Walgreens Cancels EasySaver Program, But That Doesn't Mean You Can't Still Play "The Drugstore Game"
Mitchell wrote to us complaining about Walgreen's decision to cancel its EasySaver Rebate program, where customers could submit multiple rebate requests at once and get the money back along with a 10% bonus applied to a gift card. Although the program is no longer with us, it's still very possible to game the reward/discount systems at Walgreens and other chain drugstores to accumulate huge savings. Sometimes you can even make money back.
Mitchell writes:
I've faithfully diverted all of my drugstore business over the last few years to Walgreens because of their super EasySaver Rebate Catalog. Where else could you buy stuff, collect all your receipts and send them to one place each month and get your rebates back plus a 10% kicker on a Walgreens gift card. Late last year when they went to full online submission, this was awesome. No postage, no writing out forms and circling receipts.
The first of May, my local Walgreens had a black xerox'd sign saying the program had been abruptly discontinued. I sense they want to punish those coupon kickers instead with lots of addtional hoops to jump through.
Now I have to shop at other drugstores again.
Mitchell, shopping at other drugstores again is a good thing, if you do it correctly! In fact, with a little planning you can actually make special offers pay for the other necessities that aren't on sale.
Cathy at Chief Family Officer calls this "The Drugstore Game," and says the best place to start looking for advice on how to do it is read the posts at Money Saving Mom. In its simplest form, your goal is to take advantage of affinity programs and weekly specials at CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens to earn discounts that are bigger than the cost of the product(s). For an example, here's a CVS tip from last week's Money Saving Mom blog:
When you buy 2 Neutrogena sun care of or sunless tanning products, you get $10 ECBs [ExtraCare Bucks] (Limit 1). Buy 2 Neutrogena Ultra Sheer SPF 55 1 oz. tubes at $1.99, you'll earn $10 ECBs. So you'll pay $3.98 plus tax out of pocket and get $10 ECBs back!
The biggest mental block to doing this sort of thing is the resistance to buying stuff you don't need right away, or at all. For the "don't need right away" problem, the solution is to learn to love stockpiling; you'll need that third tube of toothpaste someday, so it's not a wasted purchase. For the other problem, you can always give away or donate the things you don't need. As long as it pays for itself and offsets the cost of what you really need, it's a good deal.
MSN Money's moneyblog says that actually, Walgreen's new Register Rewards can net you bigger savings than the old EasySaver program if you shop carefully:
Tara [at Deal Seeking Mom] provided some [Walgreens] examples. For instance, buy Colgate Sensitive toothpaste for $4.49 and get $4.49 in Register Rewards. Combine that with a $1 printable coupon for one tube and it's "better than free after coupon and RRs," she said.
It takes some planning and consistent monitoring to maximize your savings, but our point to Mitchell and others who miss the old Walgreens system is that you shouldn't shop exclusively at one drugstore chain anyway—the best way to save (or even make) money is to bounce back and forth among all of them depending on what you need and what deals they're offering this week.
(Just make sure that your CVS cashier gives you the entire receipt when you pay.)
"A fond farewell to Walgreens' EasySaver rebates" [MSN moneyblog]
"CVS and beyond: The superstars of 'The Drugstore Game'" [MSN moneyblog]
(Photo: Stephen Cummings)
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Comments:
Yeah, except that my mom now has a garage completely full of drugstore products she can't possibly use.
It's a sort of addiction. Beware if you find yourself buying stuff in quantities that you can't ever possibly use.
@Jason Giglio: Two words: Food pantry
People who need food from a food bank need non-food items, too.
I wasn't very impressed with Walgreens coupon portion of the whole thing. Products were the same price after coupon as Target has them every day, sometimes more after coupon. We have been trying to cut down on how many chemical laden personal care products we use and Walgreens mostly offers the worst offenders.
I did find a way of gaming the system at Target without doing all of the rewards. Many of the items we buy have manufacturers coupons and Target puts them on sale on a rotating basis. Combining the two I get things for less than $1 frequently. Most personal care products have a long shelf life so we stockpile those things in the linen closet. Target also has offers frequently for $10 gift cards for new prescriptions. If your getting a new script for refills on something you have been taking for years it can qualify as a new prescription. I had $40 in gift cards floating around in my wallet for a while. They also give you 10% off coupons for filling 10 prescriptions and they can be used on other prescriptions.
my aversion to shopping in actual stores has me use drugstore.com almost exclusively. They have good deals and you earn 5% back each quarter
@brettbee: Three more words: Battered women's shelter.
Food banks and women's shelters seem to be two popular options for the absolutely nutters couponers on a couple of sites where I lurk.
@brettbee: Stockpile, baby, stockpile! I do this with CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens and love it for a number of reasons.
