I came across a great article at Money Blue Book describing how to take advantage of rebate programs offered by the major drugstore chains. While such programs generally exclude prescription drugs, they are an excellent way to save money on other purchases at these stores. In fact, Money Blue Book reports:

If you can learn to take advantage of drug store rebates, you will find yourself getting a lot of free stuff for your money and winding up with merchandise whose total retail value greatly surpasses what you spent out of pocket.

Ever since I discovered and started actively using drug store rebates, my frugal living life has been transformed for the better. No longer am I paying shocking $3-4 dollars prices for ordinary household items like a roll of toothpaste. I’m not even resorting to generic store brands either. I’m simply taking advantage of the many store rebate deals offered by well known drug store franchises like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. Most of these major chains offer great rebates and deals, usually published weekly or monthly.

The blog reports that while the major drug chains mark up their prices significantly higher than supermarkets, they more than make up for it with their rebate offers. They can afford to do this because, statistically, very few people actually follow through and collect their rebates.

Here’s the skinny on the Big Three:

1) CVS – Extra Care Bucks – (Weekly Store Ads) – To find out what items offer CVS Extra Care Bucks (ECB), you will need to take a look each Sunday when the weekly store ads renew. CVS’s rebate program is the best and simply requires you to scan your loyalty card everytime you make a purchase. They are unique in that they offer the Extra Care Bucks as store credit immediately rather than requiring you to clumsily mail receipts in. The store rebate coupon is printed out at the bottom of your store receipt whenever you purchase a rebate item. There is no rebate waiting period anymore. They are available to you right away and you can immediately turn around and flip them into yet another product, potentially yielding even more Extra Care Bucks…

2) Rite Aid – Single Check Rebates – (Weekly Circular) – At the start of each month, Rite Aid publishes a booklet, viewable online, in which it highlights the rewards/rebate offers for the month. Rite Aid offers a traditional rebate program in which customers have to request rebates by providing receipt information to redeem. However, here is the best part – Rite Aid offers an easy and no brainer way for customers to request rebates online rather than having to manually mail them in through snail mail … You can always view your rebate balance online as well.

3) Walgreens – Easy Saver Catalog – (Weekly Ad) – Walgreens publishes their Easy Saver rebate deals in their monthly rebate booklet where they list products with rebate promotions including items that are free after rebate. They also offer Register Rewards every now and then, which operates similar to that of CVS Extra Care Bucks in that you can use the printed coupons for free products on your next purchase for qualifying items.

Read more about it here.