Smart Shopping Sunday: Pt. 1

Did you know you can score cheap to free items weekly at your local drugstore? I know for me, I wasn't a believer. I mean, have you seen how much they mark up their prices?? AT Publix a 3 lb bag of Friskies cat food is a mere $3.99, but at CVS it's $6.99! I just couldn't see how you could get anything for a decent price, let alone free. But alas, I was wrong. And my house is now filled with all my great scores from both CVS and Walgreens.

I have been asked "But if you get such great deals at Publix, why do you bother with these extra stores?". The truth is, not everything goes on sale right when I need it at Publix. The drugstores are better for getting good deals on personal care items, at least for us. And if I can get those for cheap or free, that means that I can take them off my weekly grocery list, therefore lowering my out of pocket expense. It takes a little extra time and effort. But it's worth it to me. So each weekend I'm going to be highlighting some good deals at CVS or Walgreens, maybe both. Remember, what I post is not necessarily all the deals, so you'll want to get out your ad and look for what's good to you and your family.

Here are my quick tips for shopping at drugstores:

1. Just like at the grocery store, shop the sales and coupon match to those sales
2. Utilize their reward programs (free). For CVS that would be ECBs (or ExtraCareBucks); for Walgreens, aka Wags, that would be RRs (or Register Rewards)
3. Try to get items where the ECB or RR will be equal to or more than the actual cash you spend out of pocket to maximize your savings.

Now this does take a little more effort to learn how to do than just couponing at your local grocery store. That's mainly because of the rewards systems. But it's worth it once you do get it. So remember, start small. No need to attempt large complicated transactions to begin with. My friend Meghan and her hubby have done a great job with starting out at CVS. You can read about their trips here.