Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half! with Stephanie Nelson, The Coupon Mom
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Five Ways to Save on Prescriptions
by Stephanie Nelson
www.CouponMom.com

Try some of these options the next time you need a prescription, our family is able to save quite a bit of money!

1. Look for Manufacturers Coupons  -  Go directly to the pharmaceutical manufacturers website and look for any special coupon or promotion tabs. You may get a card that gives significant discounts every month, or you may find a one-time printable coupon. The minimum savings I've received is $20 per prescription, and the maximum has been $60 per prescription for a monthly medication.

2. Ask your pharmacist about Discount Cards -  See if they have any special discount cards. In one case, the pharmacist had been given a limited supply of a drug's discount card and was happy to give us one when we asked. In other case, the pharmacist had special ordering information about a prescription's discount program that was not on the website.

3. Take advantage of Prescription Savings Programs - Even if you don't switch pharmacies, make sure that you are taking full advantage of the prescription savings programs at your own pharmacy. They may have a free membership program that gives points or rewards for every prescription that can be redeemed for store credit on other merchandise.

4. Check out large retailers for discounts -  CVS has the ExtraCare program that gives you $1 in ExtraBucks for every 2 prescriptions. At the end of each quarter, you'll get a coupon for the total amount to use towards almost any purchase in the store. Walgreens has Balance Rewards, which gives points for each prescription at the equivalent rate of 50 cents each: http://www.walgreens.com/topic/balancerewards/balance-program-details.jsp and Rite Aid has Wellness Rewards, which gives you points for each prescription and also offers a 20% discount coupon for the entire store if you have 4 or more prescriptions a month. 

5. Generic Prescriptions -  Large retailers also have deeply discounted generic prescription programs, with costs as low as $4 for a 30 day supply of a prescription, or $10 for 3 months and some stores offer free medications:
--Publix grocery stores in the Southeast actually have certain generic antibiotics that are completely free.
--Giant Eagle in Ohio and Pennsylvania
--Shoprite in the Northeast
These are examples, to find out if your store offers similar programs simply go to your grocery store websites, look for the Pharmacy link and see what they offer.