Updated September 26, 2009: Walgreens has been making modifications to their Register Reward program recently and I have updated the information within this post to reflect current practices.
It is possible to get fabulous deals and free items at Walgreens if you follow a few simple tips and tricks.
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Make a list and stick to it. Walgreens has great loss leaders, or weekly sale items that are deeply discounted, but they also have very high everyday prices. Makes sense when you think that a store actually loses money on a loss leader, but it serves as bait to get you in the door with the hopes you’ll buy something at full price. Make a list of the loss leaders and stick to it.
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Be prepared for your first few trips to take a little longer. Walgreens does not label their sale items very well. Whether they do that on purpose is debatable. That means it take effort when you start shopping at Walgreens to find all the sale items you need and want. Use the staff as a resource and ask where sale items are.
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Clip the in-ad coupons. The sale items advertised on the little-coupon-looking things in the paper actually are Walgreens coupons. If you want one of those items you need to clip that coupon and give it to the cashier or your item will be full price.
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Use manufacturer’s coupons AND in-ad coupons. You can use both a Walgreens in-ad or store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon for the same item. If the total amount of coupons exceed the value of the item then try to hand the cashier the manufacturer’s coupon first; coupons ring through better that way.
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Buy the quantity specified. In my experience, if something is advertised as 2 for $5, then you need to buy 2 items to get that price. The first one rings at full price and the second one is discounted.
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Watch the cashier ring. Pay close attention, especially when you are getting started, to the cashier as they ring your order. If the price isn’t right, then speak up. Don’t hesitate to ask to be shown the product from the sale flyer or to have the item removed from your order.
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Use fillers if your coupons exceed price paid. Walgreens has such great deals that some weeks you may actually have coupons that fully exceed the value of your items – in essence they should be paying you, but they won’t. Think ahead and pick up a couple of “filler” items that can bring your total to something greater than $0. I personally use the $1 box of cranberries, because it is the lowest price per ounce I’ve seen for those.
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Understand how Register Rewards work.
- A Register Reward is a manufacturer-issued coupon that is good for a specific dollar amount off your next purchase. It will print at the end of your transaction and the clerk will hand it to you with your receipt.
- Note which manufacturer sponsored the Register Reward you earned (it is printed on the Reward somewhere) because if you pay with that Reward for products from that same manufacturer that should produce a new, different Reward it won’t. See the scenario below for more details.
- You get a Register Reward when you buy specified products or combinations of products; the specified combinations of products are usually advertised in their weekly sales flyer, although some combinations are good anytime throughout a month and others aren’t advertised at all.
- A Register Reward has an expiration date – so be sure to use it. They do not accept them past their expiration dates.
- You do not need a special loyalty card to get your Register Rewards.
- You cannot have a higher number of manufacturer-issued coupons than you have actual items in your order and a Register Reward counts as a coupon. Some stores count a “$1 off 2 items” coupon as two coupons. Call your store to verify their policy.
- Follow this scenario to understand some benefits and limitations of Register Rewards:
- Let’s say you buy 1 toothpaste for $4 and get $4 in Register Rewards. Now, if you think “ah, I am so smart, I am going to buy another $4 toothpaste, but use that $4 Register Reward to pay for it so I get it without paying anything out of pocket…” Nope. Their registers are smart and won’t let you do that. But, if you want to get multiple Register Rewards from that toothpaste…
- Then you can ring another transaction that creates a new receipt and buy another toothpaste. If you pay with cash/credit (anything other than a Register Reward issued from the same manufacturer) you’ll get another Register Reward. Make sense? But…
- If you have Register Reward from a toothpaste offer one week and there is a deodorant offer the following week that generates a Register Reward, you can use this week’s Register Reward to pay for next week’s and it will work fine, as long as the manufacturer is different. This is how you can end up paying very little out of pocket because one week’s Register Rewards pay for the following weeks products.
Your turn: What have you learned about bargain shopping at Walgreens?
Carrie:
This was very helpful!
Jane
I also love to use the walgreens brand paperplates, 5-9oz cups as affordable “filler” items as they are inexpensive and we certainly use them in my house.
