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CVS is my
favorite place to coupon and, in my opinion, is the easiest place to get great
makeup deals. CVS is super, super coupon friendly (as you may have noticed in
my Saving Series posts). There are a number of reasons why CVS is so great to coupon. I’ll
breakdown these reasons for you below. This will be a lengthy post, but it will
be worth it if you want to get free makeup!
1. CVS ExtraCare Card
The first step to take to get deals
at CVS is to sign-up for an ExtraCard Card. The ExtraCare Card is CVS’s version
of a rewards card. You need an ExtraCare Card in order to get the CVS sale
prices on any item. Signing up for an ExtraCare Card also qualifies you for
many other coupons, including CVS-only coupons and ExtraCare Bucks. The
ExtraCare Card also tracks your spending toward different deals (e.g., $50
toward Beauty Club ExtraCare Bucks) and lets you know what ExtraCare Buck deals
you have fulfilled partially or in total that week. You can sign up for an
ExtraCare Card at any CVS store.
2. Coupon Machine
In the front of CVS stores there
resides a COUPON MACHINE!! You can also check prices at these stations, but the
real allure is that they give you that week’s CVS-only coupons. Most weeks, I
receive one that is makeup-related. This could be because I signed up for the
CVS Beauty Club (see #5) and/or because most of my purchases at CVS involve
makeup. Oftentimes they have coupons like: $4 off a $12 “This Brand” purchase
or $3 off “This Brand.” The coupon machine also gives you coupons for other
products (e.g., vitamins, cleaning products, milk).
3. Email Coupons
When you sign up online for CVS
coupons (and have an ExtraCare Card), you usually get a CVS coupon emailed to
you weekly. In my experience, you receive the coupon later on in the week and
have until Sunday to print it. These coupons take two forms: 1) A certain % off
your regular-price item purchase, or 2) A certain amount off of a purchase
(e.g., $4 off a $20 purchase, $3 off a $15 purchase). I prefer the latter
because they include sale items. I tend to get the latter type so I’m lucky.
You can also create an online account that is tied to your ExtraCare Card and
print more CVS coupons from your account and send the coupons to your ExtraCare
Card if you choose. You can create a CVS ExtraCare account here.
4. ExtraCare Bucks
ExtraCare Bucks is what really sets
CVS apart, and makes it so easy to coupon here. Lots of other drugstores have a
similar program, but in my opinion, CVS’s is the best. When you make a
qualifying purchase at CVS you will receive a certain amount of ExtraCare Bucks
(ECBs), depending on the promotion. The most common makeup-related ECB deal
types are: 1) Spend $15 on “Brand”, get $5 in ECBs and 2) Buy 2 “Brand”
products get $5 ECBs. ECBs are essentially money that you can use toward your
next purchase at CVS. You can only use them at CVS, but you can use them
immediately (unlike Rite Aid where you have to wait until the next day, and
Walgreens where you have to accumulate a certain number before you can use
them). This is great if you want to “roll” your ECBs (e.g., finish one
transaction where you get ECBs to use immediately during a second transaction).
You can see an example of me rolling ECBs in this Saving Series post.
To
qualify for ECBs, you don’t even have to meet the full value of the deal.
According to The Krazy Coupon Lady, it’s around 98% of the deal. For example,
if you had to spend $10 on Maybelline to get $3 in ECBs, you really only have
to spend $9.80. Sometimes this doesn’t happen though. However, the bottom of
your receipt will show you how close you are to completing a deal. If you’re
close to completing the deal but the ECBs don’t print, let the cashier know and
they will often print the ECBs for you.
5. Beauty Club
Ah, the Beauty Club. It’s like CVS
is begging you to score great beauty deals. For every $50 you spend on beauty
items (this includes most makeup, skincare, hair care, perfume, etc.), you
receive $5 in ECBs (you can get the $5 ECBs from the Coupon Machine). What
makes the Beauty Club so glorious is that the $50 threshold is BEFORE COUPONS!
So you can spend $50 on makeup, pre-coupons, have $50 in coupons and still get the $5 ECBS!! You’ll also get
extra (beauty-related) coupons this as part of the club and get $3 in ECBs around
your birthday. For more information, see the CVS Beauty Club website.
6. Benefits Kick In Using Pre-Coupon
Prices
Like I mentioned above, any ECB deal
you are trying to fulfill (e.g., Spend $15 on Revlon, get $5 ECBs) is fulfilled
based on pre-coupon prices. So, you can get $15 worth of Revlon product, but
use $10 in ECBs from previous purchases and $5 in manufacturer’s coupons—spend
nothing—and still get the $5 ECBs for your next transaction. This goes for any
ECB deals, not just beauty deals.
7. Manufacturer’s Coupons
On top of being able to use
ExtraCare Card prices, CVS coupons and ECBs, you can also use manufacturer’s
coupons. Using multiple types of coupons is called “stacking.” The trick to
getting great deals in my Saving Series posts is stacking. I usually stack all
four—ExtraCare Card prices, CVS coupons, ECBs and manufacturer’s coupons. You
can get manufacturer’s coupons from newspapers, websites like coupons.com,
manufacturer’s website or social media pages and even from CVS.
8. Sales
Oftentimes makeup is on sale at CVS.
However I’ve rarely need a sale to make a great deal happen. ECBs, coupons and the
ECBs I get back from a previous transaction usually drive a deal for me. If the
product is on sale too, that just sweetens the deal.
Keep in Mind:
- The trick is to stack your coupons!
- Always bring the coupon policy. If the cashier has any questions you can always refer to the coupon policy together. You can find CVS's coupon policy here.
- CVS prices are higher than Target (but comparable
to Walgreens and Rite Aid), but that is where stacking comes in. Even if
the base price is higher, you can typically get makeup for free stacking
sales, ECBs, CVS coupons and manufacturer’s coupons. Target usually
doesn’t have great sales on makeup and don’t often have Target coupons for
makeup, so it’s harder to stack at Target. Plus, my experience has been
that Target can be less “coupon-friendly”, but that might just be because
drugstores only have one or two cashiers who are much more used to people
using coupons.
- CVS sometimes has hidden deals. These deals aren’t
advertised in the flyer. They will sometimes be online in your CVS
account, or posted on different couponing websites/forums (my favorite is
The Krazy Coupon Lady)
- The makeup selection is pretty good. Drugstores
can be hit or miss with newer stuff. Right now, CVS has most new
Maybelline Spring 2015 products, but not some of the new Nyx products
(they are exclusive to Nyx and Ulta right now). Newer products are usually
at the front of the beauty section, not with the rest of the brand’s
products, so look around if you are looking for something new (e.g., the Spring 2015 Maybelline Color Tattoos).
- When you first start shopping at CVS, you will
likely have to spend a little bit of money to get things going. Once you
start accumulating ECBs you can use them to purchase other items and get
more ECBs and keep it going from there.
- Be patient,
wait for the deals to come to you!
As you can
see, once you get the hang of it, CVS is a very coupon-friendly store. This is
why 99.99% (if not all) of my Saving Series posts will take place at CVS.
Let me know
if you have any questions about couponing at CVS, or any other couponing
questions. Happy couponing!
Disclaimer:
This post is not sponsored by or anyway affiliated with CVS. I just love
couponing there! All opinions are honest and my own.
Referral
Links:
Birchbox: https://www.birchbox.com/invite/dqphm
Ibotta:
at checkout enter the
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