Contrary to the title, I’m not going to write about how and where to find the best airplane ticket prices.  I can give you a few hints, perhaps, but nothing that will rock your world, I’m afraid.

• Be flexible with your dates and enter different variations on several different websites (preferably a couple that actually compare sites for you.)
• Travel during the week instead of a weekend, or during off-season if you can swing it.  That one has never actually worked for me–I’ve only flown during the summer.
• Call a travel agent and see if they can find you a better deal–that doesn’t always work, but on at least one occasion, she saved me a couple hundred dollars.
• Book the trip rather than waiting around–we lost quite a lot of money on that this time.  I didn’t have a confirmation from one of our travelers (we’re taking our niece with us) so I couldn’t actually book anything until we did.  Just a few days later, prices had gone up. They even went up seven dollars per ticket from five o’clock to ten o’clock (when I was able to purchase the tickets.)
• Popular destinations will probably cost less. Unfortunately, I’ve never had a need to randomly fly somewhere just because the ticket is cheap, so this is perhaps not that useful as a tip.
• Orbitz has a lowest price guarantee. Theoretically, if someone else books that ticket for less, we’ll get an automatic refund.  I wonder if this is actually something that happens much, but it’s a nice idea.

As far as which site has the cheapest rates… your guess is as good as mine. That’s why it’s so frustrating to buy these tickets. That, and the fact that airfare makes no sense to any human being.

HOWEVER.

Last night, as I gulped aloud and prepared to authorize a charge for $4,055 (for four passengers, $1,013 each), I thought of something that I do automatically these days that everyone probably doesn’t do–click-through and cashback.

I found the right fare via Orbitz.  At that point, I went back to look at my favorite shopping sites (see my post about Ebates) to see if any of them had partnerships with Orbitz.  Ebates did, at 1-3% cashback.  So did Mr. Rebates at 1%.  However, I hit pay dirt when I checked my Discover card.  They had their cashback bonus for travel. It ended March 31 and I hadn’t bothered to sign up for it because I didn’t expect to be traveling. 5%!  I had certainly found which of my cards I wanted to pay with, but I was still looking for which one I should click through.  And then I found it! Discover also has a shopping portal with cashback percentages, and Orbitz was listed there for 5%.  Bingo!

I’m not positive I’ll get both 5%, and I will only get cashback from those clicks on the tickets (not the fees, which amount for about a third of that or more)  but STILL. When you buy something expensive like airplane tickets, that measly 1-5% adds up fast.  I was about an hour and a half under the deadline for the March 5% travel cashback, so I just have to hope they billed immediately. :)  It’s not showing up yet but my credit limit is now (drastically!) reduced so I think they did.

In any case, I am hoping to get back up to $250 just by taking four minutes to research where to click through and which credit card to pay with.  More than a fair return on investments, in my opinion!  Never forget to click through, that’s my point.  :)

First, pull out all of the coupon booklets and put them in a tidy stack.  Open one up and start laying each page out separately on a large flat surface (I often do this on the floor of Evelyn’s room while she plays in her toybox. Amazingly enough, though, it’s actually easier to do this without help from a toddler… so I hear.) 

When you have each page laying by itself, pick up the next insert and lay the corresponding page on top of the one from the previous insert.    Keep layering pages until you’ve run out of inserts. 

You can do two things now.  You can either just re-stack the loose pages into one booklet again, or you can go the slightly more advanced route.  I like to staple all the coupons together.  For example, I’ll pick up all of one page, making sure to line the edges of the coupons up exactly, and then I staple all the coupons on both sides of the page. Don’t staple the barcode!  I usually staple the picture or the larger text.  When you’re done stapling, or if you decide not to staple, just cut the coupons out as usual.  The only difference is that instead of getting one coupon, you’ll get all of the like coupons cut out together.

Why staple, by the way?  Because it keeps all those loose coupons from getting lost or separated, and it makes it so much easier to cut.  You have to be very careful when cutting out a stack of loose papers because they’ll want to shift around on you.  (Speaking of which–give yourself a generous margin whenever possible. You don’t want to cut into the coupons below if your stack is off a little.)  When you have your little stack of stapled coupons, you can just pull off one at a time as needed and the rest of them stay put.  I find that the time I spend stapling is more than made up by the decreased cutting time, and then my coupons stay more organized in the box.

p.s. Those aren’t recent inserts.  I took this picture in May, preparing for this post.  I procrastinate, sometimes.

"But that would make this item FREE."

"No, I am paying for it with a coupon."  Actually, this one can be used in a variety of situations.  It is really important to remember that coupons are just like cash in many ways.  The stores aren’t giving you discounts because you happen to have a piece of paper with you. The manufacturer is giving you this discount in order to get you to buy their product. The store is reimbursed for the full face value of the coupon, plus eight cents or so.  It says so right there on the coupon.  So ironically, you could say that they are making more money off couponers than non-couponers.  If you drill this into your brain–that you are PAYING with a coupon, not just spending less money because of using a coupon–it will also help you feel less like you are robbing them blind when you walk out of there with seven bags full of merchandise and a receipt totaling $.47. (As hard as it may be, you should try to avoid snarky comments, like “why else would I be buying it?” or “DUH.” They really hate that.)

