Shopping at Walgreens....
Walgreens {Wags} have two different kinds of sales - Weekly sales and Register Rewards {RR}.
Weekly Sales - They have their regular sales with coupons in their weekly ad (you can get these in the Sunday paper or they are in each store up front when you enter the store) you can use when purchasing an item you find for a good price. You can also 'stack' Walgreens in-store coupons with manufacturers coupons {MQ}.
For example - in the weekly sales flier it shows that Trident Layers Gum is on sale 2 for $2 and you'll get 1 RR back. You can then use a printable coupon (found here) to take $1 off of the 2 packages of gum. In the end, you'll be getting the gum for free because you'll receive 1 RR in return to use towards your next purchase.
Make sense? If not, feel free to email me and/or leave a comment to ask questions!
Register Rewards - are manufacturer coupons that print after you make a specific purchase. The RR deals vary from week to week and month to month.
For example - one of Walgreens {Wags} monthly deals right now is if you purchase Gillette MVP Fusion Razor for 8.99 you will receive 6 RR back to use towards your next purchase. So, it's basically like they are handing you $6 back. The catch to this is that the RR will not 'roll' -- you can not turn around and purchase another razor at 8.99 and use the 6 RR to pay for it. The next RR will not print out because the computer will recognize that you've already gotten a RR for this deal once.
One way to use this to your advantage is to take those 6 RR and use it towards another purchase that will give you back close to same amount of RR. Such as the Theraflu deal - right now if you purchase 3 bottles of Theraflu for 5.49 (prices at different locations may vary) you will receive 8 RR back. You can then use the 6 RR you got from purchasing the razor and use it towards your purchase on the Theraflu.
I have been rolling these deals back and forth in order to maximize my savings. To begin shopping at Wags you do have to put some money OOP (Out of Pocket) to begin with, but once you learn what you are doing you will be able to roll those RR's and pay very little OOP.
Note: You can use coupons when purchasing items that give back RR. I have heard from some people that their stores won't give RR after using coupons towards a purchase, but I have never personally had a problem using coupons in any Wags yet. The only way to find this out is to just try it!
Things to remember when stacking coupons...
You cannot have more coupons than items being purchased. You cannot have 10 items and 11 coupons. Register Rewards do count as coupons. So if you are planning on purchasing 4 items and you have coupons for those 4 items and you are wanting to use 2 RR - you will need to purchase what we call 'filler items' such as a cheap candle or candy... something as cheap as you can find (I'm lovin' the 0.17 candles my wags has right now!)
I know it all seems like so much to remember, but it really does get more simple as you get use to it. My advice is to start out slowly with less expensive purchases and work your way up towards the more expensive ones. :)
If you have any questions or feel that something is unclear you can email me or leave a comment!
Happy Shopping!
