CVS and ECB's

[littlemis...@majorshopaholic.com]

I get a lot of questions about CVS and ECB's. Its quite the system,
and once you learn to work it, it begins to pay for itself.

First, you need to know the terminology. ECB stands for Extra Care
Bucks. These are rewards on your receipt that you can spend later on
another purchase. There are two kinds of ECB's--the first, is a
reward when you buy certain products. For example, buy Tylenol get $2
in ECB's. The second kind is a standard reward--I believe its 2% of
all purchases that quarter. That's after coupon price, not before
coupon price.

Now, for the system to work in way that's worth your time, you need to
spend less on your items than the ECB amount. ECB's have expiration
dates, usually about 4 weeks from the date you earned them.

There are many ways to use your ECB's--some people "roll" them using
ECB's they've earned to pay for products to earn more ECB's--and some
save their ECB's for things they need. I do a combination of both. I
look at the deals available, and if I have something that will make me
more ECB's than I have, I'll "roll" my current ECB's into that product
deal. If not, I'll use my ECB's on everyday items I need--milk,
bread, trash bags, medicines, etc.

Now the real trick comes when you combine coupons with your ECB
deals. For example, in December there was a deal for Sudafed--buy a
box of Sudafed for $4.59 and get $4.59 in ECB's. Well, I had a coupon
for Sudafed, for $5 off, which made the Sudafed free, and I got the
$4.59 in ECB's.

Now, there are current deals that are long and complicated, and I will
not go into them fully here. If you'd like to know more, I highly
recommend www.hotcouponworld.com and their CVS thread. There they
will walk you through every step to get you the maximum ECB's for your
buck.

One deal I will share: The Contour and Breeze diabetic testing
meters. These meters are on sale for $9.99 each, with an ECB of $10.
If you go to the pharmacy counter of your CVS, they have Diabetes
guide books that have coupons in the back of them--coupons for $30 off
a Breeze or Contour. So your meter is free, you get $10 in ECB's and
all you pay is the sales tax. You say you don't need a meter?
Neither does half the people buying them--I donate them to a Dr I know
who works with diabetics, she gives them out to her patients for
free. There are limits on the deal--the Contour is limit one ECB per
CVS card--the Breeze is limit 5 ECB's per CVS card. If you find a
Breeze, grab it--they aren't sighted all that often.

Just a little editorial here on the Breeze/Contour/Novamax--most
companies who make these can't give them away fast enough--they don't
make any money on the meters. Its the testing strips that are super
expensive and highly profitable. Also, I notice deals like this often
come right before they are about to release new models--they are
clearing the shelves.

I hope that helps you guys! Watch the papers, look at your coupons
and see what matches up! then go get yourselves some ECB's!