I had $8 in ECB's to kill and a $5 off $30 purchase and free Essence of Beauty hand lotion coupon so I thought, "What the hay?" and waltzed into CVS with 3 kids in tow. This wasn't the brightest of ideas but nonetheless, I walked out of their with some good stuff and that good stuff for cheap. The Essence of Beauty lotion was out of stock but I will be going back tomorrow to check.
If you don't know how to shop at CVS here's a quick lesson. The absolute best way to shop at CVS and other drugstores is to combine store coupons with manufacturer's coupons and store rewards ie +up rewards at RA, ECBs at CVS and RR's at Walgreens. If you want to save, you have to be patient and organized. And remember this one piece of advice... There will always be a sale. No need to hoard people!
At CVS for example, look through the weekly ad and pick out the items you want to try/buy that generate ECBs or Extra Care Bucks. Make sure you have an Extra Care Card and if you are not enrolled in the Beauty Club, there are tear off pads in the cosmetic section that will tell you how to get started. Basically for every $50 you spend, you get back $5 in ECBs. It adds up fast and furious and before long, you are getting products for free/heavily discounted.
I didn't have barely any manufacturer's coupons to combine with my CVS coupon or ECB's which was a bummer but that's okay. I first picked up the 2 Revlon lip butters. They were generating $4 ECB with a limit of 2 per card. So I broke my shopping trip up into 2 transactions. I used my $8 in ECBs that I brought into the store to pay for the 2 lip butters.
First transaction:
2 lip butters $6.99 each subtotal $13.98 minus $8 ECB equals $5.98 plus tax OOP. Then I got back $8 ECBs for the purchase of the 2 lipbutters. Free lip butters. Yeah buddy.
Second Transaction
2 Pantene Beautiful Lengths Shampoo, clearance 50% off 3.14 each I had $3/2 MC. The conditioner is also on clearance but I've decided to splurge on "good" conditioner for now on since my purple hair/highlight fiasco.
L'OREAL Infallible Bronzed Taupe $7.79
10 Professional Nail Polish 75% off $1.07
L'OREAL Infalliable Lipstick in 730 Grenadine 50% off $5.89 (that's expensive full priced lipstick!)
This came up to $21.03 before coupons. I had to get my total purchase price up to $30 to use my $5 CVS coupon that I sent to my card. When I scanned my card I got $1 off 2 M&Ms. I also had a $1/2 MC. So they were on sale for 2 for $5 and I had the $1 CVS and $1 MC making them $1.50 each.
I also grabbed 2 boxes of Kleenix tissue on sale for 99 cents each. And added some random Gold Emblem candy to my shopping basket for our Gingerbread House that we will be decorating today! That brought my subtotal up to $31.01 I believe.
Coupons that were used:
$5/$30 purchase
$1/2 CVS M&M's
$1/2 MC M&M's
$3/2 MC Patene
$8 ECB
I paid $13.01 plus tax OOP. I am also getting back another $5 in ECB for the CVS Beauty Club. The total amount saved from both transactions was $41.60.
It's not free which I really like, but I got 3 new products that I wanted to try and why not get them for a discounted price?
If I bought the lip butter and the shadow by themselves, no deals, no coupons it would be roughly $21 plus tax OOP. I got them and then a lot more for $20 OOP.
Another way to earn ECBs is to buy a Green Bag Tag. Attach this to a reusable bag and scan it every time you shop. You will earn yourself $1 ECB every 4 scans and save the environment of one less plastic bag.
So do your research, save up your coupons and do yourself a favor and save some money!!!
Like I said earlier I am going back for the Essence of Beauty hand cream for free but also last week I scanned my Extra Care Card and a $2 off $10 Milani coupon printed out. I want to use this and my $5 ECB on some Milani that is BOGO 50% off this week. So that's $7 off a $10 purchase or the potential for 2 Milani items for $3!!! I do have a slim chance of finding 2 items that add up to exactly $10, but I'm up for the challenge!
How do you shop the drugstores? Savvy or full price???
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