How to Shop at Walgreens 101

Walgreens is a great store to score some great FREE stuff!!! However they do have a lot of different rules to follow to be able to get all these awesome freebies. So I have created this nice little handy guide to shopping at Walgreens. Enjoy!

First off I will tell you to check out Walgreen’s new Corporate Coupon Policy online. It goes over all the rules and what they allow with coupons. Great to print off and take with you in case you run into any trouble at the register.

Every Sunday Walgreens puts out their new weekly sales ads. Their sales run from Sunday to Saturday midnight.Walgreens will take manufacturers, and internet printable coupons. They also have store coupons in their weekly ads too. Note: You can use a Walgreens In-AD coupon with a manufacturers coupon!

Walgreens In-Ad coupons

The majority of Walgreens in-ad coupons have a limit # on each coupon. However these limits are not necessarily in their register systems. So even though the coupon says limit 3, if you buy 6 you will still get the same deal with one coupon. How they work is each item is rung up full price, then you scan ONE coupon, and it will minus the price of the coupon for each item. So if you bought 6 it would minus 6. You only need ONE in-ad coupon for multiple purchases. Your store may or may not limit you and ask you follow the limits. You only need one In-Ad coupon for multiple purchases.

You can use an In-Ad coupon AND a manufacturers coupon at the same time.

Using Manufacturers Coupons at Walgreens

Walgreens accepts all types of manufacturers coupons including internet printables. Generally you will not have any trouble using manufacturers coupons, however if your coupon is a higher value than your item you will get BEEPAGE at the register.  The great news is that Walgreen’s corporate coupon policy states that they will just adjust the coupon down.  Also you can use up to 2 coupons on a buy one get one free sale as long as the coupons are not greater than the products total.

Register Rewards
Register Rewards are little coupons that print out after you buy a product or a number of products. They look like this:

They generally say “Save a certain dollar amount on your next shopping trip” This is like coupon money to spend on your next shopping trip. There are a few things you cannot use your RR on however like gift cards and pharmacy. Read the fine print on those little RR to see all the exclusions. You may or may not be able to use more than one RR per order. Let me walk you through some examples:

In the weekly ads you will see a Register Reward deal looking like this:

Free after RR: You would buy the product and out will print a RR! So it was like it was free.

Things to know about RR:
RR are limit of receiving one per shopping trip. So you cannot buy 2 of the product and expect to get back 2 register rewards of the same type. {If you did buy 2 you would just get 1 RR}

Walgreens will rarely offer a raincheck with Register Rewards, so this is one store you may want to get in early to get the deals. It doesn’t hurt to ask for a rain check though.

You can use manufacturers coupons when buying items that give you a Register Reward. Here is an example:
Product costs $5, you hand them a $2 coupons, Pay $3 and get a $5 RR back! This is like Free plus a money maker.

Rolling Register Rewards:
You cannot use the RR you just received and turn around to buy the same product again using the RR. Because what will happen is that you will pay nothing, but not get another RR back. You cannot roll these into the same products.

But you CAN roll Register Rewards into another BRANDS RR deal. Take note on the RR, you will see a brand name on each one typically. Like thanks courtesy of GLADE. As long as you are rolling that Glade RR into another deal from another company like Arm & Hammer or something you will be fine. Here is an example:

So if you are really smart about this you will spend very little and get a lot of actual FREE items at Walgreens using Register Rewards. {Yes there is an ART to this}

Register Rewards are also considered manufactures coupons to the Walgreens Register machines. You cannot have more Manufacturers coupons than you have Items or you will have beep-age. Sometimes you may have to have a filler item. Example:
You are buying a Shampoo that is Free after RR
Shampoo $5
You have a manufacturers coupon for $3
You also want to use your RR from last week you earned from Glade for $2
If you tried this right like this one of your coupons would beep because you have more coupons than items.
You need a filler — grab a cheap filler .29
You would then pay .29 and then you would get a new RR for $5 off the shampoo.

This is how you can ROLL Register Rewards the right way. Note: In Ad coupons are not considered as a manufactures coupon, so you dont need to worry about counting them as an item too.

Gray areas (These are situations that are up to your managers decision whether they will allow):
-Using a BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) COUPON on a BOGO (Buy One Get One Free) SALE. This will make your product free of course.
– Using (2) manufacturers coupons on a BOGO sale.

Final Notes for Walgreen Shoppers:
Be Courteous!! Do not HOARD all the Free after Register Reward Items. Take maybe 1-2 from one store and leave some for the rest of us. It is really frustrating for everyone when there is nothing left at the stores on the first day of the sale. Please do not hoard!