Queen Mother Blog

Last year around Christmastime was when I first got hooked on CVS. They had a phenomenon that was taking the world by storm: stackable coupons. Now, no one at CVS expressly said that they were stackable, but they didn't say they weren't either. There were internet printable coupons for $10 off a $50 purchase, all the way down to $2 off a $10 purchase. Combining all of these CVS $ off coupons, CVS store coupons, manufacturer coupons AND the Extra bucks program, made for some insanely killer deals that you just knew wouldn't last long.

Of course, that madness didn't last long, and now CVS doesn't put out anywhere near the amount of coupons that they used to. What they still do however, is have their awesome Extracare program. If you don't already have an Extracare card, you need to get yourself one asap! Not really because of their 2% back off all your purchases every quarter (which doesn't add up to too much for me), but because they give you your own "extracare coupons" at the end of transactions (which can be combined with manufacturer coupons to score you really good deals) and because you can earn Extracare bucks (ECBs) on certain products every week and month that come out to be totally free.

Now, the whole CVS program is not new to many of you, but I know a lot of my readers (especially my own dear family) do not take advantage of it the way they could! I will not go through a huge long tutorial here, especially since almost every other 'frugal mom' type website has her own tutorial. There are good ones here and here.

Once you get into CVS deals you can nab stuff like I did here:


This week there is a Complete contact solution deal where you spend $8.99 out of pocket and get $8.99 ecbs back = free! The limit per Extracare card was five! So, how could I turn down five free bottles of solution? That is like a year's supply for me (and they don't expire until late in 2010!) I also was PAID to get two of the Maybelline mineral makeups: they were on sale for $8.99 each, I had a $3 off coupon and a $2 off coupon, and each one gave a full $8.99 in ecbs, so I got $5 worth of ecbs, free! The free toothpaste is a monthly deal and the store I stopped today actually had some!! I missed out on the Duracell battery deal they had last week, so I stocked up today on the Energizer deal. I got two mega-packs of AA & AAA batteries for $22, used two $1 off coupons and got $10 in ecbs...my total for 32 batteries? $10. Oh, and the formula I just needed ;)

NOW, I have a ton of ecb's for next time, and apparently my next time will be Thanksgiving! The CVS Black Friday deals were "leaked" and there is a bunch of stuff FREE after ecbs (toothpaste, Aussie products, universal remotes, energy drinks, razors, etc.)! So get started if you haven't yet...'tis the season to get hooked!!