A List of Store Coupon Policies

Rules!! Who likes 'em?! Well, when it comes to couponing rules, I do!! It helps me know what is allowed and it helps cashiers know what is allowed. And, well, to be completely honest, it gently helps aggressive cashiers off of their pretty little high horses. ;-)

Here is a list of coupon policies from stores that I use often. I am awaiting an email from both Kroger and CVS that contains their OFFICIAL policy as I cannot find one online. I'll update when I find it.

Super 1 here

Kroger: Regular coupon policy TBA, Printable coupon policy here

Walmart here

Target here

CVS Coupon Policy TBA

Brookshire's herehttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136479379703662&v=info

Walgreens here

Come visit me on Facebook!!

Walgreens Finally Posts Coupon Policy

Will wonders never cease?! During the 2 years that I have been couponing, I have often been frustrated by Walgreens and their lack of coupon policy. Well, to be completely honest, it has been the cashiers' lack of knowledge of their own coupon policy. Well, those days may be behind us.

Go here to see AND PRINT the Walgreens coupon policy. Oh, happy day!  Here's what it says:

Guidelines:

General 

• All valid coupons should be presented to the cashier at the time of checkout.
• Walgreens does not accept expired coupons.
• Coupons and their face value cannot be exchanged for cash or gift cards.
• Competitor coupons are not accepted at Walgreens.
• Walgreens cannot accept coupons for items not carried in our stores.
• The number of manufacturer coupons, including Register Rewards^TM manufacturer coupons, may not exceed the number of items in the transaction. The total value of the coupons may not exceed the value of the transaction. Sales tax must be paid, if required by state law.
• Any coupon offer not covered in these guidelines will be accepted at the discretion of Walgreens management.

Sale Items 

• Walgreens will accept manufacturer coupons for an item that is on sale.
• In the event that any item's selling price is less than the value of the coupon, Walgreens will only accept the coupon in exchange for the selling price of the item. Coupon redemption can never exceed the selling price of an item and no cash back is ever provided in exchange for any coupons.

Multiple Coupons 

• When purchasing a single item, Walgreens accepts one manufacturer coupon and applicable Walgreens coupon(s) for the purchase of a single item, unless prohibited by either coupon offer.
• The coupon amount must be reduced if it exceeds the value of the item after other discounts or coupons are applied. (For example, a $5.00 coupon for a $4.99 item will result in a $4.99 coupon value).
• When purchasing multiple items, Walgreens accepts multiple identical coupons for multiple qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers, unless a limit is specified. Management reserves the right to limit the quantity of items purchased.

Buy One, Get One Free Coupons 

• When items are featured in a Buy One, Get One Free promotion, up to two coupons can be used against the items being purchased, as long as the net price does not go below zero for the items being purchased.
• Sales tax must be paid for any Buy One, Get One Free coupon offers, if required by applicable state laws.

Internet/Print at Home Coupons 

• Walgreens accepts valid internet/print at home coupons.

Register Rewards^TM coupons 

Earning Register Rewards^TM

• Register Rewards^TM will only print for in-stock merchandise during the promotional period.
• Register Rewards^TM can only be earned for eligible items. No substitutions.
• There is a limit of one Register Rewards^TM (RR) printed per offer per customer per transaction.
• Customers redeeming a Register Rewards^TM against the same offer may not receive another RR.

Redeeming Register Rewards^TM

• Customers redeeming a Register Rewards^TM against the same offer may not receive another RR.
• Refer to Register Rewards^TM coupon for expiration date.
• The RR coupon value cannot exceed the total purchase amount. No cash back and no cash value for RR coupon.
• The number of manufacturer coupons, including RR manufacturer coupons, must not exceed the number of items in the transaction.
• Register Rewards^TM must be forfeited if the qualifying merchandise is returned.
• Register Rewards^TM cannot be used toward the purchase of gift cards and pre-paid cards.
• Register Rewards^TM can be redeemed for eligible items only. Ineligible items include but are not limited to:
• • Prescriptions
  • Tobacco products
  • Alcoholic beverages
  • Dairy products
  • Lottery tickets
  • Money orders/transfers
  • Transportation passes
  • Special event/entertainment tickets or passes
  • Postage stamps
  • Gift cards/phone cards/prepaid/Green Dot^TM cards
  • Prescription Savings Club" memberships
  • Health care services, including immunizations
  • Any items prohibited by law

How to use E-coupons

E-coupons are coupons that are loaded directly onto your shopper loyalty card. There are several stores to choose from, but the one that I shop at most frequently is Kroger.

