How to shop at Walgreens and what I bought today:

Walgreens is a complicated beast. But, you can get some really good deals on toiletries, medicine, and some food if you do it right.

Here are the rules (they might not always work, and Walgreens employees are not always nice)

1. You can use a manufacturer coupon (like from the newspaper) and a store coupon together

2. If you use both, then you have to buy another item. You have to have as many items as you have coupons. Usually if you trying to pay the least in cash, you buy something super cheap. They always have things in their ad that are around .50 or less.

3. Register Rewards are Walgreens coupons that are like cash that you get for buying certain things. Example: if you buy a chapstick for $2.99, the machine gives you a $3 register reward you can use on almost anything. Sometimes it is the full price of the item (so you basically get it for free), and sometimes it is just part of the price...

4. If you get a Register Reward for something, you can use it to buy the same thing again, BUT you won't get another one. So, you should find something else that will give you a register reward instead so you can get another one. If you keep doing this, you can repeatedly get free items.

5. Your Register Reward won't cover tax. It also can't be reduced down. If you are trying to buy something for $2.99 with a $3 Register Reward, it won't work so you have to buy something to make your cost above $3.

So here is what I did today:

First, I bought 2 Thereaflu, and 1 Hall's throat losenge. The Theraflu was 2/$8, and I had 2 $2 coupons from the internet ( you can't print them any more) and I used a $2 coupon from the Walgreens book by the pharmacy (which should have taken off $4 but only took off $2) and I the Hall's was $1 and there was a $1 off coupon in todays paper. So I paid about $3.50 and got $5 dollars in Register Rewards (here after abbreviated to RR) ($1 for the Hall's and $4 for the Thereflu). Oh, and I bought a .50 can of chicken broth because I had too many coupons.

Then, I bought 1 Gillette Power razor ($8.99 minus $4 from today's paper), 1 Robutussin to Go ($2.49 minus $2 from the internet-not there any more) and 2 Reeces bars (again too many coupons - I used the 2 RR, which count as coupons). I paid $1.50 ish and I got $6 RR for the razor, and $2.50 for the Robutussin

Last, I bought 3 2Liters of Diet Coke ($4 minus $1 sitting by the pop), a $2 dog toy, another Robutussin to Go ($2.49 minus $2), Hall's ($1 minus $1), Dentek Flossers ($2 minus $1 from redplum.com). It cost around $1.50, I used the $6 RR and got $1 RR for the Hall's, $2 RR for the floss, and $2.50 for the Robutussin.

So I spent $6.50 at Walgreens today and have $8 in RR