When we hit an unexpected bump in the budget recently, the stockpile came in handy. It is also a great idea for donating to food pantries, women's shelters, etc.
And yes - I do buy food items from the big three drug stores. Not too long ago, I ended up paying $1 for big boxes of my kids favorite Kelloggs cereals. What's not to love?
@bohemian: The nice thing about Target right now is they allow stacking with their store coupons, whether you print them from their website or they are the register receipt/"Catalina" style coupon. I stacked a register coupon ($1 off 2), two vendor coupons ($1.50 off 1) and a sale to get two boxes of Morningstar Farms Chik'n nuggets for 50 cents a box. They keep my husband out of the drive thru, what can I say?
It's pretty rare that I monkey with Walgreens/CVS loyalty programs. They never seem to have the diet soda I want, and you have to jump through a ton of hoops to save a nickel over what you'd save at Target or Wal-Mart. Plus, it's one more stop on my weekly shopping trip. Bleh.
Lately I've noticed that my CVS rewards have been providing me with coupons (at POS) for stuff I never buy and probably would never use, and NO coupons for things I do regularly buy.
This seems to be a change in policy; I always used to get CVS register-receipt coupons for stuff I had already purchased at some point in the recent past. Also... I know I still drop a ton of dough at that store, but I hardly ever seem to accumulate cash rewards anymore. For a while I was getting lots of freebies. Hmmmm! Google this, I must.
I tried playing the CVS game but gave up. I kept getting these bucks receipts (whatever they're called) but I'd forget to use them. Maybe good if you go to the drug store at least once or twice a week, but I tend to buy everything I need (and hopefully ONLY what I need) for the upcoming month in one trip. Less trips = less gas, less impulse buys, less time, etc.
@ElizabethD: I wouldn't say "policy" as much as "strategy". The manufacturers fund most of the Extra Bucks (except for the CVS-specific products), so it's likely they have pulled back and aren't spending their marketing dollars in the same way.
I pretty much stopped going to CVS and Walgreens because of these programs. It seemed everytime I was in line with a bottle of asprin or a tube of toothpaste I got stuck behind some coupon nerd trying to complete a transaction involving multiple cards, the store circular, two cashiers and a manager.
The last time this hapened, the person in front of me was trying to buy all of the marhmallow "peeps" that were on the shelf. This transaction was more complex than my last mortgage.
I can get in and out of a Super WalMart or Target faster than waiting through that.
I haven't paid for soap, toothpaste, deodorant, razors, shampoo & similar items in several years ...
First, learn NOT to be so brand loyal ... its toothpaste & my teeth are clean ... i don't care who manufactured it. Same with soap & deoderant as I always buy unscented.
The KEY to doing it @ CVS is to sit down with the circular on Sunday & PLAN out what you are going to purchase & in what order. ( I do it while watching the Sunday morning news so its really not work ) That way you can keep using those register receipts while in the store. DON'T put them in your wallet thinking you will use them next time ... it NEVER happens :-) ALSO, check the regular coupons because many times they print coupons @ the same time they are on sale in the stores thereby maximizing your savings.
ALSO, PLEASE use coupons for the blood glucose monitors as they usually are free ... in the last year I have donated approximately 15 of them to a small hospital for patients that can not afford them.
My average CVS bill is 90% of full retail.
My average grocery bill is 50 - 60% of full retail.
The nicest thing is I get to donate a lot of items to those less fortunate AND I can spend my savings on things I want to buy instead of have to buy like toothpaste, soap, etc ...
... and before anyone attacks me for holding up lines ... I always ASK the cashier if she minds ringing things up seperately ( They never do and actually seem to get a kick outta seeing me get so much stuff for free ) & I ALWAYS let anyone waiting go ahead of me in the line so I am not causing others to wait for me.
... and to those of you that say its not worth your time ... well perhaps you make more money than I do but $ 100 in savings that takes me 2 hours is WELL worth my time :-)
Happy Bargin Hunting !
FYI, although the EasySaver program is gone from Walgreens (and I do miss it!), they've really ramped up the Register Rewards deals - these are kind of like CVS's Extra Bucks, in that they are coupons you can use on any future purchase that print out when you make a qualifying purchase. There are some rules about getting them and using them - this A Full Cup post has more info. While I like the ECBs more than RRs, I've been finding better RR deals at Walgreens than at CVS lately (partly because CVS banished ECBs for most of this month here in Southern California).
It didn't take me long to get used to paying nothing (and usually making money) on basics like toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, etc., and I've lately been amazed at how much FOOD coupon-savvy shoppers are able to get for free or close to it, so once you master the Drugstore Game, I definitely encourage everyone to branch out!