I was chatting with a reader last week who is beginning her adventure of shopping at CVS. I think she understands the basic premise of buying an item that will give her ECBs back that she can spend on other items, but she wasn’t pleased with her total OOP. I suggested several things, first being to use a Green Bag Tag every time you shop at CVS. It’s so simple and actually makes you money each time. Next I shared the order that I try to put my purchases in my transactions.
- Moneymakers
- Freebies
- Items that “cost” money
When you build your own scenarios you need to keep in mind that if
you are starting with just a few dollars in ECBs you’ll have smaller and
more transactions. If you have $10 or more in ECBs you may be able to
buy all your moneymakers and freebies in the same transaction. This is
the simplest way to write scenarios but may not always result in the
least OOP.
To spend the least amount OOP you need to break your transactions up according to the amount of ECBs that you have to spend. Write down the items you want to purchase and how much you’ll pay after coupon for them. Then combine items to equal close to the amount of ECBs you have to spend. It really is a mathematics puzzle, so it’s best to have it on paper 
If you still have questions about how to shop at CVS, feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail!
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