I get a lot of questions about CVS’s Extra Care Bucks and Walgreens Register Rewards. Here is what it is:
CVS Extra Care Bucks
The ad may say, Buy Nivea body lotion for $5, get $4 ECB, it’s “like” paying $1
What it means: You pay $5 at the register for the lotion, and get a coupon with your receipt for $4 off your next purchase at CVS.
A bonus: You can use coupons from the paper, too! So, if I have a $1 coupon for Nivea products from the Arizona Republic, I only pay $4 at the register and I get $4 off my next purchase at CVS, so it’s “like” getting it for free!
I like to take that $4 coupon and use it on another ECB item, so that I cycle through and pay less out of pocket. ECB coupons are good for one month. So, only spend time on the best deals. Not every deal that has an ECB attached is a good deal. And some weeks are better than others. So be patient and use those ECB’s when the time is right.
Walgreens Register Rewards
Very similar to CVS. The ad may say, Buy this Nivea lotion for $5, get $4 RR, so it’s “like” paying $1. At the register, you pay the $5 (or if you have a coupon, even less!) and get the $4 off your next purchase.
Differences: The RR coupon is only good for 2 weeks. You CAN cycle through them, but you can’t have more coupons than products. So, if I try to take that $4 RR and use it on a Huggies deal (like buy Huggies for $9, get $2 RR back), I can’t use the $4 and a Huggies coupon from the newspaper. That’s 2 coupons and I only have one product in my cart. But, if I add a pack of M and M’s or something, now I have 2 items and can use the 2 coupons. Another difference is that CVS limits you how many times you can do a deal with your CVS card, but Walgreens doesn’t have a card so you can do several transactions (be curteous though).
