Thursday, January 31, 2013

How to Shop at Rite Aid

Hope you have a snack, because this could be a long post!  I've had a request to explain UP rewards at Rite Aid, so I'm going to take the opportunity to share my RA secrets with you.  First of all, I try to purchase as many of my groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, etc. as I can at either Rite Aid or CVS. There are lots of reasons.

1.     Prices are often better than grocery stores.
2.     You can earn cash back in the form of UP rewards and Extra Care Bucks
3.     At Rite Aid, you earn points all year for shopping. When you hit different milestones,you qualify for
       10%, 15% or 20% off your purchases for the rest of the year. Easy peasy!
4.     STACKING coupons.
5.     The drug stores have the most liberal coupon policies and the cashiers are the most coupon friendly.

First things first, if you don't have a Rite Aid Wellness card, run to your nearest store and sign up. It's free.  Also go to www.riteaid.com and register your card with the website. You'll start to get email from them that includes exclusive coupons that can be stacked with a mfg. coupon.  Also on the website, there is a link called video values. You watch short videos and get store coupons, again stackable with mfgs. I usually play the videos in the background while I do something else!!  If you like RA on Facebook, you'll also get coupons that aren't available anywhere else.

Next, you'll want to scan the weekly flyer for things that are on sale. Some words to look for are UP rewards, BOGO, BOGO 1/2 off, or 10/10.  These make the best deals. Next, look through your ever growing coupon stash to see if you have matches.  Finally, look through your RA store coupons to see if you can stack.

An UP reward looks like this:

This John Frieda hair care was Buy $10.00 worth of products and get a $3.00 UP reward. Pretty good, but I had coupons that made it better. I bought two of the curl products for $6.99, then had a $2.00 coupon for each one for a total of $4.00 off.  I received a $3.00 up reward. UP's print on your shopping receipt when you check out.
One big difference between Rite Aid and CVS is that CVS extra bucks can be used immediately, while UP rewards can be used starting at 6:00am the next morning.

Some UP rewards are not listed in the flyer. You can find them by just scanning the shelves while you shop. There are also monthly UP rewards that aren't listed. You can find them on the RA website. Here's a money maker I picked up today.

These art supplies were BOGO, so I got two for $1.79. They were also listed as a monthly UP on the website, so I received $2.00 in UP rewards. A moneymaker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another one that you might not notice was for DiGiorno pizza. Because of the Super Bowl, it's on sale everywhere for the same price of $5.00 each. In last Sunday's paper, there was a Buy 2 Get One Free coupon that I used. Rite Aid had these as part of a Super Bowl UP reward, so by purchasing them there instead of Martin's, I got an additional $5.00 back. 3 pizzas for the price of 1!

Now comes the beautiful part!  Once you get the hang of UP rewards, you can roll them (which is how I do so much free shopping). As your coupons increase and your stockpile increases, you obviously don't need as many things. So you use your UP rewards to buy more things that qualify for UP rewards and just roll them forever!

Example:  I earned $13.00 UP rewards on my trip today. Next week, I'll check the flyer for new UP deals, and match them with my coupons. When I check out, I'll use my $13.00 to pay, meaning no money from my wallet. Plus, I'll earn more UP rewards for the next trip.

There is also a great website called iheartriteaid.com.  They do all the coupon match ups for you, but I would recommend practicing yourself first before looking there.

Is your head spinning?  You should be jumping up and down screaming "YES"!!!!!!  Welcome to another level of couponing.

1 comment:

  1. My son works for Rite Aid, so not only do I use the Rewards Card, but MY rewards Card has an employee discount built right in!

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