If you could find a way to shop at Walgreens for free, and sometimes to even get paid to shop there, would you?

Money Saving Mom tends to research and share information about great coupons and deals on a regular basis. The one that caught my eye was a shopping technique used at Walgreens whereby not only does she rarely if ever spend money out of pocket to shop there, but sometimes transactions using her strategy can even result in a negative balance! Her excellent post details the shopping process here, but below is the quick and dirty summary:

Rebates: The Walgreens monthly Easy Saver Catalog features lots of smokin' deals, including a selection of "free after rebate" items. Even the items that aren't free after rebate should be watched over the course of the month, because they may go on sale such that after rebate they'll be free or almost free.

Mailing in for rebates is enough of a pain that many of us don't bother. However with a little effort, you can receive a Walgreens gift card as your rebate, which will entitle you to an additional 10% in value over opting to receive a cheque. Future rebates are credited to your existing gift card, and these rebates are processed in half the time.

And of course, once you receive your first rebate gift card, your next trip to the store is partially if not fully funded, especially if you make good use of the entire Walgreens shopping strategy! (read on)…

Coupons: You can find coupons in their store flyers, as well as on their website here. You can combine both in-store coupons as well as manufacturer coupons to really get some bang for your buck.

Register Rewards: Upon the purchase of an eligible item, the cash register will produce a coupon for you to use at your next visit.

By combining register rewards, coupons (both store and manufacturer), in-store sales, and the rebates, people have actually been known to rack up a negative balance at the cash register! Unfortunately Walgreens won't actually pay you the balance - in fact you have to add items to bring your balance back up to (at least) $0, but it still seems like a pretty decent price to pay!

It strikes me that there is a lot of work involved, combing the flyers and websites for deals, stockpiling and tracking flyers for monthly deals and waiting for the right item to go on sale, then redeeming multiple coupons at the cash.

However, others have used Money Saving Mom's strategy successfully. And in the spirit of being frugal, you can't get much better than shopping for free.

Note: I haven't ever shopped at Walgreens since there isn't one anywhere near where I have lived to date, however given these awesome deals, I'd give it a try if I were in the area!

Comments and advice from experienced Walgreens shoppers is welcome.