At first glance, shopping at the Walgreens down the street might not seem like a financially savvy decision.
But what most people do not realize is that some of the best deals are within those four walls. Once you discover just how easy it is to not pay the price on the shelf, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t learn these savvy saving practices sooner!
Sign Up for Balance Rewards
Walgreens has its very own savings program called Balance Rewards. It is free to join and will give you access to paperless coupons and special deals.
Balance Rewards also acts as a loyalty card where you accrue points for your purchases (or for exercising!) which you can later redeem to pay for future purchases.
Occasionally there will be special Balance Reward purchases where you can earn additional points, but the basic outline is that for every $1 you spend you will receive 10 points, 500 points for prescriptions, with 5,000 points equaling $5 off your future purchase.
Use Register Rewards
If you’re like many people, once you check out you shove your receipt into your bag or pocket, never to be seen again until you throw it in the trash.
When you shop at Walgreens, you need to pay close attention to the papers that they hand you once you are finished checking out.
Register Rewards are just like cash and are printed out with your receipt, and are printed when you purchase specific products. Items change weekly, so be sure to watch the weekly ad for which products qualify.
There is a bit of learning curve when it comes to maximizing your Register Rewards, but it isn’t rocket science. A couple things to keep in mind is that they do have expiration dates, just like coupons.
Typically it is 2 weeks from the date it was printed, but be sure to double check.
You can only buy one of each item that qualifies for a Register Reward in a transaction, if you’re wanting to get multiple Register Rewards.
You cannot use a Register Reward from one qualifying purchase to pay for the same item in the next transaction. The second Register Reward will not print.
The cash register views Register Rewards as a coupon. Because of this, you cannot purchase 3 items that you also have 3 coupons for, and then use a Register Reward to pay for your purchase.
Only one coupon per item (though Walgreens coupons do not count, since they are seen as a discount). This is where filler items come in. Fillers can be anything that is cheap, but stands in as an item, things like pencils, clearance items, gum/candy, etc.
Use Coupons!
Coupons are always a great way to save, but Walgreens makes coupons even sweeter!
Walgreens offers their own coupons, which can be found in their weekly ad, and they can be used in conjunction with Manufacturer coupons.
The way I like to explain it is that Walgreens is offering a sale on a product, but they want to make you work for it by using their In-Store Coupon.
You can tell the difference between a Walgreens (or store specific) coupon by looking at the top. It will either say “Walgreens Coupon” or “Manufacturer Coupon”.
Shop Sales
The best time to buy products is when they’re on sale, right? So why not pair the sale with your coupon(s), Register Rewards and Balance Reward Points and lower your out of pocket expenses? You might be surprised to learn that by doing this, you’ll end up paying very little, if anything at all, for some of your everyday products! This is when you stock up so you never have to pay those overpriced shelf prices again!
