Shopping at drugstores like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens are a great way to save money. While their prices can be a bit more than regular grocery stores, they tend to have times when you can match up sales with great manufacturer coupons and store coupons. On top of that, sometimes drugstores will give you printed out coupons that are basically free money. I am only familiar with CVS and Walgreens so I will go over how to save big there.

CVS

At CVS, their program is called ExtraCare Bucks. The way this works is that in some cases they will offer you ECB’s for spending a certain amount of money. The ECB’s are printed at the end of your receipt. For example, spend $20 on specific brands of cold medicine, and you can earn $10 in ECB’s. By the way, that $20 that you need to spend is before coupons.

You can still use coupons and previously earned ECB’s on that $20. For example, I recently bought $22 worth of cold medicine, used $4.50 in manufacturer coupons, $3.00 in store coupons, and $14.00 in previously earned ECB’s. I was able to purchase $22 in cold medicine for $0.50 and earn $10 in ECB’s.

Another thing to know about CVS store coupons is that they are stackable, which means you can use one store coupon and one manufacturer coupon on the same item.

The best way to use the ECB program is to roll your ECB’s into another ECB offer. This minimizes your out of pocket expenses. ECB’s are as good as cash at CVS, so protect them as you would cash because if they are lost, they are next to impossible to replace.

Another way to earn ECB’s is to use CVS’s Green Bag Tag program. You purchase a Green Bag Tag for $0.99; a little known secret is that there is a coupon for the tag inside the tag packaging. Anyway, if you bring in a reusable bag when you shop at CVS, make sure to have your Green Bag Tag scanned as well; limit of one scan per day. You will earn $1.00 ECB’s for every four times your tag is scanned. Free money!

Walgreens

The savings program at Walgreens is called Register Rewards. If you spend a certain amount of money, they will offer you RR’s. The RR’s are printed from a machine that is called a “catalina” machine; this is merely because Catalina is the company that makes the machines. Occasionally, the catalina machine will also grace you with extra coupons for other products as well! Anyway, for example, spend $10 and receive $2 in RR’s.

The catch with RR’s is that, technically, they are manufacturer coupons that are only good at Walgreens. So to use RR’s, sometimes you need to have “filler items”. For example, if you about to purchase five items and you have a coupon for each of those items, but you want to use RR’s as well, you will need to purchase a filler item so you will be able to use the RR’s. This can be anything you wish, but generally the cheaper, the better. I usually will use a small piece of candy near the cash register for about $0.33.

On the up side, Walgreens does offer store coupons that you can stack with manufacturer coupons. You can generally find these in the display near the front of the store, near the pharmacy, or at the beauty counter.

As with CVS, the best way to use the RR program is to roll your RR’s into another RR offer. This minimizes your OOP expenses. RR’s are as good as cash as well, so treat them as such.