Crystal – Thanks, I hadn’t thought about those as fillers, but will in the future. Thanks! –Carrie
I have found that if I have more coupons than items, the register will not take all my coupons. For example, I can’t buy three items, use three coupons, and then try to pay for the items with a register rewards coupon. Have you also run into this problem? Is there any way around it?
[...] wipes and diapers. Thanks to Crystal for a starting point for this list. New to Walgreens? Read this post to learn how to save tons there. Read this to understand how to read this shopping [...]
Thank you so much for your website and explanations–I really like the way you explain things in detail–concise, to-the-point and easy to understand and put into practice. THANK YOU so much–it helps us to save time saving money!!
I went to Walgreens today and tried to use my rewards. I had coupons for the cookies I was buying so they said I could not use the rewards. They said that you can only use the rewards if you are buying something that you don’t have a coupon for. Is this true?
Susan, the way it was explained to me at my Walgreens was that I can use one Register Reward coupon per item purchased. If I have 4 items and 5 RR coupons That won’t work. I can only use 4 of them. I think that is also true if I am using Manufacturer coupons along with my purchase, at least that seems to be how it has worked for me. I just try to make sure that if I am using coupons and I want to use a RR I count the number of items and the number of coupons to make sure they are the same. If not, I buy a cheap filler item to make the number come out the same. Does this make sense to anyone else? Am I way off base? I am new to this program too!! This is just how it was explained to me and perhaps it wasn’t explained very well. But I, too, have had trouble using RR along with coupons. I was told that I had too many coupons. So, I think this is the solution, but I am more than willing to be corrected!
@Janna, I’m new to this too and just had to call the Wags customer relations line to verify this very thing. Each RR is a manufacturer coupon. You are allowed one in-store coupon and one manufacturer coupon per item. The in-store will not have an impact on the RR, but you can’t do 10 MC (including the RR for pay) and 9 items. The number of items has to equal or exceed the MC. I was also told by Cathy at ChiefFamilyOfficer.com to remember that the $X/2 coupons attach to the 2 items. I hadn’t thought of that one. She also suggested that when spending the RR, buying a product from the same manufacturer (not simply the same product) may be a problem. I haven’t had that situation yet.
One other comment of note from the rep was that there are “rumors” they may be doing away with the RR and going for the loyalty card like CVS.
hi if R.R are going away that would be a shame..i was just discussing this with my friend who just starting shopping there..who also told a friend..and on and on….
So I thought that this would be really silly I bet that since they started R.R more people are shopping there..yeah probably more work for evryone since they need to be stocking up more,manager is busy all the time fixing transactions,cashiers take longer to do multiple transaction…so this would mean its costing more to walgreens to hire more people,and overtime?, but still there is a lot!! of people shopping there now!..I go there multiple times a week and I am telling you I am seeing that they are running out on products,a thing that i didnt see much before and also the clearance section is almost empty! great place to look for fillers! what do you guys think?
I saw the information you had in your posting from last week for Walgreens for the Aussie hair products. I was at the Coon Rapids Walmart, Wednesday morning. I bought 2 Aussie products and had the $2.00 off 2 coupon that you had mentioned. The cashier told me that the register wouldnt print me a register reward for the products because I was using a manufacturers coupon. I stated that it should and she continued to argue with me. She said that we could try it with my coupon and see what happens. It did print the register rewards which the cashier still insisted it wouldn’t do. In the end, I got the 2 products for $.99 each like you stated and also the $2.00 register rewards. I was also told that if you purchase something that will print a register reward you can’t use a previous register reward to pay for it? It seems not all Walgreens are the same.
I am learning, that all locations are different and to keep looking.
When I first started, I had problem after problem in certain locations, so kept going to different stores. I LOVE two that i’ve finally found. I accidentally left without getting the in store coupons scanned and thought I would have a hassle getting it taken care of. The manager was the cashier at the slow time when I went back and I told him I thought it was going to be a “big deal” and he said, “If anyone EVER makes it a big deal, you just come and tell me”. Yay!
Then I noticed this store seemed to be invaded by a coupon “bandit”. I laughed with one of the clerks about it. They just thought it was a nice thing to do to clip coupons and stick them on products all over the store. I will definitely be there on a regular basis!
I’ve also had cashiers and customers laugh with me as my order has been pennies out the door. Cashiers telling me “I’ve never seen it (the cat machine) do THAT before!” Meaning spit out numerous RR in a row. I had 10 this morning.
