How I made money Shopping at Pharmacy’s

Last week I wrote a post that provided a list of alternative income streams that I am currently using or plan to use in the future. One of those income streams was to Shop at Pharmacy’s and make money. How can you make money shopping at pharmacy’s you may ask? I thought the same thing until a few weeks ago. I have always loved to shop at the national pharmacy chains including CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. In the past I would try and use coupons when I could to get the best deal, but never really paid that much attention to monitoring the ads really close. Then I came across several other blogs (i.e. Money Saving Mom) devoted to shopping at discount stores using any coupon, rebate, or cash back reward available. That is when I realized that I could actually make money by shopping at some of these stores and get products that my family can use!

Over the past several weeks I started to pay very close attention to the Sunday ads for the national pharmacy chains to find the best deals and opportunities available. I also started to collect any coupon available that came in the Sunday paper or that I found online. I have a goal to reduce my families grocery budget, so clipping coupons was one logical start in reducing this expense. After monitoring the ads and reviewing other blogs, I found two opportunities last week that allowed me to make money and get some products that my family can use. Now I will mention that I didn’t make a lot of money off of these transactions, but it is hard to pass up getting free products that you can use and where you can actually make a little money The list below provides details on the two opportunities that I found at CVS and Rite Aid -

Rite Aid

• Colgate Toothpase
• Bought four 7.6 oz. Colgate toothpaste for $15.96.
• Used four $1.50 off 1 Colgate toothpaste coupons for $6.00 off.
• Received a Single Check Rebate for $10.99.
• After Tax and discounts I made $.33 off of this transaction.
• Fructis Conditioner
• Bought one 6.8 oz. Fructis Conditioner for $2.99.
• Used one $1.00 off coupon.
• Received a Single Check Rebate for $2.99.
• After Tax and discounts I made $.79 off of this transaction.
• Total Made – $1.12

CVS

• One Touch
• Bought One Touch Glucose Monitor for $29.99. We gave this to my brother-in-law who was just diagnosed with Diabetes.
• Used $20.00 off coupon.
• Sent in Mail-in Rebate for $29.99 for the Glucose Monitor.
• After tax and discounts I made ~$17.98 off of this transaction.
• Revlon Makeup
• Purchased Revlon Makeup for my wife for $9.99
• Used $3.00 off CVS coupon received a few weeks earlier.
• Used $2.00 off manufacturer’s coupon.
• Received $9.99 back in Extra Care Bucks that can be used in the future at CVS.
• After tax and discounts I made ~$4.66 off of this transaction.
• Band-aid’s
• Purchased 1 pack of Band-aids for $2.99.
• Used $.50 off coupon.
• Received $2.00 back in Extra Care Bucks that can be used in the future at CVS.
• After tax and discounts I spent ~$.66 on this transaction.
• Total Made – $21.98

After both transactions listed above, I made approximately $23.10 by shopping at CVS and Rite Aid last week. I will note that this amount may be smaller depending on the One Touch Glucose monitor rebate for $29.99 that we sent in. I have heard that the rebate may not be for the full amount as our entire CVS bill was around ~$15.00. Some blogs have reported that they will only return the amount of your total bill if it is less than the total rebate amount. Either way, we still came out making money during the week and got products that we will use!

Will this income stream make me rich? No. However, what it will do is allow my family to reduce our money grocery budget which makes more money available to purchase assets.

Do you shop at pharmacy’s to make money or get free products? What kinds of deals do you find?

Tagged as: family budget, Income Stream