I’ve been actively CVS’ing for so long, it’s easy to forget that not everyone else is familiar with all the ins & outs. Here are some tips for beginners.

First, make sure you register your Extra Care card online at CVS dot com. But, do not register it until you are positive that it’s a week that you have deals to do. Because once you register your card, you will probably get a $4 off a $20 purchase coupon, and that coupon can be used BEFORE all your manufacturers’ coupons. So it will sweeten any deals that you have planned. But when they come, they have very short expiration dates, like three days. So don’t sign up until you’re sure you can use it. I hate to see a good coupon go to waste!

Same goes for the CVS Beauty Club–don’t sign up until you have a cosmetics deal lined up. To sign up, they have little slips of paper at the registers in the stores. You just hand them your CVS card and the little thing of paper, and they scan both, and you’re registered! The register should immediately spit out a 10% off cosmetics coupon. *But* it also will have a very short expiration date of about three days. Sign up for it the next time you are ready to purchase cosmetics, because once you’re registered, you get $5 back in Extra Bucks for every $50 you spend in beauty products. I’ve noticed though, that the beauty club takes a few days to catch up in the system. Even if you make a $50 purchase today, your $5 ECB may not show up for a few days. But it’s a very nice surprise when it does!

Next tip-make sure you go online and sign up for the CVS Advisory Panel. This is open to anyone with a CVS card and you can sign up any time. When you do, you’ll occasionally receive surveys. I receive maybe two or three a year. When I do them, I get $5 or $10 in Extra Care Bucks for completing it. Sure, not going to get rich doing it, but an extra $5 or $10 helps build back up those ECBs so I can do my free diaper deals.

If you are not a CVS’er, I highly recommend that you pick one of the drug stores and learn the game. Rite Aid, CVS, or Walgreen’s. Learning to do this at one or more stores is a good way to build up a stockpile or free or almost free merchandise. I rolled the same CVS Extra Bucks, was never without them, from 2006-2009; and that was essential to trimming my budget and my helping to build my diaper stockpile.

I picked CVS and Walgreens as my two stores that I frequently shop, because they are close to my home and I like them both.  I’ve been actively going there for over five years and I’m content there.  Some like Rite Aid or other stores better, I like these two.