Walgreen's

The most frequent reply I receive when I tell people that I save oodles at Walgreen's is, "Aren't most items more expensive at drug stores?" The answer is yes, they usually are..... if you go in and buy a full price item without a coupon. The trick to saving at Walgreen's is to match your coupons with the sale items. Each week there are many items that are buy one get one free or buy one get one 50% off. In this situation you can use a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon on each item (4 coupons total). Actually, Walgreen's store coupons (Instant Value Coupons) are scanned one time and will take that amount off for each like item that you purchase. If you have an Instant Value Coupon for $1 off Huggies and you buy three packs, one coupon will deduct $3! You can reuse these coupons because they do not have to be submitted to the manufacturer. Remember, manufacturer coupons do not work this way, you have to have a coupon for each item that you purchase.

          You can also rack up major savings with Walgreen's Register Rewards (Catalinas). For example: This week there was a sale on a women's supplement. The sales price was $10 with a $10 Register Reward. This makes it free!! You can use coupons on items that have Register Rewards making the deal even better. In this case, I printed a $2 coupon which made it a $2 money maker (I paid $8 and received a $10 RR)!! Not all items that are offered with Register Rewards turn out to be freebies but you can definitely score sweet deals by combining them with coupons. Register Rewards are printed out of a Catalina machine after you check out. You can then use the Register Reward to pay for your next purchase. At Walgreen's RRs are treated as a manufacturer's coupon and Walgreen's coupon policy states that the number of manufacturer's coupons cannot exceed the number of items purchased in one transaction. If you have a coupon for every item in a transaction and you want to pay with a RR, you will have to purchase a filler item. Walgreen's coupons do not count in the number of coupons used, so items that you have only a Walgreen's coupon for are good filler items. An example would be a Walgreen's coupon for a $0.50 candy bar that is printed in the weekly circular or a cheap item such as a Jolly Rancher for $0.05 (I love Jolly Ranchers)!

          A good strategy when shopping at Walgreen's is to split your items into several transactions so that you can use a RR from one transaction to pay for items in another. Walgreen's will not give cash back or credit toward your purchase if your coupons exceed the cost of your items. To make up the difference you would have to buy filler items or have the cashier adjust the value of the coupon down to equal the price of the product. Make sure to snag the monthly coupon booklet at the store! Other coupon booklets are available throughout the year that are specific to particular products (Infant Care, Spring Beauty, etc).