Read more about handling coupon rejection at the original post here…

I know it’s intimidating to be questioned about your coupons, especially when there are people in line behind you and you’re not sure what to say.   The best thing is when everything works flawlessly, but we all know that doesn’t always happen.  I hope this guide helps you learn to stand your ground when a cashier wrongly denies a particular coupon.  We’ll talk about one general rule and some specific examples of just what to say to make cashiers undestand why you should be allowed to use your coupons.  This will help make your coupon usage as stress-free as possible.

The first rule is to say as little as possible.

Silence is a powerful tool. If the coupon beeps, say nothing until you are spoken to, even if you know what is wrong.  Your job at that moment is to stand there with an expression of mild interest on your face, but nothing more than that.  You are projecting to the cashier that you are confident that, whatever is wrong, s/he can fix it.  People appreciate that show of faith, even if they don’t realize what you’re doing.  When they start muttering about how it’s not working, or looking around beeechingly, trying to figure out what’s gone wrong…  still! Say nothing!

This was hard for me to learn, but it has been a valuable tool.  I get my way in many more situations (and not just coupon-related) than I used to, based on this simple rule.  My nature is to be helpful, and tell the person what is wrong.  The thing is, they don’t really want to know what’s wrong, they just want it to not be happening.  For example, a coupon beeps because it’s for $1 off a $.97 item. I know that it’s beeping because there’s overage. If I say that, then there is a much higher chance that when they fix the problem, they will do so by adjusting the coupon down. I don’t want them to do that.  Silence makes people faintly uneasy and it becomes easier to just hit the override button (which is what they should be doing anyway) than it is to question it.

Another very important reason that this is effective is simply that if you have a ready explanation for every single situation and you start telling the cashier how to do his or her job, you end up looking guilty, or like you’re trying to get them to do things they shouldn’t.  Then they’re just going to be even more watchful about the next coupon.

I feel sneaky and manipulative telling you this, but  it’s a trick I adapted from a friend and it works really, really well.  Act innocent, say as little as possible.

That rule out of the way, let’s move on to the most common things that cashiers might say or do to reject a coupon.

“I can only accept one of these coupons because it says right here, “one coupon per purchase.”

This is probably the most common thing you will encounter–say, you have bought three boxes of cereal, and the four  identical coupons you have say “one coupon per purchase.” I didn’t know what to say to this at first, and I always lost the argument when I tried to explain it to them.  Not anymore! The trick to this one is to physically touch each box of cereal as you tell them, “Yes, and this is a purchase, and this is a purchase, and this is a purchase…”  You can then add that if they meant that you could only use one, period, it would say “one per transaction”, but it doesn’t.  Knock on wood, but I have won every argument about this so far now that I can explain it this way.  If they still argue–cheerfully agree, and then split your one simple transaction up into four transactions, using one coupon per transaction. Stating your intent might be enough, because when you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous.  There are some situations in which this won’t work (say, if you have to buy a certain number for a specific promotion), so in that case, talk to a manager and explain it the way you just did to the cashier who wouldn’t listen (or is likely just afraid to do it wrong).

“This coupon is not valid because it’s not meant for trial-sized items.”

“The coupon  says ANY.”  Some coupons aren’t valid for trial items, but hopefully, you’ve already checked yours for the “excludes trial sizes” disclaimer.  If you think about it… a coupon is an invitation to try a particular type of merchandise.  Getting a trial free may not be what a manufacturer would prefer, but I would think that they would rather you try out their product than not try out their product, if it came right down to it.

On that note, there is a difference between “trial” and “travel”.  A good example of this is the Johnson & Johnson First Aid To Go kits that sell for about a dollar in most stores.  They’re located in the travel/trial section, but they’re not trial items.  Seriously, think about it. What are you supposed to be trying out?  Whether or not you like your band-aids to come in a convenient white box? This argument may help in a pinch.  Incidentally, Johnson & Johnson confirmed that they consider this item a travel item and not a trial, so if your coupon says “excludes trial items”… you can still use them on these box.  And for what it’s worth, everyone loves them because they’re just so darned cute.

“But that would make this item FREE.”

“No, I am paying for it with a coupon.”  Actually, this one can be used in a variety of situations.  It is really important to remember that coupons are just like cash in many ways.  The stores aren’t giving you discounts because you happen to have a piece of paper with you. The manufacturer is giving you this discount in order to get you to buy their product. The store is reimbursed for the full face value of the coupon, plus eight cents or so.  It says so right there on the coupon.  So ironically, you could say that they are making more money off couponers than non-couponers.  If you drill this into your brain–that you are PAYING with a coupon, not just spending less money because of using a coupon–it will also help you feel less like you are robbing them blind when you walk out of there with bags of merchandise and a receipt totaling $.47. (As hard as it may be, you should try to avoid snarky comments, like “why else would I be buying it?” or “DUH.” They really hate that.)

“We can’t accept a coupon for more than the product is worth.”

