Newbie Guide: How to Save Money At Walgreens

An Introduction to Saving Money at Walgreens

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Lately, the deals at CVS haven’t been quite as good, so I have been expanding to Walgreens and Rite-Aid. These stores, too, offer a wealth of great deals. But, they can be confusing for newbies to the Drug Store game. This confusion is compounded by the fact that there are different rules for Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS. Here, I provide a guide to newbies who want to take advantage of the deals that Walgreens has to offer.

Like CVS, which has both a monthly book and a weekly ad, Walgreens has both weekly and monthly specials. However, unlike CVS, Walgreens monthly specials can come in the form of a rebate or a coupon, and Walgreens doesn’t require or offer a card- you just walk in and get the deals. Their weekly specials also come in the forms of either coupons, or Register Rewards (Walgreens version of extrabucks). And sometimes, their weekly specials interact with their monthly specials to make a deal even better. Confused yet? Here’s a breakdown of the different ways to save at Walgreens.

Register Rewards

Register Rewards are typically listed in the weekly ads. They come in the form of Buy X, Get Y or Spend X, Get Y. For example, this week the customer could spend $10 on Kellogg’s Cereal or Snack Products. If you spent $10 on the appropriate products, you received a $5 Register Reward. There was also a deal where you had to buy 8 deodorants to get a $10 Register Reward. The products you need to buy are usually on sale. Also, the requirements are BEFORE coupon. So, for example, for the buy $10 of Kellogg’s, I can reduce that $10 with coupons for waffles. In other words, just because I use a $1 coupon I do not need to spend $11 to get the Reward (and don’t let any Wal-Green’s Employees tell you otherwise).

The Register Rewards print from machines called Catalina’s, which sit next to the registers. Like CVS Extrabucks, they are intended to be used on a subsequent visit to the store, although sometimes the cashier will allow you to use them on a subsequent order. One important thing to note is Register Rewards can not be used to pay for the same promotion. For example, if I get a $5 Register Reward (RR) for buying $10 in Kelloggs, I can not use that register reward to buy another $10 in cereal and get another reward. I could of course use it to buy $10 in cereal, but my $5 Reward would not print on that order. Confusingly, I can use it to pay for a different RR promotion, so I could use my $5 RR from Kelloggs to purchase the deodorants and I would get my RR for purchasing the deodorant.

Register Rewards must be used in full or you lose them (i.e. you wouldn’t want to use a $7 RR to buy $4 in items or you would waste $3). Usually, the expiration date is 2 weeks (this differs from Extrabucks, which you have a month to use).

Easy Saver Rebates

Easy Saver Rebates are Walgreens’ monthly deal program. A book comes out on the 25th of the previous month, listing all of the Rebate Deals for the month. Some of these deals will be Free-After-Rebate, others will be a rebate for a portion of the price of a product. Some of the items aren’t “Free-After-Rebate” but will go on sale at various points during the month, so they will end up free or at least free after the use of a manufacturers coupon. The rebate book lists limits, which are usually 1 although for some items there is a limit of 3 or 5, etc.

The rebate amount is for the total price stated in the rebate book. The use of manufacturer coupons does not reduce the amount you get back. For example, if you purchase Pert this month for $4.29, you get $4.29 back. If you use a $2 manufacturer coupon to buy the Pert, you still get $4.29 back even though you only paid $2.29.

Rebates can be filed online. You register on the website and enter in the number from the top of your receipt. The website automatically gathers the data from the store, and within a few days lists the rebates you are eligible for based on your purchases. This is nice, because it sometimes allows you to double dip (aka send in your receipt to Pert if the manufacturer is offering a rebate, and also get the Walgreens Rebate). When you enter your receipt/rebate info online, it asks you to select how you wish to receive your rebate. You can either receive it in the form of cash, or in the form of a Walgreens Gift Card. If you elect to receive the rebate as a Walgreens gift card, you get a 10% bonus.

The important thing to note about the rebates is you can request only one a month. So, don’t finalize your rebate submission until you know you are done for the months. You can enter your receipts as you get them, but just don’t select the “Review & Claim” option until you know you won’t be buying any other rebate items for the month. After you claim your rebate, it takes a few weeks to get the check or gift card (for your initial claim). Once you are past your initial claim, you can put in your card number (from the first card they send you) and they reload that rather then sending you a whole new card. That is a bit faster.

The nice thing is, once you have your initial month of spending, when you get that gift card back ideally you should be able to continue to use that to pay for all of your purchases which generate register rewards or gift cards (after you use your register rewards, of course, because those expire). Thus, you should no longer have to spend any actual cash.

Walgreens Coupons

This is the final key way to save at Walgreens. The Easy Saver Rebate Book, and the weekly ads, contain Walgreens Coupons. These coupons can be combined with manufacturer coupons, so products can end up being free or almost free. They also can be used multiple times, and they reduce the price of all the items (for example if you have a Walgreens Coupon for Glade Air Freshener and you buy 5 of them, you should be able to use that same coupon 5 times).

Quirky Fact About Walgreens Registers

One last important thing to note- you must have as many or more items than coupons. Register Rewards count as coupons, as do Wal-Greens Coupons and Manufacturer coupons. You can’t, for example, but 1 item and use 2 register rewards, or 1 item and use a register reward and a manufacturer coupon. This is where it is good to look for cheap fillers (lately, 9 cent school supplies have been great.

August 12th, 2008 in Couponing, Stores & Deals |