Wags and CVS

[Magical Mama]

Okay fellow Budget boarders! I have spent the last few weeks reading up the CVS boards and saving lots of money thanks to all the tips! So I figured I would give Walgreens a shot since CVS was going so well... well that was a mistake! I went to Walgreens this morning and had several items rung up and when I gave the cashier the Register Rewards she told me that they wouldn't accept them because I had too many coupons! I told her I would like to speak to the manager, well he was just friendly! (Total sarcasm! They were not at all friendly!) And he also told me that I was not allowed to use the RR! Anyone else encounter such problems?

I had $33 subtotal after coupons and had $9 in RR.

 

[meanser]

Yes, this whole system sucks with Walgreens. I have called corporate and the Walgreens by my house fixes itself for awhile, then they start making up rules again! Ugh... I think the deal is you can only use RR for as many items as you are buying and the seem to have problems if you use coupons in the transaction too. I have heard they are doing away with this system, but until then stick to CVS!

 

[extremesoccermom]

You need to have the same number of items as coupons. Yesterday I bought 2 of the items that would be free with RR. I had one MFQ and 3 RR from 2 weeks ago that were to expire. I had to add. 1+3=4-2=2 I needed to pick up 2 more items so that I would have the correct number. Then things were on sale or for some reason cheaper than I calculated so I added on 2 Oreo brownies that were by the register. Finally, it went through and my OOP was .96
Good luck.
We don't have a CVS by me YET. So I don't know about them but Walgreens can be a good deal with a little work

 

[maleficentmom]

The last time the cashier told me if I used Reg.Rewards coupons to purchase items that were supposed to print out Reg. Rewards,that the cash register would not print out Reg.Rewards coupons for the items purchased.In other words she said it was best to buy Reg.Rewards items(minus manufacturers coupons of course), and just pay for them with cash,etc....then let the register print out Rewards coupons, use them on anything else that you are buying by letting her ring all that in a second order.Don't know if this is correct, i thought I had used Rewards coupons on Rewards items before(as long as the total coupons didn't exceed items)...don't know if she was wrong or if this is a new thing?????But it is still a good deal either way,so i will keep it up.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

The only thing Wags has going for it is there is no limit to how many rr you can earn as long as you do separate trips. With cvs the limits are per card. But you can't roll RR like ecbs and the # of items to coupons, rude staff and everything else just drives me nuts so I don't even bother with them.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

The only thing Wags has going for it is there is no limit to how many rr you can earn as long as you do separate trips. With cvs the limits are per card. But you can't roll RR like ecbs and the # of items to coupons, rude staff and everything else just drives me nuts so I don't even bother with them.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I pretty much stick to CVS also. Walgreen never has any of the RR items in stock anyway, then the redemption chance at checkout is about the same as winning 2 bucks on a lottery ticket. Not worth the time and hassle here.

 

[LanaJae]

In order to do Walgreens sucessfully you have to follow threads at places like slickdeals.net's drugstore and grocery forum. It's difficult, but once you have a rolling system down for the week's sale, it can be much better than CVS, especially since they often do food items.

This week I am buying the Glade soy candles 2 for $4 and using a $3 mfg. coupon from redplum.com, and earning a $1 RR. If I want to use a$1 RR from a previous purchase/different manufacturer to help pay for the balance, I need a "filler" so I decided to pay the $1 plus tax because I love candles.

I am also buying Starbucks ice cream this week. I buy five at $3 each. I use five $2 coupons and pay with $5 real money and earn a $5 RR. After I run out of $2 coupons, I'll use the $1 printables and then spend my $5 RRs from last week's Rembrandt toothpaste deal and buy items as fillers to cover those RRs.

 

[LanaJae]

I should add that Walgreen's employees are often mean, suspicious and don't understand the Register Reward system. Some try to steal the RRs too so you have to really clear your mind and know what your totals should be. I hate writing this, but its true in many parts of the country.

Normally I wouldn't be allowed to use a $3 mfg. on two items that cost $2 each, but it's their spotlight item this month and the cashiers get something like 30 cents for each candle sold. They conveniently overlook the coupon amount, even though it is perfectly acceptable in redemption and auditing to use one coupon to cover more than one of the exact item if the price is lower than the coupon amount. Try this any other time and you are terrible in their eyes.

If this were CVS, they would accept two $3 coupons and adjust the second down to $1 to cover the entire balance before tax. CVS is good about adjusting coupons down - they even have instructions on the register, but technically they should be allowing overage instead as they get reimbursed for the entire amount.

 

[fiveforall]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I guess I'm in the minority because the folks at my Walgreens are sooooooo nice and helpful. I actually like the Walgreens RR a bit better because once you get the hang of it, you can make multiple, multiple trips. I have so many body washes and hair products from Walgreens that my husband calls the bathroom the pharmacy! My Walgreens always seems to have super cheap fillers/extras on the candy aisle. Today we found jumbo peanut butter twix bars for 45 cents and hairbands for a quarter.

