The Walgreens weekly ad is a great place to save a ton of money on items that you purchase every day. This page is here to help you maximize those savings.
Getting the most out of the Walgreens weekly ad takes a combination of understanding the policies of Walgreens and knowing how to use those policies to your advantage.
Walgreens Weekly Ad Policies
The Walgreens weekly ad is very similar to the CVS weekly ad and the Rite Aid weekly ad when it comes to the structure of the deals. The terminology is a little different and they have a few policies that vary.
- The Walgreens weekly ad runs from Sunday to Saturday
- Walgreen’s does not double coupons so you will only get the face value of any coupon that you use.
- Walgreen’s has buy one get one free promotions, but you will need to purchase two items to get the BOGO offer. So the first item is full price the second is free.
- You can use one manufacturer’s coupon on each item in a BOGO deal.
- Walgreens has store coupons that can be picked up in store.
- You can use one Walgreens coupon and one manufacturer’s coupon on a single item.
- The primary promotion you will see in the Walgreens weekly ad are Register Rewards (RR). RR work just like money. You purchase a promotional item and on your receipt you will receive RR. You can then use those rewards on your next transaction. Remember that this is on the next transaction not the next visit. This is key to maximizing your savings.
- You can only have as many RR coupons and manufacturer’s coupons as you have items. So if you want to use both RR and a manufacturer’s coupon on one item you will have to purchase another low cost item (like a small piece of candy) to use them.
Walgreens Weekly Ad Tactics
While stacking manufacturer’s and Walgreens coupons is a great strategy it is not the primary way you will save money at Walgreens The best way to cut costs is to cycle your RR by doing multiple small transactions. To get a real feel for this we have put together the following example:
There are two items on sale that are a great deal this week, toothpaste for $2.99 with $2.49 back in RR and deodorant for $3.49 with $3 in RR. You have a $1 manufacturer’s coupon for each. Pick up both items and take them to the front. While on your way you pick up a small piece of candy for $0.20. You are going to do two transactions so you put the toothpaste on the counter and pay $1.99 after the coupon and get $2.49 back in RR. Your $3.49 in register RR prints off on the receipt. For transaction two you buy the deodorant and the candy. After the coupon and the RR you spend $0.20 and get back $3 in RR. So you spent total $2.19 out of pocket and got back $3 in RR for a profit of $0.81 (you can use these RR for deals on the next week’s ad). While typically you will not make a profit you can consistently get your costs down to less than a dollar with some work.
Using these strategies and rules you can maximize your Walgreens weekly ad savings. With Walgreen’s pharmacies being the largest chain in the country there is a good chance that there is one near you.
If you are just getting started in couponing you will want to pair your Walgreens weekly ad shopping with a grocery store. You can check out the Publix weekly ad and Kroger weekly ad strategies.