Save Big With Drugstore Rebates and Rewards
CVS and Walgreen's have the biggest rebate and reward programs.
Dec. 14, 2009 — -- The holiday shopping season is a great time of year to kick off a lucrative cycle of collecting rebates and rewards at drugstores. Why? Because there are lots of party supplies and stocking stuffers available at drugstores, so it's a good time to spend a bit of money at these types of stores, to get yourself started.
Drugstore rebate and rewards programs are a way to not only SAVE BIG, but to actually make money! As you know, leading up to the publication of my book, "SAVE BIG," every week in this column, I'm previewing some of the great money-saving information I've gathered.
Rebates are offers you have to apply for and rewards are offers that give you store credit. If you do it right, you can save so much at the drugstore that you will have more money to spend at the grocery store. It's such a smart strategy. I mean, wouldn't you rather put your money into T-bone steak than toilet bowl cleaner?
I will detail programs at CVS and Walgreen's in this column, because they are the biggest. Rite-Aid has similar savings programs, and you can apply many of these principals at regional drugstore chains, too.
Rebates
Rebates are a pain. There, I've said it. But they are also full of possibility. That's why we're going to talk about them anyway. Rebates are those offers where you have to mail in your proof of purchase and other paperwork and the company sends you a check.
That's the pain. Here's the possibility: Because you can often combine rebates with coupons or sales, you sometimes make money on them. If your purchase price was low enough, then your rebate check represents a profit. That, I like! If you don't pursue rebates you are leaving money on the table.
But I am ever mindful of the need to save time as well as money. So is it worth it to apply for rebates? Maybe. It depends how much time you have. A personal story, my eye doctor recently suggested that I hold a warm wash cloth to my eyes for two minutes every evening to help my dry eyes, and I told her, "I'm sorry. I can't do that. I don't have two minutes to spare." Really.
If your life is crazy like that, set a threshold for yourself. Decide how generous a rebate has to be before you'll apply: $5? $20? $50? Whatever amount is meaningful to you. Forget the rest. It's small stuff. Savings.
Regular price: $11.88
Sale price: $9.99
Manufacturer coupon: $3
Extra Care Bucks: $2
Final Price = $4.99
BIG SAVINGS = 58 percent
Now, another for the guys:
Regular price: $9.06
Sale price: $6.99
Extra Care Bucks: $2
Manufacturer coupon: $2
Final Price = $2.99
BIG SAVINGS = 67 percent
The amazing thing at the drugstore chains is that Guerilla Grocery Shoppers can actually make money on their purchases, in the form of a store credit. Here's a really basic one. Oral B Mouthwash costs $2.99, but when I looked CVS was offering $2.99 in Extra Care Bucks if you buy it. Great, free mouthwash. But wait! There is also a one dollar manufacturer coupon for Oral B Mouthwash. Since the two savings opportunities come from different sources, you can combine them and get money back!
Regular price: $2.99
Extra Care Bucks: $2.99
Manufacturer coupon: $1
FINAL PRICE = $-1
There you have it. You can actually pay negative $1 for a bottle of mouthwash. You get money back! Guerilla Grocery Shoppers who work the angles at CVS end up with $15 to $20 in credit each month, which they use to make their next purchases. If those purchases are also eligible for Extra Care Bucks, the cycle of savings continues.
I once did a "Good Morning America" segment with Kristin McKee and Chrissy Pate, the two Missouri moms who founded BeCentsAble.net. Now, they teach others how to SAVE BIG. We loaded up a table full of a hundred different groceries that would normally cost $369.75. Then, we asked our studio audience to try to guess how much Kristin and Chrissy paid for the entire pile.
Not one person got the answer right. You know why? Because their cost was better than free! They actually got a store credit of $6.20! That's right. The store paid Chrissy and Kristin to take all those goodies home! And it was drugstore rebate and reward purchases that made this little coup possible.
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