CVS

A few months ago I started looking for mommy blogs about living well on a budget, in my search I found a mom that said she got all her paper goods FREE at CVS. Since paper goods take up way too much of my budget for my liking I was very intrigued by the possibility of getting them free. What I learned was that CVS has a rewards program called "ExtraCare" that rewards you with "Extra Bucks" to use on future purchases. I had no idea that the card I had declined to sign up for multiple times could've been earning me cash back with every purchase (including prescriptions). The basic premise is that the card makes it so you can take advantage of special sale prices (like most grocery stores rewards programs) and you earn 2% of what you spend back, you are awarded a coupon with that amount quarterly, in store or I believe online, to use towards whatever you purchase on your next visit. You're thinking "that's great, woohoo, whatever". BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!! There are always deals going on that earn you instant extra EB (ExtraBucks) that can be used on your next purchase just like cash. For instance there may be a deal running that says "Spend $15 on xyz product and get $5 extra bucks". So once you earn some EB, you can use them to purchase other EB deals and get them free or for next to nothing. If you use coupons you can even earn more than you spend in some cases.

Now, the whole process sounded very confusing and convoluted to me so I spent the next month reading blogs of other people working the deals and tried to better my understanding and build my confidence in attempting my first trip.