<img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1559592892-19db4235d786?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image">If you’re intrigued by the idea of free toothpaste and toothbrushes, you've come to the right place.Oral care is one of the most common things that you can coupon for less than $1 (and, often, for free!). Once you begin couponing more regularly, it may start to lose its appeal as you can acquire more toothpaste than you need in a year very quickly. That’s why oral care always has a place in my donations!In Philadelphia, there are two places that I frequently coupon at for free or extremely discounted oral care: CVS and Walgreens.If you haven’t already, check out my <a target="_blank" href="https://www.couponforchange.org/en/blog/learning-to-coupon-beginners/">Learning to Coupon post</a> first because this is going to get a bit more in-depth and it will help to know the basics.<hr><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1728196889259-a00cc04ed172?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image">Here’s what makes CVS and Walgreens great for oral care deals (and some tips on the couponing rules involved):<h3 id="e4929643-0f7f-40fa-b237-27ca354d8b68" data-toc-id="e4929643-0f7f-40fa-b237-27ca354d8b68">CVS</h3><ol><li>CVS regularly gives out coupons such as $2 off CVS oral care<ul><li>You can use it to get a free CVS toothbrush (pick up or online only) or you can put that value towards something like floss picks if you rather (in store, online, or pick up all fine)</li><li>You can combine this coupon with the 20% off CVS oral care items that all Extracare Plus members receive<ul><li>If you pay with Extrabucks, you won’t receive the 20% off because it comes off the total after coupons and Extrabucks</li><li>Extracare Plus is the paid $5/month program where you receive $10 Extrabucks free every month and 20% off most CVS brand items <img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5077/cmfimej2f00kr3k9n1700cp7p.png" alt="image"></li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Combine multiple coupons, earn Extrabucks, and still pay with your Extrabucks!<ul><li>CVS allows you to stack multiple manufacture (MFR) coupons which are from the brand itself, on top of any CVS specific coupons such as $4 off your purchase or 20% off one full priced item, AND still be able to pay with Extrabucks even if you are buying something that is earning Extrabucks.<ul><li>If it’s a BUY deal (buy 2 items, get $3 Extrabucks), you can do the deal online, pick up order, or in store. You can put the items in your cart online to test your understanding of which coupons should attach before going in store.</li><li>If it’s a SPEND deal (spend $20 to get $5 Extrabucks), then it must be done in store to use the amount prior to coupons. Online it will take the amount after all coupons and Extrabucks so you won’t get the money back unless you buy way more of the items than you would have to in store.<ul><li>If it’s a SPEND deal, you can only use one unless you combine the two amounts together.</li><li>For example, $2 off of $10 crest can be combined with $4 off of $20 any oral care ONLY IF you spend $30. <img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5077/cmfimc3js00kfzw9neuk0frvu.png" alt="image"></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li><li>Oral care deals come and go, you can usually find good deals almost every week. If you are patient, you can quickly build up a good supply within a month or two of starting <img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5077/cmec25a0c00mjd49n1uoifqfd.jpg" alt="image"></li><li>If doing a pick up order, you can use your Extrabucks so that you don’t need to pay anything out of pocket. You can place a pick up order that says it’s $0 by using your EB<ol><li>You can also place an online shipping order with a $10 minimum if you have the Extracare Plus which I highly recommend (You pay $5 a month or less for annual membership and receive $10 Extrabucks to spend every month along with 20% off CVS brand health items <img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5077/cmfin0yne02gi7m8zccaj524m.jpg" alt="image"></li></ol></li><li>Oral Care Deals can generally be done twice per week whereas a lot of the other weekly deals can only be done once.</li></ol><hr><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1621909912620-968e18b9c2d9?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image"><h3 id="e94c8899-b68e-4e5d-985a-a307e42fc35c" data-toc-id="e94c8899-b68e-4e5d-985a-a307e42fc35c">Here’s an example scenario from CVS:</h3>Coupons available:I have a $5 off 3 on certain oral items including many crest toothpaste and oral-b toothbrushes. I also have a $1 off certain crest toothpaste, a $1 off certain oral-b toothbrushes, and a $4 off $20 any oral care products.<ul><li>In this case, I can combine all these coupons and by buying $20 (before coupons and discounts-only works in store) of items, and by buying the specific oral care items that my coupons specify, I can apply all these coupons to my purchase. <img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1553531889-56cc480ac5cb?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image"></li></ul>Extrabucks I can earn:<ul><li>The next part of the deal is that I can earn Extrabucks back when I buy certain items. For example, I can earn $4 Extrabucks when I buy two crest mouthwash. So, I can tally up how much my items will cost and how many Extrabucks I earn to assess if it’s a good deal.<ul><li>Once you earn Extrabucks you can “roll” them into the next transaction. For example, I can use $15 Extrabucks towards my oral care deal and then earn back $13 Extrabucks. I would count that as costing $2 and I didn’t need to spend cash out of my own pocket</li></ul></li></ul><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1540959733332-eab4deabeeaf?