How to Coupon at CVS

Couponing at the drugstore trifecta (CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens) was a scary endeavor for me, but once you get a few quick tips under your belt, you will be able to get amazing savings, and free products every week! CVS uses Extra Care Bucks as cash back that can be used on future purchases, which can be stacked for incredible savings.

Store Coupons
CVS has two main types of store coupons. The first are Extra Care Bucks, which are earned through purchasing qualifying items throughout the week (or month), and will be tracked via your card (free to join!!). These will print at the bottom of your receipt, and can be used immediately on any future purchase (usual restrictions apply). There is no limit to the number of Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) that you can redeem on one purchase, and CVS will generally accept them up to 2 weeks past the expiration date. There will be a limit to the number of ECBs that you can earn for a particular promotion, which will vary per offer.

Extra Care Bucks

The other type of store coupon can be printed from cvs.com (or loaded to your card), or will print at the bottom of your CVS receipt. Sometimes CVS will also put out internet printable coupons on their website, which will print with CVS Store Coupon at the top, and can also be stacked with manufacturers coupons. The main place to find these coupons however, is the Magic Coupon Machine (MCM). I do not know if this is the official name of this device or not, but it is the name that all couponers use to affectionately refer to this machine. Simply scan your card at the machine, and coupons will print. Make sure to continue to scan your card until it says that you have printed all coupon offers (sometimes up to 6 times!!). Some of these offers are standard for everyone to receive, and others will be based on your shopping habits. These can also stack with manufacturers coupons as well. Also, make sure to sign up for the CVS emails, which will contain $5/$20 coupons, 20% off total purchase coupons, etc, as another great resource!!

MCM and one of the coupons that it prints

Quarterly Rewards
CVS also gives rewards back from your spending throughout the year as well. Every quarter, the MCM will print 2% back from your spending over the quarter. This amount is calculated at the end of each quarter, and will print automatically the next time that you scan your card.

Beauty Club
Make sure to sign up for the beauty club the next time that you are in store with your cashier (get a 10% off your next purchase when you sign up!). You will get $5 ECB back for EVERY $50 that you spend on beauty/cosmetics/hair/etc items. This is a great way to get money back on a huge amount of what you are purchasing anyways!!

On the left is a quarterly reward, and on the right is a beauty bucks reward. Notice the tracking for various offers for the week (P&G get $10 wyb $30 and other weekly promotions), as well as the winter spending (will be used to determine quarterly rewards), and the beauty club (will track for the $5 wyb $50).

Store Sales
Store sales will track on your card. If there is an offer of get $10 ECB wyb $30, you can accumulate the $30 during the course of the week, or make it all in one purchase. Additionally, the $30 has a 98% threshold, meaning that $29.40 or more will trigger your $10 reward. The only exception to this is offers of $10 wyb $30 and $20 wyb $50, etc, that have multiple levels to their purchase amount. This is a rare scenario, but in these cases, you will need to hit the level in order to trigger the reward.

Here is an example of tracking how many rewards I have received for an offer for the week, as well as spending towards an offer. An example of these offers is on the right; there is one offer for $5 wyb 2 Revlon items (notice it states limit 1 per household, which is what is tracking on the receipt on  the left). The other offer says spend $14, get $10, which will be a great deal with coupons.

These ECBs can be redeemed immediately, so rolling is frequent at CVS. One thing to keep in mind when redeeming rewards is that they will apply for UP TO the amount on the coupon. This means that if the transaction is for $3.83, $0.50 in tax, and you try to use a $4 ECB, the ECB will only go through for $3.33, and you will lose $0.67, so make sure to plan your trips accordingly.

Rain Checks
All drug stores offer rain checks, but CVS has the best rain checks of any store, period. At Rite Aid and Walgreens, you can get a rain check for the store sale price. At CVS, you can get a rain check for the sale price, AND the rewards offers. That means that you never have to worry about missing a sale at CVS!!! These rain checks also NEVER expire, meaning that you can always take advantage of any offers that CVS has, even if the product is back ordered and takes two months to come in (yup, this has happened to me!).

CVS rain check, shows the sale price and the amount of rewards I can receive for purchasing the item above.

Coupon Use
CVS store coupons can be stacked with manufacturer's coupons, as well as ECBs. Make sure to use the CVS coupon first, to take off the percentage, or dollars off total purchase. Then, use your manufacturers coupons. I like to use ECBs last, to make sure that I do not lose out on any of the value of the reward. CVS also has a great B1G1 point in their coupon policy. The policy states that CVS will accept a B1G1 coupon along with a B1G1 sale, creating free products.

Store sale: Store pays for A, you pay for B           Manuf coupon: Manuf pays for B, you pay for A
Combine the two together, and product A is paid for by the store, and product B is paid for by the manufacturer. Great deal!

CVS is my favorite drug store to shop at, as they are always very coupon friendly. The fact that they have such a great policy with their store coupons, as well as rain checks, makes it very easy to shop at CVS, and I do not have to worry about issues with couponing here. I would recommend CVS as the best starter drug store to learn how to show with rewards, and I would encourage you to take advantage of all of the incredible freebies they have here!