Oh, and I think I need to have cards printed with a number of the blogs and coupon sites. It takes too much time explaining to multiple people what and how i’m doing this! LOL
Quite honestly I think Walgreens needs to get their act together. I went to Wags today and purchased several items from the list with rr”s….purchased one of the Schick Fusion Razors for my Husband and used the $4 coupon…I received all my rr’s except the $6 for the razor. Also I did not use any rr’s to pay for the purchase plus had fillers. I purchased the “exact razor” that is in the add even..of course there were no sign or shelf labels.
I shop at the WBL wags and I’m finding this store in particular is poorly run..seldom have all items..problems with rr’s etc…the register reward items are seldom ever labeled..I’m beginning to think that is on purpose.
I think that a customer loyalty card would help..I know it has limits…but could be less headaches.
I found another walgreens last week and had a great experience.
I have been shopping at Walgreens since April. It took me a solid 4 months to figure out the system and feel comfortable with the transactions. I frequently encounter cashiers and even managers who don’t have a accurate understanding of how the rr’s work. Kind of sad when the customer knows more than the employee! From my experience, the employees working in the cosmetics check-out are more friendly and helpful. It also pays to learn where the clearance items are grouped together (each store has a different area). If I need a filler, I sometimes will purchase a 99 cent greeting card. Last week, I spent $ 2.02 (plus rr’s) for $55.00 in merchandise (and earned $16 rr’s). Transactions like that feel great!
Penny-
This is what I read on another site:
The Fusion razors in the orange packaging are NOT generating the $6RR, so do not purchase those. The Fusion razors that are generating the Register Reward are in a blue package.
HTH
Thanks Angela…I’m going to have them exchange and rering the razor…I love how they used a picture of the worng product in their ad…
At my Walgreens yesterday, there were signs posted about the RRs that said that items free after RRs were limited to one per person, per day. Did anyone else see these signs in their Walgreens?
Also, yesterday the cashier almost didn’t accept my coupon for the Zantac because it had a picture of the 24ct and I was trying to purchase the 8ct. ARGH! Thankfully, her manager knew that it was OK.
Stupid newbie question- can I use more than one RR in a transaction? I went to Wags the other day and got a bunch of the “free” stuff, and I have a pile of RR to use. I have had my eye on the kids’ version of a Sinu Cleanse and would love to use a few to pay for it…
Penny – if its not to far from you, the Wags on White Bear Avenue and Beam is fantastic. I’ve never had any problems there.
Cath – reread Carrie’s post. Yes you can use more than one RR in a tranaction, as long as you have the same amount of RRs and Manufacturer’s coupons as you do items. You can only use 1 RR on the sinus cleanse you want because its one item. But, if you add some cheap filler items you can use as many RRs as you have products.
Wags is tough to get the hang of, but keep at it.
If you have a bunch of RR to use this week, the 8 pencils for $1 in-ad coupon could be your answer! I went in with $41 worth of RR and thanks to the 16 pencils I bought, I was able to use all of my MQs and 10 RRs. My total savings with RR & coupons was $69.02! So, keep an eye out for those kinds of deals to give you high item counts to be able to use a lot of your RRs since there are so many good RRs this month!!!
I just started with your site and have already saved alot of money. Thank-you!!
A Duluth Walgreens is no longer participating in register rewards ( a posted sign there this week).
I’m still learning too….so just want to make sure….do the WAGS coupons in the monthly or healthy savings books count as a coupon like the manufacturers’ in the coupon to items ratio and the need to get fillers? I’m thinking I’ve been using fillers when I don’t need to. thanks for all the help….this site is AWESOME!
A great filler is single pencils if you have kids. Lots of time they are on sale and they are very cheap.
I got my first RR last week and I have a question. I see that posters have used RR on filler items, but the cashier who checked me out told me that I can only use my $2.49 RR on something that is $2.50 or more. Did she mean to say my total had to be $2.50 or more, like I can use it to take $2.50 off my final total even if the only item in my cart I don’t have a MC for is $1.00?
