CVS Extra Care Bucks?
 

Anyone else collect these? My wife has accumulated around $150.00 worth and knows others online with over $300.00. If she's any indication, its fairly addictive.

Yep... got 'em. Not quite that stuck on them. Though, don't they expire every couple of months?

CVS Extra Care Bucks
 

Like your wife, I have become quite addicted to shopping at CVS. Although it takes some time and planning, the effort really does pay off. I have saved a ton of money and have a huge stockpile of items. If only I could pay for airline tickets with my Extra Care Bucks!

I try to spend them as soon as possible after receiving them - otherwise, I forget and they end up expiring before I can use them.

Have been doing the Walgreens rebate club thing on and off for years. Ill look into this though. thanks for the post.

I became addicted in November 2007 when they were paying me $20 to take a glucose monitor off their shelves. I (or rather the neighborhood senior center) ended up with 18 monitors (and $360).

For the past couple months, they also had plentiful coupons ($10 Off $50, $5 Off $30, $4 Off $20, $3 Off $15, $2 Off $10). Many CVS locations allowed you to STACK those coupons on top of whatever manufacturers coupons you had (SuperStacking!). Even with only partial "stacking" I filled my cupboards, usually paying less than a dollar for 2-3 bags of goods.

True, their general pricing is outrageously high, but many items are on weekly special and the "trick" is to locate items on special, apply manufacturers coupons, add in whatever in-house coupons they may be offering, and then "rollover" your ECBs into other items that generate ECBs.

It takes a few weeks to understand how to maximize your purchase while minimizing your cost, but it's now become a fun game to play.

I have roughly $50 left in ECB to use during March. They only are valid for one month and if you don't spend them, they become worthless.

Confessions of a CVS addict....

The amount of ECB's that I have left right now is about on par with your wife. I go there at least a couple times a week. In fact, I have to go there today for their monthly ECB deals.

I have a rather huge stockpile of all sorts of items mainly from CVS, but some scores from Walgreens and Rite Aid as well. Everyone who comes over gets a care package to take home. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, pit stick, pain relievers, cold medicines, Listerine, batteries, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, bar soap, et c, et c.....

Can't remember the last time I had to actually pay for any of that stuff.

As far as the glucose meters, I still have about 33 left to donate.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I think they now expire after 30 days of being printed. And they are tied to a specific CVS loyalty card number, so one can't use someone else's ECB.

I prefer Rite Aid Rebates
 

With Rite Aid rebates, they mail you a check every month. With CVS, you have to go back to the store and buy more. I prefer the money. Plus Rite Aid often has "free after rebate" items where you can also add manufacturers’s coupons and get paid for taking the items free. Much more so than my local CVS. The only advantage for me at CVS is their special monthly extra value flyer, where there are usually at least two items where you can get MULTIPLE items free after the extra value coupon.

Never met a free item I didn't like! I also give them to family and friends, like others here have mentioned.

Yes, money is always nice, but if you manage your ECBs and take advantage of whatever deal is happening each time you visit CVS, your out of pocket expense is minimal. Its become a game for me.....trying to exit the store with multiple bags and having spent less than a dollar. Although I will admit, some times it's just impossible to find things to buy that you really need. Years ago, I did the "rebate thing" but found so many of them taking weeks to get results. I don't want to wait 6 weeks to see a check. Looking at my receipts, I have "spent" about $900 at CVS in 2008. My out of pocket is probably less than $20.

Of course, I doubt we will see many deals like the glucose monitors in 2008. It certainly helps when you can start off netting +$20 every time you walk into the store. And the dearth of "$XX OFF $XX" coupons certainly makes it more of a challenge to reduce your out-of-pocket. But not impossible!

I use CVS all the time

I also use CVS and their ECBs. I know that cash is nice, but it's easier for me with the instant savings. My local outreach program has gotten a lot of the items. And, I (and most of my extended family) probably won't need toothpaste or shampoo for a year or so.

It really is a game, as RobertTheTraveler says. My "problem" with the game is not having these ECBs expire during periods when I'm away from home - I get to go on a spending spree. And my co-workers get to eat a lot of candy that I use them up on.

It all comes to how much spare time you have apart from work. Once you are involved in the game, it really eats up lot of time (of course you get lot of extra bucks to deal with).

They do expire after 30 days. So that's the "game" for my wife. She tries to use her ECB's within the 30 day period, but only on things that generate more ECB's for her. So she buys stuff she doesn't need just to extend the expiration on her ECB's (by replacing them with new ECB's).

We shop for what we need. Go to the register, and pay for only those things that generate ECB's, and only those things. Get the ECB's; then put the rest of the items up on the counter and pay for those with the ECB's we just received.

We do not have hundreds of ECB's or a high stockpile of "extra" items - but we never have any expired ECB's and we do have exactly what we need, or what we plan to donate to charity.
Although we have one store that will NOT do this...all of our others will -

The Rite Aid program works for us too - but in a different way. Again, we buy what we need, file for the rebate on line (quicker than the mail) - when the check comes, it goes into our vacation fund.....so we don't really care when we get it, as long as we DO. It adds up much quicker than one thinks......

When you take these programs into account, I am not certain that W*l-M**t DOES have the lowest prices always - AND I don't have to go stand in a line longer than airport security!