Walgreens

First, just like I do with my Kroger or Meijer shopping, I personally use the Grocery Game ( please use referral moneysavingmethods@yahoo.com ) to provide me a list each week of all the sale and coupon match ups. BUT, Andrea at Mommy Snacks also has a Walgreens feature, as well. So, if you are just starting with the whole couponing and feel a bit overwhelmed, use either of these two resources to assist you.

Why is Walgreens worthy of it's own post?

Because, you will get unbelievable amounts of products free or almost, week after week....month after month.

The reason is they have a Walgreens Easy Rebate Catalog that comes out each month. In that catalog will be items that Walgreens will provide a rebate on. You can click here to view January's Catalog or pick one up at the front of any store. Or, go to walgreens.com to find an online version of the most recent catalog.

As you will notice in the catalog, the first benefit is that if you have your rebate provided to you in the form of a Walgreens Gift Card, they will give you an extra 10%!! That means you are making a bit more money on the rebate.

Also, each month, they have Free After Rebate Items. In January, they had Orajel and Revlon, for example. This simply means that if you buy these products, you will get the full price back to you PLUS 10% next month on a Gift Card. OK...so now you made money! Yeah!

But, how can you make even more? If you have coupons, you then make an even heftier profit. If I have a $2.00 off Revlon coupon and a $1.00 Coupon for Orajel, I will now make a profit of $3.00 plus 10%. Why? Because Walgreens gives the purchase price back before coupons.

In addition, they have items with a rebate but it won't be necessarily categorized as free. But, many times, if you use your coupon, it then brings the item to free after rebate ( plus profit of 10% )

It all sounds so confusing, but it is not, once you get the hang of it. I buy all my health and beauty products from Drugstores now for free or pretty close to it. I can't remember the last time I paid for toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, soap, etc.

The first month you do this, you will of course pay out of pocket. You will then be refunded via Gift Card. But, going forward, you should spend very little out of pocket if you roll everything over.

For example, when I go to shop in February next month, I will use the gift card I got from my January purchases to pay for February's order. Thus, you don't spend anything or very little out of pocket. But, you used that gift card. Now, in March, your gift card will be reloaded with the rebates from the February order, and you will use this new money to pay for March. So on and so forth.

Finally, Walgreens has Register Rewards. You will see these advertised or on your grocery lists from the Grocery Game or Mommy Snacks, when available.

How they work is simple. You buy the products required, and they will then give you a Register Reward for $5, as an example. This $5 is printed as a Walgreens coupon and can be used on your next shopping trip ( or split your cart up and use it to pay for part of your products ) as cash, basically.

By combining all of these simple tricks at Walgreens, you can get a lot of your necessity items for barely anything. This can be a huge cost savings to your family.

So, here is an example of January for me, when I shopped online ( due to a snowstorm that had me homebound )...so you can get an idea of how the program works:

Walgreens has a coupon for Buy 1 Get 1 Free on Walgreens products, with a $10 rebate when you buy 5 products. In addition, Revlon and Orajel are free after rebate.

So, my cart worked out like this:

5 - Wal-Tussin - Buy 1 Get 1 at $3.99 = $9.98 ( they gave a discount on the 5th )
1 - Revlon Blush - $9.99
1 - Orajel Cold Sore - $8.49

Total = $29.46

Entered code: WEEKLYAD

This takes the shipping off of orders $25 and above and $5 off ( which would have about equated to my Revlon and Orajel coupons ).

My final tally was $25.99. BUT, I will be getting $29.46 plus 10% back. So, I just got all those products free plus made $6.42!!

I hope this gives you a bit of insight to how the program works.