There are too many variables for this one to give just one answer.  Know the coupon policy for the store you’re at.  Some stores have corporate policies that direct them to do certain things. For example, at CVS, the coupon always beeps if there’s overage, and they will adjust it down.  (At my store, they always ask permission.)  That’s what they want to happen, so if a rogue cashier gives you a denial, request to speak to a manager or call corporate while you’re still standing there.  Many stores will want to adjust the coupon down to the purchase price of the item. I personally feel this is straight-up coupon fraud on the part of the stores, but I never argue it. Overage is a privilege, not a right.  (Having said that, if it was really good overage and I knew that it would usually work, I would possibly request that the items be removed from my order if they started hassling me over it.   Walmart gives me overage 95% of the time–there’s something to be said for minimum wage drones who hate their jobs–so I’d really just rather buy it some other time, especially if I was purchasing multiple items.

“We don’t accept internet coupons/photocopies.”

Okay, some stores don’t, as a matter of corporate policy. Some stores have a policy of not accepting them, but individual stores override that decree.  So, you need to know what you’re dealing with.  Walmart, for example, DOES accept internet coupons, as a matter of corporate policy, but a couple of cashiers at my store were taught in their training not to accept them.  Ask for a manager.  Say, “Walmart corporate policy is to accept internet coupons.”  If that doesn’t sway them… call corporate.

“You can’t MAKE money using coupons! Stores won’t pay you to take stuff home, no matter what Oprah says!”

Smile and nod, cause they won’t like you any better if you burst their bubble…

(This actually happened to me, including the Oprah reference. I was  checking out with an order that I was making a profit on at the time.)

“You can’t use this coupon and I am not going to change my mind no matter what you say.”

(I’m paraphrasing, but you get the idea.)   If you have a cashier who refuses to back down and you don’t feel like the hassle of calling a higher authority (perhaps, as in the case that prompted this post, you are at Walmart, in another town, and you know that this won’t even be an issue in another store anyway, and you have a cart full of frozen food products that have already been in your buggy too long while you waited in the slowest lines ever), then my favorite thing to say is simply, “That’s fine. I will be happy to spend that money somewhere else,” and remove those items from the transaction. (If you are more hard-core about it, leave everything there, not just the items that you’re being harassed over.)

Then, go home and email or call corporate or the store management if you’ve got a case.  You may at least get an apology out of it, and possibly some other sort of compensation… and with any luck, the store will be better prepared next time.

K-Mart was running a promotion this past weekend for Father’s Day.  If you buy $50 in K-Mart gift certificates, you got a $10 reward card.  The reward card could be activated on Monday, and is valid until July 31. I had heard about this deal but I wasn’t planning on trying it.  K-Mart is ridiculously over-priced on most things, and I hardly ever go in there unless I"m just in the mood to browse, or looking for something specific that I can’t find elsewhere.  But on Friday afternoon, I was at Walgreens and decided to walk over and look for a dishwasher basket.

(Sidenote: why can I not find a dishwasher basket?  You know, to contain all the sippy cup parts that pile up on the side of the sink?  I have looked in several stores and can’t find one anywhere.  The protective paint stuff started peeling off on the old one and depositing rust all over my dishes, so I had to throw it away.  Now I am hand-washing all sippy cup parts and frankly, I am no good at keeping up with this task.)

Anyway, while I am walking around not finding a dishwasher basket, I see a sign for the promotion at approximately the same time that I realized that swing sets were on sale.  My parents wanted to buy a swing set for my daughter for her second birthday, but they’ve been having trouble finding one in stock.  (Her birthday was the beginning of May. Meijer believes that was the "end of the season" and did not restock, so the raincheck they got wasn’t worth much.)  Originally, I was just going to buy a couple and let my parents have them if they wanted to in order to bring the price of the swing set down, but.. well. It’s me, and complicated is what I do.

Step One: Buy eight $50 K-Mart gift cards.  Three of these are for my parents, who did tell me to go ahead and buy the swing set they had in stock.)

Step Two: Buy swing set.  We also bought some Pepsi on sale, so that wiped out all three of my parents gift cards after tax.

Step Three: Activate rewards gift cards. Success!

Step Four: Stop in at K-Mart and pick up six $50 BP* gift cards. Pay using all eight rewards cards first (since they expire soon), and then the remaining $50 cards. 

Step Five: The only thing left is to spend the remaining $30 on the last gift card–those are the reward card dollars belonging to my parents, but in a format that does not expire next month.  Handy! 

And so… I just got $50 in free gas for running into K-Mart a few times and spending a few minutes yesterday activating all those gift cards. Plus, Evie gets a swing set! 

Win!

*They sell other gift cards than BP, but to me, that’s the most practical choice.  It’s exactly the same as money** that way, since we will use it.  I was tempted by a couple of restaurant cards, but that would just mean we would spend more money on going out when we wouldn’t otherwise be going.  Of course, I could have kept the money at K-Mart and Sears (the cards are also good there) but we don’t buy that much there, so it just wasn’t as practical. 

