Shopping CVS and Walgreen's

These two stores can be a little tricky, since they have rewards programs and a little bit different coupon policies. I have attached Video from the "Krazy Coupon Lady" on how to shop these two stores. I have also included a brief description of these stores as well. If you have any unanswered questions, please comment or ask and I will be more than happy to help.

Walgreen's

 First, lets start out by telling you about their rewards program. Walgreen's has two different rewards in place currently. "Register Rewards" and "Balance Rewards".

Register Rewards

These are a great deal, if I do say so myself. Each week/month, Walgreens places "Register Rewards" on certain products. These rewards are basically like cash back on your next purchase. They come out of the Catalina machine after your transaction and work like a manufacturer coupon. You can use these rewards on your next purchase. Below, you will find an example:

Crest Whitening Toothpaste $3.99
Buy 1, receive $3 in Register Rewards

So, if you have a coupon for $.75 off Crest Whitening Toothpaste, and you use it during this purchase, you will pay OOP (out of pocket) $3.24, and after the transaction, receive $3.00 in RR (to be used on your next purchase... or transaction), Making this transaction technically $.24. 

If you earn enough of these in each shopping trip, you will literally be able to use these each time you purchase something, making everything you bought, free, or close to it.

Balance Reward Points

These are points that you earn on your Walgreen's Balance Card (something you will need to sign up for at this store so you can get the sales prices on items, and earn these points). Select items each week have certain point values that you can attain and accumulate. Once you have a certain amount, you can cash these in for money on items purchased. Just remember that if you are using these points on purchases, that you DO NOT use them on items that have balance rewards. You can not spend BR to get BR... Sorry. An example is shown below:

Crest Whitening Toothpaste $3.49 
Buy 2 receive 1000 Balance Reward Points

If you visit this site Program Details - Walgreen's Balance Rewards, it gives you far more detail on how to claim your BR's etc. how much you get, etc.

One also BIG thing to note, is that according to Walgreen's coupon policy, you are only allowed to use as many coupons as you have items. So, if you have 10 items, and 12 coupons, you need to find two "Filler" items. These are cheap items used to fill in your gap so you can use the other coupons.

Register Rewards work like Manufacturer coupons, so this rule applied to them as well.  So, if you have 10 items, 8 coupons, and 4 RR, you will still need to find two cheap items so you can use all of these. Worth it in the long run, but kind of a pain in the butt to keep track of...

Here's a video on how to "Shop" Walgreen's:

CVS

This one is a little easier. You have ExtraBuck Rewards, that work the same way as the Register Rewards at Walgreen's.These print out at the bottom of your receipt vs. out of a Catalina machine. There is not item to coupon policy here, Whew! But, you need to sign up for the ExtraCare card in order to receive the ExtraBucks and to get the sales price.

First thing you do when you walk into CVS, is visit their coupon machine! You can scan your ExtraCare Card here several times and it will print coupons. When you don't get anymore coupons, it's done for the day. Each time you return, scan it again. It's random, so you never know what it will spit out for you. 

The difficult thing with CVS is that you need to read the fine print on the ad. Most often, they have an item restriction in place, so you cannot get more than 1, etc. of the item listed, and still receive the ExtraBucks. If you have more than one card per household, you will be able to do the deal more than once, but remember you cannot use the ExtraBucks from one card, for a purchase on another card. An example is shown below:

• Bought a Gillette Fusion Proglide (Limit 1 per household), received $5.00 ExtraBucks on husbands card.
• Used MY card, and bought Gillette Fusion Proglide. Tried to use Hubby's EB to purchase the Proglide on my card, WRONG! The register won't accept them cause they did not come from MY card.

Also, your ExtraCare Card accumulates your total savings and total money spent at their store for each quarter. You can earn an extra 2% back on all of your purchases, which means you can receive EB each quarter as well!! (The quarter is Jan. 1, April 1, July 1, and Oct. 1)

 Here is a video on how to shop CVS:

In Conclusion

Please remember that ExraBucks and Register Rewards EXPIRE. If you don't think you will be shopping at these stores that often, you probably won't want to get the "deals" that include these. Even without these rewards, Walgreen's and CVS have some pretty amazing deals!!