Walgreens if probably the most difficult store to navigate in terms of coupons and deals so I created a top 10 Walgreens cheat sheet that will help you through. Don’t worry if they are initially confusing, they will make sense once I explain below and you start doing it yourself!
Walgreens Top 10
1.You can stack a manufacture coupon with a store coupon.
2. Always give the cashier your manufacturer coupons before you give them your store coupons.
3. Don’t waste overages, use fillers.
4. Track your totals.
5. You can’t stack Register Rewards in the same transaction.
6. You can get multiple register rewards from different items on the same transaction.
7. You can’t use a register reward from an item to get more register rewards for that same item.
8. Register Rewards count as a manufacturer coupon.
9.You can only have as many manufacturer coupons as you have items.
i.e. 5 items means you can use 5 manufacturer’s coupons
10. Walgreens coupons do not count as a manufacturer coupon.
Walgreens is normally an expensive store as compared to other places we go as couponers, but it shouldn’t be overlooked for the good deals that can be had with a little bit of work and persistence.
Walgreens has two very important things that makes going there worthwhile: it allows you to stack manufacturers coupons with store coupons and it has register rewards.
1. Stacking coupons
Walgreens publishes a weekly ad that often contains some good(not great) deals, as well as coupons. The trick is then to use the manufacturer coupons that you get out of the newspaper and off of the internet with the Walgreens’ coupon in order to get the most bang for your buck.
For example, let’s say that there’s a Walgreens coupon for Orbit gum for 69 cents a pack and you have a manufacturer coupon for buy one get one free. Say Orbit gum is normally $1.29 a pack. So you would buy 2 packs of Orbit gum which would ring up to $2.58. You would hand the cashier your Buy 1 Get 1(B1G1) coupon and the register would take off $1.29. You would then hand her your Walgreens coupon for .69 cents a pack which would take off $1.20($1.29-.69=.60 so with two packs that’s $1.20).
Your final total for the two packs of gum would be $.09.
This scenario leads me to remind you to…
2. Always hand the cashier your manufacturer coupons first and then your Walgreens coupons.
Often, if the Walgreens coupons are handed over first, the register will adjust to that price, not allow you to get the full value of your coupon, and, at times, will not allow you to use the manufacturer’s coupon.
For example, let’s say that Kraft Homestyle Mac&Cheese is priced at $1.90 a package. You have a manufacturer coupon for $1 off 1 package. There is also a Walgreens ad coupon for Homestyle Mac&Cheese at $.59 a package.
If you hand the cashier your Walgreens coupon first, the register will mark the Mac&Cheese down to $.59 and when you hand them your $1 manufacturter coupon, the register will beep and the cashier will have to manually reduce the value of the coupon to $.59.
Not only does this make the employee mad(and possibly try to refuse to take the coupon, which I will discuss in other posts), it is losing you money.
If you use the manufacturer coupon for $1 off first, the register will mark the Mac&Cheese down to $.90. Then, when you hand the cashier your Walgreens coupon for $.59, the register will take $1.31($1.90-.59=1.31) off of the total.
This is called an overage and it means that you will actually be making money by buying the Mac&Cheese!
I know it may sound confusing and overages are usually not that large, but sometimes they can be even bigger and help your bottom line total.
And that brings me to the point of overages and fillers.
3. Have something to bridge the gap of an overage
When you have a situation that causes an overage(more money taken off for an item than it is priced for), you need something to fill the gap.
In theory, Walgreens employees can manually adjust the overage down and just make it disappear, but often times the cashiers do not know or want to enforce the policy and will try to not give you item at all, so it’s important to have a plan as to what to do with that extra money. Besides, why would you want to give it up? It’s like free money. Use that money for something else you need. Even a penny can be used!
Don’t believe me? I have a good example.
Recently, Walgreens had Bic pens on sale for $1.99 a pack. Bic had a coupon for $2.00 off. I could have asked the cashier to adjust the price down and probably gotten into a long discussion over their coupon policy and had to have a manager call(which I have done and encourage you to do if you want to), but I had little time and other things that I needed. I went and picked up some Kleenex that was on sale to take care of the penny. Now, I only paid 1 penny less for the Kleenex, but that was a penny that I didn’t need to pay on top of which I the Kleenex and did not have to deal with a possible problem with the cashier.
Having that overage can be a problem so…
4. Keep track of your total overages each transaction.
Non-couponers hand their purchases over and let the cashiers do the work, but couponers know that the little bit of time and effort can mean a lot money for them so keeping track of your total overages is a must. It’s easy to forget a few pennies when mentally calculating your total, but then you end up at the checkout with a line behind you, forced into buying a candy bar you don’t want to make up for a few cents.
Keeping track of total purchases can be daunting, but it is doable once you break it down. What you really need to keep track of is the overage you are going to get with each item you are using coupons on and make sure that you have enough to fill that gap. Before you go into Walgreens, you will probably already know which items are goingf to cqause overages so you know what to expect, but remember that money can’t go toward taxes, so have something there.
