Shopping at Walgreens

This is the first installment in my tips for shopping at certain retail stores.

Walgreen's can be a great spot to snag many, many free to nearly free items. If you are not familiar with Walgreens they also offer "Register Rewards". These are essentially rebates that you get back to use on your next purchase. They often have items that will carry Register Rewards for the week, and there are items that will carry Register Rewards for the month. Purchasing products that have a Register Rewards while using a coupon can get you a free item, or it can get you what I call a "moneymaker".

A moneymaker would be a small amount of overage on an item that can be rolled to your total purchase. For example. This week at Walgreens Ricola cough drops are on sale for $1. When these are purchased you will also receive a $1 Register Reward. If you were to use the Ricola $.50/1 coupon that is found in the Walgreens November Savings Booklet you would end up paying $.50 for the cough drops and getting a $1 Register Reward back for your next purchase. You have just MADE MONEY buying cough drops!

Walgreens often has several booklets out with their own store coupons. Currently at the front of the store you can find their November Savings Booklet. It is a small booklet full of coupons for many different items found in the store. Since these coupons are Walgreens specific coupons they can also be combined with the manufacturer coupons that you clip from the paper or print online. Because of this it is very easy to find free or small moneymaking items while shopping at Walgreeens.

Another place to find coupon books is behind the cosmetics counter and at the pharmacy. The Health Savings Booklet that the pharmacy hands out often has coupons for health related items. While the cosmetic counter booklet contains more beauty related products. I would suggest getting all three booklets to make sure you are prepared for any deal that may pop up.

One other thing to note about using coupons at Walgreens is that you must hand over the manufacturer coupon first and then the in-store coupon. Walgreens' system has a hard time adjusting the price of the item if they are not handed over in that order.

Walgreens can be a hot bed for deals if you keep your eye on the sales (and this blog). I find it to be the best place to stock up on candles and cleaning supplies.

Have you found any great deals at Walgreens this week? Leave a comment and let me know what you sccored!