Saving Money at the Pharmacy

I have learned to appreciate the savings I can do at my local pharmacies. The two closest to my house is Walgreen and CVS. For the most part, I shop at CVS. Mainly because I love the people who work in the pharmacy and they have all my daughter's medicines available whenever I need to refill her prescriptions. I will write some what about the coupon policies of these two pharmacies and other saving plans they have to offer.

Lets start with my favorite CVS. Most every body knows that CVS has a savings program called the Extra Care card. This card earns you extra bucks rewards, which are coupons that you can use for anything in the store except prescriptions, alcohol, gift cards, lottery, money orders, stamps, pre-paid cards, and tobacco products. Every week in the CVS flyer there are multiple products that can earn you extra bucks. This week at CVS you can get $3.00 extra bucks reward when you buy 4, 12 pack of Coke products. So if you buy 4, 12 packs of Coke, when you check out at the bottom of your receipt there will be a coupon that will say $3.00 extra bucks. It will also have an expiration date. Usually you have a month to use the coupon. Another thing I like about the extra bucks reward program is that every quarter, CVS will give you 2% of your total purchases for the quarter back in the form of an extra bucks coupon. CVS also is a place where I used to get make-up for free. They used to have deals where some brand of make-up was buy one get one free. So I would get my buy 1 get 1 free coupons for that brand out and go to CVS to get my free make-up. When using a buy 1 get 1 free coupon on top of a buy 1 get 1 free sale at CVS, you get the product for FREE!!!! I guess a lot of people caught wind of this practice, because in the past year I have not been able to get free make-up again. This week at CVS, All laundry detergent is on a buy 1 get 1 free sale. This is the perfect opportunity for me to stock up on my All Free and Clear. The regular price starts at $7.50 each, but since it is buy 1 get 1 free, I will get two for the price of one. But where the real savings comes in handy is that CVS will allow me to use 2, $1 off of 1 All product coupons. So I end up getting my 2 laundry detergents for $5.50. That equals to $2.25 each! Definitely cheaper than buying it in bulk at Sam's Club or just going over to Wallymart and picking me up one. CVS also has a great renewable shopping bag discount program. For 99 cents, you can get a CVS green savings discount tag to put either on your shopping bags or key chain. Each time you use it, you will get a discount for being environmentally responsible. After 4 uses, it will have paid for itself. I still need to pick me up one the next time I'm at CVS. CVS also came out with a special extra bucks program designed for people with diabetes. Certain products that diabetics need to use everyday can earn you extra buck rewards to go specifically towards buying your diabetic supplies. I just thought I would throw that one out there for all the diabetics who might be reading.

Now to Walgreens. I have to admit that I have not too much experience shopping at Walgreens, but the few times I have done it, I had good experiences. Rob's cousin, Erica, loves to shop at Walgreens and is what I refer to as the Queen of Walgreen shopping. Walgreens and CVS pretty much have the same set up, but just a little different. Walgreens does not have a savings card program, instead they have what is known as register rewards. It is just like the extra bucks, where when you check out, there will be a coupon printed out saying how much you can save the next time you shop. No card needed! They also have a great rebate program. Every month certain items have rebates attached to them. At the end of each month, you go to the Walgreen website and mark what items you have bought and send it in. You may have to verify that you bought the item by saying when and where you bought the item, but you do not have to mail in a receipt and a form showing you bought it. Everything is sent over the internet and even the verification is done on line. Once it is verified and sent in, then in about a month you will receive a check. Another good thing with the rebate is that when you buy the item, you can also use a coupon. Erica has been known to end up getting paid to take things off their hands by using coupons on items that are also on rebate. It does take some time to get used to the Walgreen website to figure out how to turn in your rebate form, but once you have figured that out, it is fairly easy.

Now really the only con with shopping at Walgreen or CVS is that they do not double or triple coupons. Besides that, there is lot to save by shopping there. I have gotten tons of diapers for pennies and even have gotten paid to take candy off their hands. So every week I do check out the CVS flyer just to see if there is something that is cheap and I really cannot live without. They both also do a good job by letting you know which items in their flyers have coupons you can use. I especially love this, because every month the hair dye I like to use goes on sale and the flyer also lets me know if there is a coupon for that product in the Sunday's paper. I have gotten hair dye for free many times because of using CVS's savings programs and coupons.

I know there are other big chain pharmacies out there, but since they are not in Fort Worth, I have no clue as to their coupon policy. If you know of any of these, then please write a comment to share with us. Tomorrow is the big day when the new weekly ads get released and I start making my lists. Hopefully I can guide you along my thought process on how I get this done.