Walgreens can be the most confusing and daunting store for a couponer. There are several things you need to consider when couponing at Wags, and I am going to try and clear those up for you. Grab your snuggie, your coffee and a pen, this is a long one…
Walgreens has several different sources of store coupons. They have coupons in their ad, coupons in the little booklets at the front of the store (by the ads), and coupons in the quarterly FREE diabetic magazine (near the pharmacy). All of these coupons are to be used only at Walgreens. They do allow stacking (using a store and manufacturer coupon on the same item) as long as the coupons are valid on the same item (sizes, etc) and you are purchasing the correct quantities. You can score some serious deals with minimal effort by utilizing this information.
Register Rewards:
Walgreens has a program called Register Rewards, you’ll see them all over their ads. What this means is that you’re paying for the item/s out of pocket, and you’ll get a Register Reward (manufacturer’s coupons that print from a Catalina machine at the end of your transaction) for the amount stated in the ad, good for anything in the store. The first time you go, you’ll pay full price (assuming you are not using coupons), and you’ll get some of what you spend (or all of it in some cases) back in the form of RR.
Register Rewards expire 2 weeks from the date they are printed. You can use them for anything in the store within those two weeks. They do not accept expired RR. The best way to use your RR’s is to use the first RR to pay for other items also producing RR’s. Each RR deal can only be earned one time per transaction. You’ll need to do multiple transactions if you want to get several RR printed out from of one product that week.
Note: You cannot use the $3 RR from the Schick Hydro (picured above) to pay for another Schick Hydro, as a new RR will not print. It’s called rolling (see all coupon lingo HERE), and they have that policy in place to limit how many each person gets.
You can use the $3 Hydro RR to buy other RR producing items. In the small print on the RR, you’ll see something to the effect of “Thank you from the makers of Schick Hydro”. As long as you are not buying another Schick product that will produce a $3 RR, a new one will print.
If there are several RR items in one ad, you can rotate which ones you buy, alternating which RR you use to pay for them. There is an awesome spreadsheet available from iheartwags.com (HERE) that will help you figure out how many items you have and what RR you’re using. Keep in mind that not all items you’re going for will be in stock. You might have to do a last minute scenario switch up in the store.
Fillers are sometimes required when redeeming your RR. Let’s say that you are buying 10 items, and you have 10 manufacturer coupons, 1 for each item. If you have any RR that you are redeeming in that transaction, you will need additional items in your cart for those RR coupons to attach to. Since RR are actually manufacturer coupons, the do count toward your coupon total. Store coupons do not count in the coupon total, only manufacturer coupons. If you have (3) RR’s that you are redeeming, you’ll need 3 filler items. Filler items are something small and very inexpensive. Preferably something that you will actually use. Sometimes it’s a pencil for 8¢, sometimes a can of mushrooms for 50¢. It all depends on what’s cheap that week.
Here’s a scenario to wrap your head around:
Buy:
4 – Quilted Northern
4 – Cover Girl Eyeshadows
2 – Planter’s Nuts
Use:
4x $1/1 Quilted Northern
2x – $2/2 Cover Girl
1x – $1/2 Planters
If you have RR to burn (use them just because they are expiring), you would need to buy the pencils as fillers, since there are coupons for everything else in your cart. Every coupon you redeem will attach to it’s respective item. If you’re using the above scenario, you must have the pencils as fillers for the RR coupons to attach to.
The value of all coupons (RR, manufacturer and store) cannot exceed the total of your transaction. You have to choose, if possible, which value RR to use to get your out of pocket (OOP) expense as low as possible without going under. Think Price is Right in reverse. LOL
It is best to hand over your coupons in the following order: RR, manufacturer coupons, then the store coupons. It helps avoid the dreaded beep. Hold on to your coupons as if they were cash. You wouldn’t hand over all of your cash, so you don’t have to hand over all of your coupons at once either. 
I strongly suggest keeping a copy of their coupon policy (HERE) in case they give you any trouble. It states in their policy that if an item is priced less than the value of the coupon, that they will adjust the coupon down to the price of the item. Remind them of this if necessary.
If for some reason a coupon will not go through, simply ask them to void the item from your order. No sense in buying it if you aren’t getting the deal, and it’s much easier to void an item than to return it later.
I know that this can be very confusing, so if you have any questions at all, please ask! You’ll never know if you don’t ask. 
Happy Wagging everyone!
