wags for newbies

♥ Register Rewards (RR) ♥

what are rr?
RR are coupons from the Catalina machine that print after you make a qualifying purchase. Most RRs are "On Your Next Order" (OYNO) which can be used like cash on your next order. (Sometimes you may receive a Catalina for $ off a particular item or an advertisement for an rr deal.)

how do i get rr?
buy the exact items advertised to receive rr. using coupons on these items should not affect whether your rr prints. unfortunately, it seems that a few stores have their registers programmed so that rr will not print if coupons are used. so again, ymmv.

If you complete more than one register rewards deal in one transaction, one reward for each different RR deal should print. but you will not receive more than one rr for the same deal.

You cannot "roll" rr's into the same deal. for example, if you use an RR from Kellogg's to purchase more Kellogg's items, you will NOT get another RR. the best way to "roll" is to use your Kelloggs RR to complete another rr deal. You can then use the RRs from the 2nd deal, to purchase more Kelloggs.

if you purchased the right items and didn't get rr, you can return the items on the spot or call the catalina company @ 888-322-3814. have your receipt in front of you, they need some key info from it, and they'll be able to see if the machine was working and if you bought the right products. It does tend to take a few minutes for the call, and then you have to wait to get the RR, which takes 6 - 8 weeks.

how do i use rr?
generally, you can use your rr like cash on your next purchase. but of course there are exceptions.

Most RRs explicitly say that they can not be used on tobacco, alcohol, tax, lottery tickets, money orders, stamps, dairy, or any gift cards or pre-paid cards. however, some stores still allow rr's to be used on some of these items, so ymmv.

The RR's also say in the small print that you cannot use more RRs and coupons than number of items you are buying. so as long as you are buying as many items as you have rr & coupons, you should be able to use more than one rr.

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♥ easy saver rebates & coupons ♥

a new Easy Saver Catalog (ESC) comes out each month. you can pick one up at the store or access it online. use any coupons you can on the rebate items, because you will still get the full rebate amount back!

you can send in for your rebates through the mail or submit your receipts online. You can choose to receive your rebate in the form of a check or a WAGs gift card (GC). You can have your GC reloaded each month, or you can request a new card.

Walgreen's gift cards are mailed in plain white envelopes with "Young America" as the return address. please keep your eye out for your gift card, you wouldn't want to throw it away or shred it with your junk mail!

If you have your items placed on a GC, you earn 10% more back on your rebate. You can use your GC to purchase next month's rebate items or rr deals. You are only allowed to request your rebate once per month, so it's usually better to wait until the end of the month to request.

The ESC also contains store coupons which can be used in addition to a manufacturer's coupon on the same item. you can print these coupons online or use the esc found in stores.

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♥ how should i use coupons? ♥

if you are using a man. coupon and a wags coupon on the same item and hoping for overage towards your other items, give the man. coupon first. if you give the wags 2nd i believe it will go right through.

according to the rr, you cannot have more coupons/rr than items. if you are using rr, but already have a man. coupon for each item, you can then throw in a small filler item for each rr. use the cheapest items you can find (single pencils are good.) i have tried to get around the 1 rr/coupon per item rule by giving the rr first, then manufacturer's coupons. however, i have had mixed results and believe further study is needed. :)

if you are using a wags $/$$ coupon (like $5 off $20 purchase) and you will not have $20 once the manufacturer coupons are put through, do wags coupons, make sure total is still over $20, then use $5 off $20, then manufacturer coupons. ymmv on this, some stores have the registers set to void off the $5 off $20 if the total drops below $20 with manufacturer coupons. i haven't had this problem, but its possible they are slowly programming all of their registers to do this.