I absolutely love CVS. I save so much money by shopping there. Most of the time I pay pennies for $10s and $20 worth of products. The key is to combine the sales with coupons on products that generate Extra Care Bucks (ECBs). For those who aren’t familiar with ECBs, they are a type of coupon that prints at the end of your register receipt and can be used as cash for future purchases.
There are couple tools I use to help me work out my deals and keep track of my savings. The first is the CVS Calculator. It’s a spreadsheet created by BigJimSlade on A Full Cup.
Tonight I was working out my deals using the spreadsheet. Based on all the items I wanted to purchase, it was going to cost me about $65 out of pocket (OOP) even with all my ECBs and coupons. So I broke it down into smaller “trips”.
Using the spreadsheet, I was able to recalculate all my purchasing into three different trips, all in less than 15 minutes or so. With my less than stellar math aptitude, it would have taken me forever to figure it all out on my own. But I probably would have just given up! In the end, I was able to make almost all of the same purchases (some items weren’t in stock) and spend about $3 OOP! I just LOVE that spreadsheet!
The second tool, and one I’ve only recently started using, is the CVS Savings Calculator available for free download at I *heart* CVS. Now, I’ll admit — this is the type of tool for someone who is incredibly OCD about their CVS shopping and savings. But I love it! It gives me a type of validation that tickles me every time I open that spreadsheet!
Between the two of these spreadsheets, you will be able to plan your shopping trips and keep track of your overall savings. When people ask me if it’s worth the time I put into researching my shopping, I pull out my savings spreadsheet and let them see for themselves. The numbers speak for themselves:
