How to Get Most of Your Toiletries and Cleaning Products for FREE

Have you ever added up the amount of money you spend on toiletries? Have you ever wished you didn't need shampoo, toothpaste, and floor cleaner this week so you would have more to spend on food? The amount of money spent on non-essential items for the home in the U.S. each year is astronomical. Add in over-the-counter medicines and stores like CVS make a killing selling these products to millions of Americans every year. Why? Because most of them pay full price, but you don't have to. I shop at CVS for FREE - that's right, free.

Here's how: CVS has a great ongoing promotion called Extracare Bucks. Extracare Bucks are coupons that print on the end of your receipt and can be spent just like cash at any CVS store. They are obtained two ways. First, they can be obtained by spending money on anything at any CVS store after signing up for their store card- CVS gives cardholders 2% extrabucks on quarterly spending for every $25 spent in increments - if you spend $25-$49.99, you get a $0.50 extrabuck, if you spend $50-99.99 you get $1 extrabuck etc. But that is not where the real savings lie. In fact, I don't usually spend enough to warrant more than a $0.50 or $1 Extrabuck each season. The second way to make extrabucks is how I legally get most of my toiletries and cleaning products free at CVS: The weekly/monthly deals.

Here's how it works: Each week CVS puts out a flyer in the local newspaper showing the weekly/monthly extrabucks deals. Local deals can also be viewed online at CVS.com. There are two types of deals - buy $X worth of the following products, earn $X of extrabucks and buy this specific products, earn $X Extra Bucks. For example, last week two of the advertised deals were "buy $20 worth of the participating Proctor and Gamble products on page one [paper towels, toilet paper, diapers, dish soap, laundry soap etc.], get $5 extrabucks," "buy Mylanta 12 oz, any flavor for $5, get $5 extrabucks." Your extrabucks print 48 hours after buying qualifying products. This explains how to get a good deal on certain products, but not how to get all of your toiletries for free.

That's where adding coupons comes in, as well as something called "rolling extrabucks." First, coupons. Let's look at the Proctor and Gamble deal last week. Getting $20 worth of product for $15 after extrabucks is a deal, but not a great one. To get a better deal I added in a $5 diaper coupon I got from the manufacturer, a $2 diaper coupon I traded for online on couponforum.com, a $0.50 coupon for dawn I received in a home mailing for P&G products and four $0.20 coupons for dawn from the newspaper inserts last week. I also used a $5 off any $20 CVS purchase coupon from specially marked packages of coke obtained at CVS stores. I bought 20.93 worth of products and used a total of 13.30 in coupons so my total after extrabucks on these items was $1.70. I paid 6.70 and I got my 5.00 in extrabucks after 48 hours in a printed coupon on my receipt. But I didn't pay that $6.70 in cash. Yep, you guessed it - extrabucks.

Paying in extrabucks for another item for which you will earn extrabucks is called "rolling extrabucks." This is how you will get products totally free. Some promotions are limited to one per card, but others are unlimited. Some specify size but others work on trial size or the smallest size products. Using coupons and/or buying the smallest sizes, you can actually earn money while shopping for products at CVS. Take the dove promotion last week: dove shampoo was $3.99, earn $3.99 extrabucks and there were coupons for $1.50 off any one dove advanced care in the Sunday newspaper insert. If you shopped on Sunday for two dove advanced care and used two $1.50 coupons, you'd pay $5 in cash and in two days you'd go in and get $8 extrabucks - you can either buy a candy bar or clearance item to get it to print before you shop or you can print it out at CVS.com before you go.

You would then use that $8 extrabuck on Tuesday to buy three more dove advanced, use three more coupons and pay the 7.47 plus tax total with your $8 Extrabuck, spending no more money out of your pocket. If you had a $2 off a $10 CVS purchase coupon, you could get $2 worth of anything you like (or more using coupons!). On Thursday you'd have $12 in extrabucks to buy six more shampoos and conditioners, use six $1.50 coupons, one $5 off a $25 purchase and buy $2 of whatever you like for free. On Saturday you get your $24 Extrabuck and you'd buy 11 more shampoos and a free candy bar, using 11 coupons, and one $5 off $25. Then you wait for your Sunday paper to get the CVS flyer and plan how you're spending a $44 Extrabuck on Monday.

It might take some effort to purchase or trade for 22 of those coupons. You could probably find them on eBay for around.99c to $1.99 plus .39 postage if you planned in advance of the deal by looking on the CVS page on hotcouponworld.com to see the weeks' deals ahead of time. You might also have to look at more than one CVS or ask when they stock up to make sure you can find this many. But, I'd say that this initial investment of time and money was worth it. You spent a bit of your time and effort and only 6 or 7 dollars and you have over $40 of CVS money ready to grow even bigger the next week. Spend some on whatever you need and roll or grow the rest. If you don't need that much shampoo or have nowhere to store it, buy it anyway, then donate it to a women's shelter. After all, you MADE money by buying it. You're now well on your way to becoming a savvy CVS shopper, so I leave you with one warning - be forewarned, getting all your toiletries and more for free can be very addictive. Use in moderation (or not if you dare!). I'm off to spend my $72 in extrabucks.