Quite a Savings at Walgreens Today!! :)

For the above Walgreens items, I paid $12.39, saved $53.92, and earned $5.50 in Register Rewards toward my next purchase.  Here's how it worked:

My sister Amy, who lives in AZ, and I challenged each other today to try saving money at Walgreens by making multiple transactions in one visit, a money-saving tip neither of us had tried.  I haven't heard yet from her how it went down there in her corner of the country, but here in the Midwest it was flawless!  I walked into the store with my list, my coupons and my Register Rewards from last week, all ready to execute my plan! ;)

First of all, they actually had in stock every item on my list!  Love it when that happens!  Going on a Monday was helpful, I'm sure, because the ad just came out yesterday.

I'll start out by telling you the general deals I used to my advantage, and then I'll list how I put them together.  By the way, I'll be mentioning "Register Rewards" (RR) quite often--these are coupon-like things that are used just like cash toward your next purchase.

Gillette or Old Spice Body Wash (men's):  Their price is $4.49, but if you buy one, you get a $4.50 Register Reward.  Also, I had a Buy-One-Get-One-Free coupon for the Gillette and another one for the Old Spice 

OFF Clip-On Mosquito Protection (have been wanting to try these):  Sale price: $8.99, plus a $2 off instant value coupon (from the Walgreens coupon book at the front of the store).  Plus, I had a Buy-One-Get-One-Free coupon and a $2 off coupon.

OFF Clip-on refill:  Sale price: $4.99, plus $1 instant value coupon, plus I had a manufacturer coupon for $1 off.

Kotex:  Sale price: 2/$6;  Register Rewards: $2 (when you buy 2--different varieties available), plus I had a $1.50 off 2 coupon.

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner:  Buy one at $2.99, get one free.  Plus I had two $.50 off coupons

Stride Shift gum:  Sale price--2/$2.  Instant Value Coupon: $1 off 2.

Royal gelatin:  $.19 each.  I mostly used these as "fillers," which I'll explain in a minute.

Oscar Mayer Lunchables, with in-ad coupon:  $1.99.  I had a $1 off coupon.  This is not something I normally buy, as I think they are a total waste of money.  But Little Mister has had them before and thinks it's a special treat (???). :)  This was an okay price for a "special" treat. :)

Now, for the particulars!

Transaction #1

2 Old Spice Body Wash
2 OFF clip-on mosquito repellents
1 OFF refill
3 Royal gelatins*

This would have cost $37.97, but I paid $8.99.  Using the store sales and coupons mentioned above, PLUS using the $4 in RR I had from last week, I saved $28.98 on this transaction.  Also, I received a $4.50 RR (from one of the body washes) to use on my next transaction.  Unexpectedly, the Catalina machine also spit out 2 coupons, both for Gillette body washes, which would help me on my third transaction.

Transaction #2

2 Lysol toilet bowl cleaners
2 Kotex
2 Stride gum
1 OM Lunchable

This transaction would have been $19.93 but, using the sales and coupons mentioned above, PLUS ADDING THE $4.50 RR from Transaction #1, I paid $3.98!  And the Kotex deal gave me a $2 RR to use on Transaction #3.

Transaction #3

2 Gillette body washes
2 Royal gelatins

Without sales or planning ahead, I would have paid $10.36, but I used my BOGO on the body washes, plus the unexpected $1.50 off 1 body wash coupon from Transaction #1, and my $2 RR from Transaction #2, and I paid a total of $1.37.

When I combine all the transactions, I saved 77% by buying the things I needed on sale, using coupons and Register Rewards.  And, after Transaction #3, I have $5.50 in Register Rewards to use next time I shop.

*The gelatins I used as "fillers."  See, at Walgreens you have to have at least as many items that you're buying as you do coupons/RR.  For Transaction #1, without the gelatins, I had 5 items, but was using 8 coupons.  The three gelatins were $.19 cents each and brought my total items up to 8, which matched my number of coupons.  I still saved tons of money!  And the gelatin comes in handy every once in awhile! :)

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can't use a Register Reward that names a company to purchase an item from that same company.  Some RR just say something like "Thank you for shopping with us," while others are sponsored by a certain company.  For instance, I couldn't use the Kotex RR I received today to purchase another Kotex product.

For more general details on Walgreens shopping, see this post. :)