Today we are going to talk about getting even more power out of your coupons. The first rule of getting the most power out of your coupons is this: Don't use a coupon just because you have it. Don't use it the 1st week after you clip either, unless you find a heckuva deal on something. If you're getting $1 off prune juice and you hate prune juice, that's pretty pointless. Only use the coupons you have worked so hard for when you are going to get the most bang for your buck. That brings me to my next tutorial! Double coupons. Triple coupons. Stacking store and manufacturer coupons. Rewards cards. Oh it goes on and on. I will share with you all, my fine friends, what all this means (and which stores in our vicinity actually participate!)

Double coupons- A store that doubles coupons will basically take your coupon's face value and give you double that discount. For example, if you have a $.55 off coupon, you now actually have $1.10 off coupon with a store that doubles. Some coupons will specifically say "Cannot be doubled/tripled" so then you're hosed, but for the most part this is an excellent way to get some extra savings.
Stores that double every day:
-Brachters (up to $.75, giving you a total of $1.50 off. Maximum of 4 like coupons in 1 trip. Maximum of 25 doubled coupons per day. Any coupon over the $.75 mark will be redeemed at face value only)
-Schnucks (up to $.50 giving you a total of $1.00 off. Maximum of 3 like coupons in 1 trip. Maximum of 15 doubled coupons per shopper. Will take total of 1.00 even if coupon is more than $.50. Example- a $.75 coupon will actually give you $1.00 off)
-Gerbes (up to $.50 giving you a total of $1.00 off. Gerbes reserves the right to put a maximum on thier couponing, but they do not practice this. In other words, if you have 10 coupons they will probably let you go. If you have 500 coupons, they might have a manager step in. Also gives a total of $1.00 off even if your coupon is more than $.50)
-Patricias (up to $.50 giving you a total of $1.00 off. Coupons between $.51-$.99 will be redeemed at $1. No limit on how many you can use per thier written policy)
-WalMart, Walgreens, HyVee, and Target do not double coupons. HyVee's website says they do, but I had a discussion with their manager about it last week and they don't.
(If there is a local store not listed here, it's because I don't use that store so I wouldn't know)

Triple coupons-There is no one around here that triples coupons that I know of. Prengers did it as a promotional thing a few weeks back, but they are not going to continue that. If you ever find someone who does triple coupons, take advantage!

Stacking- Coupon stacking is the practice of using 2 coupons on 1 item (or for 1 deal). To do this you must have a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. IN ALMOST ALL CASES YOU CANNOT USE 2 MANUFACTURER COUPONS ON 1 ITEM. So lets say, for example, Walgreens puts out a $1 off 2 bags coupon for a big bag of M+M's (February's coupon book, hint hint) and I have a $1.50 off 2 big bags of M+M's. They are on sale this week for 2/$5. I will use Walgreens store coupon, and my manufacturer coupon to get 2 big bags of M+M's for $2.50 or $1.25 each bag (if you haven't caught on yet, this is all a true story so get on your couponing and go get you some M+M's!). Each store differs on what they allow for stacking. Walgreens is the biggest store around Moberly area that does store coupons so I'll start there. At Walgreens, you cannot have more coupons than items. IE, if you are using 2 coupons for 1 item, you will need to have an item you are not using a coupon for (like, maybe the $.25 caramels at the checkout line). If you are using a coupon that is $x off when you buy 2 and a store coupon on top of it (like the example above) you are ok. Before using store and manufacturer coupons, check with the store manager.

Rewards- Sometimes a store will give you an extra perk for shopping there, which is a reward. Each store does something different, if anything at all. Gerbes has a Plus card. You will want to get one of those. The Plus card gives you access to all of Gerbes sales, and it also gives you a few extra cents off each thing you buy there. Walgreens has Register Rewards. The register rewards are so touchy, it's hardly a reward. With Register Rewards, you only get 1 reward, even if you buy 10 products (for example, if you buy 10 $1.99 protein bars that has a $1 RR, you get $1, not $10). So, I tried to get around that by doing each thing with a RR in seperate transactions. But if you use your previous RR to pay for this RR you won't get another RR. It's really confusing and hardly worth it. If you plan to get Register Rewards, this is how I recommend doing it. If you have more than 1 of the same thing with RR's, pay for them in seperate transactions. Use cash for each transaction. You should then get all of your rewards. Then you can use those RR's on your next trip.


I think you all get the jist of this now. Get excited, because tomorrow we talk STOCKPILES! I will also post later today on my shopping trip how my shopping trip yesterday went. :)