Chase CheckingSM Account

If you set up a checking account with Chase before June 23, they will give you $100.  To qualify, you just need to  either set up a direct deposit to your new account, OR you can use the debit card they send you five times in the first sixty days.  I can absolutely use a debit card for $100, what about you?  You could go to Target and split your transaction into five transactions if you wanted to, just to get it off your to-do list. The credit should automatically appear 10 business days after meeting the requirements.

Yes, the money does come.  I have received every one that I’ve signed up for so far.  After you receive and use your debit card five times, mark ten business days on your calendar and check back into your account.  If it doesn’t credit for some reason, just call them at 1-877-CHASEPC (1-877-242-7372) and they should be able to help you.

$100 bonus for new Chase Checking Customers.

You’ll need to deposit some funds, of course–at least $100 to meet their terms, but I transferred a bit more just so I would have more freedom in what I used the debit card for.  After your bonus clears, you must keep the account open for six months.  After that, you  can either transfer the money out and close your account, or you can keep it open and enjoy using your new checking account. (If you close it, though, you may get money to open a new one next year. It’s one promo per year, according to the fine print!  The fine print also says one per person, so I’m thinking my husband will be getting his own checking account tonight, too!)

Checking Account Fees

NOTE! There is a monthly fee of $6 for this account if you don’t make five debit card transactions, or set up a direct deposit.   If you do either of those things, it’s free.  I just called them to ask what qualifies as a direct deposit–specifically, if internet transfers from other banks count.  It really depends on how your bank sends the money.  However, I think external transfers from other banks (like online savings accounts) should count as direct deposit.

I am going to attempt one from ING, and then I’ll call them and find out how it appeared.  If that qualifies, then I will withdraw most of the money from the account and set up one recurring deposit from ING of $10 or so for the first of every month, and a recurring withdrawal for $10 on the 15th.  That way, I can keep from carrying a balance in this account, and I won’t have to mess with the account again for six months, and I won’t have to carry the debit card around, either.

If it doesn’t count as Direct Deposit, then I’ll just have to make a note to use my debit card five times a month, and honestly, I will probably do just what I said earlier and buy five small items all at once, just to keep me from forgetting.  I’ll schedule an Outlook reminder every month to use my debit card, and keep hitting “snooze” until I’ve done it.

Sound like a hassle to keep track of?   Sign up for the account and write it in your calendar to call and cancel six months from your sign-up date.  Meet your requirements for the first month to get the bonus.  If you set your direct deposit up from your employer, you’re golden and you don’t need to worry about it for six months. Otherwise, six dollars a month for six months is $36.  $100-$36 = $64 profit, even if you do pay $6 per month.  $64 is better than $0, right?

Extra Care Card

The first thing you need is a CVS loyalty card, called an Extra Care Card.  You can apply for one at the store–it’s just a simple form that you fill out.  You can also apply for one online, though you have to remember that it will take a while for it to arrive–if you want to start immediately, you’re better off waiting until you go in to the store.  When you purchase items, hand over your card first thing and they’ll scan it.  If you don’t have a card, you won’t get the sale prices and you won’t get any ECBs.  If you ever forget to bring your card, they can access your account if you tell them your phone number, so don’t lie on this one. ;)  Not that I would ever do that…

Weekly Ads / Extra Care Books

The items in the weekly ad are sometimes cheaper than you’ll find them elsewhere, but sometimes not. In other words–you can’t assume that it’s a good price because it’s “on sale”. The drugstores mark up their prices so much that you can never be sure.  The weekly ad also shows some of the best ECB deals available for the week.  Sometimes the sale prices are really good, though, so you want to keep an eye on things even if they aren’t free.

My Sunday paper never carries the CVS ad, but never fear! You can check it out on the CVS website. It’s also posted in advance (sometimes weeks or even months!) on various deal-seeking forums. Try the Hot Coupon World CVS forum and the Slickdeals drugstore forum (check for the CVS thread for the appropriate week–this thread is helpful for that.)

There is also another booklet located at the front of the store.  In times past, it was the Extra Care book with monthly ECB deals.  They seem to have moved to a “clipless coupon” book of late, but it’s still worth a look to see if there are any deals in there for you.

For help putting together your shopping list, try the above links, or use the lists at Southern Savers (she always has good lists!) or The Grocery Gathering at becentsable.net.

Extra Care Bucks

At CVS, the “rebate” is in the form of Extra Care Bucks. Extra Care Bucks (or ECBs) print right on the bottom of your receipt, along with CVS store coupons.  Treat them just like cash, because that’s what they are! I have heard of people throwing them away because they didn’t know what they were for.  DON’T DO THAT!  They’re triggered by specific products that you purchased, and you can turn around and use them on anything in the store except for prescriptions, alcohol, gift cards, lottery, money orders, postage, pre-paid cards and tobacco.

When I first got started, I really wanted to know exactly what one of these “Extra Care Bucks” would look like, so I took a picture of the ones in my wallet right now.  My wallet, incidentally, has a divider in the middle of the cash section, and I put cash in one and ECBs and RRs in the other.  I don’t want to take a chance on losing them in a coupon folder.  Note that it has my name at the top, and a description of what you purchased to cause the ECB to print.

