At CVS you have to sign up for an Extra Care Bucks card. On your first visit you pay the full price for the product you purchase the first trip that you make (excluding any MQs that you use). At the end of your receipt you will receive the ECB that you earned on the products purchased & these can be used on future purchases (& on anything in the store-there are no limits to what you can use the ECBs on).
**I try to "roll" my ECBs so that I never have to start over again (pay the full amount out of pocket again). This means that once I've earned ECBs I try to only buy items that I will use & that earn more ECBs for that week***
An example from this week's CVS ad (2/14-2/20):
Crest Pro-Health Enamel Toothpaste or Rinse is on sale for $3.50
You will receive $3.50 in ECBs wyb the toothpaste or rinse.
There was a $2 off MQ in 2/7 PG insert.
The limit on this is 2. I receive 2 papers so I have 2 coupons.
So if I were starting out this week with No ECBs I would buy any combination of 2 items for *$3.50 each, bringing the total to $7.
*I'd use 2 $2 off MQs, bringing the total down to $3.
*I would pay $3 + tax OOP.
*At the end of my receipt I would receive $7 in ECB ($3.50 for each item purchased).
By the time you add what I get back in ECBs & what I saved with MQs I will have gotten both items for the price of the tax only. In the couponing world that's called FREE.
Now I have $5 ECB in hand right now so let's take a look at the same transaction with that factor.
*2 $3.50 items total $7.
*Scan the 2 $2 MQ ($4 off), bringing the total down to $3
*Scan my $5 ECB, bringing the total to $2 over. So I would need to have another item (say the Aussie styler that's on sale this week for $2.99-throw in the MQ of $1 brings it down to $1.99)
**So my OOP would only be the sales tax. FREE again.
EXCEPT I would earn $9 in ECBs at the end of this transaction (2 $3.50 ECBs for the Crest & 1 $2 ECB for the styler).
-The reason I got the styler in this transaction is because I would just lose the $2 of ECBs if I didn't-I paid the money for that ECB up front so I certainly don't want to lose it.
*****Key to CVS-START SMALL!!***** You don't want to blow your budget earning ECBs. The first time just buy an item that earns it's full value in ECBs. Then use that ECB to purchase something slightly pricier that earns its total value in ECBs etc.
Always have them scan things in this order:
Store coupon of $/$$, MQ, ECBs.
For maximum savings, always use a coupon & get the item on sale.
RITE AID
At the beginning of the month you can pick up a booklet that shows all of the rebates for that month. It also tells how many rebates for that particular item you can receive.
***I wait until I see it advertised in the weekly ad, even though the rebate is all month long. I have noticed it is on sale for a better price, on top of being able to receive the rebate (& using the coupon) than if you just got it at any random time during the month.***
1-You make your purchase (using a coupon).
2-If this is the first time that you have ever done a rebate then you will need to create an account. you will use this to log in each time you need to enter a receipt.
3-Go to the Single Check Rebate page (if you go to Rite Aid's homepage & scroll down, looking on the left hand side until you see "Single Check Rebate" under "In Our Stores"). You could mail the form located on the back of your Rebate booklet you picked up at the store but you get your rebate check faster if you do it online.
4-Enter the information that it asks you for off of the receipt. I go ahead & enter receipts the week I make a purchase to make sure that I do not forget any during the month. ****You can only receive one rebate check per month so wait until you are finished for the month to request your rebate check.***
WALGREENS
Taking advantage of Walgreens Register Rewards (RR) does not require you signing up for a card. The RR that you earn are printed at the end of your transaction (kind of like the “store” coupons that you get at grocery stores).
You cannot use register rewards on the same thing that you received it on (example: you bought a box of Kleenexes for $1.59 & received a printed RR for $1.59-you cannot use it to buy another box of Kleenexes, you would need to buy deodorant or something other than Kleenexes).
The best thing to to is to try to “roll” your RR-use RR to purchase something else that will earn you more register rewards (kind of like you would do with CVS ECBs).
When having them scan coupons have them scan in the following order: the Manufacturer coupons, store coupons, register rewards.
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