Let me preface this post by saying, as I noted in my Intro to CVS post, some CVS coupons are personalized so you may or may not be able to reproduce what I did. I am writing this so you can get an idea of what is possible and look at what you can do with the hand that you are dealt. I am also very open to helping you work out a deal with the coupons that you have.
Honestly, I had not set foot inside a CVS for several months prior to last Thursday. Last week I got sucked back into couponing with some Walgreens deals so I decided to play around on the CVS app and website to see what was available. Next thing I know, CVS sent me a surprise ECB for $5, good one day only on 12/9/21. Ummm... free money! That was enough to lure me in the store.
I knew that if I rolled the ECB by purchasing something that produced another ECB, then the new ECB would be good for another 30 days, thus buying me some more time to find some deals.
So, I found this...
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| It was a good deal hence the display was pretty bare |
Poparrazi nail polish. Buy 2 for $5, Get a $5 ECB back. Free nail polish.
I decided it would make a nice stocking stuffer for my 10 year old niece so I bought 2.
I used my $5 surprise ECB and got everything for free, plus I got a new $5 ECB.
I then noticed the limit on the deal was 2, meaning you could do it twice, so I did it again.
This time I did it at self-checkout and for some reason my new ECB would not scan. The cashier came over and manually entered it as a CVS coupon so I ended up paying tax.
My family also fills some of their prescriptions at CVS. You get a $2 ECB for every 4 prescriptions filled. There have been times over the last year that I saw this ECB in my account and then let it go to waste because it was too much trouble to go in the store and find something. This time though, I saw that I had another $2 ECB in my account that expires on 12/16/21 so now I had $7 in fake CVS money to play with.
If you have absolutely no ECBs in your account and want to start with some, a way to get a "free" $10 ECB is by signing up for Care Pass. Care Pass is their home delivery program. It costs $5 a month or $48 a year, however you also get a $10 ECB to use every month and the first month is free. You can sign up for the free month and cancel if you want. I haven't done this yet but might sometime in the future if needed. The service itself sounds like a good deal because you get free shipping on many of items.
"First Day" Summary
I ended up with 4 bottles of nail polish
$5 ECB for nail polish
$2 ECB for prescriptions
Spent $0.35
This week I started out by doing the Crest Toothpaste and Scope mouthwash deal (details HERE).
12/12/21 Summary
1 liter bottle of Crest Scope mouthwah
2 tubes Crest toothpaste
$3 ECB for toothpaste
$3 ECB for mouthwash
Spent $2.38
I also noticed that the $5 ECB that I had tried to spend on 12/9 for the nail polish was still showing up as active in my account. I no longer had the physical coupon so I sent the digital one to my card to see if it would stick.
12/13/21 Summary
As I said in my Intro to CVS post, sometimes you have to buy stuff you don't need to get the stuff you really need. When I checked out on 12/12 I got a CRT for $6 off a $30 purchase. So now I'm holding (2) $3 ECBs, a $2 ECB, and possibly a $5 ECB. This week's ad also shows a Buy $20, Get $5 ECB promotion that includes paper towels. I need paper towels
If I bought (2) rolls of Scott paper towels that would get me over $20 ($10.49 x 2 = $20.98), qualifying me for the $5 ECB.
Unrelated to CVS but deal related, I also had a Venmo offer that I have been meaning to use.
Venmo will give you $10 back on your first CVS purchase of over $20. You pay with your Venmo QR code at the register.
I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to use this.
I also wanted to leverage the $6 off $30 CRT to earn more ECBs so I decided to take advantage of this offer...
There are promotional cosmetic gift sets that are either $4.99 or $9.99. The $4.99 one will print out a $4 ECB and the $9.99 one will print out an $8 ECB. I also had a $3 off $10 cosmetic purchase in my account and saw online and in my app that it would attach to a $9.99 purchase.
So, original plan was this...
Buy (2) Scott paper towels and (1) $9.99 gift set = $30.97
Use: $6 off $30 total purchase, $3 off $10 cosmetic, and the $2 ECB that was going to expire 12/16.
30.97 - 6 - 3 - 2 = 19.97 + tax = 21.37
The Venmo offer was for any amount over $20 so my pre-tax total didn't matter. I would get back a $5 ECB for the paper towels and an $8 ECB for the cosmetic set so I would be paying $11.37 out of pocket but get back $13 in ECBs.
However, in store at the register, the $3 off $10 cosmetic physical CRT wouldn't take because I was a penny short. The cashier canceled the transaction and told me I could send the coupon to my card so it would come off digitally but then the reception was bad in the store and my app wouldn't load. I told the cashier not to worry about it and had her try the $5 ECB that was still in my account. The $5 came off so my net price was still the same. Fetch Rewards also gave me 635 points (0.63) for the Scott paper towels and the overall purchase.
Now though I still had the $2 ECB that was going to expire on 12/16. I decided the best thing to do was cash it out with Ibotta and Fetch. Both apps have an offer for RIND snacks. Ibotta will give $4 back and Fetch will give 2000 points ($2). This is actually a great double dip because one purchase will count for both programs.
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| Ibotta offer |
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| Fetch offer |
The snacks are $4.99 regular price. I had a 35% off one regular price item that I used along with my $2 ECB so I paid $1.94 out of pocket, therefore "earning" $4.06 through Ibotta and Fetch.
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| Ibotta redemption |
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| Fetch redemption |
In summary, I started a week ago with a "gift" of a $5 ECB and a $2 ECB.
I ended up with: (4) bottles of nail polish, (2) tubes of Crest Toothpaste, (1) liter bottle of Scope, (2) 12-roll mega packs of Scott paper towels, (1) cosmetic gift set, and (1) RIND snack bag.
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| Scope has already been given away |
Taking into account my Venmo rebate and Ibotta cash, I paid $12.04 out of pocket.
I earned just under $3 in Fetch points for bonus scans and receipts.
I still hold $24 in ECBS, all of which now expire in January.
Usually around January CVS runs a Spend $30 promotion where you actually get a $10 cash card (which functions as a gift card) back instead of ECBs. If that happens I will try to roll my ECBs to that so I don't have to worry about them expiring. Otherwise, I will keep rolling to get things I need but eventually try to find a way to "cash out" so I end up with no money out of pocket.
Now going back to buying stuff you don't need to get the things that you want.
I wanted paper towels.
If I had straight up bought paper towels I would have spent $20.98 + tax and gotten back a $5 ECB.
If I had used the $7 in ECBs I started with that would have been $13.98 out of pocket and I'd be left with a $5 ECB for my next deal.
If you don't want to go through juggling deals that's perfectly fine.
I find this fun so that's why I do this. For all my "trouble" I spent $12.04 out of pocket vs. $14.96 ($13.98 + tax). I ended up with $24 in ECBs vs $5. Plus I got a bunch of other stuff in addition to the paper towels, most of which will be gifted or donated.
If you want to get in on this too, one of the best ways to "practice" is to play around on the website putting things into your shopping cart to see what coupons attach and what ECB offers are available. Let me know if you have any questions or want me to work any deal scenarios with you.
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