Walgreens has become a lot more than your friendly neighborhood pharmacy since its inception back in 1901. In 120 years, it’s grown to be a one-stop-shop for medicine, food, health, beauty, and more. With over nine thousand stores across all 50 states, you can just about always find one when you need one. It’s one of those stores that you run into for one item but come out with a bag full of goodies.
Any place that you shop in that much, you need a savings plan for. If you do a little work researching how their coupons, rewards, and sales work, you can save hundreds of dollars a year. We’ve rounded up our top tips for pharmacy savings at Walgreens to help you spend less.
1. Join The Loyalty Program: myWalgreens Rewards
A loyalty program is a classic way for stores to shower their repeat customers with rewards and keep them coming back for more. At the end of 2020, Walgreens is switching from Balance Rewards to a new program called “myWalgreens.”
The myWalgreens program is free and easy to join. While you can get a card, they can also track your purchases using your phone number, which is super convenient at the register. You’ll get access to special discounts and coupons, as well as gain the ability to earn cash you can use on the spot to lower your total.
You earn points when you shop in a physical location or online. You’ll earn 1% back on all purchases or 5% on Walgreens branded products.
Since Walgreens has a mission to help keep the community healthy, you can also earn reward points by getting prescriptions filled, getting vaccinations, and making healthy choices trackable on the Walgreens App.
Over time, the rewards add up, and you can use them to take money off your next purchase. No need to keep track; when you have rewards to spend, an associate will ask if you’d like to redeem them. You can also choose to donate your rewards to charity.
2. Digital Coupons
Walgreens takes manufacturer coupons, but they also have their own right inside their app. You can digitally clip the coupon and add it to your virtual wallet in the myWalgreens program, and the coupons will automatically apply at checkout. You’ll be able to view your savings on your printed or virtual receipt.
Speaking of digital savings, you can also use the Walgreens app to compare the unit costs of items. When you locate a product with the search bar, click on the compare button for more information. It will tell you if another item is cheaper or if there is a sale on a comparable item. Sign up for email alerts for even more savings.
3. Coupon Stacking At Walgreens
Walgreens is one of a few stores that lets you stack your coupons for compounded savings. Sometimes you can use sales and coupons to get items for pennies. You can check out their coupon rules here. Here are a few expert coupon stacking tips for Walgreens shoppers.
- Here’s a simple rule. You can’t use more coupons than the number of items you have in your cart. For example, if you want to use your rewards and two printed coupons, you’ll have to have at least three items at checkout.
- You can stack a Walgreens coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on the same item. If the store is having a 15% off sale on a beauty brand and you have a $1 off coupon for the same item, you can use both deals.
- Even if Walgreens is running a BOGO sale, you can use manufacturer’s coupons on top of this deal to further reduce your price.
- You can even use the manufacturer’s coupons on clearance items as long as the item doesn’t end up with a negative balance.
- Sometimes you have to break your purchases into more than one transaction, but not always.
4. Walgreens Online Sales
You can view all the online sales and discounts by clicking here and checking them out. They are always changing, so check back regularly for huge savings. You’ll be able to sort by category and see if any of the items are available on sale at your local store as well.
Don’t forget that you can clip digital coupons using the Walgreens app that can apply to both in-store and online purchases. When you’re logged into your account, the discounts will apply automatically at checkout.
5. Walgreens Clearance Items
In stores, you can find clearance items with brightly colored stickers on them on end caps. You can also find clearance items online right here on their clearance page. Get up to 80% off on inventory they are trying to clear out. Don’t forget; you can use coupons and rewards on clearance items for even more savings.
6. Register For Rewards
You may have noticed that you sometimes get an extra slip of paper with your receipt. These are register-rewards; they can come from manufactures or from Walgreens. They are based on your purchases, so they are pretty customized.
You’ll often see these rewards posts on signs and on ads throughout the store, website, or app. It will tell you the sale price and the rewards earned. These coupons can be redeemed and stacked, just like the other coupons we’ve already mentioned.
7. Promo Codes From Koopy
Before you shop online, always head over to Koopy to find the latest digital promo codes to lighten your bill. Koopy always has promo codes for Walgreens. You can find coupons, percentage deals, and even free shipping codes.
8. Auto-Reorder With Savings
People buy things from Walgreens that they need on a weekly or monthly basis. You can save money by getting these items auto-reordered and delivered to you. Sign up for this program and see the eligible products here. You can save 10% off and get free shipping.
If you choose Walgreens brand products, you can save up to 20%. You set the delivery schedule and easily control it online. You’ll find health, beauty, personal care, grocery, diet, baby supplies, and other useful items on the eligibility list.
You get to set the delivery dates to 30, 60, or even 90 days out. One more bonus to this program, if the item is ever on sale, you’ll get the more significant discount (either the standard 10% or the sale price, whichever saves you more money).
9. Saving at The Walgreens Pharmacy
The Walgreens Prescription Savings Club isn’t insurance, but it will help you save money on over 8,000 generic and brand name medicines. It can help those who don’t have drug coverage or help people when certain drugs aren’t covered under their plan.
There is a yearly fee of $20 per person or 35 per family.
This savings club even covers pets. Did you know that many pet medications are simply the same meds used for people? You can often get them filled at Walgreens, and pets can be covered in the savings plan as individuals or as part of your family plan.
10. Saving on Health Care
Walgreens started their walk-in clinics years ago with great success. It was a great way for people without insurance or without a primary care doctor to get immediate care for small illnesses and injuries. It was also a way to get checkups and vaccines.
This year, Walgreens announced it would open up 500-700 primary care doctor offices within its store locations soon in a partnership with VillageMD. They hope to provide affordable care to people with and without insurance.
11. Saving In The Photo Department
The Walgreens photo department used to be the go-to place to get your film developed. Now that photos have gone digital, people still need to print their favorite photos and make photo gifts. You’ll find lots of photo printing coupons in stores and online. They make great Christmas cards and birth announcements that can be picked up in-store in as little as one hour.
12. Try The Walgreens Brand
Walgreens is a large enough chain that they’ve invested in making many household products under their own brand. The Walgreens brand is usually cheaper and comparable to the brand name product.
When Walgreens has a sale, they will always offer a deeper discount on Walgreens brand products or do a BOGO deal. It never hurts to try something new, and you just might like the store brand better.
Ready, Save, Go!
Try these tips the next time you plan a shopping trip to Walgreens. You can find savings in every department and keep track of deals, prescriptions, and rewards using the free Walgreens App for your smartphone or tablet.
