If you’re an advanced Walgreens Shopper, I have some more tips for you to grab things in-store but mainly online. But be warned these tips are not for the faint of Mathematical Heart. We all know that earning points and using points is acceptable on items when the requirement to earn points is based on the number of items, but not when it’s a dollar threshold to be reached. Here are some work-arounds.
IN-Store if you are using a points booster coupon and the bar looks like this one above, then you absolutely cannot redeem any points because you won’t earn the booster points. Even if your threshold on the coupon is $5 to earn $20 points and you have $21 before taxes and you only use $1 in points to pay. Basically these bars are one time use only.
However, if you are using a points booster (like the Beauty Enthusiast $07 WYB $25 coupon avove) which of course may change at any moment, but up to now they’ve been the bars above OR you are merely trying to grab a dollar threshold worth of a certain product or brand to earn a certain amount of points, then the points redemption IS basically seen as a Walgreens Coupon. So if the offer is to earn $10 in points for spending $20 on Nexxus, then you’ll earn the $10 points if you have $25 (BEFORE TAXES) worth of Nexxus, and you can pay with $5 in points and still earn your $10. Basically these bars would be re-usable. You know how sometimes your Beauty Consultant will let you do two transactions. You can scan the same bar.
Now combo purchases are like this: whatever points you used to pay will count towards the NON-Beauty purchase first, then the remaining points (if the non-beauty purchase is less than the value of the points redemption), will be deducted from the Beauty. It doesn’t matter which items you scan first (Beauty or non-Beauty). So if you add $5 worth of snacks to the $25 Nexxus purchase, then you can pay with $10 and it will still be ok to earn the $10.
So a couple of weeks ago, I finally tried to do this online. In this scenario I was trying to do these things:
1. Earn $10 (10,000 Balance Reward Points) worth of Beauty Product “A” for spending $20
2. Use points to pay for SOME portion of my order
3. Reach $35 to get free shipping
4. Use a $5/$25 Walgreens Purchase Coupon Clipped to my card
5. Earn $5 (5,000 Balance Reward Points) for spending $25 with a Coupon clipped to my card
The $5/$25 Purchase coupon is allocated proportionally, at the time I was unclear on whether it would be before or after MFG coupons, but $5 is 20% off a $25 purchase. So if my total order was $49.90 then $5 would be roughly 10% off. I can now confirm that the percentage will be allocated to each product AFTER the MFG coupon is applied to it. However since my main goal was to earn $10 (10,000 Balance Reward Points) for spending $20 on Beauty Product A, I had $27.96 worth of product A (because of the prices and coupons I had for this this was the minimum to spend over $20), so that’s still $22.96 if I subtract the entire $5/$25 coupon from these products so I would still earn the $10 (10,000 Balance Reward Points).
I had $21.94 worth of non beauty products and my goal was to use $20 in points which would pay for these items first before being applied to beauty, so even if I deducted $5 from the non-beauty products it’s $16.94 plus the $2.96 left over the $20 Beauty Threshold, it’s still $19.90, almost $20 so I could spend $20 in points knowing that the $5 would be allocated to both the beauty or and the non-beauty purchase. I didn’t have to calculate it by percentage for each item 🙂 , but you can if you love math 🙂 .
The reason I split up the totals in this order on Beauty and Non-Beauty is because I know points are FIRST applied to non-Beauty purchase. If I had added $21.94 worth of other beauty items, I would have no control over how the points are applied to the order, and I wanted to have $20 worth of Beauty Product A not paid for with points in order to earn $10 (10,000 Balance Reward Points).
Buy (4) Beauty Product A, $27.96 Reg. Price
Buy (5) Household items, $16.52 Reg. Price
Buy (2) Personal Care Items (That do not count towards Beauty), $4.48 Sale Price
Buy (1) Grocery Items, 94¢
$5/$25 Walgreens Purchase
Subtotal = $49.90
$5.50 MFG Coupons for Beauty Items
$2 MFG Coupons for Personal Care Items
$2 MFG Coupons for Household Items
Total = $35.40
I paid with $20 in points and $15.40 PLUS TAX with my debit card.
I did earn the $10 (10,000 Balance Reward Points) for spending $20 on Beauty Product A. The Manufacturer’s coupons used do not count against the threshold in order to earn points. I used $5.50 in MFG coupons for Beauty Product A.
I did earn $5 (5,000 Balance Reward Points) for spending $20 because it was a clip2card coupon and not a new bar code coupon in-store as stated above, so I could pay with points for SOME portion of the order. The total of the order after Walgreens coupon is $49.90. To this we subtract the Walgreens points used which we’ve established are like a Walgreens coupon which leaves $29.90 which is over the $20 threshold to earn the $5 (5,000 Balance Reward Points). The Manufacturer’s coupons used do not count against the threshold in order to earn points (just like they don’t in-store). I used $9.50 in MFG coupons for the entire order.
I also earned $3 (3,000 Balance Reward Points) for buying the two personal care non beauty items which was a separate offer.
Notice I earned 290 Everyday points. This is calculated as follows $49.90 (which is the total after Walgreens Coupon) minus the points redemption which we’ve established is like a Walgreens coupon which gives us $29.90. So 29 x 10 is 290.
Another thing to note is that the projected points on the order were mostly correct; however, the projected points on an order can always be misleading. On this particular one, the projected points were wrong since they included 540 Everyday points. These will never take into account Walgreens coupons or points redemptions. So the $5/$25 and the $20 spend diminished the Everyday points to 290 but the projection does not know. More importantly; however, if you had the $5/$25 Coupon and a $5 points WYB $25 offer clipped to your card, and you just bought $20 (after use the $5 off the $25 purhcase), the projected points will still read you’ll earn the $5 in points but you won’t because of the $5/$25 coupon. It will calculate it correctly after your checkout. The projection will not take that into account. So don’t always think that you’ll earn the points projected in the cart page.
So I was really happy with this order since I only had to pay $15.40 plus tax out of pocket. I earned back $18.29 in points and used $20 in points, so basically it was a net cost of $17.11 plus tax for everything. It’s just really nice when you’re able to use points and not have to pay out of pocket so much, but it is a bit complicated. So, if you are really meticulous in planning your transactions, I thought it would be nice to give you these tips if you are wanting to make more online orders and not have to venture out 🙂 . Good luck!
Addendum No. 1 [8/17/20]: On the 10x Everyday points, it works the same way as a Walgreens coupon. So, last week I placed an order totaling $52.70. I did not have any Walgreens Coupons. I paid with $17 in MQ and $20 points, so $52.70-$20 point redemption = $32.70. I received 3200 10x Everyday points. Note that this is expressed separately in the Point Activity: 320 Everyday Points and then 9x that 2880 = 3,200.
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