 

[ShiPooOwner]

I prefer CVS over Walgreens but I do shop at both stores. What I really dislike about Wags is always making sure I have the same number of items as mfg. coupons. I'm always having to add fillers that I really don't want or need....like candy. Okay, I want candy but I SURE don't need it!!! It seems so much easier at CVS to keep it all straight at check out without adding fillers. Thanks, LanaJae, for the Slickdeals.net website info. Again I learn something new from you!

 

[LanaJae]

I prefer CVS over Walgreens but I do shop at both stores. What I really dislike about Wags is always making sure I have the same number of items as mfg. coupons. I'm always having to add fillers that I really don't want or need....like candy. Okay, I want candy but I SURE don't need it!!! It seems so much easier at CVS to keep it all straight at check out without adding fillers. Thanks, LanaJae, for the Slickdeals.net website info. Again I learn something new from you!

I didn't know you didn't know about that site - sorry for not saying anything sooner! It's hardcore though, post the wrong thing or a repeat question or clutter the thread and you will be sure to know it

After reading fiveforall's post, makes me want to move to that area as the entire south was so nice everywhere we went. It took me years to find a few Walgreens employees that I could look forward to seeing and who knew I wasn't trying to put the store out of business!, mostly I like the high school kids that work there

 

[Magical Mama]

Thank you all for your posts! And LanaJae, you are always so helpful, I love reading your tips on the CVS threads! I had a cart full of summer clearanced items to buy that I wanted to do in a seperate transaction so that it wouldn't interfere with my math I had done the night before but I could have added those items to bring up my item count if the cashier or the manager would have told me that! They just kept repeating that I couldn't use the RR. I am gonna try this a.m. but at a different Wags!

 

[LanaJae]

Thank you all for your posts! And LanaJae, you are always so helpful, I love reading your tips on the CVS threads! I had a cart full of summer clearanced items to buy that I wanted to do in a seperate transaction so that it wouldn't interfere with my math I had done the night before but I could have added those items to bring up my item count if the cashier or the manager would have told me that! They just kept repeating that I couldn't use the RR. I am gonna try this a.m. but at a different Wags!

Oh those cashiers - they probably saw that you had those items too!

One good thing about Walgreens in most areas is that if you find a really bad one, there's always another down the road lol

 

[ShiPooOwner]

In order to do Walgreens sucessfully you have to follow threads at places like slickdeals.net's drugstore and grocery forum. It's difficult, but once you have a rolling system down for the week's sale, it can be much better than CVS, especially since they often do food items.

This week I am buying the Glade soy candles 2 for $4 and using a $3 mfg. coupon from redplum.com, and earning a $1 RR. If I want to use a$1 RR from a previous purchase/different manufacturer to help pay for the balance, I need a "filler" so I decided to pay the $1 plus tax because I love candles.

I am also buying Starbucks ice cream this week. I buy five at $3 each. I use five $2 coupons and pay with $5 real money and earn a $5 RR. After I run out of $2 coupons, I'll use the $1 printables and then spend my $5 RRs from last week's Rembrandt toothpaste deal and buy items as fillers to cover those RRs.

Hi LanaJae, I used your Wags scenario from Slickdeals.net and am happy for a change with my purchases. I think I'm indebted to you again!! Here's how it went down:

5 Starbucks ice creams at $3 = $15
5 mfg. coupons for Starbucks @ $2 = $10 off ice cream
2 Glade 2 oz candles = $4
1 mfg. coupon for $3/2 Glade
1 Glade Sense & Spray = $5.99
1 Glade S&S mfg. coupon for $4/1

Since I was using 7 coupons plus RR, I knew I had to have a filler or two. I'm never quite sure how the receipt will print because once I got a BOGOF item and thought it would show as two items but it showed as one so I couldn't use one of my coupons. Grrr!

Anyway back to today. I got two fillers for products I use a lot that were on sale with a Walgreens coupon (and no mfg. coupon) and those were 2 for $3.

So my total purchases came to $27.99 minus $17 mfg. coupons minus $10 RR= FREE except for tax which came to .71. PLUS~~I earned $8 in new RR. ($5 on Starbucks, $2 on S&S, and $1 on Glade 2 oz. candles)

If you do this deal today, don't go to the Walgreens on Century and Tenth because I just about cleaned out their stock of Starbucks ice cream. They had a lot of candles and Sense & Spray left though. Also be careful of what the receipt says for your ice cream. They charged the regular price of 2/9 so the manager had to refund $7.50 to me for the five Starbucks. I don't know if that's a corporate mistake or each store that sets their sale prices, but somewhere there was a SNAFU.

