Monday, March 29, 2010

Grocery Shopping at CVS

Last week, I discussed why it can make sense to grocery shop at drug stores.  It seemed incongruous to me at first, but now I find myself buying all sorts of things there.

Before I go into specifics at CVS, I wanted to reiterate a comment made by Shelly at Coupon Teacher.  She said:

Don't forget to always watch those expiration dates. Drug stores are notorious for not pulling expired items from shelves.
You're absolutely right!  Since so few people do buy groceries there, some of the items may have been on the shelf past their sell-by date. Make sure to check before purchasing!

The best thing about buying groceries at CVS is that you can use Extra Care Bucks to buy them, if necessary.  Walgreen's has limits on how their Reister Rewards can be used - in the fine print, it says no dairy.  I take that to mean anything in the dairy case, including eggs and frozen items, though I have not checked that with a manager.

So when your budget is really tight, you can use excess ECBs from other deals to buy milk and eggs, and free up your out-of-pocket money for other items.  Even better, sometimes you'll get ECBs for buying milk and eggs - last week there was a deal for getting a 50¢ ECB when buying milk.

I've found that CVS regularly has deals on Nabisco crackers.  One time I got five boxes for $2 after coupons and Register Rewards.  Another deal I regularly see is on Unilever products - Ragu pasta sauce, Skippy peanut butter, and Lipton tea, for instance.   Breakfast cereal is often a good deal at CVS as well.

One thing I've seen at CVS but not at the grocery store is single-serve ice cream treats.  At the grocery store, these might be sold in boxes of 8 or 10.  But if I only wanted one per child, I might think about buying them at CVS - though the per-item cost might be higher, it would be less out of pocket, and I wouldn't have the other treats taking up room in the freezer, tempting me to eat them.

Next week I'll be discussing Walgreens.  I find a lot of grocery bargains there, expecially when combined with the coupons in the ad flyer.  See you next week!

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7 comments:

Olivia March 30, 2010 at 12:53 PM  

Good advice! I loved CVS's Coke deal this week, and we used our $3 ECBs to buy Goldfish. That makes everyone happy.
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Jamie @ I Am A Money Magnet March 30, 2010 at 2:09 PM  

I buy cereal pretty often at CVS! So true about watching those expiration dates, but that is true everywhere not just at drugstores! My local grocery store is terrible about dates when it comes to certain items! Thanks for linking to Thrifty Tip Tuesday!

Lori Yoder March 30, 2010 at 2:16 PM  

I LOVE the deals you can get at CVS! They've been a little slow lately so I'm waiting for them! I definitely prefer them to Walgreens because of how much easier they are to work with, but you can't write off Walgreens because they have such great deals at times too.

Thanks for linking up!

Angela of Blog Mommas March 30, 2010 at 10:34 PM  

Thanks for participating in the Tuesday's Tip Jar over on Blog Mommas. We have a new Tuesday's Tip Jar link over there now. :]

Jenny March 31, 2010 at 8:56 AM  

this is nifty but ive never thought of grocery shopping at CVS. ours doesnt have much in the way of food. walgreens on the other hand... xD

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