Basics of Couponing - Part 4

Know the policies of your local stores (part 2)....

I thought I would give you a quick overview of the policies for 4 different stores I have listed here on my blog.  These are just some key policies that each of these stores have that are awesome for using coupons!  This is not a complete listing, but you can check out these links to their corporate policies.  I plan to do a series eventually that will go into more detail on each store's policies.


Meijer (reflects Elkhart, Goshen, South Bend, IN area) - check with your local store on their policies

• Accepts manufacturer and Meijer coupons combined (stacking coupons).
• Manufacturer coupons up to .50 will double....only 2 "like" coupons will double per product purchased.
• Offer "custom coupons" (i.e.   Buy 2 get a print off for $____ off your next order)

Target (see example below)

• Accepts manufacturer and Target coupons combined (stacking coupons).
• Offer gift card promotions  (i.e.  Buy 5 get a $5 gift card)

CVS

• Accepts manufacturer and CVS issued coupons combined (stacking coupons).
• Offer Extra Care Bucks (ECB's).  These can be used in addition to your coupons.
• ECB's - Buy $15 on _____ product, get $5 ECB's.

Walgreens

• Accepts manufacturer and Walgreens issued coupons combined (stacking coupons).
• Offer Register Rewards (RR's).  Similar to Extra Care Bucks at CVS.  These can be used in addition to your coupons.

This is a quick summary of these stores, but you can check out their complete coupon policies here.

For an example of how you can make these policies work for you, let's go back to the Fiber One Cereal example from 2 days ago.....

Fiber One Cereal
Week 1 - $3.89
Week 2 - $3.75
Week 3 - $3.25
Week 4 - $2.99
Week 5 - $2.50


If you were to buy 1 box of cereal every week for 5 weeks, you would pay $16.38.
If you wait until week 5 and buy 5 boxes of cereal, you would pay $12.50.
Now let's say you use 3 - $1 off 1 coupons and 2 - $.75 off 1 coupons.....Final price = $8
That's a 50% savings!

Now...let's say I bought these 5 boxes of cereal at Target and they have a deal going on week 5......

• Buy 5 boxes of Fiber One Cereal and get a $5 gift card.
• That brings your total cost down to $3 for 5 boxes of Fiber One Cereal!  WOOOHOOOO!

Pretty cool, right?  This is a real example I had from a number of months ago.  Cereal can be expensive, but not when you take advantage of coupons and store policies.

Next Monday, I will be moving on to stockpiling and how that can help you dramatically cut your grocery budget.  This cereal example is an example of stockpiling.

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