There are a few things you need to know about ECBs.

• ECBs are only valid for the card they were printed for.
• They expire in one month from the date of issuance. Many stores accept expired ECBs in some manner. Don’t throw yours away until you find out, and it’s worth calling around to ask other stores. You will have better luck if they’re very recently expired, though.
• There are limits on each deal. The limits are usually listed in the ad or posted in the store. Sometimes the listed limit does not correspond with reality. At the bottom of your receipt, there’s a section titled “This Week’s Extra Buck Offers”.  It will list a summary of the terms (ex. Band Aid, Buy 1 Get 2 ECB”), and the number of items you purchased. If you have reached your limit, it will say “* Offer Limit Reached.”  If you have not reached your limit, it will list the quantity toward this reward, and the quantity needed to earn the reward.  You can’t know by looking at the receipt how many more you can buy–you just have to try it and find out, basically.
• You may use an ECB from a particular deal to pay for the same deal (unlike Register Rewards at Walgreens.)  As a matter of fact, if an item is free after ECBs and the limit is greater than one, it’s a good method of “rolling” your ECBs–pay for the second item in a new transaction, using the exact amount from your first transaction.
• You will not receive cash back from using an ECB, so make sure your order comes to a little more than the value of the ECBs you plan on using.
• ECBs do not pay for tax.
• You can use as many ECBs as you want, as long as they don’t go over your order total, of course.  If you have one really expensive item, you can use twenty ECBs to pay for it, if you want to.  (This is also unlike the RR system at Walgreens, where you need one item for every coupon you use.)
• If you purchase multiple items for a particular deal in one transaction, only one ECB will print for that deal.  In the Band Aid ECB pictured above, I purchased two Band Aids that gave $2 ECB each.  It automatically added the two ECBs together to produce one larger one.  That’s good in that it’s one less piece of paper to keep up with, but rememeber that the larger ones will be harder to use!  You’ll have to buy something that costs enough to use it.  That’s another reason one might want to break their order into multiple transactions–to lower the value of the ECBs they receive.

The key to working CVS is to keep your out-of-pocket (OOP) costs as low as possible–under a dollar or so if you can.  You can actually “grow” your ECBs until you have more than you paid in the beginning, and then you can keep using them to pay for more things that give ECBs, and all of this without really affecting your personal finances that much.  You won’t actually make a profit in that they will hand over cash at the end of the transaction, but you can have more ECBs than you paid out in cash, and remember that you can use ECBs (almost) like cash! That’s the basic premise of rolling your ECBs.  You want to use them up before they expire, and you also want to purchase items that give back more ECBs so you can keep playing the game.

Here’s an example.  You purchase an item that is free after ECBs.  It costs $3.99, and you have a $1 coupon.  You pay $2.99 out of pocket, and you will receive a $3.99 ECB.  Then, you turn around and buy another item which costs $7 and gives back $5 ECB, and you also have a $2.50  coupon. $7 – $5 – $2.50 = -$0.51–effective profit!  You can now use that $3.99 ECB when paying for the second transaction.  Your total will be $7 – $2.50 coupon = $4.50, and then you will pay with a $3.99 ECB, or $0.49. You’ve now spent a total of $2.99 + $0.49 = $3.48 out of pocket, and you still have $5 ECB to play with.

General Shopping Tips and Coupon Policy

CVS is generally pretty coupon-friendly.  They accept manufacturer’s coupons and CVS store coupons. Some stores accept competitor’s  coupons and expired coupons, I have heard–ask first at your own store before you assume that to be true. (It isn’t at my own store.)  Some stores have a scanning machine at the front of the store.  You can scan your card when you go in and it will spit out some CVS coupons for you.  These are really nice because you can combine them with manufacturer’s coupons and get really good deals.  They also sometimes print purchase-based coupons, such as  off $5 off $30.  These are tied to your card and cannot be transferred.

Try to keep your transactions small when you’re first starting out.   It’s easier to figure out the system when you aren’t buying everything in the store.

CVS is fun because you can walk out of there saying, I bought all this stuff and only paid $0.26, and they gave me $22 back!  You can show your receipt to anyone and they will be impressed.  (You don’t have to tell them that you spent $18 worth of ECBs unless you just want to… ;)  It’s well worth the time it takes to figure out their system. I was pretty intimidated by CVS at first, but it’s not that hard once you get started.

That should be enough to get started.  If there’s anything else you want to know about CVS, please let me know and I’ll try to answer.  Or, if you have any success stories about your CVS experiences, I’d like to hear those too. :)

I spend most of my shopping time at Walgreens, so I think it’s time to fully explain how their system works.  Currently, the deals at Walgreens mostly depend on Register Rewards.  There used to be an EasySaver rebate program, but it ended in April.  It was great because you could buy the rebate items and get reimbursed on a gift card (which doesn’t expire!) PLUS 10% (or you could get a check for the actual amount.)  There are rumors that this is being replaced with something else, but in the meantime, the biggest savings are coming from sales, coupons and of course, Register Rewards.

