Yeah, Walgreen’s is rather great, but there are some rules to the game that can help you save big bucks.

First is the Buy 1 Get 1 free thing.  I would never have thought of this on my own.  You buy two items when they are on special for a buy1 get 1 free deal.  It’s abbreviated like this B1G1 or BOGO.  But, even though you get one item for free because it’s on special, you can use a manufacturer’s coupon for each item.  I know, sounds wrong, but this flies at many, many Walgreen’s.  Even the one closest to my house!

So, I had the ultimate Walgreen’s shopping experience yesterday.  I didn’t even go to the store and I got a deal on a couple of boxes of Sleepytime Tea by Celestial Seasonings.  I love the Sleepytime Tea.  I drink a cup every evening.

Oh, you wanna know how I got a deal without leaving the house?  My Hubby went for me.  Yes sirree!  My Hubby, who HATES to shop, actually did the coupon shopping at Walgreen’s for me.  I have an excuse reason for not going myself.  I was very, very tired.  (No, not from the tea, lol.)

So, here’s how the tea deal worked.

• Buy one box of tea for $3.49
• Get one free.
• Use two $1 off coupons from the Sunday paper.
• Pay $1.49

Amazing!  $1.49 for two boxes of my favorite brand of tea!  That’s a great deal!

Another Walgreen’s rule I learned (thanks Faith!) has to do with the Register Rewards.  I got a couple of these last week for doing the vitamin deal.  The ones I got were worth $10 each.  It’s a coupon that the machine spits out at the end of your transaction.

Now, you cannot spend that Register Reward (RR) to pay for another transaction for the same product that earned you the RR .  I don’t know why, but it’s their rule.

Also, when you have a coupon for $10 on whatever you want from Walgreen’s that’s very exciting.  But, it’s a coupon.  And it spends like a coupon.  If you use it to make a purchase that totals less than the value of the RR they don’t give change.  So you have to use it on purchases of a greater value.

But there is a way around that.  During another transaction buy a gift card valued the same as the RR you will be paying with.  Now, I think you need to be buying some other stuff in the same transaction, but, what you are doing, in effect, is trading your RR for a gift card.  Which means that now you don’t have to use it all in one transaction.

Why is this important?  Well, maybe you just don’t need to spend $10 (or whatever your RR value is) all in one transaction.  Or maybe you want to give a gift card to your Pirates and have them walk to Walgreen’s and buy a couple of gallons of milk, some bread, and a Hershey bar, and being Pirates, they totally don’t want to pay with a cheesy coupon.  Whatever.  Or maybe you just wanna give someone a nice Walgreen’s gift card, you know, as a gift, instead of giving them a cheesy coupon.  Anyway, I love this cool trick because it puts me back in control of how I spend my Walgreen’s money.

I’m starting to love Walgreen’s.

Be sure and check out Help for Growing Families for lots of helpful advice from experienced moms of many for young moms with growing families.

And if you enjoy making things yourself you will want to come back tomorrow for Mother Hen’s Homemade Thursday to find lots of links for homemade items from crafts to cooking and everything in between.

Related posts:

1. Shopping with Faith – part 2
2. Swagbucks