FYI the Walgreens post I told you to bookmark has now been updated! I knew it was going to be a great shopping week but even I was not expecting all this! **Make sure you read that post first or this one won't make a whole lot of sense to you**
If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you have seen me talk about rolling your rewards. For those who are new to couponing, you may have no idea what I'm talking about so I'm going to start at the beginning. I'm using Walgreens as an example because that is my prefered store of choice but the exact same thing can be done at CVS with their ECB and Rite Aid with their +Up rewards.
Walgreens offers what they call register rewards. RR are a coupon that will print at the register (like at the grocery stores) for a certain amount off your next purchase. To earn these you just have to buy a qualifing item and these are always listed in their sales ad. In most cases the initial purchase to get the reward requires some amount of money out of your pocket. I got SUPER lucky and earned my first $4 RR with no $ oop but this is rare. So purchase what you need to purchase to get your first one and from that point on...ROLL IT.
What do I mean by roll it? Rolling your rewards is simply using your reward to pay little/zero oop and earn another reward in the process. There are lots of ways to do this if you do your homework and be smart about it. There is one catch however, you can NOT use a RR to buy an identical item and get another RR. Let's use contonelle for example. I get a $3 RR for buying 2 packs. If in my next transaction, I buy 2 more packs of cottonelle, I can still use my RR to reduce the price BUT I won't get another RR because there is a limit and it is tracked through the barcode. You never want to do this!
Here is a scenerio to do instead, use your contonelle RR to buy a pack of Bic Soleil razors. After sale and coupon they are only $2.99 so with my contonelle RR they cost me zero oop and I earn a $2 RR. Next I will buy a pack of Noxzema razors, which are $1.99 after sale and coupon. Use the $2 RR you got from BIC to pay zero oop and get another $3.00 RR. So now you have 2 packs of free razors and you still have your reward. Let's go through a few more scenerios....So now I have my free toilet paper (remember I started with a $4 RR) and I have my free razors. Next I will buy some Right Guard deodorant. After sales and coupons my total due is $2.99 for 2 sticks. I use my $3 RR to pay zero and earn another $2 RR. Now I need some shampoo. After sales and coupons I can get 2 bottles of Head and Shoulders for $4.00. I will use my $2 RR + $2 oop and still earn another $2. Now with this $2 reward I can start all over again with the contonelle. This time I will pay $5 oop for the toilet paper and just go down the list getting everything for free.
So now in just ONE week of sales I have gotten 48 rolls of toilet paper, 4 packs of razors, 4 sticks of deodorant, and 4 bottles of shampoo and conditioner and the total cost out of pocket...a whopping $7. It does of course require a little effort on your part. You must either make multiple trips to the store or do more than one transaction per visit (or both!). I am very fortunate in that I pass right by 2 Walgreens each day and a 3rd is only 2 blocks out of my way from my office. So theoretically I could stop at each one, each day next week and by repeating the above process get everything for near free until I just run out of time and can't do it anymore. Now I realize some people may think there is way too much work involved and that's ok too :) I can only pass along what I think are great deals and what you do with them is entirely up to you. Do I particularly want to stop by a store 3 times a day every day next week? No but will I do it...more than likely :) A: I LOVE to shop. I mean really love it and B) At the end of the week when I look at the piles of items I paid next to nothing for, it will allllll be worth it!
No comments:
Post a Comment