About a week ago, I was preparing my CVS list, and I realized that I had inadvertently let one of my ECB’s expire (by about 5 days).  I was aghast…that was the same as throwing away money in my book!

We all make mistakes, so I sucked it up and continued to CVS with the rest of my ECB’s.  I was going to throw away the expired ECB’s, but I decided I would see if they would possibly accept them (since I’ve heard cases of them accepting them if they are a day or 2 expired).

I was pleasantly surprised when the cashier said yes that she would take the expired ones.  So, I asked how long they would accept them after expiry.  She said about a month!

Now, I don’t know if ALL CVS stores will accept expired ECB’s for a month after expiration, but it doesn’t hurt to ask your CVS what their policy is.

If you are curious about CVS’ coupon policy, you can find that here.

CVS has released another coupon!  Click here to print a coupon for $5 off a $20 order – valid through 12/31/09.  Just a warning…there is a large black band on the edge of the coupon that’s a print waster, so only print if you think you’ll use the coupon.

Thanks The Thrifty Mama!

Don’t forget: you can also print out this $5 off a $30 coupon here.

Take a short quiz to learn more about Medicare Part D and print out a coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase at CVS.

Check out all the deals at CVS this week here.

Thanks Bargain Briana for the link!

Update: This link is no longer working.

Kristin @ Couponing to Disney shares that there is a new link to the CVS $5 off a $25 purchase coupon.  Click here to take a quick quiz about the flu and print off a $5/$25 coupon.

The previous links are no longer working…so who knows how long this link will also be working.  I printed the coupon this afternoon, and it expires on 11/2.  I don’t know if it will expire on 11/2 for everyone or if the date changes based on the date you print the coupon.

Last month I shared that CVS was going to issue $1.00 ECB’s for every 4 times that you shopped at CVS using a reusable bag starting in October.  Well, now Kristin @ Couponing to Disney is reporting that the bag tags have been found at CVS.

Basically, rather than needing to purchase a CVS bag, you need to purchase a Green Bag tag for $0.99.  You can attach the bag tag to your reusable bags (or keep it with your coupons).  When you make a purchase, the cashier will scan your bag tag and your Extra Care Card and confirm you are using a reusable bag.  After 4 purchases, you will earn $1.00 ECB’s which will print out on the bottom of your receipt.

The Green Bag Tag can only be scanned once per day, so you can’t earn more for doing multiple transactions.

Visit Couponing to Disney to see a picture of what the Green Bag Tag looks like to make it easier for you to find and purchase.  It sounds like a good deal to me.  For $0.25 per trip, I’ll be a lot more motivated to remember to bring my bags into the store from my trunk .

Although I blog about CVS all the time, I realized that I have never actually written a post about how shopping at CVS works.

CVS is my favorite drugstore, since it usually offers some of the best deals and it has the easiest coupon policy of the 3 drugstores (CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid).

How Does CVS Work?

• Sign up for an Extra Care Card – It’s free to sign up, and basically just involves filling out a form with some personal information about yourself such as name and address. You will get an Extra Care Card that you will need to give to the cashier so they can scan it every time you check-out at CVS. All the sale prices and Extra Care Bucks (ECB’s) require you to use your Extra Care Card. You are only allowed to have one Extra Care Card per household.

• When you purchase advertised items, you can earn Extra Care Bucks (ECB’s) that can be used toward your next purchase. Each week, I post the ECB deals for the week, as well as any coupons that can be used for your purchase to lower the out of pocket (OOP) even further. So, when I do my coupon matchups, I’ll list it like this:

Edge Infused Comfort or Hydrate Shave Gel 7 oz. $2.89 (limit 1)
Get $2.89 ECB’s
Total after ECB’s: FREE

This means that the Edge shave gel costs $2.89 and you will receive $2.89 in ECB’s when you make your purchase. In this case, you can earn the $2.89 in ECB’s for the shave gel only 1 time. So, I would pay $2.89 in cash, and then $2.89 in ECB’s would print out on my receipt to be used on my next purchase.

• The goal is to “roll” your ECB’s, so you pay as little out of pocket as possible. I demonstrate the “rolling” principle when I create my CVS $5 Challenge scenarios. I usually create 3 different transactions to purchase products. That way, you can use the ECB’s that you earn from each purchase in your next transaction to keep the out of pocket (OOP) as low as possible. I usually start my transactions assuming you have no ECB’s to start (to make it less confusing and to help newbies who have never done this before), but if you have ECB’s from previous transactions, you will pay much less than $5 OOP.

How to Use Coupons at CVS

• CVS e-mailed me with their official coupon policy. You can find it here.

• There are 4 different types of coupons that you can use at CVS:

1. $/$$ purchase CVS coupon – for example, Get $5 off a $15 purchase
2. CVS coupon – usually prints on the bottom of your receipt after a purchase or from the price scanner machine when you scan your Extra Care Card
3. Manufacturer’s coupon – coupons that are reimbursed by the manufacturer (will state on the coupon) that can be found in the Sunday paper, on tearpads throughout the store, etc.
4. ECB’s – ECB’s are like a coupon for money off your purchase

• If you have a $/$$ coupon, you need to purchase the required amount of items (before coupons) and hand the cashier this coupon first before any other coupons reduce your purchase amount.

• You can stack CVS and manufacturer’s coupons for the same item (meaning you can use both coupons on 1 item). One of the coupons is paid for by CVS and the other coupon is paid for by the manufacturer.

• Give your ECB’s to the cashier last. You cannot use your ECB’s to pay sales tax on your purchase, so before I hand over my ECB’s, I’ll ask the cashier for my subtotal and try to match my ECB’s as closely as possible to that amount without going over.

Do you have any other CVS tips that I missed? Or do you still have any questions how shopping at CVS works? For more tips that work for others, please visit We are THAT Family.

If you read about my CVS trip this week, you’ll remember that I had some trouble with the cashier at my CVS and the B1G1 free Children’s Throat Cooler coupon. She ultimately allowed me to use the coupon, but I wanted to make sure that I was not doing anything wrong when I argued my case for using the coupon.

So, I e-mailed CVS’ customer service. They responded with the CVS coupon policy, which I’m going to post for everyone. You might want to print it and bring it with you in case you ever run into any problems at the register.

• CVS/pharmacy will accept coupons printed from the Internet. They must have a legible barcode that scans at the register.

• If the coupon does not scan at the register, the cashier should politely inform you that we are unable to accept your coupon. We do not allow manual overrides at the register for coupons printed from the Internet.

• Our registers are set to allow 1 CVS coupon and 1 manufacturer coupon per item. However, the staff should be allowing customers to use Extra Bucks in combination with other CVS coupons since these are coupons you have “earned.” In addition, similarly they should be allowing the use of “offer at the register” coupons which would be an open offer of $3 off of $15 or a certain dollar amount off of a specific item. Since our registers are programmed to only accept 2 coupons (1 CVS, 1 manufacturer) per item if the number of coupons exceed the items purchased a member of management will need to assist the cashier in processing the coupons. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

• You can use coupons towards a clearance item but the coupon will be adjusted if it is more than the price of the item.

• The BOGO coupon allows you to purchase 2 items and get them both for free. With the manufacturer’s coupons you can combine one with one CVS coupon. You will be responsible for any tax due.