Playing the drugstore game is a great way to get household and beauty products for free- or even make some money. The three main stores are Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens. Each store has their own rewards program- Rite Aid has the +UP, CVS has the Extra Care Buck (ECB) and Walgreens has the Register Reward (RR). These are all slips of paper that print at checkout. So how do you keep track of these rewards?
I treat these slips of paper just like money. If you end up loosing them, you loose money. When I first started with the drugstore game I kept my ECBs in my coupon organizer. One day I left my organizer in the cart. I was sick as there were $25 in ECBs in there. I never found the organizer and CVS would not give me credit for the lost rewards.
From that point on, I started carrying my store rewards right in my wallet next to my cash. That way I never forget to bring them to the store and I am less likely to loose them!
Find a system that works for you as far as keeping track of store rewards. Place the rewards in the same spot each time you shop. Make sure you are aware of the expiration date- some expire pretty quickly.
If anyone has any questions about how to shop at drugstores and get items for free, please ask! I assume that many of you are already shopping at one or more of the drugstores. However, I would be happy to go over the how to at anytime!
Just getting started with coupons? Check out the whole Couponing 101 Series. How do you organize your store rewards?
Photo credit Tara Bartel
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I’ve only been shopping at CVS for a couple of weeks, but I’ve been putting my ECBs in my wallet.
I have a question about a raincheck on an item that will give you ECBs…can you use a coupon on it when you go to purchase it?
Hi Patty,
Yes you can use a coupon on a raincheck item. What happens is they ring the item up at the sale price. Give them the coupon and then payment. They will then manually print an ECB for the item.
Rainchecks at CVS do not expire!
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Hi Renae,
I’ve been wanting to start couponing and the title of your blog was so attractive! I’ve been told by an awesome couponer friend about how she gets everything at CVS for FREE! I’m not sure how she does it though. Would you please share your knowledge on how to get/use the ECBs and how to score super cheap deals at drugstores? My husband and I would surely appreciate it!
Hi Nina,
I would be happy to help you. Since others may be wondering the same thing, I will write up a post about shopping at CVS. I plan to post it tomorrow. If you have further questions after the post, fee free to email me and I can go over more details. Thanks so much for contacting me!