It’s the day before Thanksgiving which means the countdown is on to some of the biggest sales of the entire year. And while most people don’t automatically think about heading to Rite-Aid, CVS, or Walgreens when they think about shopping on Black Friday, the fact is that all three drugstores feature some pretty exciting sales, at least exciting for those of us who love shopping with coupons.
I’ve been wanting to do a more in-depth post about how to make drugstore transaction scenarios for a long time, so I figured what better week to do it than Black Friday week? CVS especially has a ton of fun freebies and money makers in their ad, and it is a week you won’t want to miss! And just because I know you love ‘em, I made you a little video to help explain the process.
Here are the steps I follow for creating my drugstore scenarios:
1. Print out my list using the printable shopping list tool at www.SavingWellSpendingLess.com
2. Gather all the coupons for each item on my list & eliminate items if necessary.
3. Highlight all the items that will be moneymakers after coupons and drugstore rewards.
4. Figure out the best, most profitable items first
5. Make your first transaction using the best moneymakers
6. Continue working out transactions, going in order of money makers, then freebies, then the rest.
After spending so much time on your scenarios, you will want to make sure you get to the store as early as possible in order to make sure all the items are still available. Check with your local store to find out for sure what time the ad will go live. Finally, I will be highlighting the results from my CVS Black Friday shopping trip on Friday afternoon over at SWSL. You will be able to find the shopping results here:
SWSL Shopping Results & Weekly Shopping Linky
To create your own scenarios, find the SWSL Black Friday Drugstore lists here:
CVS Black Friday Ad
Walgreens Black Friday Ad
Rite-Aid Black Friday Ad
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Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving!
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Ronda Cox November 23, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Hi Ruth
Just watched your video. Could you please explain transaction? I’m not sure I understand specifically what is defined as a complete transaction. Is that the entire checkout process on a scenario and then the process is started again? I always make my list, gather coupons, match them to the ad, shop and check out my entire transaction. Sorry for my confusion. I am recovering from surgery. As always, thanks for all your help and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Ruth November 23, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Hi Ronda, no problem! A single transaction is defined by the items you pay for & get a separate receipt for at one time. The reason for doing multiple transactions in one shopping trip is so that you can use the CVS ECBs earned in the first transaction to pay for the next transaction and so on. If you do it all at once, you will end up paying a lot out of pocket and then having a huge amount of ECBs that you will need to use to buy something else. Hope that makes sense, & I hope you feel better soon!
Ronda Cox November 23, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Hi Ruth
Thank you for your video. I am recovering from surgery, so will use that as my excuse for confusion. When you say “transaction” is that the complete check out process at the counter and then you start all over again? I have visions of standing at the counter with very impatient customers behind me waiting to check out. I guess I just need transaction defined.
Thank you
Ruth November 23, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Yes, you check out and start all over again. I always get back in line if there are people waiting, so it can take a while!
SJ November 23, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Thanks so much, Ruth! I really appreciate your taking the time to help us newbies this very busy week. I’d love to see how your scenarios worked out in the end!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Claire November 24, 2011 at 5:28 am
Yay!! Always love a new video!! Not sure that we will get too much “Black Friday” shopping done this year but I am going to look at CVS tomorrow night and maybe I’ll just get a wild hair (or wild Claire!)
For now… I sleep.
~she~ November 30, 2011 at 11:26 am
Great video! That makes total sense now! I just started drug store shopping so I never thought that I need to use my Extra Bucks right away. The worst thing ever would be to lose an Extra Buck or allow one to expire! Thanks for the meticulous details!