E-coupons are very easy to use. When you check out, the cashier will scan your loyalty card. The coupons will automatically come off of your total (I always check my receipt to make sure that they did). The EXTRA nice thing is that these can be combined with your manufacturer coupons. So, if you have a $1/1 Cheerios manufacturer coupon and a .55/1 e-coupon, they'd combine for a total of $1.55 off of your item. Yay!

Here's what you do:

• Go get your Kroger card!
• Click on one of the links below.
• Sign up (if you're new).
• Enter in the number on the back of your Kroger card.
• Choose the E-coupons that you want to use.
• SHOP!! (The fun part!)

Here's a bit of information about e-coupons:

• You can get them from Shortcuts, Cellfire, Kroger, and P&G.
• You do not have to do anything with these coupons. They are loaded onto your shopper card, and come off automatically at the register. If you look at your receipt, you'll see where they came off. It's nice to not have to clip extra coupons!!
• Once you load them, they should be ready to use in about an hour.
  
• They do NOT double or triple. Even if your store's coupon policy doubles or triples, these coupons are only good for their face value.
  
• They can only be used once. If you have 10 of the same item, it is only going to take $$ off of one of them.
• If you have 2 of the same coupon, but one is from Shortcuts and one is from Cellfire, it will only remove one of them per transaction. I usually just do 2 transactions in order to be able to use both...especially if it makes it free!
• Once the e-coupon has been used, it cannot be used again.

Have a question? See something I forgot? Leave me a comment and I'll take care of it!

Happy shopping!!

Free Samples and Junk Mail

I am a big fan of free samples!! I love to try new things. I have a basket in my bathroom where I keep them all. It is full of things like soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, mouthwash, and medicines. It is very handy to have around when we have guests or when we are heading out on vacation. My friends have even been known to go dig around in it to see if there's anything new that they want to try!! It's nice to get some of the fancier items and be able to share them with my friends. These are only a few of the reasons that I like having the samples around.

Another good thing about samples is that they almost always come with coupons--very good coupons. It seems as though the coupons that come with your samples are of a higher value than the ones that come in the Sunday paper. I have been able to get very good deals with these coupons in the past.

One thing that seems to keep people from signing up for these goodies is the amount of junk email that they will get. There's no point in telling you you won't get junk email. You will! These companies are trying to get you interested in their products, and one of the ways they do this is by sending you "updates" or "special offers" via email.

So, what do you do to avoid this problem? What I did to combat this problem was get a separate email that is just for signing up for samples and coupons. You can get free email accounts from gmail or Yahoo (I'm sure that there are others, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind). My husband simply set up a sub-account on our regular email account. Now I use that email address every time I have to sign up somewhere. Now I don't get these "special offers" taking up my inbox. It has worked really well for me.

Give it a try and start collecting your samples!! You'll be glad that you did!

How I Organize My Coupons

One of the questions that I get asked most often is, "How do you organize all of your coupons?"

I purchased a 3-ring binder that has a pocket in the front (Any 3-ring binder will work. It does not have the be a zippered one). I use the pocket to hold my store envelopes. Before I head to the stores, I put all of the coupons that I need for a specific store (like all the ones I plan to use at CVS) in its corresponding envelope. That way, when I'm in the store, I don't have to search for each coupon for each sale. I save a lot of time by doing this one little thing. I have envelopes for CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger. You can add others for the stores that you shop at most often.

I store all of my coupons in 9-pocket baseball card holders. I do have to
fold some of the coupons to make them fit, but it is worth that small bit of time. Since I switched from my accordian style coupon holder to this, I save a significant amount of time in the store. I simply flip a page and scan the coupons on that page instead of having to pull out a whole category to dig through them. As you can tell, I'm all about doing my couponing efficiently.


I divide my coupon book into many categories: Refrigerated, baking/spices,
frozen, condiments, meats, cans/jars, rice/pasta, snack foods, drinks, Body,
face, teeth, deodorant, razors, baby, household, and personal (think feminine products. I know that this is a lot of categories. After much trial and error, I find that it works best for me to have them divided this specifically. You can always start with what you think will work best and tweak it to fit your style. I use plastic tabs that stick to the pages for dividing.


