Several years ago, money was really tight and I needed to find creative ways to save money. A friend posted something on Facebook about how much money she saved by shopping at drugstores, and I was really curious {Thanks, Lisa!!} ! I always avoided drugstores because I thought they were more expensive than other stores. But I started reading money saving blogs and looking at newspaper ads and realized that carefully shopping at Walgreens could save me money in the long run. And so my couponing heyday was born and I loved shopping the deals and showing my husband how many things I could get for so little money out of pocket.

Fast forward a few more kids, a few more years, and my own blogging “career,” and I have now joined the ranks of people who say they have very little time to coupon {a concept which used to make me laugh…}. Well, it’s true for me right now, but I still need to save money. When Walgreens recently came out with their new #BalanceRewards program, I was curious how it would work.

Last week I was given the opportunity to try it out and tell you all about it! I love to share money saving tips, so I was excited for the opportunity. To try out Walgreens Rewards program, the first thing I did was look through the Walgreens weekly ad. I always look through these to see what types of deals they have. It looked to me like a lot of their Cold and Flu products earned Balance Rewards points so that’s what I focused on. My mantra is to buy when prices are low – especially on toiletry products and over the counter medicines and vitamins. If I wait until I need them, I end up paying a lot more than I would if I just keep a stocked medicine cabinet. So I thought hard about what types of products I need to get us through the Cold & Flu Season while prices are low. I really like to keep our immune systems boosted to help us avoid Cold & Flu problems in the first place, so I focused on buying vitamins. A couple years ago my then 6 month old daughter ended up hospitalized over Christmas with pneumonia so prevention is my biggest priority.To really maximize the rewards program, I also looked for coupons to pair with the sales. I was excited to find several and I made sure I printed, cut them out, AND took them with me.

My handy dandy coupon keeper {and the little one who was hospitalized a couple years ago with pneumonia} was excited to help keep me organized. And we headed out to see what we could find. I already had a Balance Reward Card – but if you don’t, getting one is super easy. Just ask the cashier before checking out, or sign up for one online.

Walgreens also has a free Mobile App you can use if you’d like. I need all the help I can get to stay organized and this app looks like it might be useful. In a nutshell, Walgreens Balance Reward program is a way to Save, Earn, Redeem in store and online! Program features include:

Sale prices exclusively for members
Get 500 points for every prescription
and immunization {with some exclusions}
Earn points on thousands of items each week
Get 10 points for every mile when you
Walk with Walgreens
Redeem instantly with as few as 5,000 points

I ended up with quite a few vitamins, some cough drops {which I am returning because they contain aspartame. “Sugar Free” should always be a huge warning to me to actually read the ingredient list BEFORE I buy}, a few Thank You cards, and some other miscellaneous items.You can see pictures from my entire shopping trip here, at my Google + album.

I had a balance of 500 points before my purchase and I earned 5000 points from my Cold & Flu purchase so next time I go to Walgreens, I have a $5 reward to pay for my purchase if I so choose. Or, I can earn 4,500 more points to get me to the next reward level. The reward levels are as follows:

5,000 points = $5
10,000 points = $10
18,000 points = $20
30,000 points = $35
40,000 points = $50

I’m not quite sure yet what the best strategy for redemption is. I’ll probably just use the $5 next time instead of trying to accrue more and more points. The cashier told me that they will prompt me when I pay so I don’t have to remember how many points I have each time I go to Walgreens. That’s good, because I am guaranteed to forget. Overall, I am pleased with the program and will keep an eye on the deals each week as I read the weekly ads. To get the most out of it though, I need to make a bigger effort to save the weekly coupon inserts I get in my newspaper each week. I think pairing coupons with sale items, Register Reward products, and Balance Reward points will make for some awesome deals in the weeks to come – perfect for the Christmas toiletry gift baskets I have earned a reputation for giving my family for Christmas.