For those of you new to the extreme coupon world, I introduce to you Walgreens 101. Did you know that you can get all kinds of goodies extremely cheap, even FREE, at your local drug store? Well you can. You can get anything from medicines to baby products, to makeup to food for mere change, if you play the game. So here's a quick look on how to get started.
Like CVS, Walgreens give you incentives to come in and buy certain items. They're called Register Rewards, also known as RR's. What RR's are are Catalinas that print out when you buy certain products. Unlike CVS, which is like store printed money, RR's are actually from the manufacturer and are used like Manufacture coupons. They're usually good for about two weeks but can be shorter or longer, depending on the promotion. You'll also only get one RR per promotional deal per transaction. That mean if you want to get two RR for the same item, you'll have to buy one now and then the other in a different transaction. Also, you can't use a RR to buy the same item you got it from to get another RR. So if you got a RR for buying Tylenol, you wont get another RR for using it to buy another bottle of tylenol.
Lets look at some examples to get an idea of how this all works:
Example: Get $2.00 RR when you buy one St. Ives Body Wash $2.99.
So, in this example, when you buy one St. Ives body washes at $2.99, you'll get a $2.00 RR, making it only $0.99 after the RR. That's pretty nice, if you remember to actually use it. This is why it's good to use them as soon as possible, if not the same day on another transaction.
Now we bring in the coupons. Walgreens allows you to stack one Manufacture coupon and one store coupon per item. Doing this will allow you to save even more and build up your stockpiling even faster. One things to remember though is that you can't have more Manufacturer coupons than you do items. So if you have coupons for ever item your buying, you will need a filler item to be able to use your RR since Walgreens considers them Manufacturer coupons. A filler item is nothing but another item, usually something small and cheap (a piece of candy or pack of gum) to offset the coupon to item ratio. Back to the example:
Example: Get $2.00 RR when you buy one St. Ives Body Wash $2.99.
-$1.oo/1 printable coupon
-$1.00/1 Walgreens Sept Booklet
In our example, we're paying $2.99 for the body wash to get the $2.00 RR. When we subtract our coupons, we're now paying just $0.99 OOP (Out of Pocket) and getting the $2.00 RR. This is now a money maker, meaning that after you add in the RR, you're total is -$1.01! It's like telling Walgreens, "I'll pay you $0.99 for this body wash if you pay me $2.00." How crazy is that?!
So we have our first RR, yay! Now what? Well, now we use it buy another deal! This is one reason it's a good idea to have a game plan before going to your store, knowing what's one sale and what promotions are going on, so you don't get overwhelmed. It also lets you know ahead of time what you should be paying OOP and what RR you should recieve.
Lets add onto our example:
Example: $2.00 RR when you buy one St. Ives Body Wash at $2.99.
- $1.00/1 printable coupon
- $1.00/1 Walgreens Sept Booklet
= $0.99 OOP + $2.00 RR
$2.00 RR when you buy two Quaker oatmeals at $2.50.
- $1.00/1 Quaker oatmean RP 8/29 (use two)
- $2.00 RR
= 1.00 OOP + $2.00 RR
In our example we got our $2.00 RR from buying the body wash and now are going to use it on our next transaction, the Quaker oatmeal. The deal for the oatmeal is buy two and get a $2.00 RR. We also have two $1.00/1 coupons. So buying the two boxes makes the total $5.00 minus @ $2.00 in coupons brings the total to $3.00. Now comes in our RR from the body wash. After the RR the total becomes $1.00 OOP with another $2.00 RR recieved making it a $1.00 money maker! Now you can take that new RR and roll it over to buy another body wash or different deal.
After both transactions, you've paid an OOP total of $1.99 and got a body wash and two boxes of oatmeal. That's a savings of $6.00, 75% or you can look at it as you paid $0.66 each.
Here's a review:
- RR are only good for a specific amount of time to make sure to pay attention and use them quickly.
- You can only earn one RR per promotion per transaction. You CAN buy multiple promotions in on transaction, just not two of the same.
- Using your RR towards another transaction is called Rolling.
- You CAN NOT use a RR from one promotion to buy another item of the same promotion. (Ex. You can't use your St. Ives RR to buy another St. Eves and get another RR.
- Walgreens allows one Manufacturer and one store coupon per item.
- You will need a filler item if you have more Manufacturer coupons than items.
- When giving the cashier your coupons, give in this order, making sure store coupons are always on the bottom: Any $/$$ (like $5 off $20 purchase), Register Rewards, B1G1 Manufacturer coupons, other Manufacturer coupons, then Store coupons
- Walgreens now has an official coupon policy online! So, make sure to go here and print it to take with you any time you go shopping there.
