Jan 13 2009
How to Shop Walgreen’s
I thought today would be a quick post, but I guess there’s a lot of info for shopping at Walgreens so brace yourself! I’m typing little by little as I bake, clean and pack for our vacation!
That being said I will not have another post until the end of next week. But by then I will have lots of shopping to share with you, including a KMart doubles trip. (Let’s hope they have stuff in stock!)
Before I get started with Walgreen’s stuff, my last min shopping trip last night was NOT a money saver by any means. I had to send my honey out to buy a small amount of milk. Well, the small one cost almost as much as a half gallon so he got that. Of course it wasn’t on sale. So that was $3.64 with a savings of $0. Blah.
The smart thing I should have done was send him to CVS and use ECB…but oh well. I guess some really yummy homemade bread was worth the milk price.
Facts about Walgreen’s:
There are several ways Walgreen’s (Wags) offers to save you money. These ways consist of Register Rewards (RR), Easy Saver Catalogs which consist of Easy Saver Coupons (ESC) and Easy Saver Rebates (ESR), and their weekly ad coupons.
Register Rewards:
This is a reward that you receive for purchasing a certain amount of certain products. For example: this week Pepsi products offer a $5 RR if you purchase $15 in specified Pepsi Products. Pepsi 12pks are on sale $5/15. Purchase 5 of these and a $5 RR will print after you check out.
Rules for RR:
1. This is a Catalina (A coupon that prints from the manufacturer. Like the coupons that print at the grocery store register.) It does not print on your receipt like an ECB.
2. It may not be used to purchase stamps, gift cards, alcohol, tobacco, money orders or lottery tickets.
3. You cannot use a RR on the same deal and expect to get another RR. It will not work. IE - If you purchase the Pepsi deal and get a $5 RR, you can use that RR towards the purchase of another Pepsi deal, however you will not receive a RR again. (I’ll go more into “rolling” RR later.)
4. RR accrue pre-coupon price. You can use coupons towards the deals for RR and still receive the RR even if you don’t pay the full amount OOP. IE - You do the Pepsi deal and you have (5) $1/1 Pepsi 12pk q’s. After using those q’s your total is $10 + tax. Guess what? You still get the RR even though the deal is for a $15 purchase…why? The store get reimbursed from the MFR for those coupons, so they are still making $15! If a RR doesn’t print for you and the cashier tries to tell you it’s because you used coupons, ask to speak to a manager. That’s not true! A lot of Wags employees are misinformed about this. If you still have trouble contact the Catalina company or Wags corporate. I’ve had this happen to me before and was given a form to submit with my receipt. My RR was mailed to me. It’s inconvenient, but it’s your $!
5. Some stores policy - I am seeing this more and more, luckily it hasn’t affected my store yet, but you can only use 1 RR per transaction to pay for items. Check with your store on their policy. (Personally I think they should all be consistent but that’s a corporation for you!)
6. Some stores policy - You can’t use a RR for 24 hours after it prints. Meaning you can’t immediately use it to do another transaction. However I have heard you can go to another Wags and it will work just fine. Again, this is a YSMY (Your Store May Vary) basis. Check their policy.
7. You cannot purchase 2 of the same deal in 1 transaction and expect to get 2 RR. Most of the time the RR limit is 1. You will have to do 2 separate transactions if you want to get more than 1 RR on the same deal. Typically the store will not allow you to do 2 of these transactions back to back since the deals are technically 1 per customer. But that doesn’t stop me from going to another store or coming back later in the week. (Only if it’s an extremely great deal on something I regularly use.) Also please be courteous to other customers…leave some for others.
8. RR do expire and most stores will not accept them after their expiration since it is technically a MFR coupon. Make sure they don’t go to waste!
Tips for RR:
1. Use coupons! If you have to spend $X.XX to get $X.XX in RR, use coupons to make your OOP expense less and sometimes make $.
2. “Roll” your RR. Use RR to buy other things that you will get RR back on. Like I said before you can’t use RR on the same deal but you can use it on a different deal. IE - You have your $5 Pepsi RR. Sometimes there are great deals that are Free after RR. Most of the time it’s an HBA item. Last week they had SlimQuick 2 pk for $4.99 and you’d get $4.99 back in RR, making it free after RR (kinda like ECB). Well, since your RR is worth $5 you will have to find a .01 filler…kinda hard to do, so find something REALLY cheap like a paper giftbag for .08! You just paid .07 for the Slimquick and still have $4.99 to spend the next go round.