In the back of my binder are 2 pencil pouches. In one, I keep gift cards and
store coupons. Stores like Lowe's, Penney's, Lane Bryant, various restaurants, etc. send their coupons on hard plastic or cardboard-like stuff, and they don't really fit into the pockets very well. That is why I put them in the pouch. The other pouch is for regular coupons that are oversized or made from cardboard.


I weed through my coupons weekly. This isn't as hard as it sounds. I simply
sit on the sofa while watching a TV show and flip through the book quickly.
Since you can see each coupon, it is a fairly easy job. Yes, there are some
that you will have to fold in such a way that makes seeing the expiration date
hard, and you'll have to pull those out. If you miss some, it's no big deal.
You'll notice it eventually. It is not unusual for me to find a stray one from
a month ago (or more!).

I hope that was helpful. If you have questions just leave a comment.

If this sounds like too much work, YES I will make them for you. I do have to charge for them because of the materials and all of the time that it takes to put the books together. I can guarantee you that this is worth every penny!! Just email me at kim.marie@att.net or leave a comment.

HEY! Where's my insert?

You drive all the way to the store and pick up your newspapers. You come home and dig through them to find your precious little coupons. You pull them out excitedly and, wait, what's this? Your inserts are missing? Well, before you dissolve into a little puddle of disappointment, let me tell you what you can do in this situation.

This has happened to me once. What I did was call the newpaper's Customer Care line. I tell them what paper I purchased (Dallas Morning News double edition), what store I purchased it at, and which insert is missing.

For the Dallas Morning News, you'd call:
Customer Care Specialist: (214) 745-8383 or toll free (800) 925-1500.

(Special thanks to Stephanie for this post suggestion!)

Where do I get my coupons?

This is always one of the first questions people ask when they find out about my couponing adventures. They are often shocked by my answer--FROM THE NEWSPAPER! Really! I buy the double edition of the Dallas Morning News each Sunday. It costs me $5, but it is absolutely worth it. It usually pays for itself in the first week! No matter where you live, buy the paper that is from the largest city near you.

I have only in the past 3 weeks begun printing coupons. Before then, we had no computer that had Windows on it, and therefore I could not print coupons. I still did amazingly well with my shopping. I really don't feel like I was ever missing out on things. So, if you can't clip coupons, don't dispair! Think of all the money you'll save on ink!

That said, there are a couple of other places that I have used to get them:

• eBay. I have only used eBay 4 times before. I purchased a couple of lots of coupons each time and then split them up with a friend. I ONLY did this because the coupons made for fantastic, FREE deals: 40 bottles of laundry soap FREE, 20 boxes Huggies wipes FREE, 15 bottles Softsoap FREE, 20 cans Pillsbury biscuits FREE.
• www.coupons.com
• Magazines. A lot of magazines have coupons in them. I know of 3 that I get that almost always have a few good coupons in them. I haven't paid for pasta in about 8 months since the Ronzoni $1/1 coupons have come out! Keep a look out!

I'm sure that there are other places that I will run across in the future. I'll add those as needed. Happy clipping!!

How to do Kroger

Our Kroger in Longview:

• Triples coupons up to .39
• Double coupons .40 to .50
• Will only double or triple 3 like items. So, if you have (4) .35/1 coupons for an item, use 3 coupons in one transaction and then use the remaining one in another transaction.
  
• Allows you to combine a manufacturer's coupon with a Kroger coupon (store coupon) for even greater savings.
  
• Allows you to combine a manufacturer's coupon with an E-coupon (see below) for even greater savings.
• Accepts internet printable coupons.

I am very sure that I have forgotten things or just forgotten how confusing this can be. If you have questions, please leave a comment and I will add your questions to this list.

How to do Walgreens

Walgreens has no loyalty card that you have to use.

• This is good, in that there are no limits on what people can buy.
• This is bad though because there are no limits on what people can buy! ;-)

Register Rewards (RR)

Register Rewards are to Walgreens as ECBs are to CVS. The differences are as follows:

1. Register Rewards cannot be used to pay for an identical item.
   

   For instance, if you buy Old Spice deodorant for $4.50 and get $4.50 RR, then turn around and repeat the transaction, paying with the new $4.50 RR, it will not print another. You can pay for another item that produces a RR, but never the same thing.




2. At Walgreens, the RR counts as a manufacturer's coupon.
   

   So, if you purchase 5 items, use 5 coupons, and then try to pay with your RR, it will not let you because you have more coupons than you have items. The register will beep and tell the cashier that you are a huge coupon cheaterhead and that you're trying to pay with an extra coupon. The solution to silly problem is to simply throw in a small (25 cent-ish) item. This gives you the same number of items and coupons, thus allowing you to pay a few measly cents for your items. Yay!




