How to Save Big Money on Groceries at Walgreens - Free Food!

Everybody wants free money -- especially us! With ten children to feed and only one income with which to do it, finding free groceries is a definite God-send! Let me show you how we manage to get free groceries – legally - at Walgreens drugstore.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• 2 current Walgreens weekly sales flyers
• Walgreens Easy Saver catalog
• Coupon inserts
• Scissors
• Online computer
• Printer (optional)

1. Gather your materials.
   
   Save the Walgreen’s weekly sales flyer and the coupon inserts from the Sunday newspaper inserts. Download the monthly Walgreen’s Easy Saver catalog from the Walgreen’s website and print if desired. Or simply pick up a copy in-store. You can usually find them close to the front door next to the weekly sales flyer.
2. Carefully peruse the Easy Saver catalog for items that give rebates.
   
   Some of these items will be free after rebate. This month the free-after-rebate items are Garnier Fructis Hair Stylers, Listerine Smart Rinse, Colgate Toothpaste, Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew, Thera Dent Oral Rinse and Nature Made Supplements, a total value of $42.55.
   
   Many of those that are not free after rebate in the Easy Saver catalog will go on sale during the month. If you wait until they are on sale they may be free after rebate as well. Wait until the last week of the month to buy the items which give rebates but did not go on sale but only if you need them.
3. Look through the weekly sales flyers for items that are part of the Register Rewards program.
   
   Walgreen’s offers coupons called Register Rewards (RRs) that print after your receipt based upon items purchased. These can be used as cash on your next purchase. Each week they advertise a few items that give Register Rewards. One nice thing about them is that there is no limit as to the number of items you can buy that offer Register Rewards. For example,
   
   However, Walgreen’s cash register software does not allow a customer to do the exact same transaction over and over again. For example, a few weeks ago they ran an RR promotion where you would get $10 in RRs if you bought $25 in select Proctor and Gamble merchandise. If you wanted to do this deal twice you could not do it one right after the other. Instead, you would need to purchase something different after your first. And then go back to the Proctor and Gamble deal.
4. Photo by Waffle Whiffer at flickr.com You can get even more free food and merchandise by matching manufacturer’s coupons and Walgreen’s coupons to items for which Walgreen’s is offering Register Rewards or Rebates. Store coupons found in the weekly sales flyer and the Easy Saver Catalog can be used together with manufacturer’s coupons on the same item. If you can combine one store coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon with a store sale your item can be had for pennies! As a matter of fact, you may even have a negative balance! For example, Glade Wisp candles are on sale this week for $5.99. In addition the Easy Saver catalog has a coupon for $2 off each. If you use those coupons in addition to the online $5.00 coupons you should have a negative balance of $1.00 on each candle! ($5.99 - $2.00 - $5.00 = -$1.01) Unfortunately, Walgreen’s cash registers will not permit a negative balance. So you will use this negative balance to get free groceries or whatever you need.
   
   Researching these deals can be time-consuming. The quickest easiest method I’ve found is to consult the becentsable blog (see Resources) for the latest best deals at Walgreen’s.
5. Shopping.
   
   Once you have your shopping trip planned carefully, you’re ready to do the actual shopping. When you are gathering the merchandise be sure that you have as many items as you have coupons. Walgreen’s cash register software does not accept more coupons than items.
   
   Keep in mind that RRs, store coupons and manufacturer’s coupons are all considered coupons in their system. If you find that you have more coupons than items, choose a few inexpensive items that you would purchase anyway into your cart to bring up your total number of items. For example, you buy 10 cans of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, 5 boxes of Cheerios, and 1 tube of Colgate toothpaste. You have a manufacturer’s coupon for each of these items. But you also have store coupons for the Cheerios and the Colgate and an RR for $6.00. You are buying 16 items but you have 19 coupons. The register will not allow this. So you simply add a pack of pencils, emery boards and a candy bar in order to bring your total number of items to 19.
6. Purchasing.
   
   In order to get your total down to the lowest amount possible and for the register to accept all of your coupons, the order in which you give your coupons is very important. Let the cashier scan all your merchandise. Then give your RRs. Let the cashier process that. Next give the manufacturer’s coupons. Wait while the cashier scans them. Finally hand over your store coupons. Once they are entered you’ll be amazed at how little you have to pay! If you do not give them in this order you will not save as much money and/or you may run into problems with the system not accepting something. Don’t forget to save your receipt which you’ll need to get any applicable rebates.
   
   The first time you’ll have to pay a regular retail price. But after that your savings will be incredible! It’ll be fun getting used to buying groceries for pennies!
7. Getting the rebates.
   
   Walgreen’s makes money with this program because they are assuming, based on their prior experience, that the majority of people don’t remember or bother to request their rebates. Don’t be one of them!
   
   Just go online and follow the directions for rebates there. You’ll need your receipts. You can apply for your rebates after each shopping trip or once each month for all the shopping trips in that month. You may opt to do it by mail instead which involves filling out a simple rebate form from the Easy Saver booklet, circling the prices on your receipts and mailing it in.
   
   You have the option of receiving your rebate(s) in the form of a check or a gift card. By all means, choose the gift card! Why? Because as a thank you for choosing a gift card, Walgreen’s add 10% more to your total rebate! Plus, once you get your gift card you won’t have to pay out of pocket anymore during your Walgreen’s shopping trips. You can use your gift card to buy the rebate products, send in your rebates, and have them reload it with your rebates plus 10%! Slowly but surely your gift card will grow and grow! Or you can “spend” it on free groceries!
   
   You can expect your gift card to come in 4-6 weeks. Reloading it takes only 2-3 weeks. You’ll be notified that it has been reloaded with a postcard. And you can check the status of your rebate online anytime you want.
   
   If you treat your shopping efforts as seriously as home business you’ll be able to “make money” from home! Using all these strategies Walgreen’s can mean serious green for you!

Tips & Warnings

• Watch carefully to see that your items are ringing up correctly and that the correct amount of RRs print for you.
• "Bonus packages" (such as "50% more free") do not qualify when trying to earn RRs.
• If a coupon won’t scan, ask for a manager to manually enter the coupon.
• If they are out of stock on sale items, just ask the manager for a rain check.
• If for some reason they cannot get a coupon to scan and refuse to manually input it, ask them to void the item immediately. It’ll save you a lot of trouble.