Tina – The post-coupon, pre-Register Reward value of your items must be higher than the value of your Register Reward. Meaning, you cannot pay a total bill of $1.00 with a $2.49 Register Reward and tell the clerk, “keep the change.” You need at least $2.49 in products to use a $2.49 Register Reward. Hope that helps!
That makes sense. Thank you!
Another trick that I use at Walgreens is I look through the ad before heading to the store and clip in-ad coupons for items I could buy that are less than $0.50. Since you can only have as many manufacturer coupons (including Register Rewards) as you have items, this allows me to buy cheap filler items using a Walgreens coupon to bring my total number of items up to my total number of coupons. (Walgreens coupons don’t count against your total number of coupons.)
I learned something new today about RRs. I’ve been doing the Wags thing for 6 months now and thought I had it all down. I understood that if you have 5 coupons you needed to have 5 items in your cart. This includes MFR, Wags, and RR – all are considered coupons. BUT I DID NOT KNOW that if you use a $3 RR to “pay” and the item you purchased was expected to print a $3RR then the RR will not print. As explained to me by the store manager (Lexinton MN) you cannot use a RR of $X to purchase an item that will generate another RR of the same $X. This is the first time in 6 months that I have experienced this. Perhaps I was lucky every other time?? Or perhaps this is something new. But it totally threw off my plan and took more time at the register (because I asked them to void the transaction completely)
In your post above you said: “If you have Register Reward from a toothpaste offer one week and there is a deodorant offer the following week that generates a Register Reward, you can use this week’s Register Reward to pay for next week’s and it will work fine, as long as the manufacturer is different.” But at my store at least, this will not “work fine” if the RR for each item was the same $ amount. Wow – I’m always learning something new at Wags.
SarahBeth, I also found this out at the Plymouth WGs. I am new to this and so asked the cosmetics salesperson a ton of questions and she mentioned the “you can buy an item with RR, but it won’t give you a RR.”
Is this consistent at all stores??
I was at Cub today and a lady in front of my used what I think was a Walgreens register reward.
Can you use Walgreens register rewards at Cub???
Andrea,
You sure can! But not at all of them. HarMar Cub wouldn’t let me, but the Rice St one just south of 36 questioned it, then told me to try it & said if the register accepts it, he’ll take it. I think it depends if they’re corporate-owned. Wish I could get a list of those which accept them.
Does anyone know of a central place where the register rewards are all listed with the expiration dates? I could not find anything on the Walgreens website.
Did I read that you can use RRs to pay for a Walgreens gift card? Has anyone tried that? They sell other gift cards also like Amazon and ebay. I would love to use my RRs on those.
you can not use register rewards to purchase gift cards. the register will not accept them.
I was advised by a helpful staff person that if I had too many coupons, or if my coupon amount exceeds my purchase amount that the 33 cent caramels sitting right at the register are great for adding items and small amounts to your order.
Thanks Carrie – your lists are my favorite ! I’m new to WAGS deals, so my question is, will I receive multiple register rewards if I purchase more than one deal that is eligible for RR ? or do I need to do a separate deal for each identical item ?
AND, when you buy something that needs to be submitted by mail with a rebate form, do you always purchase it in a separate transaction for a separate receipt, or can the store print you a duplicate receipt, or 4 or 5, LOL ?
Peace, Lynn in WI
Lynn – You will not receive multiple Register Rewards for identical deals in the same transaction, so you’ll have to do more than one transaction (if your Walgreens allows you to do this). I’m not sure about duplicate receipts (someone else might know…?) so I usually have items for mail-in rebates rung up in a separate transaction, if I remember.
Thanks Laura !
Today I was going to purchase Stayfree for 2.99. I had a 2.00 coupon. And I was to recieve a $2 RR. They said I couldn’t do that. It would exceed the amount of the product. Whatever! I left them there. Will try again.
Lately I have had to have so many transactions voided and rerung because RR didn’t spit out or for whatever reason. I think I will start llimiting each transaction to only a couple items. Easier to keep track of.
I’m not to fond of the store. But I am going to keep trying to understand their inconsistent policies.
Tomorrow I’m going to go in and use all my RR’s on a fan. And buy as many 33 cents caramels as it takes to get the job done.
I went to WG tonight to buy a Revlon tweezer with the WG store coupon and a Manufacturer coupon that I printed off of Target’s website. They would NOT accept my manufacturer coupon. I left the tweezers there.