Weekly Ads

You know how weekly ads  work. Every week, there’s something new on sale.  The items in the weekly ad are sometimes cheaper than you’ll find them elsewhere, but sometimes not. In other words–you can’t assume that it’s a good price because it’s “on sale”.  The drugstores mark up their prices so much that sometimes even their reduced prices are a joke.  The weekly ad also contains some in-ad coupons.  These coupons are only good for the current week.  They usually have a limit marked on them, but that limit only applies if the cashier enforces it. The register will automatically multiply the coupon savings for the number of items you’ve purchased.  For example, if the coupon amounts to fifty cents off the regular price of an item, limit two, but you buy six, the register will subtract three dollars automatically when just one coupon is scanned.  If the coupon says something is 4/$5, you don’t have to buy 4 of them to get the savings.

My Sunday paper never carries the Walgreens ad, but never fear! You can check it out on the Walgreens website.  It’s also posted in advance (sometimes weeks or even months!) on various deal-seeking forums.  Hot Coupon World Walgreens forum and Slickdeals drugstore forum (check for the Walgreens thread for the appropriate week–this thread is helpful for that.)

For help putting together your shopping list, try the above links, or use the lists at Southern Savers (she always has good lists!) or The Grocery Gathering at becentsable.net.

Register Rewards

Register Rewards (RR) are coupons that print out at the register when you buy qualifying items.  These coupons give you money off your next transaction at Walgreens.  They’re valid on anything that the store sells… with a few notable exceptions.  They exclude prescriptions and items prohibited by law, as well as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, sales tax, lottery tickets, money orders, transportation passes, postage, dairy, Prescription Savings Club membership, health care services and gift cards.  The fine print is somewhere on the coupon itself.  Each RR has the face value, a bar code, the Walgreens logo, the fine print and who the RR was sponsored by printed on it.  There’s a pretty short expiration date… usually two weeks–so don’t forget to use them!

Since the rebate program went away, there has been at least one thing listed as free after  RR every week, and often several things.  They’ll be in the weekly ad, or sometimes you just read about them through the magic of the internet.  The forums I mentioned above really help with that.  There are also usually various Register Rewards deals that don’t result in free items, but that just enhance the current sale price. Sometimes the RR is printed when you buy only one item, but sometimes it requires multiple items to be purchased in one transaction.  There’s no way to track items in separate orders, so make sure you buy everything you need for a RR in one order.

Register Rewards can be a little tricky to use.   I’m just going to get that out upfront. In theory, you can use them like cash to reduce the amount you have to spend on your next transaction. In practice, however, there are a few rules that have to be followed in order to use them. This is especially important when you have large orders and large numbers of RRs in play.

• Only one RR will be printed per deal per transaction. If toothpaste is free after RR (which, it usually is…) and you pay $4.49 for a tube of toothpaste that gives back a $4.50 RR,  you can actually buy as many tubes of toothpaste as you want–but you must pay for them in separate transactions.  If you buy six tubes of toothpaste in one transaction, you’ll still only get $4.50 back.  If there’s a completely separate RR deal, say on shampoo, it will print it and the toothpaste with no problem.  You just can’t do the same deal twice in one transaction.
• You cannot use a RR produced from one deal to pay for the same deal. At least, you can’t do it and get another RR.  Generally, this is why you should take note of who the sponsor is–if it’s listed as Colgate, then don’t buy another RR-producing item by Colgate.  You may, however, use that $4.50 Colgate RR I used as an example above to pay for a deal by another manufacturer that produces a RR.   I will warn you that if a RR fails to print and you used a (different) RR to pay, the staff may tell you that’s why.  Unless it’s from the same manufacturer, it probably isn’t.  Be careful to double-check who the parent company is, since that’s the one that will probably appear.
• You must have one item for every coupon that you use, and RRs are technically manufacturer’s coupons. (Because they’re manufacturer’s coupons, sometimes other stores will accept them. Publix is one of the ones most often mentioned–I don’t have a local Publix so I can’t really vouch for that myself. I have heard rumors that a few Kroger stores will accept them, too. You can always ask your local stores.)  Walgreens-specific store coupons do not count towards this limit.  When one shops specifically for coupon items, it can be tricky to make the number of items and the number of RRs match, which is the main reason they’re sometimes difficult to use.
• Items purchased in order to increase the number of RRs (or other coupons) you can use are called “fillers”.  A good filler is very inexpensive–fifty cents or less. Preferably, it is something that you’ll be able to use. There are often novelty seasonal items fairly cheaply (pencils for 8/$1 are often in the ad) and those would be great as fillers.  Royal brand jello or puddings are regularly 3/$2 for the gelatin or 2/$1 for pudding.  Knee-high stockings, travel-sized tissues, candy bars, clearance items, individual mailing envelopes (I bought a huge stack of these recently at 3/$1!)  I try not to stress out about spending a little money here because I’m saving so much elsewhere, but I do try my best to get useful items.  This is just a necessary cost to use the RRs sometimes.
• You CAN use manufacturer’s and store coupons on an item and it will still produce RRs.  If one doesn’t print, they sometimes like blaming it on coupons.
• The light on the machine will be green if it’s on and working, or red if it’s not.
• You will have to pay your tax out of pocket–in other words, if your total comes to $5.05 and you have a $5 RR, you may not be able to use it because you can only use them on the non-sales-tax portion of that total.  You generally pay sales tax on the pre-coupon amount of your order (in most areas.)
• I have had a couple RRs expire.  My Walgreens will accept them without even noticing, at least, they will if it’s recently expired.  Your own store may vary, but it’s worth a try.  I would personally just try it–if it beeps, throw yourself on the mercy of the cashier. You may be pleasantly surprised.  If one store doesn’t let you do it, try another.  You could always call first to ask what their policy is if you’re concerned.