And compliments to my cashier Trasie. She is AWESOME and was so happy for the money I saved on these deals. If they all could be like her! I'm going to call their 800 number and hope there's a place I can give her a plug. I am also going to call the Oakdale store and tell them she's a gem.

 

[momminnie]

I need some of you to come to my house and give me lessons in couponing!I want to buy $27.99 for free.

 

[Magical Mama]

Well this trip wasn't much better... I paid about $6 OOP for about $60 worth of stuff and made $18 in RR, which I was very happy about but the cashier was just so unfriendly (and this was a different store!). I think I just prefer CVS much more so I will probably stick with that. I took my RR and went to another Wags who had summer clearance at 75% off so I used all of them up. Tried to get summer clearance at CVS but they only had a few things left- bubbles, buckets, water bombs. Yesterday it wasn't on clearance and this a.m. it was cleared out! I guess I just didn't time it right!

 

[ShiPooOwner]

Well this trip wasn't much better... I paid about $6 OOP for about $60 worth of stuff and made $18 in RR, which I was very happy about but the cashier was just so unfriendly (and this was a different store!). I think I just prefer CVS much more so I will probably stick with that. I took my RR and went to another Wags who had summer clearance at 75% off so I used all of them up. Tried to get summer clearance at CVS but they only had a few things left- bubbles, buckets, water bombs. Yesterday it wasn't on clearance and this a.m. it was cleared out! I guess I just didn't time it right!

Yeppers, timing is everything at CVS. Sorry to hear it didn't go too well at Wags or CVS. You might want to give Wags another chance down the line if they have something really appealing. Maybe you can find a cashier at yet another store or on another shift that will be much nicer.

 

[LanaJae]

Hi LanaJae, I used your Wags scenario from Slickdeals.net and am happy for a change with my purchases. I think I'm indebted to you again!! Here's how it went down:

5 Starbucks ice creams at $3 = $15
5 mfg. coupons for Starbucks @ $2 = $10 off ice cream
2 Glade 2 oz candles = $4
1 mfg. coupon for $3/2 Glade
1 Glade Sense & Spray = $5.99
1 Glade S&S mfg. coupon for $4/1

Since I was using 7 coupons plus RR, I knew I had to have a filler or two. I'm never quite sure how the receipt will print because once I got a BOGOF item and thought it would show as two items but it showed as one so I couldn't use one of my coupons. Grrr!

Anyway back to today. I got two fillers for products I use a lot that were on sale with a Walgreens coupon (and no mfg. coupon) and those were 2 for $3.

So my total purchases came to $27.99 minus $17 mfg. coupons minus $10 RR= FREE except for tax which came to .71. PLUS~~I earned $8 in new RR. ($5 on Starbucks, $2 on S&S, and $1 on Glade 2 oz. candles)

If you do this deal today, don't go to the Walgreens on Century and Tenth because I just about cleaned out their stock of Starbucks ice cream. They had a lot of candles and Sense & Spray left though. Also be careful of what the receipt says for your ice cream. They charged the regular price of 2/9 so the manager had to refund $7.50 to me for the five Starbucks. I don't know if that's a corporate mistake or each store that sets their sale prices, but somewhere there was a SNAFU.

And compliments to my cashier Trasie. She is AWESOME and was so happy for the money I saved on these deals. If they all could be like her! I'm going to call their 800 number and hope there's a place I can give her a plug. I am also going to call the Oakdale store and tell them she's a gem.

I was at that store after you wrote this but before I read it lol and I had Trasie too and I always love her, she is happy and smiling all the time. I will call too as she did 9 transactions for me, it's the first time I've ever ever been able to do that at Walgreens (but it was because of the candles - I knew that would hook them lol)

You left 3 Starbucks and they were so far back I couldn't reach them but the manager found 2 more bundles of 6 for me hiding somewhere in that freezer, and because of you (I bet), he knew the price was wrong - it's wrong nationally, and so is the price on the glass Glade candle holders in the "angel whispers" scent.

If you want to buy the Glade oil tin candles, they are not part of the sale, they are 2/$5 but still give $1 RR. There is a $1.50/1 coupon in each of them, so in the end two are $1 after RR (plus tax), plus you can get a free 3-pack refill with each using coupons from redplum.com with zip 77530. You can use the $1.50 coupon and the free refill at the same time.

 

[LanaJae]

I need some of you to come to my house and give me lessons in couponing!I want to buy $27.99 for free.

Just start saving every coupon you can find and then go to the CVS weekly thread here or other drugstore threads on different forums and copy what other people buy, that's how we all started - copying. After you do it awhile, it gets easy, especially at CVS. Walgreens is a new beginning for me every time I do a sale, but once I get a pattern down for the week, I know what to expect and its easy - if I can find things in stock.