I went to Walgreens in Shorewood (Hwy 7) today, I did one transaction with the Stay Free, Plackers and Skintimate, all RR deals. I had MC’s for two of the items, so I was thrilled with my RRs. Went back and got another of each item and still had the RR’s in my hand at the register. The clerk asked if I wanted to use them, I said I probably couldn’t but being new to this I figured he knew better than I would. The register accepted them and you veterans know what happened next – no new RR’s printed. Oops. So I talked to a wonderful manager, Christopher, who worked really hard to find a way to reverse this error. We had a good discussion about how RR’s worked. It was an error on my part, you can’t use RR’s to repeat the same deals. I said it wasn’t a big deal if they couldn’t refund RR $, I just wanted to understand how this system works. Even though they really aren’t supposed to, he did refund the sale price of the three items I didn’t get the RR’s for. He said it was not a big deal this one time, but that the mfrs watch for RR item returns, so if it happens frequently, the Mfrs would discontinue the program. I told him I really appreciated it and that I would know better next time. He also said it absolutley was not a problem to do more than one RR transaction per visit. Most RR deals are limited to 1 item per transaction, but not per customer per day. Just don’t use the RR’s on the subsequent transactions. Lesson learned!
This Walgreens has been really good to work with. They have very friendly employees and they don’t treat you like a lowlife because you are a coupon user. They will make an effort to advocate for you and help make sure you get the discounts you deserve. it’s obvious that they want you to leave happy, and today I did! I hate it when store employees act as though you’re trying to rip them off and try to find any reason to refuse your coupons. If I’m mistaken, fine, help me understand where I went wrong. But just because I know how to legitimately stack my discounts doesn’t mean I’m out to cheat them. It’s too bad others have had crummy experiences at Walgreens. The RR’s are unbeatable deals if you can make them work for you. And it really helps when the store employees are willing to help you with that. I would highly recommend shopping at this store, and if you see Christopher, tell him I said “Hey!”
I think I have asked this before:
Do some Walgreens let you use MC to purchase an item that gives you a RR and some don’t?? Or is it that if the coupon make the item more than free that the RR won’t print?
Ok– today should have gotten a rr for shampoo. Paid with a rr from a totally different product. The rr did not print and he told me the rr counted as a mc for any product. ?? Right?
Has the Register Rewards program changed? Yesterday, I went to my local Walgreens and when it came time to print my Register Rewards the Register Rewards did not print. I purchased 3 John Frieda Hair Care items that were on sale 3/$15 and used 3 $3 manufacturer coupons. This was supposed to trigger a $5 Register Reward. The store manager said many of the manufacturers are no longer giving Register Rewards if coupons are used for the purchase because customers can comeback and get (buy) things for free and that is fraudulent. I pleasantly mentioned that the Register Rewards can not be used to purchase the same item they were printed for but he wouldn’t budge. Has this happened to anyone else?
You probable bought the bottles with 30% more one them. This happened to me a few days back. I used the coupons you mentioned with the smaller bottle 8.45oz and it worked. The larger bottles are the same price as the smaller bottle and they are all on the shelf mixed together with the signs under all of them, but in little print on the sign it does say 8.45oz bottle.
I often see the Big Roll toilet paper with an in-store ad price of 2 for $1. If I buy 3 rolls using the in-store coupon, will I get 3 for $1.50?
FAIL…What NOT to do:
I screwed up today TWICE…cost me $10.
1) Had a $6 RR from Nivea. Didn’t list a “Courtesy of…” so I thought it was a no-strings RR….wrong.
So I ended up paying $5.99 for new product with previously earned RR, but did NOT get new $6 RR. $6 lost…my bad, lesson learned.
2) Combo deal was a) use $3 off WAGS coupon on two REACH products , get $6 off, b) use BOGO ON REACH products. Problem was I did not select correct products. Advertised product was 5.49. I grabbed one $5.49 and one $4.49 product. Got $4.49 off from BOGO….$1 lost. Didn’t get second $3 off from Wags Coupon….$3 lost.
Bottom line: I paid $4 for products that I expected to be paid $6 for. A $10 swing that was totally my fault. Still a good deal, but I’m trying to get “elite” deals.
