Ashlar2006
Masonic Mafia
Or have me in the house ! I eat like a horse , I will founder myself .OR he could be like me and have a 10 y/o boy in the house......
Extreme Couponing
- Thread starter jason
- Start date
On the show it has been reported that stores bend the rules, and couponers do some less then ethical stuff.
To do it takes time, some spend 10+ hours a week or more easily. Buying coupons, or otherwise collecting them from other sources (some dumpster dive), organizing and then going through sales flyers.
You can start with a site like grocerygame.com. They will give you a 4 week free trial. After that you can purchase by which store you want. Once you go to that site, select your store and then custom sort it by
savings percentage. It will list all the items that you get free at
the top. If you select an item it will tell you exactly why its free.
example, it will say its free because its a $1.50 item with a .75
coupon that your store doubles. It will then tell you where that
coupon came from, example the 4/17 redplum insert in your newspaper.
Refundcents.com is also another good site, and they send out a magazine with tons of info. couponmom.com is also another good site.
Check your stores coupon policy. I know of no stores down here that double coupons. Publix I think limits to 10 or so of the same coupons. I will dig that info up from a Brother who works at Publix.
Most places, although it is changing, will let you use overages against your purchase. Like if i have $2.50 off of a box of honey nut cheerios, and honey nut cheerios is on sale for 5/$10, and i buy 10 boxes, its $20, but i have $25 in coupons so that extra $5 can be applied towards the rest of my grocery bill, so essentially i'd get $5 in meat free.
You can do this a lot with health and beauty items and rack up some
pretty significant overages. That is why you see a lot of the extreme couponers clearing out shelves of those items.
If you notice, most of the extreme couponers do not buy meats and veggies. Very little sales are made for them. It is mostly dry/frozen goods.
On a side note, I'm told Publix here has an exclusive deal with a Florida tomato grower. He created a great hybrid for Florida that is supposed to have some great flavors.
publix coupon info from an employee
Note: in my notes below vendor & manufacturer mean the same. (pepsi,
campbell, tide etc)
Couple of points for you, each publix has a green poster in the
entrance as to which competitors coupons they will take. It varies by
location but typically it will be albertsons, Winn-Dixie, sweetbay,
save-a-lot & target.
We will no longer consider Walgreens as a competitor except for
pharmacy item (which we don't have at our store)
Coupons must be for dollars and/or cents off, no percentage coupons.
We do not price match so a 'coupon' that says two for $2 is not a
coupon we would take.
You can only use one manufacturer coupon & one publix (or a
competitor) coupon per item.
Coupons can be for by one get one free. If it is a vendor coupon for
bogo you can use one publix (or competitor) coupon on each item.
If it is a publix (or competitor) giving the bogo you can use one
vendor coupon for each item.
If it a bogo item on the shelf (without the need of a coupon) you
could then use a vendor AND a publix (or competitor) coupon on each
item.
Confused? Well there is more...
Coupons like the Albertsons $5 off $50 of shopping are still being
accepted, BUT... read the small print. It only applies after all
vendor & store coupons are entered.
For example: You spend $55 in shopping and have $6 in other mixed
coupons then you wouldn't be able to use the $5 off as you would be at
$49 total.
In the past we have taken 2-3 or 4 of these $5 off providing you had
$100, $150 or $200 in groceries.
Now it is one competitor $5 off and one publix ($5) coupon per order
(our $5 is usually from $30 in shopping so it would have to total $80
or more)
But you can break up your shopping into several orders if you like.
Just give your cashier a heads up.
All coupons including publix must have a expiration date (or say "no
expiration") if it is missing or cut off from the coupon we won't take
it.
We used to take all expired publix coupons but not any longer.
No photo copies. Must be originals or printed Internet coupons.
Coupons have to be for the exact item on the coupon.(see below)
Couple of tips...
Let your cashier know you have a lot of coupons, especially if you
have that include free items, as we have to write the price of the
free one the coupon. Nothing worse than trying to find the price of a
yogurt among 150 items!
Be nice to your cashier!! People who give me a hard time & are
obnoxious are my favorite!!! I am more likely to read the small print
on every coupon if people are mean to me.
If your coupon is for a 8oz sized item we can't it accept for the 4oz,
especially if your annoying!
Note: in my notes below vendor & manufacturer mean the same. (pepsi,
campbell, tide etc)
Couple of points for you, each publix has a green poster in the
entrance as to which competitors coupons they will take. It varies by
location but typically it will be albertsons, Winn-Dixie, sweetbay,
save-a-lot & target.
We will no longer consider Walgreens as a competitor except for
pharmacy item (which we don't have at our store)
Coupons must be for dollars and/or cents off, no percentage coupons.
We do not price match so a 'coupon' that says two for $2 is not a
coupon we would take.
You can only use one manufacturer coupon & one publix (or a
competitor) coupon per item.
Coupons can be for by one get one free. If it is a vendor coupon for
bogo you can use one publix (or competitor) coupon on each item.
If it is a publix (or competitor) giving the bogo you can use one
vendor coupon for each item.
If it a bogo item on the shelf (without the need of a coupon) you
could then use a vendor AND a publix (or competitor) coupon on each
item.
Confused? Well there is more...
Coupons like the Albertsons $5 off $50 of shopping are still being
accepted, BUT... read the small print. It only applies after all
vendor & store coupons are entered.
