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Rebates are awesome and they really help me save a lot. I actually receive between $50 - $100 in rebates each month and sometimes more. There are many different kinds of rebates. Some stores offer rebates (such as Rite Aid, Staples, and Walgreens). Some are offered by the manufacturer and may be found online in a printable format or in Sunday inserts. My favorite rebates, however, are beer rebates and wine tags.

BEER REBATES AND WINE TAGS. These can be found at stores where beer is displayed. In several states, most of them do NOT require the purchase of beer. Therefore, don’t overlook these displays thinking that you won’t qualify. These are often for items you already buy (like meat, chips, salty snacks, deli items, pizza and many other items). You can also find great rebates on bottles of wine. Those too often do not require an alcohol purchase.

MAXIMIZING YOUR REBATES. Now that you know what to look for how can you maximize your rebate savings? Well first you have to maximize the rebates you can obtain. For example, my store will have say a Bud Rebate for Salty Snacks, but your store has the Miller Rebate for Meat. So just as we trade coupons on this site, we can also trade rebates. If I did not trade rebates with others, I would not be able to get $100 back a month in rebates. You can find and trade rebates here on WUC through this link. Keep others in mind, however when grabbing these rebates. I never take the last one on the pad unless there are only like 5-7 left anyway. This, of course, is up to you, but I don’t like getting to a place where a tear pad was and I didn’t get any. So I try to be thoughtful of others.

RECEIPTS. From this point forward you need to start saving receipts. I like to just put mine in junk mail envelopes with the month the purchases were made marked on the front. I save them for about 3 months before tossing the envelope. You never know when you will find a rebate for an item you already purchased. If you save your receipts, you can take advantage of that rebate immediately. In fact, for the Coors Rebate that I found just a week ago I had receipts for it from December. So this was just basically profit for me since I already made the necessary purchases. Occasionally these rebates are for items I would not normally purchase or sometimes for a grocery purchase of $50 or more which I don’t often do. If this is the case, start searching the carts in the parking lots. People leave receipts behind all the time. If it is a good one I just add it to my envelope.

TRACKING REBATES: It is important to keep track of what rebates you have sent in. If it is easy for you to copy such receipts and rebate forms, that would be ideal. However, this may not be cost or time effective if you do not have a copier at home. In this case, you should keep a notebook (or if you are fancy, a spreadsheet) with the date, the description of the rebate, the phone number on the rebate form (in case there is a problem), and the amount of the rebate. As you receive your checks or items for the rebate, cross it off your list. Sometimes I won’t receive a rebate check back, so I will call to check on it. My exception to this is the small dollar rebates. If it is only $2 or $3, I usually just cut my losses. It just isn’t worth my energy to do it.

thanks for taking the time on this, i have never really gotten in to rebating. i think i am too much the instant gratification type person. and the few i have done i have had issues with 50% of the time. i got frustrated. but the way you explain it. maybe i was not tracking well and doing wrong.

Thank you so much for this great article. I had decided that this was the year I wanted to work on rebates and I have been looking EVERYWHERE for some good info. This was just in time!!! Thank you!!

2monkey -- I am not familiar with Oregon beer rebates. I hope you are in a state that doesn't require an alcohol purchase.

Need help! I just purchased 3 rebate items (advertised in Walgreens 1/31/10 as rebate in box). After opening the boxes, the rebate expired 12/31/09 with postmark date by 1/31/10. What should I do? Do you think Walgreens will take refund my purchases? If yes, what happens to my $5 instant money from each item? I have already spent 2 of the 3 instants. Thank you, Alabama Lucy

Thanks for the great article! I never thought to keep my old receipts!

Nice article.

You know, I think I am. I am about 98% sure we are, but I will just research and look more into it. We don't drink, so like you said, it never really occurred to me to check them out and see if I could purchase other things besides the alcohol. That was a really good tip for me.

Thanks!

In KY it should be a "No purchase necessary" on beer sales. I used to work for them and took full advantage of these coupons. There is big money out there usually in the summer for grills and patio sets. Keep your eye out and you could fing some killer deals

I am not a Walgreens regular. Was it advertised in a Walgreens ad? Or was it advertised on the box of the item? If it was on the box of the item, I would probably call the manufacturer and try to find out what to do. Otherwise I would go back to Walgreens and talk to the manager. I can't tell you what happens to the RR rewards b/c I have never returned anything to Walgreens. Sorry I can't be of more help, but I would post this in the Walgreens forum if this didn't help.