As you know, one of my new year’s resolutions this year was to clip more coupons and attempt to save more.  A lot of my motivation this year has come from a local blog called Coupon STL.  This is where I learned about the register rewards that Walgreens offers and how to use them to get the biggest savings.

Last week, Walgreens and Pepsi ran a RR (register rewards) special where if you bought $20 in Pepsi and Potato Chips you got $10 RR back.  (By the way, they are running this special again this week too.)  So, I took advantage of it and bought five 12 packs of Pepsi and 3 bags of chips.  I spent $23 dollars, got my $10 RR back, and also had another $10 Pepsi rebate to mail in so I got all this for basically $3.00.

Today, after perusing the new Walgreens ad, the Sunday Paper ads, and my coupons, I set out with that $10 RR in hand and my coupons to see just how much I could save.  Keep in mind that you can’t use more coupons than the number of items you have, you also can’t use 2 RR’s in the same transaction, and the idea is to maximize your savings and get another RR back.

In my first transaction, I picked up a refill bottle of hand soap which is usually $6.29. With a Walgreens coupon, it was only $3.99.  Walgreens was also running the Coffee mate creamers on sale this week – buy one, get one free at $2.49.  I printed a $1.50 coupon for these here. Then, Walgreens was running a special on Pert Plus shampoo: buy 2 for $5 and get $2 RR back.  In today’s Sunday paper there was a coupon for $1.50 off of Pert, so I bought 2 papers for another $3.00 total off the Pert. With the $2 RR back, I got the Pert for free. Next, I picked up cans of Edge Shaving Cream.  They were on sale 2 for $5 and I had two .75 cent coupons from a previous Sunday paper. Next, I picked up 2 Reach toothbrushes on sale for 99 cents each, and had a buy one get one free coupon from last Sunday’s paper.

7 Coupons Used:

1   2.30 Walgreens coupon on Soap (not pictured)

2  $1.50 off a bottle of Pert (Sunday Paper)

2   .75 cent off Edge (Sunday Paper)

1   .99 cent Walgreens coupon on Toothbrush

1  Buy one Get one Free Toothbrush (Sunday Paper)

1   $1.50 Coupon from Coffee Mate’s website

plus my $10 RR from last week

My total out-of-pocket expense was just $2.03.

After all coupons, RR, and sales, I saved a total of $28.24 on this purchase…and I got back $2 RR from the Pert Shampoo so I really only spent 3 cents for all of these items.

Next, I bought 2 bags of Chex Mix which were on sale for .99 cents each.  I had a .55 cent coupon off 2 bags from a previous Sunday paper. I bought a $4 bottle of All Laundry Detergent and used a $1 coupon from a previous paper. I bought 2 Sure Men’s Deodorants and used a Walgreen’s coupon to make them 2 for $3. Then, I bought 2 Old Spice Deos for $2.49 each, used a $1.00 coupon for these, and knew I’d get another $1 RR back from these.

4 Coupons Used for this Transaction:

1    .55 cent coupon on Chex Mix (Sunday Paper)

1  $1.00 coupon on All (Sunday Paper)

1   Two for $3 Sure Walgreens Coupon

1   $1.00 Old Spice Coupon (Sunday Paper)

plus the $2 RR from the previous transaction.

My total out-of-pocket expense for this transaction was $9.96.  Total Savings after coupons and sales: $15.17, plus I got another $1.00 RR back.  The soap in the pic was from the first transaction.

My last transaction wasn’t as good as the first two, but I did at least use two coupons.  Had I picked up a 3rd item, I could have used that $1 RR also. Oh well…this was my first time trying this so I don’t think I did too bad.

Transaction 3:

I bought a bottle of Selsun Blue shampoo at $8.99 a bottle and used a $1 coupon from the Sunday Paper last week.  I bought a bottled of Listerine on sale for $3.99 and used a .50 cent coupon from a previous Sunday Paper.

2 Total Coupons Used:

1     $1.00 off Selsun Blue (Sunday Paper)

1     .50 cents off Listerine (Sunday Paper)

I was hoping to use the $1 RR, but it wouldn’t work.

Total saved after sales and coupons was just $2.30.  My total out-of-pocket expense was $12.21.

So, after 3 transactions, 16 total coupons used (both from the paper and Walgreens ad), and $12.00 in RR used, my total out-of-pocket expense was just $24.20 with tax.

My total saved after all transactions, all RR used, and all coupons and sales was $45.71!

And what do I have to show for it?  All of this…