3. Register Rewards expire faster than ECBs.
   

   They're only good for 2 weeks.

Coupons

Read Walgreens Official Coupon Policy here.

Manufacturer Coupons

Walgreens accepts all manufacturer's coupons, including ones that are printed from legitimate sources on the internet

Store Coupons

Walgreens is much less generous with their store coupons than CVS, but they do have them. When you receive them, they will print out of the same machine as your Register Rewards. Store coupons can be stacked with manufacturer coupons for greater savings.

In-Ad Coupons

In-Ad coupons are coupons that are in the weekly flyer or in the Monthly Savings book. These, too, can be stacked with a manufacturer coupon. When using an in-ad coupon, always scan it before your manufacturer coupons. Then proceed as usual.

(If you have any questions at all, leave me a comment. I'll answer them ASAP. It will also help me to make these explanations clearer in the future. Thanks!)

How to do CVS

Get an Extra Care card.

• It is free.
• It is just like the loyalty card that you have for any other grocery store.

ECBs

ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) are earned during weekly sales. You will see them advertised in the flyer and/or on tags in the store--“Buy X, receive $Y in ECBs.”

For example:

You see toothpaste advertised “Buy Crest at $2.99, and receive $2.99 in ECBs.”

You take your toothpaste to the register.

The cashier scans your Extra Care Card, then your toothpaste.

If this is your first time shopping, you owe the $2.99, but when your receipt prints, you will see a coupon at the bottom that says that you earned $2.99 in ECBs for buying Crest.

You can use ECBs just like cash to buy something else you need, like milk for $2.99. You check out, but instead of paying for your milk with cash, you pay with your newly acquired $2.99 ECB. Free milk! The other thing you can do is save it and use it for a future week.

What I usually do is save it for the next week's sale and pay for that sale item with the ECB I just earned. This makes for items that you pay a few pennies for...or often times completely free!!

ECBs print at the end of your receipt. They do not expire for 4 weeks. I like to think of them as “paper gift cards.” You can use them just like you would use cash in the store (*). The difference is that you must use the entire ECB at one time. If your total comes to $4.97, and you have a $5 ECB, you may use it if you don't mind losing the .03. However, if you were to try to use a $7 ECB, you'd lose $2. In this situation, you'd simply buy something else you needed to fill that $2 gap.

(*) Exceptions

The following exceptions apply:

• Prescriptions
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Lottery items
• Gift cards
• Money orders
• Postage stamps
• Pre-paid cards.

Coupons

CVS accepts coupons for all items. You can use coupons on items that print ECBs to save even more or, in some instances, make money on the items you buy.

Manufacturer coupons

CVS accepts all manufacturer's coupons, including ones that are printed from legitimate sources on the internet.

Store coupons

CVS also has their own store coupons. These can be emailed to you (if you sign up on cvs.com), printed on your receipt, or printed from the coupon scanner machine at the front of the store. These store coupons can be used in addition to your manufacturer coupons.

For example

If you are purchasing diapers for $8.99 and...

1. Have a $3 manufacturer's coupon, and...
2. Have a $2 store coupon, then...

You can use them BOTH to save $5 on your diapers. This makes your total $3.99!!

One special store coupon that you can get is the $$/$$ coupon ($3/$15, $4/$20).

For example:

1. Say that you have the $3/$15 coupon.
2. You check out and your total comes out to $15.12.
3. You can then use the $3/$15 coupon to knock your total down to $12.12.
4. THEN, use your other store coupons and manufacturer coupons.

Always use the $$/$$ coupon before all other coupons.

Rain checks

If the advertised item that you are looking for is out of stock, as for a rain check.

ALWAYS GET YOUR RAIN CHECKS!

They are good for the exact same price and include the ECBs that are advertised. You can even use your coupons on the rain check item. There have been times when I have gotten a rain check and then, the following week, gotten a coupon that was even better than the one I had!! Repeat after me...

ALWAYS GET YOUR RAIN CHECKS!!!

Bag Tags

In an effort to be “green,” CVS has started using ECBs as an incentive. If you purchase one of their green reusable bags, it comes with a little bag tag. Each time you're in the store, have the cashier scan the bag tag. After every 4th use, you get $1 ECB.

(If you have any questions at all, leave me a comment. I'll answer them ASAP. It will also help me to make these explanations clearer in the future. Thanks!)