Now that I’ve become hopelessly addicted to got the hang of couponing at CVS, I’ve decided to try my hand at making Walgreens pay me to shop there. It’s not as easy as the CVS ExtraCare programs but it can be done! So, last month, I read Money Saving Mom’s Walgreens 101 primer and did one of their rebates in their EasySaver Rebate Catalog. I paid about $4 out-of-pocket for a couple of items (I used coupons to buy them) and was eligible for $6 in rebates. Not too bad but nothing spectacular. However, if you get your rebate on a Walgreens gift card instead of having them mail you a check, they give you an additional 10% of your rebate total. So actually I got $6.60 on my gift card, which I was excited to receive on New Year’s Eve!
This was not a bad start, but this week I really amped up my savings. Walgreens also has a program called Register Rewards which is similar to CVS’ ExtraCare Bucks. They usually only offer Register Rewards on a couple of items per week, and the Register Reward is a COUPON for a certain amount off of your next order. It isn’t exactly like “Walgreens Money” but it’s close enough. Anyhoo, this week Walgreens was selling a children’s Dimetapp for $4 and offering a $4 Register Reward. Woohoo! This was made sweeter by the fact that they had $2 off Dimetapp printable coupons at dimetapp.com. WHICH I printed 4 of. So 4 different times, I bought the Dimetapp, paid $2.77 including tax, and got $4 Register Rewards back. I then used those Register Rewards to buy things that I am going to get rebates on. For example: Glade Scented Oil Candle refill packs are on sale 2/$5. If you buy four, you also get a $4 rebate ($4.40 if you choose to put your rebate on a gift card.) Well little old me just happened to have four $1.50 off a refill coupons, so my four refills cost me $4 – just the amount of my register reward! So I paid only tax (on my new Walgreens gift card!) for them, and I am getting back $4.40!
Here’s me dreaming of my rebates…
To make the deal even SWEETER, Walgreens also had Glade Scented Oil Candle Holders on sale buy one, get one free this week. Well, I also happened to have five or six “buy one get one free” coupons for those as well, so this week I hit a few Walgreens and got 10 Glade Scented Oil Candle Holders for FREE! Woohoo! (Which is why I am giving them away!)
I did most of my shopping on Sunday the 30th, before I had received my rebate gift card in the mail, so I did spend about $8 out-of-pocket (because you can’t use the Register Rewards you earn on a product to do the same deal again, so I paid out-of-pocket for the Dimetapp), but I am getting back almost $20 in rebates on the items I purchased, PLUS I have all that great stuff and all those FREE candles! So I think I did pretty well! Although CVS is still my first love, if Walgreens is going to pay me to take stuff out the door, I will gladly do so!
For more great Super Savings Saturday stories, head over to Money Saving Mom. And let me say again that if you haven’t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 class yet, do it! It is very affordable and will pay for itself in a heartbeat. You can check it out or purchase it here!
Oh, and don’t forget to enter my contest! Comments close tomorrow night!
