This Reader Shares How She Saves BIG on Walgreens Purchases!
Headed to Walgreens? Read this first!
This week’s Happy Friday reader, Jackie, is a professional Walgreens-saver! She is frugal, smart, and intentional when shopping at Walgreens. Jackie actually helps many of our readers in the comments of our Walgreens posts. Today, she’s sharing her secrets in detail.
I started shopping at Walgreens over thirty years ago when my children were small. It was nearby, small enough that shopping with two little ones wasn’t totally beyond their ability to behave, and, best of all, accepted coupons. Every penny counted in those days.
Today, my daughter is an avid Walgreens shopper, and my young granddaughter knows exactly what Walgreens Cash is for—buying her toys and Tylenol.
Along the way, there was definitely a steep learning curve for me since this was the pre-computer era. Today, we have Hip2Save and other sites to share information and help each other. Walgreens is such a broad topic, but here are a few tips that might help.
1. Walgreens has very specific rules. They are spelled out here in Walgreens.com/help. Take the time to read through the coupon policy, questions, and answers. In the end, it will save you time and frustration.
2. Do the Matchups. Walgreens has a paper monthly booklet of coupons that comes out at the end of each month. They are also in digital format. Match the Walgreens coupons with the Manufacturer’s coupons for big savings. Regularly go through Ibotta, and match the offers with Walgreens sales items. Submit receipts to Fetch. No time? Use Hip2Save and Walgreens-specific couponing sites.
3. Use other people’s money to shop at Walgreens. That would be the manufacturer’s coupons. It is free money and is available in digital format or from newspaper inserts. If you don’t have a Sunday newspaper subscription, you can use Walgreens Cash to purchase a copy.
4. If low stock is a problem at your Walgreens and your store pickup orders are often canceled or you don’t want to spend the $10 minimum, consider doing a ship-to-store order instead. Online variety is far greater than the stores. I have ordered something as small as a $2 nail file, paid in WC, and shipped it to the store for free.
5. Stack, stack, and stack offers for maximum value. Read the ad thoroughly. Combine the WC offers with your mystery coupon, plus any special offers such as earning WC for any beauty offers or health offers. The more you can combine, the more you save.
I did one order in January where I spent $65.09, but I earned back $49.64 through stacking. I bought 2 Colgate toothpastes and 6 Shea Moisture products. I stacked the mystery coupon, an offer for shopping so many times a month, a toothpaste offer, and a SheaMoisture offer.
6. Check the end caps in the store plus look for the orange sale tags. Look online for the clearance offer section. After the holidays and once school has started, are great times to check. In mid-September, I look for book bags to donate to schools. I often find them for $3.
7. Lower your food budget. Check the ads. Tyson products, ground beef, cereal, etc. can be on sale, and you can use Walgreens Cash. I haven’t paid for Ketchup in years. You can’t use WC on milk, though.
8. Be open to trying Walgreens brands. The Pet Shoppe dog waste bags are a tremendous buy. They are of much better quality and cheaper than the pet store brands. Don’t get me started on the hazards of poking your finger through dollar store brands.
9. Don’t worry if a deal doesn’t work out. Take it back. Ask customer service to help you figure out why it didn’t work. There is ALWAYS another better deal right around the corner.
Happy Walgreens shopping, and may you always save.
Thank you so much, Jackie, for sharing these saving hacks for Walgreens. You’re an amazing reader, and we’ve taken some notes for our next Walgreens shopping trip!
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Has anyone found the paper Walgreens coupons in the store anymore? They used to be near the front entrance but I haven’t seen the coupon booklets in awhile.
Paper books came back last week in my stores, NJ!
check out clerks have one
Jackie, thank you for these tips. I am a big Walgreens fan myself and those orange-tag bargain finds are my favorite part of shopping there!
Hi All, Where can we see the current WC deals details and expiration dates?
A Star Hip2Saver is a recognized member of our Hip2Save community hand selected by our team for demonstrating a long history of engagement with helpful & friendly comments across Hip2Save.com and our social channels. Our Star Hip2Saver badge acts as a verification for readers who know the ins and outs of all Hip2Save sets out to accomplish — assisting our community to live extraordinary lives on ordinary budgets. Readers cannot pay or provide any sort of exchange in order to earn this badge. Rather, they are invited to participate by a member of the Hip2Save team and opt to have the Star Hip2Saver badge added to their profile & comments.
The Walgreens app has the Weekly Ad that runs from Sunday to Saturday and features the weekly deals. The Flipp app has the Walgreens ad and the Monthly Savings book in an easier to read format. Hip2Save has a weekly feature on the best Walgreens deals that is very helpful. In addition to the Weekly deals Walgreens has Monthly Walgreens Cash deals and Monthly Register Rewards deals and those deals are usually listed in the Walgreens specific couponing sites.
I used to be more of a CVS shopper as they had great deals but now Walgreens definitely has better ones. Thanks for all the helpful tips today as well as the ones you post along the way!
Jackie, thank you so much for sharing your story. I am an avid Walgreens shopper and have saved money, too.
Happy Shopping 🙂
Thanks JD287! 🙂 I always check the hip2save comments section for your input.
Love when people take the time to share useful information to help others! This is a terrific post! Thank you!
So you don’t have to reach $10 for ship to store? Cool!
Thanks so much for the information!!! When ordering online for store pick up do you just pay when you pick up or can you use Walgreens Cash Rewards to pay online? Also, when you earn Walgreens Cash Rewards from an online purchase, do they just give it you when you pick up your order? I really appreciate the help!!!
Hi Lori, yes you can pay with Walgreens cash for an online store pickup since those are digital rewards. You can’t use paper coupons or paper RegisterRewards though to pay. The transaction is completed when you actually pickup the online order and it is at that point that your credit card is charged or your Walgreens cash is deducted. If you look at the Walgreens ad or the official coupon policy it will state the Instore Rewards (paper Register Rewards) can only be earned on transactions that take place in the store. However there is a good possibility that you will be handed them along with the receipt when you do a store pickup. The odds improve if you go inside the store and ask to be checked out on a cash register attached to the Instore Rewards printer. It is worth trying on an online store pickup but by no means guaranteed. You won’t see the Walgreens Cash on your receipt or in your Walgreens app right away after an online order but it should appear after several hours.
Thanks so much!!!!
A Star Hip2Saver is a recognized member of our Hip2Save community hand selected by our team for demonstrating a long history of engagement with helpful & friendly comments across Hip2Save.com and our social channels. Our Star Hip2Saver badge acts as a verification for readers who know the ins and outs of all Hip2Save sets out to accomplish — assisting our community to live extraordinary lives on ordinary budgets. Readers cannot pay or provide any sort of exchange in order to earn this badge. Rather, they are invited to participate by a member of the Hip2Save team and opt to have the Star Hip2Saver badge added to their profile & comments.
Hip2Save thank you so much for publishing the article. A huge thanks to everyone who left comments. Hip2Save readers are such kind positive people.
We SO appreciate you and love all the help you give to the Hip community!😘🥰😘🤗
JD827 Thank you for your help in this post and others. I appreciate it!
I wanted to do a Walgreens Nexxus promotion this week and had a question. The promo is $10 in Walgreens cash wyb $20 of Nexxus products. They also have 2 manufacturer e-coupons available, so I am wondering if I get to $20 but then use the manufacturer coupons that put my total below $20 if I will still get the Walgreens cash if my total is over $20 before manufacturer coupons?
Yes! You should still earn the cash!
Thanks for responding!
You’re so welcome! ❤️