Hello again, savvy savers! Can you believe it, we are almost a week into this no spending challenge! Awesome stuff, huh?
Today I want to share with you one of my favorite ways to continue to “shop” for deals, particularly my weekend drugstore deals for my weekly scenarios, especially during my no-spend periods, and that is with rains-checks! Yes, rain-checks, a couponers great friend!
So, here is what I do:
1) As I live in a small town, I wait until the last day of the current sale week, or in my case, the end of the week when the hottest weekly deals, freebies, and offers are sure to be sold out during no-spend months, and then go to each store and ask for rain-checks for each and every one of the offers that I will still be able to redeem later; this means your rain-check window of opportunity is generally Friday-Saturday for drugstores, Saturday afternoons for grocery store deals which sale cycles renew on Sunday’s, and Tuesday evenings for stores that have new Wednesday sale cycles.
2) I ask for offers where I will be able to later pair with a coupon; if your paired coupon will expire by the end of your no-spend month period, skip that deal!
3) I then file my rain-checks by store!
4) At the end of my no-spend challenges, I will use earned store rewards, as most will last a full month before expiration, and then will go to the stores when able, and buy goods at my convenience!
When requesting rain-checks I keep the following guides in mind:
- Nationally, most grocery and market chains will offer rain-checks, without limit of goods.
- Grocery and market chain store rain-checks will normally have only a 30-day window to redeem rain-checks; this applies to stores such as Vowell’s Fresh Market, The Fresh Market, Publix, Kroger, and Winn-Dixie.
- Walgreens rain-checks will also have only a 30-day window to redeem rain-checks.
- Rite Aid and CVS do not have redemption windows, and their rain-checks can be tucked into your coupon binder, for use as “filler deals” as needed!
- Catalina Deals cannot be combined with rain-checks.
- Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart do not offer rain-checks!
So today, I challenge you to look online at your local stores sales guides and weekly fliers, compile a list, and head out to your favorite stores and “rain-check shop” for savings deals today!
Here’s to saving,
