Ok so it’s official…I am a mommy! lol I have been for over 5 years, but it’s like once your child is in school, it becomes even more official. I am now required to survive on less sleep. And I’m also required to extend our money by every little penny…because each and everyone counts. So the other day, maybe a week ago, I picked up this magazine in Walmart called All You. If you’re in my age group, (i’m almost 28) this isn’t the magazine that catches your eye. At my job, we look at a lot of the celeb mags to help pass the time or whatnot, this magazine caught my eye because it was pink (yeah i admit it) and on the front it said there was over $65.00 in coupons inside. Well yesterday I finally got around to really looking thru the magazine and found a lot of great articles, and I’m basically going to put what I learned on a couple of blogposts. And I will be also picking up this magazine more often! I don’t know if the articles are on their website, quite frankly I haven’t bothered to look, I just wanted to share this info…so if you wanna check out the mags site it’s www.allyou.com. All or most of the info from this blog comes from the article Find the best drugstore deals by Lisa Bakewell.
I just wanted to posted a few tips and ideas that I found helpful from this article. It’s mainly about using the drugstore rewards programs to work in your favor. The article is based on Rite-Aid, CVS and Walgreens. I don’t shop at Rite-Aid, but I will include some of that info, for those of you who do. So let’s get started.
- Get Prepared. There’s a little prep work involved. First, if you’re not already on one of the stores rewards programs, sign up! One great tip that I’m actually going to use is set up a separate email account for any coupon or savings program that you sign up for, that way you don’t have to worry about cluttering up your primary email, or in my case my primary and secondary emails. This is good for when you go to brand sites, like huggies or bounty or crest, whatever, you usually have to register in order to get coupons mailed or emailed to you.
- Be prepared to spend. If you’re like me, I usually avoid the drugstore because I can get it cheaper at Walmart. But, since reading this article, it has convinced me to rethink that. It says be prepared to spend at least $15.00 on products that are featured in the weekly sales ads. The reason being, that most stores offer a $5.00 off a purchase of $15 or $25, combine that with your coupons and savings rewards, and you’re doing great.
- Collect coupons. CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens accept manufacturer’s coupons along with their own store coupons. So stock up on coupons and that way when you get the weekly ad, you can do a little homework that way you come out on top at the store. After you’ve checked the sales ad, the coupons offered by the store, the manufacturer’s coupons, you’re almost ready to go.
- Buy things you don’t need. What??? Yeah that’s what I said, and here’s why: Say the store has a sale on toothpaste, and is offering a cash back bonus, and you have a coupon…well not only will you have backup toothpaste but you may even come out ahead. Let’s say it’s on sale for $3 and you get $2 back in extra bucks (CVS) and you have a coupon for $1.50 off, you just came out 50 cents ahead! Or wanna be more practical, let’s say the coupon was $1.00, you basically just broke even and got free toothpaste!
- Do online research. There are many blogs dedicated to saving money! So subscribe to them! Find your favorite brands on facebook and twitter, follow them to get extra savings and alerts to new sales. Sign up for email alerts for your favorite stores. Walgreens for example is always offering a discount on prints…and sometimes they savings are huge!!! When they are, I jump on it and get a lot of prints for our photo albums and delete those pics from my hard drive.
- Rite-Aid. Go to www.riteaid.com for more info but basically once you sign up online, you shop forrebate-eligible items. You don’t have to carry a card on your keychain, but you do need to keep your receipts. Then you’ll go to www.riteaid.rebateplus.com to enter your receipt info and you’ll be sent a rebate check that you cash at your bank! Rite Aid also offers additional savings on their website by watching certain videos, buying certain allergy medications like Benadryl and Zyrtec and they offer a wellness program for prescriptions.
- CVS. Get a card at any local CVS. Scan this card at checkout to get rewards bucks on advertised items that can be used on future purchases. The more you use, the more you save. CVS is also one of those stores that if you don’t have the card, you may not get the sales prices advertised. It’s free to get the card, so just go ahead and get it. Plus they have a coupon station in the store, as soon as you come in, scan your rewards card and you’ll get a few coupons printed out just for you, based on your previous purchases. The savings just keep adding up! Another perk, is purchase a GreenBagTag for $1 and attach it to a reusable bag. Each time you check out, scan your tag at the cashier and your ExtraCare card. On every 4th scan, you get a $1 extra buck to use on a future purchase. Also the store offers a Reinventing Beauty mini-mag that can be found in the beauty section, it is $1 and comes with a ton of coupons for beauty related items. The savings just keep adding up! (I know I’ve said that twice, but I really love CVS!)
- Walgreens. Walgreens has Register Rewards and they don’t require registering for anything or getting a card. When you purchase qualifying items that are listed in the weekly ads, you’ll get a Register Reard for money off printed on your receipt. Use them towards your next purchase. Walgreens also offers coupon books that come out about a week before the start of the month. According to the article, you don’t have to worry about clipping the coupons in the weekly circular, just have the cashier scan the ad, and you can use it again before it expires!
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