It has been one of those days.  Spiritually speaking — or maybe it’s emotionally speaking — I think I need the equivalent of a Philips Heartstart Onsite (defibrillator).  You know, get the heart rhythms regular again, keep me alive and kicking.  *sigh*  Did I mention it’s been one of those days?

We ran errands today.  (That’s not why it was a rough day.  Well, not directly, anyway.)  Meanwhile, we did get some good deals.  I learned something, though, about how Walgreens’ Register Rewards work.  More on that in a moment.

At CVS, we got:

-a bottle of Softsoap body wash – free after Extra Bucks plus $1 overage because I had a coupon.
-two bottles of Natural Dentist mouthwash – $1 each after Extra Bucks, and there is a rebate on them.  (Or not.  After multiple technical difficulties, it appears that they have stopped offering the rebate.  Oh, well, $1 each is not bad.  Especially since it seems to be good stuff.)
-a box of Corn Pops – $1 after a sale and coupon.
-two toothbrushes – both free after Extra Bucks, plus 75 cents overage on one because I had a coupon.

At Walgreens:

-two 100% natural Chapsticks – free after Register Rewards
-bottle of Edge shaving gel – free after Register Rewards
-2-pack of One-a-Day 20 thingies (not quite sure what to call them) – free after EasySaver rebate
-4 bags of Hershey’s mini candy bars/Kisses – half off because of after-Easter clearance, makes them free after EasySaver rebate
-2 toothbrushes – should’ve been free after Register Rewards, plus $1 overage each from coupons, but here’s where I learned my lesson about the Register Rewards program (along with a Skintimate shave gel that should’ve been free after Register Rewards, as well).

I knew that a Register Reward will not print if you use a Register Reward from the same promotion to pay for the transaction.  So, for instance, if I bought a Colgate toothbrush with this promotion and it printed a RR, and I used that RR to buy another Colgate toothbrush, the machine will not print another RR.  (If I pay for it in cash, it will, or with an unrelated RR.  Also, it will not print a RR for the same promotion more than once in the same transaction.  So you could only purchase one toothbrush per transaction.)  What I did not know is that one cannot even use a RR for a different promotion from the same brand to pay for the transaction, or it will also cause the new RR to not print.  So, apparently, I used a Colgate-Palmolive RR to pay for part of my transaction, so the Colgate toothbrush promotion did not work, and neither did the Skintimate shave gel – both Colgate-Palmolive products.  This didn’t even cross my mind, since the RR I was using was fairly old.  So now I know, and I will probably return the shave gel (and, perhaps, buy it again – with cash!)  The toothbrush, I’m sorry to say, I will just have paid more for than intended, as I already used my coupon for it and I didn’t want to be a pain in the neck to the manager who was gracious enough to explain this to me very patiently and thoroughly, with no (apparent) annoyance.

Ah, well.  At least it was a learning experience.  Not all learning experiences come so cheaply.