How to find the best deals in The Drugstore Game

As I mentioned a couple of months ago in my original post about The Drugstore Game, I've known for years now that drugstores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid offer free items. (CVS is relatively new in my area, so I didn't know anything about it until much more recently.)

It was probably toward the end of 2007 that I discovered the forums at Slickdeals and FatWallet frequently list the free items and suggest coupons to use. At about the same time, I discovered that there are blogs that do the same thing, but in much more detail. Since then, I've developed a pretty good list of resources and a system that works for me to help me find the best deals and know what I'm shopping for before I head out to the stores. I thought it would be nice to share that information with you, so here goes:

If you look at only one web site for drugstore deals, it should be MoneySavingMom. The information is comprehensive and sufficient to get you started and keep you going. There is also a robust community of commenters who share additional information about the latest deals.

But there are many more sites that will help you find the best deals. Here are the ones I read, in alphabetical order:

• Be Centsable
• Be Thrifty Like Us
• The "Cent"sible Sawyer
• Hooray for Free-bates!
• I Heart CVS
• Mommy Making Money
  
• My Good Cents
  
• The New Frugal Mom

These sites will not only report the best deals, but they pair the deals up with coupons and link to printable coupons if any are out there. They are repetitive to some degree, but since I read them in Google Reader, it's easy to skim and skip. And the scenarios that each site provides are usually different, which means I can skim them to find the ones that work for me. (By which I mean deals that contain items I want and that I have coupons for.)

If you're just starting out, be prepared to make a few mistakes. The calculations can get really tricky, and it takes some time to get the hang of it. In fact, I've been shopping at CVS for two months now and I still don't completely get it. But I'm getting better and I've saved money in the process. I hope this post helps you do the same.