Shopping at Rite Aid

I wanted to share about drug stores and the possibilities for saving (and sometimes even making) money by shopping at places like Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS. With the deals that these stores run, you can get cheap and free razors, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste....basically any personal care products!

 

In Middletown we have a Rite Aid and several Walgreens. Each of these stores has a "rewards" program of sorts. At Rite Aid there is the Single Check Rebate and at Walgreens they have Registry Rewards. In short, Registry Rewards (RR) are like catalinas -- they print out after you make your purchases and are like cash towards your next purchase. This has been less appealing to me so far, simply because I feel like the deals at drug stores are sporadic enough that I would have a greater potential for my RRs to expire before I used them.

I much prefer the Single Check Rebate (SCR) program at Rite Aid. The way it works is you pay out of pocket and at the end of the month are mailed a check for the value of the rebates you did. Many times a rebate will be for the full cost of a product. You can use a coupon on top of the rebate, which is how money can be made. Remember that Rite Aid does not double coupons, but they do accept manufacturer's coupons on top of coupons printed in their ad.

The really great thing is that this is all done online -- no receipts to mail in! To sign up for SCR go here and register your address (so you can be mailed your check) and your email. You enter four things online from the receipt: the store number, register number, transaction number, and date. In 2 or 3 days you can check back and make sure that your rebate posted. Here's the most important part: you can only request one check a month, so make sure that you wait to request it until the end of the month. If you request your check on week 2 of September and then buy something the next week hoping to get the rebate, you're out of luck!
My check for August was for just over $30!
Quick example about how I was able to get some free lotion this week. Suave products are on sale for $1.99 with a SCR of $1. I had a coupon for $1 off Suave lotion (from the 8/2 inserts). I paid 99 cents at the store and will receive $1 rebate in my check at the end of the month. Free lotion!


Also, if you are headed to Rite Aid, check out the clearance section. There are Nature Valley granola bars (2 pack) on clearance for 49 cents each, and there was a coupon for 40 cents off in this Sunday's paper. 2 granola bars for 9 cents!

Any questions? Let me know in the comments!