sent me for a glitch in their system that caused me a small headache).  I had high hopes to leverage those ECB and walk out with half the store, but I couldn't handle the algorithms required for such a transaction and ended up buying something I needed and getting $8 off.  But my receipt printed with a coupon for $4/$20 on my next purchase.  While I was at CVS I noticed they were clearing out some diapers and other baby items, presumably b/c those items were being discontinued or the packaging was changing.  The store I was in was out of anything that interested me.  But the next day I went to another CVS and they had several of the items that I wanted.  So I bought a pack of Pampers for $6 (instead of $12) and something else that was 50% off.  I also had a coupon for $1.50 off a pack of Pampers.  Then I looked around the store for other deals and I found toothbrushes that were on sale -- $3.99 but when you bought them you got $3.99 in ECB.  I bought 3.  Those items together enabled me to use my $4/$20 coupon.  And at the end of that transaction I got a coupon for $11.97 in ECB (from the 3 toothbrushes).  So I went back to the diapers and picked up 2 more packs ($6 each) and used my ECB to buy them.  I paid $.03.  I was a novice, but it was kind of fun.

Today, I went to CVS b/c they had emailed me a coupon for a free pack of hand wipes with any purchase.  My purchase was a bar of soap for .99 for which I had a $1 off coupon.  So I bought the soap and got the wipes for free.  Total spent: $0!  Small transaction, but free nonetheless.

The main reason I have trouble getting into the CVS ECB deals is b/c you have to purchase items that you don't need in order to earn the bucks to spend on things you really do need.  You also need to have coupons for those items and I don't currently clip that many coupons.  Especially for things I don't use.  So it would take an overhaul of my thinking.  The people who do this end up donating what they can't use to charities that can use the items.  But they serioulsly spend pennies each week.  They even list on their blogs exactly what they buy and the steps of their transactions (b/c you also need to perform more than one transaction to leverage the ECB properly).

So, I'm a newbie and not completely convinced.  And with the baby coming ANY DAY NOW, PLEASE, I will have even less brain cells to dedicate to this task.  But I find it fascinating anyhow.  Does anyone reading this use this system?  My best bet is to copy what you do!