For example: You spend $55 in shopping and have $6 in other mixed
coupons then you wouldn't be able to use the $5 off as you would be at
$49 total.
In the past we have taken 2-3 or 4 of these $5 off providing you had
$100, $150 or $200 in groceries.
Now it is one competitor $5 off and one publix ($5) coupon per order
(our $5 is usually from $30 in shopping so it would have to total $80
or more)
But you can break up your shopping into several orders if you like.
Just give your cashier a heads up.
All coupons including publix must have a expiration date (or say "no
expiration") if it is missing or cut off from the coupon we won't take
it.
We used to take all expired publix coupons but not any longer.
No photo copies. Must be originals or printed Internet coupons.
Coupons have to be for the exact item on the coupon.(see below)
Couple of tips...
Let your cashier know you have a lot of coupons, especially if you
have that include free items, as we have to write the price of the
free one the coupon. Nothing worse than trying to find the price of a
yogurt among 150 items!
Be nice to your cashier!! People who give me a hard time & are
obnoxious are my favorite!!! I am more likely to read the small print
on every coupon if people are mean to me.
If your coupon is for a 8oz sized item we can't it accept for the 4oz,
especially if your annoying!
BukeyeJackson
ViMH Advisory Board
The Mrs. goes to 4 different couponing blogs where they tell you " in you're reigon XYZ is putting this on sale next week, and if you still have ABC coupon from 3 months ago you get it for this amount" We buy 5-10 papers a week and print off online coupons. We keep a copy of each stores coupon policy in a folder designated to it with coupons for that store. We only use a coupon if the item goes on sale and we're getting a 65% or more savings. If we're told we cant' do something we refer to policy after that we go to another store! WE easily spend 10 hours shopping a week and another 5-8 planning and cutting coupons.
It's building for now because when you find the deal you buy as much of it as you can. Jason is right meat and veggies are a pain and no one around here gives overages. If the ZA happens we have th food you bring the weapons and othrwise stocking until my 3& year olds become teenagers!
It's building for now because when you find the deal you buy as much of it as you can. Jason is right meat and veggies are a pain and no one around here gives overages. If the ZA happens we have th food you bring the weapons and othrwise stocking until my 3& year olds become teenagers!
Where to print coupons:
http://www.redplum.com/
Coupons | Online Coupons
Printable Coupons
Free Coupons, Food Coupons and Restaurant Coupons Online | Valpak.com
Publix has their own online
Coupons | Coupons.com
Also, if you like a manufactures facebook page they may offer coupons that way. Welch's has a limited amount every Wednesday. Manufactures websites are also a good way to get coupons. I've known a few people who wrote to companies saying how much they enjoy their products and they got coupons in return too.
http://www.redplum.com/
Coupons | Online Coupons
Printable Coupons
Free Coupons, Food Coupons and Restaurant Coupons Online | Valpak.com
Publix has their own online
Coupons | Coupons.com
Also, if you like a manufactures facebook page they may offer coupons that way. Welch's has a limited amount every Wednesday. Manufactures websites are also a good way to get coupons. I've known a few people who wrote to companies saying how much they enjoy their products and they got coupons in return too.
G
Gary
Guest
WOW!!! Talk about complex! I wonder if the price of printing out all of those coupons is offset by the savings to be had...
I'm definitely going to print out this thread and look into doing this. Even starting out slow has got to be a benefit to a tight budget!
Thanks for all of the explanation Jason! I appreciate it. I'll also look into the links that were recommended.
I'm definitely going to print out this thread and look into doing this. Even starting out slow has got to be a benefit to a tight budget!
Thanks for all of the explanation Jason! I appreciate it. I'll also look into the links that were recommended.
Good luck. Any questions I will try and answer, or maybe Jackson can. He seems to get more into it then me.
One thing that I have loved is my binder. I bought one at office depot, but bought the baseball card inserts on amazon. Got something like a 100 for under $10. I may have been more as I gave some to my parents too. I have coupons categorized, usually by the typical isle. Then I have a section for store coupons. The binder has a pocket that I store the coupons I'm going to use. One coupon per slot, and there is 9 on a page. This allows me quickly to scan coupons for what is on sale, along with seeing expiration dates easily. It takes a good hour or two to setup, and maybe half an hour to hour (depending on number of coupons you have) to add to and remove old coupons.
You will also find that close to the expiration date the item will typically go on sale. Most items go on sale every 3 or 4 months. So if we can we stock up on things like toilet paper, paper towels and such to last us the time it is not on sale.
One thing that I have loved is my binder. I bought one at office depot, but bought the baseball card inserts on amazon. Got something like a 100 for under $10. I may have been more as I gave some to my parents too. I have coupons categorized, usually by the typical isle. Then I have a section for store coupons. The binder has a pocket that I store the coupons I'm going to use. One coupon per slot, and there is 9 on a page. This allows me quickly to scan coupons for what is on sale, along with seeing expiration dates easily. It takes a good hour or two to setup, and maybe half an hour to hour (depending on number of coupons you have) to add to and remove old coupons.
You will also find that close to the expiration date the item will typically go on sale. Most items go on sale every 3 or 4 months. So if we can we stock up on things like toilet paper, paper towels and such to last us the time it is not on sale.