Monday, November 24

CVS paid me $1.13 to take $30 worth of products


It can be a bit complicated and almost unbelievable at first but once you get the hang of it you will fall in love with CVS Bonus Bucks. Every month and every week CVS puts out advertisements with their "free items." This differs from Walgreen's rebate system where you get the money mailed back to you in a check. Right when you buy the free CVS item you get the exact amount it cost back in Bonus Bucks- which are a paper certificate that expires in one month. While you need to make an initial investment to get your first set of bonus bucks, after the first time you can always use bonus bucks to buy the next week's free items. Thus you will get free items every week just by cashing in your current bonus bucks for more bonus bucks.

Another amazing element is that you can use coupons for the free product and you will still get the full value back in bonus bucks.

This week, for example, contact lens solution and foundation are the free CVS items. These cost $17.98 and you will get $17.98 back in bonus bucks. However, there is a $2 contact lens solution coupon online and there was a $3 off coupon for the foundation a month ago so I only paid $12.98 and in exchange received $17.98 back in bonus bucks. I had $15.99 to use, however, in bonus bucks so I purchased additional items (duracell batteries usually $5.50 on sale for $3.00 plus I had a $1.50 coupon) and two boxes of tissue on sale for $99 instead of $1.99. After my bonus bucks ($15.99)and coupons the cost was .$86 and again, I received $17.98 back in bonus bucks.

Thus I made money off of this purchase.

Please note that if I only was spending $15.00, I would not be able to use my $15.99 in bonus bucks because you aren't allowed to "lose" money.

With my new $17.89 in bonus bucks (divided into two 8.99 certificates) I will wait for more free items next week.

3 comments:

Joshua said...

I LOVE Bonus Bucks! To be honest I didn't understand all the nuances of the program, or about the free items at all, but I always save my bonusbucks coupons and use them when I can. The main problem is that the coupons that print out when you make a purchase are almost always for something I have no use for - the ones in my wallet right now are for a $15 cosmetics purchase.
How do you find out about the free products?

Joe said...

Even dudes love Extra bucks. Admittedly, they can be a bit confusing at first, but after only a few trips to CVS with my GF, I became a pro. For instance, this morning I had to buy a carbon monoxide alarm and an ant trap, both of which were not on sale and a combined $33. But using my $4 off a $20 purchase or more, and then my $16 dollars of extra bucks I only spent $11 out of pocket. And I got another coupon for $4 off again.

Stephanie said...

Joshua-

You have a great question that took me a little while to figure out. Before you understand the system, the coupons seem random and you aren't able to take full advantage of it.

First of all, let me say that the random coupons that print at the end of your receipt are different than the bonus bucks that I'm talking about. I'm just referring to the FREE products that give you 100% back in bonus bucks that you can use on any items at CVS.

CVS puts out weekly AND monthly advertisements that they keep at the front of each store (and send in the mail) that list the free products throughout. There are 2-3 free items every week in addition to the monthly free products.

My suggestion is only use your bonus bucks to buy products that give you bonus bucks back. That way you will rack up a store of products in your home without spending anything but your initial investment.

Plus, if you use coupons your bonus buck amounts will keep increasing without you needing to add cash to your pot of bonus bucks.

I will start a "Ask Fun and Frugal Stephanie Column" at the front of my blog so everyone can benefit from your question and can ask other questions!