3. Use your RR on rebate items. (See section on ESR).
4. Use your RR before they expire. If you forgot you had some and there are no great deals the week they expire, use them for everyday necessities: milk, bread etc. Or anything else you may be running low on. Then you don’t have to buy it later!
Easy Saver Catalog:
Each month Wags offers what’s called an Easy Saver Catalog. This Catalog consists of 2 parts. Easy Saver Coupons and Easy Saver Rebates.
1. Easy Saver Coupons
These are coupons you can clip right out of the book. Lots of times Wags puts those same items on sale one week during the month for more savings. Personally I rarely use these coupons and here’s why…
There’s some controversy over how these coupons can be used. The coupons clearly state “Not valid with any other offer.” I take this to mean it cannot be used with another coupon. Before I noticed the fine print, in my early coupon days, I used this coupon with another MFR coupon for the same product and I got a “beep” from the register. The cashier took it anyway, lucky for me, but I haven’t used another one since. However there are some Wags registers that will not do this. Again, this is a YSMV scenario!
I have heard lots of discussion over what’s called “double dipping”. At the end of each month the ESC overlaps typically 2 days with the next month’s catalog. A lot of times there are coupons for the same products. I have heard of some people being able to use both of these coupons on those days along with another MFR coupon. I have never tried this. You will have to check with your store on their policy. I assume there’s some great savings there.
2. Easy Saver Rebates
This is the best part of the Easy Saver Catalog. Each month rebates are offered. Typically there’s anywhere from 1-4 free after rebate items available also. There are so many ways to get free items and to make $ off of Wags with the ESR.
- You can use coupons on the rebate items and you will still get refunded the full price. Why? Again, the store gets reimbursed for the coupon. So if you purchase a free after rebate item for $4.99 you have a $1 coupon, your total is $3.99. You will still get $4.99 back!
- If you have your rebate put on a Wags gift card you will receive 10% back! Let’s say your rebates add up to $20 at the end of the month, well you’re going to get $22.00 back if you choose the gift card option. You can have a check mailed to you, however you will not receive the additional 10%. The 1st GC takes a couple of weeks to get to you, but you can recharge it the next time and it only takes a few days to credit to your card!
- You can submit your rebates online. This is so much easier! You just put in the receipt #, then you have your receipt to submit for a MFR rebate if you have one! Super Money Maker!!
Tips:
1. Use RR to purchase rebate items. That way you’re not really spending much OOP.
2. Use wags coupons in addition to your MFR coupons for more savings, then submit for rebate…you’ve just made a killing on Wags! (see next section on wags q’s)
3. Use the previous month’s rebates to purchase the next months. If you’re always paying with a GC then you’re not spending $ and you’re getting free stuff!
Weekly Ad Q’s
These are fabulous and the only way you will get “overage” using coupons. Last week I got some really great deals with these q’s. These Q’s can be used with MFR Q’s. How do you get overage? Last week there was a q for Reynold’s Aluminum foil .99 (Reg price 1.69) I had a MFR q for $1.00/1. Reg price 1.69 - .70 Wags q - 1.00 MFR q = -.01 overage. Typically there’s a limit on how many products you can get. This coupon the limit was 2.
Wags also offers online coupons to print. They typically do this twice a month and the coupon is only good for 2 days. (Usually Friday/Saturday). These are $/$$ coupons. These range from $2/10 to $10/40. Now the sad part is within the past couple of months they’ve changed their coupon policy. Say you have a $5/20 Q. (You use to be able to purchase $20 in items and maybe pay $5 after Qs.) Now your total has to be $20 AFTER q’s and BEFORE tax. So the least you are going to pay is $15 + tax. But if you purchase rebate items or RR items, it’s not always so bad.
Wags secrets:
You have to have 1 more item than the # of q’s used. If the register beeps and all your q’s are in order, you probably have too many q’s and too little items. (This includes RR.)
This is where you pick up “filler” items. You try and find the cheapest thing possible to make up the difference in the item/coupon ratio. 3/$1 items are usually the cheapest unless they have a special on paper gift bags. Sometimes these are 8/$1. Check the clearance racks too.
You will also need a filler item if your OOP is in the negative (you have too much overage.) This may happen if you have a large RR. So just pick up another item…
Wags can be a great place to shop and get lots of items for free. They are similar to CVS except you don’t need a card. Check out IHeartWags for more info and ad sneak peeks! Happy Shopping!
