Guide to Walgreens

Getting freebies at Walgreens is pretty straight forward. Walgreens offers something called Register Rewards of RR. If you look at their weekly ads you will see many things with Register Rewards listed. You can combine Register Rewards with coupons for even better deals.

As an example, the week of 8/9/09 Walgreens advertised Colgate 4 oz. toothpaste for $2.99 with $2.99 in Register Rewards. I purchased 1 Colgate toothpaste for $2.99 and used a $1.00 off coupon from the Sunday paper. The Sunday paper also had a coupon for $1 off two Bic stationary products. Walgreens had a sale on Bic grip pens, 2/$1.00.

My transaction was as follows:

Colgate-$2.99

2 Big Grip Pens-$1.00

Tax-$ .20

Total-$4.19

Coupons-$2.00

Total minus Coupons-$2.19

For this transaction I paid $2.19 out of pocket, but I received $2.99 in Register Rewards, for a profit of $.80.

Now lets say I started this transaction with $2 in Register Rewards and wanted to use that on this transactions. Register Rewards are considered manufacturer's coupons and you can not use more manufacturer's coupons than the number of items you are purchasing. I was purchasing three items, but since the Bic coupon linked to two items I would need to add a filler item so that I could use the Register Reward along with the two coupons from the Sunday paper. For filler items look for things that cost just a few cents. Pencils, seasonal items, candy or clearanced items can make great filler items. In the above transaction my total out of pocket would only be $.19 out of pocket, plus the cost of the filler item, if I paid with my $2 in Register Rewards.

Register Rewards can be used right away for another transaction, but usually cannot be used to repeat the same transaction. In the example used above if you used the Colgate Register Reward to purchase more Colgate it would not print additonal Register Rewards. If you used your Colgate Register Reward to purchase another item that produced Register Rewards you could then go back and use the Register Reward from that item to to purchase more Colgate and get still more Register Rewards.

Walgreens also produces many of their own coupons. You can find their coupons in their weekly ads and also in seasonal booklets in their ad rack and by the registers. It's always a good idea to pick up these booklets whenever you see them in the stores. Walgreens coupons are not manufactuer's and can be combined with manufactuer's coupons for additional savings. Best of all they don't count in your coupon total and don't require filler items.

Still confused? I frequently post freebie list and shopping guides on the blog. I also post my Walgreens shopping trips. When I was first learning the system seeing what other people bought was the easiest way for me to learn the ropes. And always feel free to ask questions. You can leave a comment or send me an email at freestuffandcheapstuff@gmail.com.