Couponing 101 (Walgreens)

To continue my series on Couponing 101, I wanted to cover Walgreens. There are some great deals to be had at Walgreens but (in my opinion) it's a little more work than CVS to get them. Walgreens just has a few more rules.



The most tricky thing to remember about Walgreens is that you have to have to the same number of items as you have manufacturer coupons. If you check out with 5 items and hand the cashier 6 coupons, the register will beep and not accept the 6th coupon. In order to get around this, you can add what a lot of people call "filler" items. Pick up a $0.20 pencil or pack of gum to add to your purchases. It adds a little more expense but if you have a $1 coupon you're wanting to use, then it's worth it!

This is not true for Walgreen's store coupons. If you have 5 items and 5 manufacturer's coupons, you can still use some Walgreen's store coupons on top of those 5 manufacturer coupons. There's more about Walgreen's store coupons towards the end of this post!

Walgreens has sales each week on items that will produce "Register Rewards" similar to the CVS extra care bucks. For example, in the picture above, the finish detergent or jet dry is on sale for $3.49 and you'll get a $1 Register Reward (RR) which is good on your next purchase. The RR prints out after you pay, like a catalina. They do count as manufacturer coupons, so when using them, you have to have the same number of items as RR's.

You can use a coupon on items that produce register reward. So, if you were buying the Jet Dry above and had a $1 coupon, you would pay $2.49 and get back $2.49 RR.

One bad thing about RR's is that you cannot generally "roll" them. Say you buy the Jet Dry above and get the $1 RR. You cannot use it to buy another Jet Dry. If you do, another $1 RR will NOT print for you. Sometimes there are exceptions and the RR's will "roll" and that's great because it can really lower your out of pocket expense (OOP)

Walgreens also has in-ad coupons each week. They are inside the weekly ad. There's usually no need to cut them out, just hand the ad to your cashier and they'll scan it for it. My walgreens has a copy of the ad at the register and the ladies working there usually know the sale items and scan them for me without me even asking!

In the example above, the in-ad coupon is for bandaids to get them for $1.99. It says limit 3. So you can buy up to 3 boxes just use the one coupon and it will change all 3 boxes to $1.99.

You can stack a coupon with these. If you have a manufactuere's coupon for Bandaid, for let's say $1 off, then you can use it along with the Walgreen's in-ad coupon, so that you would get the bandaids for $0.99! Just remember though, only the Walgreen's coupon will take off for multiple items! You'll have to have 3 manufacturer's coupons if you want to save on all 3 boxes!

Walgreens also has the Easy Saver coupon book. It comes out once a month and can be found in stores right with the weekly ads. They are very similar to the in-ad coupons described above but they are valid all month long. Again, you just need to use one coupon when buying more than 1 of the same item. And they can also be used along with manufacturer's coupons.

I always like to save my RR's that I earn each week and then use them on sale items the next week that will produce about the same amount of RR's for me. That way, I always have some on hand to help lower my OOP!

Once you get used to it, shopping at Walgreen's is fun! They have some great sales every week! Let me know if you have any great tips for shopping at Walgreen's!