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image">Cash back I can receive:<ul><li>Finally, I can submit my receipt to Ibotta to earn cash back on certain products. For example, just recently I received $3 back for each of two crest toothpastes. It was exciting because I saw that the toothpastes were going to cost $3 but by receiving $6 back from Ibotta, I ended up making $3 (moneymaker), which I could put towards another deal. They will make great donations too, so it’s a win-win!<ol><li>PS: You can also check out the cash back app Fetch but I prefer to just use Ibotta and not overdo it with having a million things to do each transaction</li></ol></li></ul><hr><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1648091855047-9e6a97f9e52b?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image"><h2 id="41ed3600-d9d2-4301-93ed-b61313edbe88" data-toc-id="41ed3600-d9d2-4301-93ed-b61313edbe88">Walgreens:</h2>Walgreens is pretty different from CVS so make sure to read up on their coupon rules prior to couponing if you want to avoid some major headache/irritations shopping.<ol><li>While you can’t stack manufacture (MFR) coupons at Walgreens, you can stack Walgreens and MFR coupons on the same item.<ul><li>For example, you can stack a $5 off of 3 select oral care items MFR coupon with a $1.50 off manual Crest toothpaste myWalgreens coupon</li><li>The coupons all are marked with either “Manufacture coupon” or “myWalgreens coupon” so you will be able to see that they combine</li></ul></li><li>You can earn Walgreens cash from buying certain items, so you can combine buying items that have good “stacked” coupons and Walgreens cash from buying <img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1628852063027-5442b47e5613?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image"></li><li>You can sometimes pay with Walgreens cash, it just depends.<ul><li>You don’t want to use Walgreens cash you earned from buying Crest products to pay for those same Crest products if you do the deal again in another transaction.</li><li>You also don’t want to use Walgreens cash if you are doing a SPEND deal, such as spend $45 on select P&amp;G items and receive $15 Walgreens cash because it will count against your total (unlike at CVS)</li></ul></li><li>Walgreens runs oral care deals very regularly, similar to CVS. You can find things every week or every other week that are a good deal.<ol><li>There are typically better deals in-store but I never do those I like to order pick up because sometimes the Register Rewards that are supposed to print out for the deals don’t (similar to Walgreens Cash but it’s a paper coupon). That irritates me enough that I only do the online deals to receive Walgreens Cash online nowadays.<img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/5077/cmfinc22t016xz99nh4u65o0d.png" alt="image"></li></ol></li><li>You can often receive spend coupons if you go into the store at Walgreens (a paper coupon that prints out and says "Spend $35 in store and earn $6 Walgreens Cash”) which can be a great way to supplement your deal<hr><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1629777246624-e23d77e8767e?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image"></li></ol><h3 id="02f3f5e5-bb52-450d-9302-fc57154d1c7b" data-toc-id="02f3f5e5-bb52-450d-9302-fc57154d1c7b">Spend Deal Example:</h3>Items: $35.05Promos &amp; coupons: -$6.00Estimated tax: $0.72Manufacturer Coupons: -$20Estimated total: $9.77If you have $35 of items but $6 of myWalgreens coupons or promotion codes, then you only actually have $29 towards that necessary $35 spend. So don’t forget it needs to be $35 AFTER all Walgreens discounts. At least MFR coupon price still counts towards the spend total! This is different from CVS which allows the price before MFR or CVS coupons during a spend deal.PS. A common Walgreens promo code is: PICKUP10 to get 10% off your pickup order or WAG10 which gives you 10% off as well. Some promo codes can be combined but those two cannot, they’re essentially the same. There are often 15% or 20% off coupon codes which you can find on Walgreens app/website/or emailed to you.<hr><img src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1527784011719-3349bf049cf4?w=1080&amp;q=80" alt="image">Now that you know the basics, how will you know what the good deals actually are??<ol><li>One way would be to look on Youtube for “CVS weekly deals” or “Walgreen weekly deals” and see how they go step by step through the transaction and receipt.<ol><li>I did compile my favorite Couponing Youtube channels on my <a target="_blank" href="https://www.couponforchange.org/en/blog/learning-to-coupon-beginners/">Learn to Coupon article</a>, but there are so many out there so find what works for you.</li></ol></li><li>You can also check out these popular Couponing websites which break down the weekly ads for CVS/Walgreens/Dollar Tree etc.:<ol><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://thekrazycouponlady.com/">Krazy Coupon Lady</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://hip2save.com/">Hip 2 Save</a></li></ol></li></ol>Please keep in mind that websites like this make their money on affiliate links and ads. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of things posted on these websites, try favoriting certain stores so you can filter to only see their posts on those stores.

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A comprehensive guide on finding free oral care

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A comprehensive guide on finding free oral care

A comprehensive guide on finding free oral care

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Learning to Coupon (Beginners)