Get Free Stuff at Walgreen’s!

by Linsey Knerl

Today, I'm going to share some easy ways to get free goods from national pharmacy Walgreen’s. We are delighted to have Claire from MummyDeals.org contributing to this how-to guide, and we hope that it inspires you to pay little to nothing for everything from makeup, to diapers, to food at your local Walgreens! We’ll cover all the inside tips in a minute.

How to Get Free Stuff at Walgreens

Those of you already slightly familiar with Walgreens may remember that they used to offer monthly mail-in rebates that made several nice products free every month. The downside to the old system was that that you had to wait weeks after your purchase until you got your money back. I was very pleased to hear about the launch of the new program earlier this year, entitled Register Rewards. The premise is very simple: You purchase a featured product, and you’ll immediately get a voucher good as cash on your next purchase. Here are the details:

Register Rewards Explained

Each week, Walgreens (or “Wags” as the bargain-hunters like to call it) offers products that generate Register Rewards (or “RRs”.) These are little coupons that print out of a machine (called a Catalina machine) next to the register. The coupons usually have a red border on white register tape. When you buy a product that gives you Register Rewards, you'll pay for it upfront, and then the Catalina machine will spit out RRs good for your next purchase at Walgreens. These are dated and they give you about two weeks to spend them. This isn't long, so it's good to work out what you can spend them on or get ready to use them the next week.

There are usually restrictions to these coupons. They are one per transaction, which means that you can earn them multiple times, but not in the same visit. (An example would be a promotion that offered a $4.50 Register Reward for a purchase of Colgate toothpaste for $4.50. If you were to buy four of them at once, you will only get one reward for $4.50, BUT if you separate the purchases into four separate transactions, you'll get 4 $4.50 RRs. That was set up to avoid people buying an RR product and then when they got RRs back, simply standing at the checkout and buying the rest of those freebies with rollover RRs. This makes it fair for everyone! You also can't use them on stamps or alcohol or a couple of other things. The restrictions are on the back of the Register Reward.

The other thing to note is that you can use Register Rewards to buy other things that generate Register Rewards, BUT NOT if it's the same product. If you use the Colgate $4.50 to buy a $5 deodorant, you're ok, but if you try and buy more Colgate you won't get a Reward back and it won't be free.  You also need to spend more than the value of the Register Reward. For example, if the Reward is worth $4.50 and your total is only $4, you need to find a $.50 filler item to make up the difference. Find something that you like to buy anyway (favorites include $1 movie candy, a pack of gum, or a soda.) Look around the store and get an idea of things you need that you can grab in an emergency.

You can roll one Reward into another. Although you can't buy 3 x Colgate and expect 3 RRs you could do this: Buy one tube of Colgate for $4.50 then use that reward to buy Scunci hair products for $2 and Chapstick for $2; add a $.51 filler and you're good to go. Now use those $4 in RRs you just earned to buy the Colgate again. Get it? Just keep rinsing and repeating! Finally, an RR is considered a coupon and you can not have more coupons than items. For example: If you buy Colgate at $4.50, and use a $1 off manufacturer’s coupon, you need to add a filler item to make the number of coupons equal the number of purchased items.

Where to find Register Rewards Promotions

Walgreens is very good at advertising its deals, and you can usually find all of their rewards promotions online at Walgreens.com

Walgreens is very good at advertising its deals, and you can usually find all of their rewards promotions online at Walgreens.com and in-store via their savings booklets. Some bloggers go out of their way to make things easier, however, and those like our friend Clair at MummyDeals.org match up the savings offers with manufacturer’s coupons and extra tips for keeping the free stuff flowing! (They’ll even give you a preview of Sunday’s coupon inserts on Thursday or Friday to be sure you have plenty of time to prepare!)

Some More Quick and Dirty Tips for Savings at Walgreens

Here are some extra Quick and Dirty Walgreens savings Tips, compliments of MummyDeals.org:

• Coupon policy may be at the discretion of the individual store manager. Remember, you don't have to shop there if they don't like couponers! (There are usually several Walgreens locations within a specific shopping area.)

• Walgreens will take manufacturer's coupons, but if your item is for less than the coupon is worth you need to politely ask them to adjust the coupon down. This ensures that the store will not get reimbursed for more than the value of an item from the manufacturer, and reminding them about adjusting can help them be more accommodating with redemption.

• Walgreens is a bit inconsistent in its policy of taking internet coupons. This is again, at the manager’s discretion, so we suggest you call the store ahead of time to find out how they handle these.

• When presenting your coupons at the end of a transaction, you will need to give the manufacturer's coupons before the Walgreens ones. (This will keep the register from beeping at you and the cashier.)

• A recently discovered tip is to use the Register Rewards at other stores like Jewel, Dominick's and Kroger, as they are competitor's coupons and some stores take those. Call ahead to find out the policy before you make the drive.

• Finally, always be polite. If you anything less than pleasant, you can’t expect the cashier to be, either. If in doubt about how a coupon was handled, ask a manager over in a non-confrontational way.

• Finally, if you have any problems with not getting your Register Rewards at the end of a purchase, contact the Catalina company at 1-888-8-COUPON (1-888-826-8766). You may need to do this in an instance of a printing error after a transaction.