First Walgreen’s Roll

Rachel is a Coupons, Deals and More reader that is new-ish to couponing, She began her journey less than a year ago, and this is the story of her first success at Walgreen’s!

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Before spring this year, I thought couponing was a waste of time and energy. I would clip and redeem a few, but mostly they wound up wrinkled in a jacket pocket, left on an end table, or found months past their expiration date in the bottom of my purse. All this to try and save 75¢! Needless to say, it wasn’t worth it. For me.

Then I took a “coupon class” offered at my church. It cost $25, and I was very skeptical. I received a “scholarship” for the $25, so I went. They talked about saving strategies for grocery and drug stores, ECBs and RRs, Target gift cards, coupon filing, and more. My head was swimming! The worst part was to find all the deals and coupon matchups, you had to look ONLINE! I had no Internet at home, so my options were limited. The local library only allows one hour of Internet per day, and NO downloading, so NO printables!

Finally in February, I got Internet at home. This is where the fun begins. Since the class in December, I had been asking people for their inserts and was getting about two or three per week. By the time I could search for deals, I was already set with the coupons from last week – or last month. I was stoked!

One week, I got online to see what deals could be had. I decided that Walgreen’s had some deals I would try first. There were many RR deals and lots of money makers, some of which were high dollar! I wrote a list, tried to figure out transactions and the rolling scenarios, gathered my coupons, and off I went. It was a Saturday (3/7/09), so I wasn’t sure what deals to expect. Plus I had my not-quite-two year old son with me!

I made out like a bandit! I purchased these items in six total transactions to minimize my OOP.

I got $143.62 worth of merchandise including:

4 Clorox Disinfecting Wipes
2 Clorox Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner spray
2 Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach
3 Sense & Spray
2 Aleve Pain Reliever
3 Blink Tears
1 Sambucol Cold & Flu Relief
3 Colgate MaxFresh Toothpaste
4 Garnier Fructis products
4 Ritz Crackers
2 Whatchamacallit Candy Bars
2 Thingamajig Candy Bars
1 Fiber One Chewy Bar
2 Pencils

TOTAL OOP: $13.62 This total is actual OOP – including tax!!
TOTAL RR I walked out with: $13.00 (Walked in with NONE, as this was my FIRST TIME!)
TOTAL COST OF ENTIRE TRIP: 62 CENTS!!! (99.6% savings after coupons and RRs!!)

The total cost was less than the price of the two pencils (39¢ each) I had to buy in order for the RR to go through!

Now that I know how to better roll RRs, the same trip would be less OOP. I got the candy bars and pencils to bring the total up because I was using too high of RRs as coupons, then needed more fillers for the transactions since you can’t have a negative balance. My cashier was a doll, very patient, and congratulated me on such a great haul. I don’t know who was more surprised at my savings, her or me!

Oh! And through this whole trip taking over an hour, my son was a little darling. He didn’t fuss once! What a trooper. Now he gets excited over coupons, too! I love to hear him say, “Yay, coupons!” Melts your heart, doesn’t it?

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Rachel is a single mom in her 30s with a 2 1/2 year old that lives in Kansas City. She enjoys couponing immensely and the habit has now spread to her son, who repeats, “MY coupons!” proving that someone is never to young to learn to coupon.

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