Remeber the commercials for Fred's Dollar Store back in the 90's where the old woman's voice would yell "Fred's giving away the store"? Yeah, well, I never got anything for free at Fred's, but I do at Walgreen's. In fact, they pay ME sometimes.
I promised a post about Walgreen's shopping today and here it is. I will dedicate this post to one of my FAVE cashiers who always knew just how to "make it work"....today is her last day at Walgreen's...I'll miss you E!!
The beginning of Walgreen's savings starts with their monthly savings book they they kindly place in the front of most stores with thier sales ads. This can sometimes go quickly, but our Walgreen's keeps a good supply. In these booklets, they offer a variety of coupons that can only be used in Walgreen's for items ranging from toilet paper to cookies.....maybe I should have picked better examples...You can also find coupons in a small booklet that can be purchased at the pharmacy, it's a kid's coloring book and is usually .99 or so. I believe you could look through it before you buy it. Walgreen's also has coupons in their ad each week and it can usually be found your local Sunday paper.
The great news is that Walgreen's will take a Walgreen's coupon AND a manufacture coupon for each item. You can get your manufacture coupons in your Sunday paper inserts, from magazines, or printed straight from your computer. Unfortunately Walgreen's corporation does not have a standarized coupon policy, so it can vary by store. One thing that is the same everywhere is that even though you may have multiple coupons per item, your total of items purchased can NOT out number your number of coupons. For ex: Walgreen's had Benadryl on sale for $7.99. They had a $3.00 off coupon in their booklet, and a $3.00 coupon in their ad. I also had a $2.00 off coupon from the paper. This made the Benadryl free because the total of my coupons was $8.00, but I had to purchase two more items of some sort in order to use three coupons. I bought to highlighters that were on sale for .09 each. So I paid .17 total.
Register Rewards(rr)
Register Rewards are rewards the store offers you for purchasing certain products. These print at the checkout after you pay for your transaction. If they are offering a $5 rr for a $10 product, then you will pay the $10 and then they will give you a $5 rr (which looks like a reciept) for your next purchase. The way to maximize your savings is to find a large item that has a high rr being offered. Use a high value coupon for that item, and then use the rr to make your next purchase. You will often have many transactions. That is okay, they are used to it, and you will get used to it too. Here is an example. Sometime ago they had eye drops on sale for $8.00 with a rr for $8. I had a coupon for $4 off of the item. I paid $4 our of pocket(oop) and they gave me a register reward for $8. Then you can use that register reward to pay for the toilet paper and milk in your cart that are also on sale, and you hopefully have a coupon for at least the toilet paper. This is the way you can get your milk for FREE. You use the extra $4 you just got to pay for it.
Often the things they have rr for are not things you would normally use, just get it anyway. If it's free why not get it and donate it to a charity?
When using manufacture coupons
and Walgreens coupons along with register rewards, you want to give them your coupons in this orde:
1) Manufacture coupons
2) Walgreen's Coupons
3) Register Rewards
There is a method to this madness....if the coupon total is more than the price of the item, then the manufacture coupon will "Beep" and the cashier will give you your coupon back with a blank stare.....If you give them the manufacture coupon FIRST then it will come right off and the system rarely ever turns down it's own coupon. If it does, they type it right in.....
I hope this helps when shopping Walgreen's.....
I'll post some of my finds later!