I just came from my first attempt trying to get deals at Walgreen’s. With all your help, I think I did pretty well. The key question I now face is will there be things I need before my RR expires at reasonable prices? The value of the RRs drops quite a bit if I have to overpay when I use them. I’ll soon find out!
I think I’ll see if they go through at Cub.
Thanks!
I have tried to do the WAGS thing…but I think they suck! I LOVE CVS and will discontinue my WAGS shopping! I didn’t get $10 RR on Gillette/Old Spice today, because I used BOGO coupons. Their staff is so unfriendly and HATE coupons…on the other hand…my CVS staff get excited to see me come because they want to see how much I save!
I tried the same deal today at the new Walgreens in Burnsville. Bought 1 OS bodywash that was their “freebie” item (get a RR back for the full price). On the same transaction I bought two more OS BW’s with a BOGO coupon. Then, I bought 2 OS deoderants and an OS body spray with a buy 2 get one free coupon. The total spent BEFORE coupons was over 25, so I thought I should get the RR for 10. But after my 2 coupons, my total was only 16 or 18. SO, I only received the RR for 4.50. I even had the manager come out politely as I am pretty sure I have done these same deals before and not had this happen. So, I still got 6 items for a net of $12 after RR, but I was going for the big score!
SO, what is the deal on this? Should I go back and complain?
Gina – Here’s where that Old Spice deal gets tricky. The body wash and body spray are not included in the Spend $25, Get $10 RR part – it’s just deodorant, shave preps, skin care, and razor cartridges. So that’s why you didn’t get the $10 RR even though you spent $25 on Old Spice products.
Laura: Thanks for your explanation. I guess I didn’t read the ad carefully enough. I think I will keep the stuff as it still turned out cheaper than it would normally be, with the RR on one and the BOGO coupons I had. My fault for not reading it well enough!
I’m so happy I read these responses to know how to use my RR. I was planning on buying the same product again and repeating the deal. I feel like i learned a lot about this process – never knew it could get so complicated, but I really like knowing all this ahead of time so as not to try be the irrating coupon clipper who acts like she knows more than the employee (which I have to do time to time at Target). I probably won’t be using the RR deals too much because I tend not to spend a whole lot on products at Wags and don’t want to waste these purchases just to get coupons (RR) I may not use in the end. Thanks again for all the coupon knowledge.
I really appreciate your help. I would simply not have been able to devote the time to figure this out without it.
Last Saturday, as I commented above, I made my first shot at good deals at Walgreen’s. I came away with $14 in RRs, and was satisfied with my deals before the RRs. I tried my smallest RR at Cub to see if it went through, and the cashier said if the computer scanned it, that was good enough for him. It did.
So I promptly went back to Walgreen’s and stocked up on more of the Neutrogena stuff I normally use anyway. I have sensitive skin, so using whatever is cheapest is not an option. I now have a 6 month supply at 1/3 of what I would normally pay. As others have commented, it can be a bit daunting to realize that as with most things, you have to have money to save money by stocking up, but luckily for me I’m already used to that principle since I’ve been an expert thrift store shopper for some time.
DITTO Lori! CVS ROCKS! Seriously, have had the exact same experience, ornery people at Walgreens and friendly people at CVS. I quit Walgreens after 5 trips IN A ROW required me to wait for a manager to correct the order and get the RR’s printed. One of them took over 20min! I was also wrestling 2 kids for most of those trips. I haven’t been to Wag’s in months and months, but a recent deal in their ad is tempting me to test the waters again. I will still get most things at CVS.
does walgreens accept target coupons?
I dont think that walgreens accepts target coupons lol thats too funny, but as for walgreens shopping with rewards and coupons I am addicted, but where do you put all the freebies lol they will be hitting the ceiling soon OMG someone stop me…. NOT!
on walgreens website:
http://www.walgreens.com/topic/help/generalhelp/coupon_policy_main.jsp?_requestid=37856
Buy One, Get One Free Coupons
When items are featured in a Buy One, Get One Free promotion, up to two coupons can be used against the items being purchased, as long as the net price does not go below zero for the items being purchased.
Sales tax must be paid for any Buy One, Get One Free coupon offers, if required by applicable state laws.