CVS’ing 101: MAKING YOUR FIRST PURCHASE
Welcome to the third part of my CVS 101 series. Writing this has been so much fun for me, because I love sharing what I know. Especially when it comes to helping others save money. Now that you understand The Coupon Lingo and you know what to do Before Your 1st Purchase, we are going to talk about making your first purchase. To me, this is the best part of playing the CVS game. It can also be the most tedious at times. So continue reading to find out how to make your first transaction go smoothly.
Just a reminder: Remember to grab your list of items you want to purchase, your coupons and your CVS weekly and monthly ads. I suggest you take your own ads just in case your store doesn’t have any in stock.
- Now that you are at the store, start collecting the items on your list. Make sure that you get EXACTLY what is advertised. Double check your items, because it would be a little inconvenient for you if you got up to the cash register only to find out that you grabbed the wrong item and you have to run back through the store to get the right one or just void it out all together. (And no one wants to void out a good deal.)
- After you have collected all of your items, take a cruise down your stores sales or clearance aisle. (ALL CVS stores have one of these aisles, just ask an employee where it’s at.) I know that you may not have budgeted this detour in, but if you can score a pack of Pampers for $4.00 or L’Oreal foundation for $3.50, it just might be worth the splurge. (And this is the price before coupons.)
- Now that you have everything that you need, it’s time to check out. Once the cashier has rung up all of your items, it’s time to hand over your coupons. After CVS’ing for awhile, I have found out that it is better to give certain coupons in a certain order.
- If you have a CVS coupon for a dollar amount off of a dollar amount, (for example: $2 off of a $10 order), hand them this coupon first.
- Now hand over your manufacturer coupons. Always hand over a few at a time so you can make sure that each coupon is taken off of your order.
- After the manufacturer coupons, hand over your CVS coupons. These coupons will print off at the bottom of your receipt just like your CVS ECBs.
- And finally, hand over your ECBs from a previous order if you have any. (This would also be the step where you hand over your cash or gift cards if you do not have any ECBs.)
And that’s it! You have completed your first transaction. But wait, there’s more. What do you do if your store doesn’t have an ECB item in stock? I will cover that in the next post in this series.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I will answer them as quickly as possible.
Please keep checking back throughout the week for the rest of my posts in this series.
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I love your series on CVS’ing. I had no idea what everyone was talking about with this whole CVS thing. You’ve totally explained it where I can understand it. Thank you so much!