Also, be careful when rounding. I think most people will round $1.95 up to $2 to make mental calculation easier, but that means that you are losing $.05 of overage from that which means a problem at the register.
5. Register Rewards-Great deals and massive headaches
Look, I love register rewards. They are a great marketing tool for Walgreens and they get me to buy things that I normally wouldn’t, but boy are they confusing.
Register Rewards(RR) is the program that Walgreens runs that gets you a reward back in the form of a coupon that can be used at a future point in time. That sentence sounds confusing to me and I’m the one who wrote it!
Basically, it’s like cash back, but with severe restrictions on its use, which makes it not like cash at all.
Let’s try an example to help clear this up.
Walgreens has a RR deal where if you buy 2 Pantene Shampoos, you get back $2 in RR. This is simple, you buy the Shampoo, you get the deal. Where it starts to get complicated is when you try to use coupons and other RR’s on this and the like.
So, here’s a special cheat sheet within a cheat sheet, The Can’s and Can’ts of Register Rewards:
- You CAN’T use the same RR to get more back. So you can’t buy 2 Shampoos, get the RR and use it to buy 2 more Shampoos and get that RR. You will only get the RR for the first purchase and when you try to use it on the purchase of the same item, there will be no more RR.
- You CAN roll the RR. In other words, let’s say that Walgreens has, in addition to the Shampoo RR, a $2 RR if you buy 2 tubes of Colgate. So you can buy 2 Shampoos and get the RR. Then use the Shampoo RR on the toothpaste to get that RR which can be used to buy more shampoo which will give you more RR to buy toward toothpaste and so on until they kick you out of the store.
This would, however, require multiple transactions that you would have to plan.
- You CAN get multiple RR’s on the same transaction. So if you want to buy both the Shampoo and the toothpaste, you will get $2 for the Shampoo and $2 for the toothpaste at the same time.
- You CAN get multiple RR’s for the same item on the same transaction. If you bought 4 Shampoos on the same transaction, you would get 2 $2 RR’s.
Be careful with these RR’s. They print out at the end of the transaction and it can take a minute before the register actually spits them out. Be careful not to leave without them. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have headed for the exit only to have the cashier call out to me that I am getting a RR.
Treat these like cash as they will not be replaced, and watch the expiration date. They usually expire within 2 weeks or so and once they are expired, Walgreens will not take them.
When redeeming RR, remember to make sure that your totally matched or exceeds the amount of the RR. It can be adjusted down(though clerks don’t like to do that), but you will not get back what you did not spend. It’s a one-time only use.
You can only use one RR per transaction and it is treated like a manufacturer coupon which leads me to…
6. You can only use as many manufacturer coupons as you have items.
Walgreens will not allow you to use more manufacturer coupons than there are items and they count a Register Reward as a manufacturer coupon. They also will often count coupons that are off of two items(like $3/2) as two coupons.
This means that you need to have as many items as you have coupons, but this can be achieved through “filler” items. These are small, cheap items that are on sale at Walgreens and often take the form of candy bars(because they are by the check out and easy to grab).
I would suggest that when you plan out your shopping trip, you know how many coupons you have and know if you need fillers so you can buy things that you need. I have bought more candy bars than I could ever want so I have taken to look and see what’s on sale and buy something useful and non-perishable, like bleach or Kleenex, or gift items like soap or cookies.
It’s important to note that Walgreens coupons do not count toward this total. So you can have 5 items, 5 manufacturer coupons and 5 Walgreens coupons. This makes these Walgreens coupon items an especially good use for a filler.
It’s also important to note that when a Walgreens coupon says something like 4/$1, you don’t need to buy 4 to use the coupon. You can buy 1 if you need that filler and use the Walgreens coupon to pay $.25 for it.
7. And the rest
- Know Walgreens coupon policy and insist that it be followed. Many of the cashiers here(and at other stores) do not know their own policy. You are well within your right to point out what that policy is(available on Walgreens’ website) and call for managerial assistance if necessary. I have had to do this many times at Walgreens. You need to be firm but polite. Remember, a lot of people think that using coupons is somehow “scamming” the store. You are not and you are within your right to get the deals that you want.
- Shop early, Walgreens deals clear out fast. So if you know what you want, get at it as soon as you can.
- Keep an eye out for clearance tags. There are many clearance items in the store and you can use coupons on these as well. The deals vary by store and you can sometimes get some amazing stuff.
- You can use two coupons on items in a B1G1 free or B1G1 50% off.
- Look out for coupons. Every week, Walgreens has coupons in their ad, every month they come out with a book of coupons and they often publish coupons for special beauty events etc.
- If you buy multiples of an item you can use multiples of the same coupon on that item. So if you were buying 2 carmex lip tints, you can use 2 of same type of carmex coupon on these. You will need to have two coupons with you to do this.
- You only need one Walgreens coupon for multiples of the same item. For example, if Walgreens has a Crest toothpaste deal for $1 a tube and you are buying two. The register will automatically take off the money for both tubes with one coupon.