That’s a lot of detail, and I hope it doesn’t sound scary. It’s easier once you get started and see how it works.  For a newbie on the RR system, I would probably do a couple of different things. First, I wouldn’t try juggling multiple RR transactions.  I would also try to make sure I used the RRs I earned in a second transaction before I even left the store, or I would use them in another store, if I could find one.

As you become proficient with acquiring and spending Register Rewards, you’ll figure out the art of “rolling” them.  That means that you earn a RR in one deal, you can then use it to buy a separate item that produces a RR from another manufacturer. You would then use that second RR to purchase the first item again in order to get another RR.  You can continue this indefinitely, or until you have exhausted the stock or the patience of every Walgreens employee in your general vicinity. ;)  This is kind of complicated so I wouldn’t attempt it as a newbie.

Coupons

Walgreens accepts manufacturer coupons, including internet printables (IPs), as a matter of corporate policy.  You can use one manufacter’s coupon and one store coupon per item.  You can two use coupons on items that are on a Buy One Get One free (B1G1, or BOGO) promotion.  You can use a B1G1 coupon on a B1G1 sale, making them both free.  There is an email from Walgreens Corporate to a slickdeals member that clarifies some of the key points–some people print this out to have on hand in case they’re questioned.

It is usually preferable to control the order in which you hand over your coupons.  In most cases, give them in the following order: purchased-based coupons (ex. $5/$25), manufacturers coupons, store coupons. Doing it this way occasionally allows coupon overage if the combined total of the two coupons is more than the product price, but if you do the store coupon first, then the manufacturer’s coupon will probably beep.

Prescription Savings Club

Walgreens offers a Prescription Savings Club. It costs $20 a year for individuals, or $35 for families. It is designed to save you money on your prescriptions, but since I’ve never used it for that, I can’t really compare how good it is for that.  It offers a 10% discount on all Walgreens-brand items and photo services. The discount is loaded onto a membership card, which can be scanned at the register to pay for your items.  If you scan the card, it will automatically take that 10% off, or you can wait until you get home and enter the receipt information on their website. (That’s what I usually do.)  There’s a slickdeals forum thread that contains more FAQ about the program from a couponer’s perspective.  My membership has paid for itself several times over already and I’ve been a member less than half a year. Also, you get a coupon book worth $50 just for asking about the plan at the pharmacy! It usually has a $2/1 Walgreens diaper coupon in it, which is worth its weight in gold during the B1G1 diaper sales…

Those are the main things you need to know as far as Walgreens goes.  If there are any other questions, please ask!  I’ll be happy to clarify anything that I didn’t explain well enough, or that I didn’t cover.

Overage is confusing for some people to understand, I think, because it doesn’t really make sense that you would “get paid” to take something home.  It’s not that uncommon, though, to find coupons worth more than the actual price of the item, especially if you find something on clearance, or if you use it (legitimately!) on a smaller size than the one they probably intended. (Of course you wouldn’t do this if it specifically says not to.)  If you can find coupons like this, by all means, get as many of them as you can and use them with wild abandon!

This is at the root of the strategy when you use coupons on an item that’s already free after rebate or ECB.  Let’s use Rite Aid as an example.  This week, there’s a freebie for Alaway eye drops.  They cost $7.99, and there are regularly $4 coupons available.  (You can even print one here, if you don’t already have one.)  So, you go to Rite Aid, use the coupon, and pay $3.99 for the eye drops after coupon.  At the end of the month, they’ll send you a check in the mail for $7.99.  Ta da! You just made four dollars.  If you can create a scenario for the week that lets you add a few more items to that $7.99 in order to use a purchase-based coupon, like the $5/$25 that Rite Aid often puts out, you can also use that five dollars to pick up other things you need.

