Week 3: Free Couponing Class (9/7)

Welcome! We’re now in week 3 of the ten week couponing course. Go here to learn more about the free couponing course at Choyster Cash. Also, make sure to brush up on the week 2 assignment.

This week we’re going to get over $25 in free items at CVS and another $25 in items for about $7 at CVS. If you learn nothing else from this couponing course, let it be that every single month you can pick up multiple free or very low cost items at Rite Aid and CVS and Walgreens without clipping any coupons at all. Although I am here to teach you why clipping coupons is so worth it (in later steps in the course), for now you should be amazed that weeks 1 and 2 don’t require any actual clipping!

What are Coupon Match Ups?

Week 3 is all about starting the more complex process of matching up coupons or “coupon match-ups”. Coupon match-ups are when you pair up different types of coupons and use them together.

There are two main types of coupons:

• manufacturer’s coupons
• store coupons

Manufacturer’s coupons are the coupons that come in the Sunday newspapers, or perhaps in a magazine you are reading, or inside the box of a product you buy. They are made by the manufacturer of the product and say so on the coupon.

Store coupons are coupons that a particular store puts out. Walgreens and CVS have weekly fliers with weekly deals and coupons you can use for that week.

One of the keys to saving big money and getting hundreds in free toiletries and household items every month is in matching up manufacturer’s coupons with store deals. When you learn how to do this, you can start getting amazing amounts of freebies each week! This is what we will be doing this week – doing coupon match ups at CVS to get free items and even make money on items!

At this point in the coupon course we are still not cutting any coupons, so these are all easy to print off the internet coupons for this week. However, I want you to start saving the Sunday papers you received every week and put them in a box or drawer as I explained in the Introduction. We will start using them next week!

The CVS ECB (”extra care bucks”) Program

The CVS system is based on the idea of the “extra care buck” or “ecb”. One ECB is worth one dollar, but ECBs are only good at CVS. So the key to CVS freebies are that you only get money back in the form of ECBs (coupons which are printed at the bottom of your receipt). The way it works is that if you buy something advertised as a product that will give you back ECBs those ECBs will print at the bottom of your receipt. These printed receipts are your money for you to use on the future at items at CVS. It is critical that you don’t throw out your receipts with ECBs printed on them!

If you buy something advertised as “free after ECBs”, then you will have the money in the form of an ECB coupon as soon as you leave the register. Many couponers *love* this because it means that then you can immediately use those free ECBs in a second “transaction” (purchase). We’ll talk a bit more about that in this week’s assignment, but here’s an example: For instance, I walk into the store to pick up a $4.99 tube of lipstick that is free after ECBs. I purchase the lipstick (making sure they scan my ECB card) and immediately the $4.99 is printed out to me. So I can go back in the aisle, pick up some milk, come back to the cash register, and use the ECB coupons I received in the last transaction to pay, instead of paying with cash. (Had I bought the milk and the lipstick all at one time, I would have paid out money for both, and had more ECB coupons to spend next time I come to CVS.) However, if you have an ECB for $4.99 and you only purchase $4 of stuff with it - you WON’T get a refund! So you want to always buy something worth a little more than the value of the ECBs you have.

Every month, a number of items at CVS are completely free after ECBs. The key to getting your feet wet in the ECB system is to pick up these items first. They are easy as pie and no coupons needed.

First, you need to know how to hear about the CVS deals for the month and the week. You can sign up to get your CVS weekly store circular delivered to your email here. They also come in your Sunday newspaper, and you can also find the circular at the front of the store. Finally, many couponers these days don’t even both to look at the circulars and simply make sure to log into a blog like this one to see the list of deals for that week. Then you can print that blog post and just take it with you to CVS. Simple!

Week 3 Assignment

LifeLock DVD Starter Kit $2.99
Get $2.99 extra care bucks (Limit 1 - so that means one deal per household)
Final price FREE because you’ll get $2.99 in ECBs after spending $2.99!

2.

Degree or Dove Clinical Protection Deodorant $7.50
Get $5 extra care bucks when you buy 2 (Limit 1 deal per household)
Use $2 coupon from 8/2 Sunday paper or here
Use $2 Dove Clinical Protection coupon here
Final price FREE after using your coupons and ECB bucks

On this deal, you will give two coupons and get ECBs back - making it free!

3.

Clean & Clear Products, psa $4.99
Get $5 ECBs wyb $15 (limit 1)
$2/1 Clean & Clear printable (print out 3 so you can give the cashier one coupon for each item)
So on this deal you will give 3 $2 printable coupons and get $5 in ECBs back, meaning that you’ll spend about $4 for the three products.

4.

Aussie Shampoo, Conditioner or Styler 6-14 oz $2.99
Get $2 extra care bucks (Limit 3)
If you have already been cutting coupons, you may have a $1 coupon on Aussie from a home mailer you received. This would make it free.
Final price as low as $.99 each (or FREE if you have the coupons)

So if you have the coupons you will give 3 $1 coupons and get $2 ECBs per bottle - making that three bottles free! If you don’t have the coupon you’ll get 3 bottles for $3 total!

5.

Coppertone NutraShield Sun Care on sale for $6.99
Use $5 coupon here

OR

Use $2 coupon from the coupons.com bar  on the right of the site
Final price as low as $1.99 if you print out the $5 coupon. That’s good for sunscreen!

6.

Just For Men Haircolor, Touch of Gray, Moustache and Beard, $6.99
$2/1 Just For Men printable
Just For Men Touch of Gray MIR (this is a mail in rebate which will give you the full purchase price back)
Just For Men Haircolor or Gel MIR (this is another mail in rebate which will give you the full price back)

On this deal you can end up making money if you do both the coupon and the Mail In Rebate (MIR).

That’s it!

After making your purchases, makes sure to ail in any necessary mail-in rebates based on which items you purchased and wait to receive those checks back! Congratulations! You just got over $25 of items free and another $25 of items for only $7! If you want to see more deals this week to try your hand at some other combinations, make sure to check out the full list that Budget Saving Mom compiled at Choyster Cash this week.