My Rite Aid Plan for this week

1 Bayer Aspirin Quick Release Crystals 10ct $3.99 -$3.99 SCR (limit 1)
1 Bausch & Lomb Alaway Eye Drops, 10mL $7.99 -$7.99 SCR (limit 1)
1 Wound Wash Saline Wound Wash Saline, 210mL $5.49 -$5.49 SCR (limit 1)
1 Dry Idea Clinical Complete Solid, Roll-on or Aerosol, or Right Guard Professional Strength $5.99 ea -$5 SCR (limit 1)
2 Suave Invisible Solid 2.6oz, or Aerosol 6oz $2 ea -$1.50 SCR (limit 2)

Total: $27.46

Then I’ll use:
-5/25 coupon
-1.50 coupon on Bayer aspirin
-4.00 coupon for Alaway
-2.00 coupon for Dry Idea
- .50 coupon for Suave Deodorant (RP 3/29)
- .50 coupon for Suave Deodorant (RP 3/29)

I’ll pay approximately $13.96 (plus tax–I’m leaving sales tax out of it just to make the math easier) out of pocket.  I’ll submit my receipts online, and get $25.47 when I get my Single Check Rebate in a few weeks. Profit of $11.51!  I now have an additional $11.51 dollars to spend on groceries or whatever I need.  Occasionally, it even justifies my need to let someone else cook me dinner.  :)

That’s a pretty basic example of working the system to get overage–very straight-forward.  Here’s where the creativity comes in.  This is a good EASY week to experiment, since so many of the coupons are printable, and Rite Aid now officially accepts internet printables. (All of mine always did anyway.)

If you’re not a serious couponer, you might not have access to all of those coupons.  However, you can print all but the Suave coupons by using the links above.  So, you can still use the above plan almost as is!  You may be noting that the Suave deodorant is not completely free.  Fifty cents is a bargain, but maybe you don’t like that kind, so you aren’t planning on spending money for it.  However, the total of your order won’t quite equal $25 without adding something else–it will only come to $23.46!  So close, and yet so far.  So, if you buy only the first four items on the list, you’ll pay $15.96 out of pocket, but you’ll get back $22.47.  That’s a profit of $6.51–not too shabby!

But if you throw in one Suave deodorant, it will actually get better.  (I am planning on buying two just because I have the coupons for it. You’ll only need to buy one for this to work, though if Suave deodorant is your favorite, by all means, buy two!)  Your total will be $25.46, and then you’ll hand over your coupons.  You can use the $5/$25 this time, so you will pay $12.96 out of pocket, and you will get back $23.97.  That’s a profit of $11.01!!  You’ll make an extra $4.50 and get a free deodorant to boot.  Why wouldn’t you throw in that extra item? (Speaking of which, that is also one example of a “filler”.)

I think that is a pretty easy explanation of what I mean by getting creative with your coupon strategies.  Here are two more examples of what I’m talking about.

I was at the store on Sunday, and I had a $2.00 A.1. steak sauce coupon and a $1.00 off beef when you buy any A.1. sauce coupon.  I didn’t know the price of A.1. but I knew it was a high-value coupon and I thought there was a decent chance that it would be free, so I checked on it.  The smallest bottle was $2.43, so I started to walk away from it. I don’t particularly need any steak sauce, even if $0.43 is a good deal.  That’s when it hit me that if I bought it anyway, I could then use the beef coupon, and that dollar would cover the remaining .43 on the sauce, as well as take off 0.57 more on my total. Free steak sauce, cheaper ground beef.  Excellent!  (Cheap makes food taste better, by the way.)  You can use both coupons, by the way, because the “when you buy X” coupon attaches to the item that is being discounted, not the item that you have to buy to get the discount.  In this case–the beef.  Therefore, you can use a coupon on the item you have to buy, too.

Another time, I used a Free Pantene Styler when you buy Pantene shampoo and condition coupon along with coupons for the shampoo and conditioner at Walgreens and paid three dollars for all three items.  The coupons made the shampoo $1.50 each.  I have so much shampoo that I wouldn’t have purchased them at that price, but I do use the styler, and I was running out.  I didn’t have any other coupons for that styler at the time, so… instead of buying just the styler at full retail price (six, seven dollars), I got all three items for the price of just the shampoo conditioner–three dollars.  Three items for half the price.

I like to think of coupons as a giant strategy card game.   As with any game, the trick is finding the best time to “play” each coupon for the maximum impact, and when you can combine it with another coupon to squeeze a little more value out of it.  This takes practice, but it gets easier if you’re open to finding those special opportunities.

Here’s how I do it:

Take a utility knife and cut a line around the section you want to remove.  This will help prevent the label from tearing in a wonky fashion.

Pick at the edge of the UPC where you want to remove it, just until it starts to come up from the bottle.  Don’t continue pulling!  You just want to get it started.  You can do this in a couple of different places if you prefer, or if it’s a particularly sticky sticker.

Cover the UPC with clear tape. You will use this tape to then stick the label to a piece of paper, so make sure you apply it nicely.  For a larger label, you might be able to get away with strips of tape over the the whole thing instead of covering every bit of the UPC.  Press it down firmly.

Now, start  with one of the corners you’ve pulled up, and lift it up from the bottle, using the tape for leverage.  Carefully pull it back.

If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to pull the whole thing away in one SLOW easy motion!  The tape provides stability for the sticker and keeps it from falling apart.  Then you can use it to stick onto your rebate form, or a blank piece of paper.

Good luck! I wish companies would realize that sticker UPCs are difficult to remove and stop requiring it.  Then again, they probably have realized that.  Fewer redemptions = more money saved.